What is website optimization?

Brands rely on website optimization practices to drive traffic to their sites, keep visitors on their sites, and convert visitors to customers through conversion rate optimization (CRO). Since the internet is where most brands now conduct business, website optimization is a crucial piece to any organization’s overall revenue strategy. 

Data pulled from website optimization programs can help companies assess what’s working and what isn’t working, and can help provide insight into how to improve website performance.

What are the components of an effective website optimization strategy?

To stand out among millions of other websites, effective website optimization should include the following components.

Content marketing and content testing

To effectively market, companies need to tailor web copy and content to information that potential customers are looking for. Content marketing such as customer testimonials, blogs, and infographics can help you establish your organization as a thought leader and instill confidence in potential customers in the consideration stage — it’s also critical to building organic traffic to your website.

Additionally, content testing, or the practice of validating and testing that your content is working and resonates with your users is also an important element of an effective website optimization strategy.

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves conducting keyword research and then using those specific, high-volume relevant keywords throughout web copy to help your web page rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

A top-performing SEO web page draws more traffic and typically equates to a rich user experience once visitors land on the page. Popular search consoles have many resources and SEO tools for digital marketers looking to increase traffic and boost search rankings.

User experience

User experience (UX) refers to the journey through your website expressed by graphics, layout, buttons, relevant links, page-load speed, and mobile device optimization. A streamlined user experience makes visitors more likely to stay on your site and ultimately convert.

If your content marketing and SEO strategies are effective in directing people to your website, your site’s UX is what keeps them there.

Conversion rate optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of optimizing the ratio of users who perform a desired action on a website, thus optimizing conversions whether it’s purchases, sign-ups for memberships, downloads of a piece of content or some other action. Implementing a CRO tool can increase the effectiveness of the above components and amplify the efforts you’re already putting into optimizing your website.

Once a web page is optimized using the elements mentioned above, businesses can assess the performance of these pages compared to the original version, and web teams can iterate on content, design, and the overall UX to achieve even better conversion rates and performance.

How is website optimization connected to website personalization?

Website optimization and website personalization are closely linked, but they have two different means of achieving a similar goal. 

With website optimization, the focus is placed on optimizing the overall experience for website visitors. This process focuses on testing and experimenting to determine what keeps visitors on the page and what leads to a conversion. Website optimization also incorporates removing points of friction, getting visitors access to the information they need faster, and overall usability.  .

With website personalization, however, the strategy is to target specific types of visitors and to tailor web pages for this audience. This typically involves leveraging demographic, geographic, firmographic, and user behavior data to provide the most relevant experience possible for that website visitor.

The best-performing web pages will incorporate both website optimization and website personalization. Think of it this way: if your website is lacking on basic website performance principles, it’s hard to build a high-quality personalization experience on top of that shaky foundation.

How to get started with website optimization

When you’re ready to launch a website optimization program, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Identify your business goal. What are you trying to measure? How will you define success? How will you define failures? Once you define your experiments and corresponding metrics, you’ll be able to tailor your strategy to the business goal.
• Determine what you can measure and how to measure it. Whether you’re aiming to analyze clicks, form submissions, content downloads, or webinar registrations, you’ll need to identify how you’re going to measure and analyze each of these metrics and how you’ll keep track of them over time.
• Consider the customer journey. Where are you experiencing drop-off? Do you notice you’re experiencing heavy website traffic on specific pages? Because customers may be visiting your website at various stages of the buyer journey, ask yourself how different web elements on these pages can be tailored to the needs of these different stages.

These starting points will allow you to identify what you want to test, what types of visitors you’re looking to convert to customers, and how you can effectively build out a seamless experience.

Tips for website optimization

Most brands with effectively optimized websites include the following elements in their website optimization strategies.‍

1. Use consistent messaging. 

It’s a best practice to use similar messaging across communications, including ads, social media, landing pages, website content and beyond. Keeping this messaging consistent throughout the customer journey will keep your target audience engaged.

2. Take an industry-specific approach. 

Enlist existing customers in a target industry to provide social proof, quotes, or full-on customer stories to give your audience an idea of how your services have helped some of their peers (and competitors). Better yet, get permission to use existing customer logos and likenesses on your web pages to highlight pain points your product solves and to entice potential customers.

3. Keep the sales cycle in mind. 

Your customers may be at various stages within the sales cycle. Remaining cognizant of this will help you determine which content and website experience you should target for their specific situation. You can opt to personalize some of this content for increased relevancy, if your resources allow.

4. Simplify form submissions. 

It’s an unspoken rule in digital marketing: the more fields you require a visitor to complete on a form, the less likely these forms are to be submitted. Consult with your sales team to identify what pieces of information are vital to their process, and see whether there are fields that can be removed or shown at a later stage in the funnel.

5. Customize calls to action (CTAs). 

Once you have your target audience in mind and you’re aware of their position in the sales cycle, experiment with CTA language, positioning, and frequency on your web pages. It can be tempting to create one CTA and move on, but experimenting can help you identify what resonates with your individual customers and maximize your optimization efforts.

Website optimization doesn’t have to be complicated

A conversion rate optimization tool can be a great way to implement website optimization best practices that deliver premium experiences for your website visitors and build credibility for your brand. The good news? Webflow can help. To learn more about using AI to create a highly personalized website experience for your customers and prospects, get in touch with our team today.