Looking for easy-to-understand, actionable tips to improve your website? These 12 practical ways will detail more than the typical generic advice you hear.
By Eric Sharp
How to Improve Your Website in 12 Practical Ways
May 20, 2016
Looking for easy-to-understand, actionable tips to improve your website? These 12 practical ways will detail more than the typical generic advice you hear.
Need website improvement? Not sure where to begin?
I don’t know about you, but I’m mildly annoyed with all the boilerplate advice that many “experts” suggest because it’s generic and not actionable.
Tips like:
Improve Conversion Rate!
Increase Traffic!
Have a better Design!
Yes. But, how exactly?
Most of us understand these big picture concepts in theory. However, concepts don’t improve a website — practical, specific, and actionable ideas will. Below are 12 easy-to-understand tips that’ll inspire and show you how to take action. Each one hits on a different area of website improvement.
If you do all 12, you’ll dramatically change your website for the better. If you do just one, you’ll still be making headway and will see measurable progress.
12 website improvement ideas spanning various aspects
If you’re looking for generic tips, this article isn’t for you.
I’m not just going to focus on conversion. Or design. Or SEO. These 12 tips will cover these major areas (listed in no specific order):
Conversion
Content
Research
Maintenance
Mobile
Usability
SEO
Measurement
Design
Now, let’s explore each of these 12 practical tips and how you can turn them into actionable to-do’s to improve your website.
1. Answer 100 of your prospects’ questions on your Blog
I learned this tactic from the super smart Marcus Sheridan at The Sales Lion.
Marcus suggests locking yourself in a room with a big whiteboard and brainstorming 100 of the top questions your prospects are asking. Then answer them one-by-one in your blog.
Whenever I feel a client getting overwhelmed with their Content Marketing strategy, I dumb it down and pass this concept along. And it works every single time because it’s so easy to understand.
Grab your whiteboard markers and list out 100 questions your potential customers are asking. Then blog the answers.
Within a few hours, you’ll have 100 blog ideas!
Adding valuable content to your blog that answers your potential customers’ questions will dramatically improve your website. It’ll make your company more trustworthy and transparent, but also drive more traffic and improve conversion rate!
2. Ensure a site-wide Call to Action is in the header
What’s the most important action on your website? Is it filling out a lead generation form? Downloading a lead magnet? Buying a product?
Whatever the action, you need to make it obvious for people. More specifically, you need to find a home for it in the header of your website, so your CTA is:
Accessible on every page
Above the fold (giving the prominence & attention it needs)
4. Add/Edit/Remove content on landing pages with little engagement
Conversion Optimization experts L-O-V-E this tactic.
Why? Because it’s plugging leaky holes on your website.
If critical pages of your website have a low “Session Duration” (the minutes & seconds a user spends on a given page), this could be a sign that the content is:
Too light
Not relevant
BORING
Detect 5-10 of these pages in Google Analytics and put them under a microscope. Is the content helpful? Does it need some TLC? Does it need blown up and re-written?
In Google Analytics, go to [Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages] and then scan the “Avg. Session Duration” column for pages with low engagement
5. Run User Testing on your website’s core functions
Gone are the days of needing your own user testing lab (Image Credit: TheNextWeb)
Many people let User Testing (aka Usability Testing) intimidate them. They think you need thousands of dollars, your own testing lab, and a data scientist to spearhead the whole thing.
Don’t overthink this.
There are plenty of useful services available today (like UserTesting.com) that’ll help you set up a usability test within 24 hours for under $100. Selling a product? Run a test on the ordering process. Offering a service? Run a test on finding specific pages and inquiring more information.
The results will help you improve your website’s core functionality and translate into a higher conversion rate!
Don’t let simple oversights, that are easy to fix, hold back your website. You’ll improve your website and your bottom line with some proofing and editing. Hire a freelancer editor or roll up your sleeves yourself and fix these credibility killers!
7. Fix browser-specific issues
Imagine that your visitors couldn’t click your website’s call to action. Or your lead generation form doesn’t show all the right fields. Or your navigation menu is missing a section.
Imagine that your visitors couldn’t click your website’s call to action.
These are all very real situations (that I’ve seen firsthand) that surface when a website has browser-specific bugs from lack of browser planning and/or testing. What many website owners forget is that not everybody uses the same browser.
I’ve had a few conversations, just this year, where the person thought their website was mobile-friendly, and then I become the bearer of bad news. Not fun.
I’m sure you know by now that your website needs to be mobile-friendly.
If you’re not mobile-friendly, you have 3 options:
Create a separate mobile version (example: mobile.website.com)
Use mobile plugins (if you’re running a popular CMS platform, like WordPress)
Convert website to RWD (“Responsive Web Design”)
This improvement isn’t the cheapest or quickest to implement, but should be near the top of your list.
9. Fine-tune your SEO on high authority pages
You can improve your website’s Search Engine Optimization in 30 minutes. It just takes a little data extraction and some sharp copywriting.
Step 1: Get your “Top Pages” by authority using a tool like OpenSiteExplorer.com (free version reveals your top 5) or Ahrefs.com (free account reveals your top 20).
Step 2: Inspect those page’s Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions and ensure they don’t wrap (your Content Management System has this data)
Meta Data as shown in the Search Engine Results Pages. See how there’s no wrapping?
Too long!
These three simple steps, applied to each of your top pages, will not only improve the on-page optimization but will inspire more people to click over to your website.
Headline. What is the end-benefit you’re offering, in 1 short sentence. Can mention the product and/or the customer. Attention grabber.
Sub-headline or a 2-3 sentence paragraph. A specific explanation of what you do/offer, for whom and why is it useful.
3 bullet points. List the key benefits or features.
Visual. Images communicate much faster than words. Show the product, the hero shot or an image reinforcing your main message.
Improving the articulation of your value prop will boost your website’s clarity. And clarity can’t be underestimated in today’s noisy world.
11. Set up Goals in Google Analytics
“How many conversions did we receive via organic traffic?” This client’s Analytics can answer that question because they have Goals set up (the answer is 498 by the way)
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.Peter Drucker
Mr. Drucker loved measurement. If he were still alive, he’d revel in using Google Analytics goals data to improve his website.
Are you tracking website conversions in Google Analytics? If not, it starts with setting up “Goals”. Here’s Google’s guide to configuring goals.
Taking a data-driven approach to understanding how your website is converting is a scientific way to improving a website. But, it begins with goals!
12. Simplify conversion forms, add specifics, drop in “click triggers”
This website’s form creates ambiguity & doesn’t inspire
Conversion forms, when done right, are a mixture of both art and science. When designed well, they make it smooth as butter for those wanting to fill out the form — and inspire those who are on the fence. This topic (conversion rate optimization) is loaded with best practices, strategies, and tactics.
For this article, here are the 4 most practical ways to quickly improve your website’s forms:
Limit the number of required fields. The less options you present, the lower the friction.
Add “click triggers”. These are extra boosts around a button to convince more people to click it (e.g. testimonial, star ratings, privacy messaging, guarantees, etc.)
Explain clearly what happens NEXT. Email confirmation? A sales rep will call them 1-2 business days? They’ll receive message in a bottle?
Start improving your website today!
Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Start with one, complete, and move onto the next. Website improvement is all about incremental changes and measurement.
Hey, thanks for being here!
There's gobs of information out there, so I'm honored you found this article interesting enough to make it this far. My hope is it helps you to a better performing website!
About the Author
Eric Sharp is the founder of ProtoFuse and has been in the website trenches since 1999 — right before the dot-com boom redefined websites forever. Since then, he's accumulated two decades of digital marketing experience and prides himself on creating websites "Loved by people and Google". He has 2 awesome kids, loves Da Bears, and is into that whole CrossFit thing.