So you sailed through step one quite easily: create & set up a freelancer website, now you are feeling ready for part two: get that website working at top capacity. This is a little trickier than step one because it relies on so many factors. However, by familiarizing yourself with tips and tricks to increase website performance, you will be well on your way to web success.
Website Performance Areas
Below are the primary factors impacting the success of a website, all of which need to be checked in order to make sure that your website is fully optimized:
- Search Engine Visibility
- Website Visual Presentation
- Website Performance
- Website Security
You can actually use a website checking tool like this from 1&1 to see how your website performs in all of the areas listed above. All you have to do is enter in your website URL and the tool does the rest for you. However once you get the results, it is up to you to address any weaknesses.
Optimization Techniques
Search Engine Visibility
Showing up in search engine rankings can mean the difference between success and failure. Achieving a good SERP ranking depends entirely on how reputable and relevant your site is to search requests. Optimizing your content with keywords and producing good quality content tackles both. Securing relevant backlinks also increases the authority of your site in the search engine.
Presentation
Once surfers land upon your site you have to find a way to keep them there and clicking through your pages; this largely depends upon presentation. The best way to optimize the presentation of your site is to keep pages clean, clear and easy to navigate. Cluttered confusion will have your browsers moving on to another site. Also, respect the white space of the page and use lists whenever you can to make information easy to digest. Use a complementary color scheme as well.
Website Performance
Of course even a well-presented website will fail if it doesn’t perform well. Performance is ultimately the speed and efficiency of your site. You should optimize in a way that shortens page load time; this can be anything from using minimal media (like images, video, and plugins) that take longer to load, to using a CDN. Also, ensure that all links and media are working properly.
Website Security
Finally comes the matter of making sure that your site is safe, which requires you to have the right tools in place. This is especially important if you have an ecommerce site or manage sensitive data. The first thing to do is purchase an SSL certificate, which protects the connection between your browsers and your site, and helps to keep you safe from hackers. For ecommerce sites, see here for advice on how to optimize your checkout page for safer transactions.
Keep in mind that optimization techniques are never “set it and forget it” approaches. You need to consistently monitor and check your website performance. What is working one day may not work the next. Plan to check and implement optimization changes into your website on a regular basis.
