6 Simple Changes You Can Make Now to Improve Your Website

Are you looking for a way to quickly improve your website's performance? Then you are in the right place. From improving sales, driving social change, or spreading awareness, we have helped countless clients over the last 11 years make changes that help them reach their unique business goals. In this blog post, we'll discuss six easy adjustments you can make to optimize your website, enhance user experience, and boost your search engine rankings. Let's dive in and explore how these changes can help improve your website's performance.

1. Optimize Your Website's Pages for Search Engines

We build websites to be seen, not just by anyone, but by a specific group. A key way to draw that group to your website is to be found on a search engine like Google. Search engine optimization is a huge field, but there are some common sense steps you can take, including the following:

Optimize individual pages:

• Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into engaging content.
• Focus on readability and user experience while including targeted terms.

Manage indexing:

• Prevent Google from indexing low-content pages to maintain overall site ranking.
• Regularly audit and update your sitemap to ensure search engines index your most valuable pages.

Craft effective metadata:

• Create distinct title tags for each page to represent content accurately
• Create meta descriptions for each page to improve navigation and increase click-through rates.

2. Ensure Your Website is Accessible

Another way you can improve your website is by making changes to ensure that the site meets accessibility standards and best practices. This will help your organization better meet the needs of all audience members and it will also help protect your business from potential ADA lawsuits. By following established Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), you can take steps to ensure that your site is usable by a broader range of people. Think about how your website will be accessed using a screen reader, for example, or someone who cannot use a mouse/trackpad. This may involve implementing features such as alternative text for images and video captions, which can help assistive technologies convey your content more effectively. Prioritizing accessibility can help expand your reach and provide a better user experience for everyone who visits your site.

3. Improve Your Website's Loading Speed

Website speed can impact both user experience and search engine rankings. Slow-loading websites can be frustrating for visitors, leading to higher bounce rates and lower engagement. Search engines like Google also consider site speed as a ranking factor, meaning that slower sites may appear lower in search results. Optimizing your images is one simple way to improve your site's loading speed. Ensure that you're using the appropriate file formats and compressing images without sacrificing quality. You may also want to consider using a reliable caching plugin to store frequently accessed data, reducing the load on your server and speeding up page load times. By regularly monitoring and addressing site speed issues, you can provide a better experience for your users and potentially boost your search engine rankings.

4. Implement a Clear and Intuitive Navigation Structure

Another effective way to enhance your website's performance is to review and update its navigation structure. By analyzing user behavior, you can use this information to find opportunities for improvement. You may find that visitors are looking for information in different places than you had initially designed for. Once you gather and analyze this data, you can use it to create a clear and logical navigation structure that aligns with users' expectations and browsing patterns. This may involve reorganizing menu items, simplifying category structures, or introducing new sections based on popular search queries.

5. Fix 404 Errors by Setting Up 301 Redirects

You can also enhance your website's performance by regularly monitoring and fixing 404 errors. These issues can frustrate visitors and harm your site's search engine rankings. Consider using a tool such as Google Search Console or a plugin designed to scan your site regularly to detect these errors quickly and implement 301 redirects where appropriate to guide users to the correct pages. These tools can alert you to 404 errors, which occur when a page is not found, and broken links, which lead to non-existent pages. When you identify these issues, assess whether the content has been moved to a new URL or if it's no longer available. For moved content, set up 301 permanent redirects to guide users and search engines to the new location.

6. Make Your Content Easily Shareable

Is your website set up to encourage visitor interaction? Many organizations overlook a simple yet effective tool, adding social sharing buttons to their web pages. These small icons allow visitors to quickly share your content on their social media accounts or follow your organization's profiles. You can also include options for newsletter subscriptions. For websites built on platforms like WordPress, some add-ons can automatically place these sharing buttons on your pages. While this change may not directly speed up your website, it can boost engagement with your content.

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Learn More About Enhancing Your Website

Implementing these six changes can significantly enhance your website's performance, user experience, and search engine visibility. From optimizing individual pages to improving accessibility, speed, navigation, error handling, and content shareability, each step contributes to a more effective online presence. Remember, website improvement is an ongoing process. Regularly assess your site's performance and user feedback to identify areas for further enhancement. Interested in learning more about enhancing your website? Discover the 4 top reasons our clients have asked us for a website refresh.

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