Is My Website Performing? 5 Ways To Check
Never underestimate the power of content and design when it comes to the overall rank, positioning and success of your website. Sure, I’m a little biased but as millions around the world battle for the top search engine spots, your content writing and design can make or break your success. So with that in mind read my latest article – Is My Website Performing? 5 Ways To Check
#1 Mobile Optimised Design
Is your website working nicely on all mobile devices including tablet, smartphone and iPhone? When a site is correctly optimized it will shrink to the size of the device used to access it. In addition, the menu and layout of the site will usually adjust making it easy to view on a smaller device. The latest statistics show that globally mobile traffic makes up 65% of all web visits so if your site isn’t loading correctly you are missing out big time. Check your site using different devices and pay particular attention to the way in which your content and design is optimized. If you find yourself getting annoyed then you already have your answer!
#2 Great SEO
The way your site is designed, the content you use and the speed in which it loads will all have an effect on your SEO (search engine optimization). For more guidance on this topic, it might be worth contacting a Denver digital marketing agency. Good SEO is important because ultimately it means that your site sits higher on the search engine rankings and therefore gets more visitors. Put it another way… when was the last time you went to page 10 of Google? Check your SEO performance with free tools such as http://seositecheckup.com/ and make sure you run frequent searches on different browsers using industry keywords. From my perspective, great SEO is often achieved through content writing techniques including
- Easy to read text layouts
- Original & non copied text
- Good keyword and phrase research
- Metatags and H1/H2 headings
- The correct keyword percentage
- Fresh content & relevant blog posts
- Controlled linking techniques
#3 User Friendly Design
Your website design needs to be user friendly, clean and easy to use. For reasons such as this, it is always prudent to check various portfolios of web designers (like the ones at https://visualobjects.com/web-design) who could help you out with this! To be honest, it is a no brainer for me however I am always amazed to see heavily complicated and intricate websites which ultimately leave me frustrated and exiting fast! If you run a business website or are trying to sell a service, it’s necessary to keep the website as simple as possible. Therefore, it might be prudent for you to look for an experienced web designer who can help with your businesses website. Furthermore, this might help the customer reach the checkout page as quickly as possible, converting the lead into a potential client.
Digital strategists from companies like WebEnertia (to know more, check https://www.webenertia.com/what-we-do/strategy/) may be able to assist you in developing a strategy, laying the groundwork, and providing insights for a successful solution. The worst offenders when it comes down to website design include
- Too much Flash/Java animation
- Text heavy pages of 1000+ words
- Complicated navigation menus
- Disabled right click feature
- Too many road block banners
- Bad quality images or bright colours
#4 Bounce Rate
Unless a visitor enters your exact url, they have reached your site via a search engine query. In my case it may be “How to find a content writer” or “social media tips”. I’m happy that they came to me but if my bounce rate is too high then I’m doing something wrong. Your bounce rate is the amount of time visitors spend on your site before bouncing out and going elsewhere. Currently my bounce rate at www.charlisays.com is 38%. I’m fairly happy with that but of course there is always room for improvement.
Bounce Rate Stats
- Around 30% or less is great.
- 40%-50% is acceptable
- 60% plus is a bad sign
You can check your bounce rate via Google Analytics and keep an eye on it to see if it is improving or declining. If your bounce rate is too high then it could be your site load time, design, optimization or it may well be that your content is not pleasing to visitors. Content that has a high bounce rate may include any of the following:
- Long and non structured blog posts
- Irrelevant information in comparison to the web search
- Difficult to find key information on each page
- Content which is not useful or interesting
- Poor navigation layouts
#5 Web Traffic Numbers
The term web traffic describes the quantity of visitors to your website and it’s a good indicator of the success of your marketing efforts. You can use tools like Alexa to check visitor numbers or a favourite of mine which is SimilarWeb. The latter gives a more detailed breakdown of your visitor demographics. You need to keep an eye on visitor demographics particularly if you are a physical business (eg a café, shop or service). This is because your content should be geared up to attracting customers who can actually reach you. If you have a café in Limassol Cyprus then visitors from Africa or America won’t help you much! A good content marketing strategy can ensure that you are attracting the right visitors to your site and not wasting your efforts. Contact me for information on creating a content marketing strategy for your brand.
Thank you for reading Is My Website Performing? 5 Ways To Check
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