V10.11: Website Best Practices

We live in a world where everything we could ever need or want is just a click away. It seems that everyone and their brother has a website. With all the extra competition the web nowadays, having a unique and amazing website is absolutely essential. Inbound marketing is all about harnessing the power of your website. Optimization is key!

So what is optimization you ask? It is the process of making something as functional and effective as possible. When you apply this concept to your website, you are setting yourself up for success. Optimization plays a huge factor in the inbound methodology of attracting, closing, and delighting customers.

One misconception of optimizing your site is that we do it solely for search engines. This is just not true. Optimization is first and foremost for your visitors! Search engines are important, but website visitors, the people who land on your page, look at your content. More visitors equals more leads which means more customers. You want to attract more of the right kind of visitors, the ones that will inevitably convert to leads.

There are two simple steps to optimizing your website:

1. Know and Prioritize Your Buyer Personas– Buyer personas are essential in helping us know who we’re marketing to. You have to think about which ones will bring in more profits and which one is the most lucrative. Find out what services and products appeal to your most lucrative buyer personas. Play to their wants and desires.
2. Build Your Website and User Experience that Speaks to Your Buyer Personas and Search Engines– You have to make your website viewers feel something. It has to be an experience. Adding that human element to your website is absolutely vital. This involves content, design, and optimization.
   1. Content: This is everything that you find on your page. It’s the words, the images, and the call to action buttons. Your content should communicate, educate, and motivate. Anything else is just surplus. Keep it engaging! Provide them with guidance to the next step.
   2. Design: Keep it simple! Have easy website navigation and basic, easy to understand tools. Don’t overwhelm them! Keep the color scheme simple and beautiful.
   3. Optimization: This is key for search engines. You need on-page SEO and key words. You want your visitors to stay on the site. Keep it consistent by making sure your key words match your web content. Add key words to your page titles, URLs, and page headers as well. Remember that the meta description must be relevant to the search engines.

Website optimization is essential to the success of your business. It allows your visitors to stay engaged and intrigued by you. If you’re having trouble with optimizing your website and want some extra help, my friends at Zinc Solutions have the experience and know-how.