Websites are like houses. They require upkeep, maintenance and curb appeal. You have few precious seconds to capture visitors’ attention and engagement. Like a house, a well-designed and well-staged website closes the deal for you. One that offers a great user experience leads visitors to take a desired action. These concepts relate to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Used together, your website will have greater visibility on a search engine results page, will invite searchers to visit your website and will help convert them into leads or customers.
More than 200 elements influence how a website ranks on a Google search engine results page. It’s called a search algorithm. The following elements carry the most weight and are worthy priorities in your website update and maintenance routines:
- Mobile Responsive Web Design. Over half of all Google searches are done on mobile devices. Mobile responsive design makes it easier for visitors to navigate your website from their phones.
- Site Speed. Speed also enhances the mobile experience. If a page takes too long to load, people become frustrated, back out of the search and go on to the next entry on the search engine results page. Start by optimizing and compressing website images.
- Create quality content. Whether you blog, create video content or update a gallery of your work, sharing your authority and mastery regularly appeals to search engines and human searchers.
Be sure to keep your website up-to-date and provide a secure experience. This protects you and your visitors from malware.
Be authentic, original and generous with your knowledge so visitors get comfortable with you. Whatever you would expect from a good citizen of the world is true here – no stealing, be kind to others and take good care of your reputation.