Analyzing Website Optimization In Digital Marketing
Website optimization continues to evolve, but its primary focus is optimizing the visitor experience to make sure your target audience finds what they are looking for on your website.
There are many factors that go into whether or not your target audience will find what they are looking for on your site. It’s a mixture of useful design elements, clear content, and easy-to-use navigation. Website optimization involves designers, developers, writers, and SEO experts all working together to give users a better experience. All roles have an important part to play when it comes to the best possible website design to represent your organization.
Website Optimization involves making sure that websites:
- Are easy-to-use (UX, or user experience)
- Are well-designed (website design)
- Effectively display content and graphics
All of these are aspects of website optimization because they have shown to directly improve click-through rates, time on site, and website traffic numbers. If a website is easier to use, users will be much more likely to return and make a purchase or complete a conversion. Great graphics and content also contribute to helping users not only find what they are looking for, but to convert on the website (whether your conversion goal for the website is a purchase, email sign up, or something else.
You will learn more about SEO later in the course but for the purposes of Website Optimization, there are some basics of SEO that are important to know because we can clearly see how they tie into the optimization of the website. Because design and development may work with the marketing team to implement these changes, knowing basic terms can help us understand how SEO ties into website optimization in this module.
Terms include:
#1 Metadata
the meta titles and descriptions, which are shown to users in search results and in the title bar of internet browsers. There are character limits to meta tags – 70 for titles and 160 for descriptions. Search engines use this to determine the content of the page and whether or not to display it in search results.
#2 Sitemaps
This is a list of all the pages on your website, including blog posts, media, and forms. This list helps search engines index your content to potentially show it in search results. Most websites built on CMS platforms have sitemap plugins that update this automatically.
#3 Website content pages
These are all the informative pages on your site that are not blog posts. Examples include About Us, Contact, Services. These pages are usually created once and are only updated when there is new information to be added. However, regularly adding new information or pages that provide more niche information can help with SEO.
#4 Blog posts
These are articles that are published in blog post format– usually with the title, author, and date on the page. These are sometimes treated differently by search engines, depending on their content, date, length, and topic. Due to the Google freshness factor, websites with new content can get preference in search results.
Website optimization: deals more with the user experience and making the website easier to use. Examples include website layout, design, content formatting, buttons, interactive elements, colour, etc.
SEO: makes it easier for search engines to find and index website content. Examples include keyword usage, what content is in the headers, title, and page description, internal linking, schema tags etc.
SEO has an effect on the visitor before they get to your site whereas Website Optimization affects your visitor when they arrive on your website.
It doesn’t matter how much you optimize your site rankings in Google if your website isn’t fully optimized to meet your visitors’ needs and convert them when they engage with your site. These two types of optimization work together to create an effective user experience. Organizations get more conversions, meet business objectives and users get to find what they are looking for.
Website optimization is important because it has a lot of value for both the users and the organization:
#1 Increases user time on site
When a website is easy to navigate, users are much more likely to stay on the website because they are finding the information that they are looking for.
#2 Provides a better user experience
Users are not only able to find what they are looking for, but they are also left with a better impression of a company because of their great website optimization.
#3 Leads to more return visits
When a website is pleasant to use, users are much more likely to return. A Shopify study (linked below) found that 25% of users abandon their online shopping cart if the website is hard to use, 21% if the checkout process takes too long, and 15% if the website times out (stops working).
#4 Increases e-commerce sales
If it saves them time or is easier than competitors, many customers are likely to use a better-optimized site, even if the cost is higher or the products and services aren’t quite the same. They just want the best experience possible. Time is money!
This section shows how website optimization will affect all the areas along the buyer’s journey:
#1 Awareness
The buyer becomes aware of what they are actually looking for (e.g. a solution to their problem). For instance, if a small business owner wants more walk-in customers, one solution they might find is local SEO. Better website optimization helps ensure that solutions are more easily found.
#2 Interest
The buyer finds your company and its products, which might include product pages, blog posts, or other content about the company/products. Displaying this information clearly and making sure it’s easily found on the website will convince users to move into the consideration step.
#3 Consideration:
The buyer starts considering buying something from the company. This could include calling the company, liking them on Facebook, reading blog posts from the company, etc. When these aspects are easily discoverable on the website, it makes the movement to step #4 easier.
#4 Conversion
A user will only convert to a sale or other type of conversion if the shopping experience or form is easy to use and the call-to-actions are clear. Websites should also be optimized to be consistently directing users toward conversion, so changes for conversion should be placed throughout the site.
#5 Retention
Once a user has converted, the focus should be on keeping them as a recurring paying customer or regular user/recipient of the company’s products, content, and services. In terms of website optimization, this includes buttons, banners, related content suggestions, and more to ensure the user stays engaged with what the company has to offer.
Website Optimization makes it easier for a user to convert by removing any potential roadblocks that could cause a user not to complete a purchase or conversion, including barriers like:
#1 Confusing navigation
If a user doesn’t know where to find the information or product that they are looking for, they are likely to get frustrated and leave the website entirely, possibly to never return.
#2 Slow checkout process
If the conversion process isn’t quick, easy, and simple, then users are much more likely to exit before the conversion stage.
#3 Unclear benefits of converting as part of issues with website optimization in digital marketing
Users want to know what they get when they buy something or give a website their information. The layout of benefits should be clear and concise, and easy-to-read. For instance, too many animations or not enough contrast between the website background and the text can cause fatigue and frustration. Usually, black text on a white background is best.
#4 Slow website as part of website optimization in digital marketing
If website elements or content doesn’t load quickly on every device (tablet, smartphone, and computer), users are much more likely to leave a site.
Website optimization affects the following digital marketing areas:
#1 SEO as part of website optimization in digital marketing
Bad design and navigation can make it hard for search engines to crawl a site in order to index it (which then affects whether it is shown in search results).
#2 Graphic design as part of website optimization in digital marketing
Good design is a cornerstone of website optimization. How a site is laid out and what graphics it uses influences user engagement, interest, and brand reputation.
#3 A/B testing as part of website optimization in digital marketing
Testing different elements of the website play into its optimization. For instance, factors like layout, CTA button text or colour, length, and placement on the site are all A/B tests that can be done to test user metrics, like conversions and engagement.
#4 Email marketing as part of website optimization in digital marketing
The links used in email promotions play into what the user will see on a website when they click on a link (there also may be different links according to if there are A/B tests). Additionally, the design, colour, and layout of the emails should also be congruent with the design of the website to create trust and more cohesive experience for the user.
#5 Social media as part of website optimization in digital marketing
Like email, design and colour should be similar to the website. Links and what parts of the website to promote on social media is dependent on how the website is optimized.
#6 Mobile optimization as part of website optimization in digital marketing
If a website isn’t optimized for mobile (e.g. responsive), then users aren’t going to have the same experience that they would have on their desktop computer or tablet. Mobile optimization ensures a better user experience, no matter how a user accesses a website.
#7 Website page speed as part of website optimization in digital marketing
Users will leave a website if it loads too slow, causing a higher bounce rate, more abandoned shopping carts, and a lower return visit rate. Website optimization considers plugins, code scripts (e.g. JavaScript and CSS), and other design elements to make sure a website and all its pages load as fast as possible.
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