How to Enhance Your Website for 2018

2018 is an interesting year for website optimization. With a lot of changes being done at Google’s algorithmic level, there are many new avenues for growth for online marketers. While there are certain rules that we have to follow, there are tweaks that can get us the extra mile.

When we try to enhance our website, we often look at things like design and server space, but we fail to forget the minor details like obtaining an SSL certification and making sure that our connections are all HTTPS. We also forget to buy copy-cat domains so that our competitors can’t buy them and redirect that traffic to themselves.

There are many tweaks and optimization hacks that you can do for your website, but you need to understand how it affects your end goal. If your end goal is to attract new customers to the site, then your website should flow according to that goal. If it's to bring existing customers back to the site, then you should design your site to make sure that happens.

You can’t focus on multiple goals for long-term success, as the teams that you will be working with will only have one objective in mind. This is also indicative of a culture of innovation. When you have an innovative web design team, or an online marketer that understands how to enhance your website for 2018, you can stay ahead of the game without seeing any dips in traffic.

1. Focus on Mobile

You need to focus increasingly more on mobile devices. You can’t rely on desktop devices, or templatized approaches to website design. You need to make sure that mobile devices can access your website from anywhere they access it.

E.g. if someone is not connected to the WIFI and have a 4G or 3G connection then do your images load after or before the final website is completed. Small things like that really make a solid impact, including an impact on how your customers view your brand. If you have an alt-text on your image, the customer will understand that they have to wait.

Also, if you have a mobile-oriented design, make sure that you don’t have any annoying pops asking for their email address. Mobile users aren’t interested in things that take them away from the main experience of the site.

2. Don’t Showcase a Lot of Ads

Ads don’t just include banners for other services, it also includes banners, pops and annoying click-away banners that don’t showcase the ‘exit’ button properly. These type of promotion tactics will reduce your website’s time-on-site and customers might even click away to go somewhere else.

If they’re not interested in your pop ups and deals, the that’s a good sign to you that you should stop doing that. If your converting at around 1%, it still means that 99% of the time, customers have to take an extra step to close out of a popup or ad.

Certain blogs may have ads that aren’t optimized for mobile and can take over an entire screen in one go. The blogs need to control the width and length of the ad that pops up so that mobile users can maintain a sense of control. As screens get bigger, webmasters must still remember that there are older versions that may not have an experience that you want them to have.

3. Focus On SEO

There is so much out there in terms of SEO that you need to optimize your site right now. You can’t wait any longer to make your website SEO friendly, and you’re missing out if you’re not optimizing.

You also need to make sure that your site is Google compliant so that you can stay away from any strikes or black hat practices that Google might think you’re caught by. Don’t spam any sites or use a lot of spam-bait practices. Google will see these as fishy and demote you out of their results page. You can also create long-term benefits for your brand by ensuring that you follow good SEO practices and don’t default.

Defaulting on any one or multiple ranking factors that Google considers, is bad news. This is going to severely affect your rankings and make you deficit in terms of your ranking score. Google may see you as a bad performer with a poor-web experience.

4. Build a Brand

There are so many websites out there. What makes your special from another? Your brand. When you personalize your website and online marketing experience to reflect your brand, you can make a stunning impact on the way that people view your online presence. This includes everything from your logo to the type of colors that you use. This could also include the type of font, typography, navigation style and content you have on the website itself.

You need to make sure that you’re ahead of the times, by offering a truly Web 2.0 experience and not sticking to a boring template that all of your competition already has. You want to stand out and differentiate by creating a brand that’s scalable, and attractive to your clients or customers.

5. Less is More

The old adage of less is more is 100% true when it comes to your website’s design. If you have a lot of clutter and you want to express everything on one blank page, then you’re going to struggle with clutter and a lack of cohesion. Your customers might get confused with all this information on the homepage and click away.

You want to make sure that you have all the relevant information that your customers need to make a decision. But you also want to make sure that the information is presented in a fashionable and design-friendly manner. Only then can you stand to gain their trust, subsequently their attention. You can market to people that trust you, but if you’re meeting someone for the first time, you don’t talk about your life’s story on the first instance.

Conclusion

There are many tweaks and strategies that you can use to enhance your website in 2018. Use these now to get great results this year!