What do the most successful websites have in common? Constant care and optimization. A regular habit of small adjustments can make a big difference over time. We've put together a checklist of 20 super simple changes that you can easily schedule into the coming weeks or months. You'll see them pay off.
1. Shorten your headlines for pages, articles and products to 30 to 55 characters.
Search engines do not favor longer page titles.
2. Fix any incorrect links on your website.
No one wants to end up with a 404 error. Set up a 301 redirect from the original address to the new one. This will get the visitor and the search engine to the correct content.
3. Check that the contrast of the font against the background colour of the page is set well.
If you're experiencing a high bounce-rate (page abandonment rate), poor readability of your text may be to blame.
4. Fill out your site metadata in the settings.
And don't forget the thumbnail image. This will determine how the site appears when shared on social media. You'll also increase your click-through rate.
5. Redirect visitors to a special thank you page after submitting a form.
Here they can be invited to subscribe to a newsletter or follow you on social media. Don't waste the chance to say something nice at the end.
6. Once you have a thank you page, try setting up an automatic reply to their email.
Those who fill it out will have confirmation that they filled out the form correctly, and you can also add a call to action to the reply - link to relevant content on your blog or offer related services or products.
7. Use the power of the recommendations from your satisfied clients.
Add company logos or quotes and photos of satisfied clients to your website. Any testimonial about your product or service has several times more credibility coming from acutal clients.
8. Exchange quality content with potential customers for their contact information.
Create lead gen forms on your website with an email response linking to an e-book, video, or other relevant content.
9. Simplify your forms.
No one wants to fill out unnecessary extra information. There is certainly an inverse relationship here - fewer fields means more successful submissions.
10. Make the most of what you already have.
Review the top 5 most visited pages of your website and revise their content and structure to best lead to the main goal of the website.
11. Lighten your texts so that the website breathes better and visitors don't leave due to fatigue.
Keep it short and keep it to 80-100 characters per line for better readability. Do this by narrowing the width of a section, adding related images to longer texts, or increasing the font size.
12. Revise your landing pages.
Hide the main navigation and direct the customer's attention to one specific action. Take away the possibility for them to stray somewhere else on your website.
13. If you haven't already, start with content marketing.
It generates more than triple the leads of outbound marketing and costs 62% less. Create the first article that helps solve a problem for your target audience.
14. Check to see if you're getting more direct hits to your website and Google searches for your brand.
Make sure you are doing content marketing correctly.
15. Don't slow down your website unnecessarily.
All third parties (YouTube videos, Google maps, embeds) can unnecessarily slow down page loading, so don't overdo it. Alternatively, consider using a placeholder image with a link.
16. Improve your forms.
Do you have a choice of two to five items for any of the questions? Use the radio button. Are there five or more? Choose a selectbox.
17. Add a favicon.
It will help differentiate your page in browser bookmarks, favorites, both on mobile and desktop.
18. Add Alt to the pictures.
Describe briefly what is in the picture. Alternative image text improves web accessibility and helps search engines.
19. Label the conversion button as a call to action.
More users will click the "Make an appointment" button than the "Contact" button.
20. Differentiate your links.
Are they distinguishable from plain text? Make them underlined or a sufficiently different colour. Blue is good, but not a requirement.
You don't have a website yet? Well, start one! It will only take you a moment.
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