As the online space gets competitive, businesses must find new ways to elevate their online platforms and attract customers.
One key process in this regard is the optimization of websites. This involves improving the platforms’ performance, speed (the overall snappy feel), security, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
These three factors create a wholesome user experience, bumping up your SERP results and leading you to more earning opportunities.
This post will discuss actionable insights regarding a website’s speed, security, and SEO and tips to elevate them for your platforms. So, keep reading till the end to uncover everything about today’s topic.
Website Optimization and its Significance
In simpler terms, website optimization is the set of strategies and best practices that make a website as fast and convenient for the user as possible.
In today’s competitive world, having an online platform that loads quickly can be a huge turning point in your sales.
According to HubSpot, a B2B site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate that is 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds. Just think about how much earning potential your business could lose if your sites were not up to modern standards.
Ways to Optimize Website Performance
Now to the main part: ways your site can take the upper hand over competitors.
- Speed
Let’s start with optimizing the loading speed for your platforms. There are many things to take care of here, so bear with us if the roller coaster of thoughts just takes off for a while.
First, we must fix the codes you’ve made for your web platforms. Wait, there’s nothing wrong with them. It’s just that they’re too long for the web crawler to read and decipher.
What we need to do is to minify CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files so that your site becomes a bit easy to index for search engines. Hence, giving you a boost on search results as well.
Second, you need to learn how to compress images on your website. If their size is too big, they’ll need more time and internet resources to load for the user. Use tools like TinyPNG in this regard to optimize the sites for speed.
Third, learn how to implement CDN (Content Distributed Network) for your online platforms. This will help the content load faster for your users, especially if you’ve built data-heavy applications like Web GIS-based interfaces that update in real time.
Fourth, update your front-end practices. Implement lazy loading for assets below the fold so that ones above the fold could show to the user faster, giving your site that snappy feel.
Although this is a widely known practice by now, we still see a lot of online platforms without implementing responsive design. This means making the websites adaptable to the screen they’re used to view on e.g., a phone, a laptop, a desktop, etc.
The world of technology is moving at a rapid pace, and so should developers to ensure that users get a premium experience whenever they land on the website.
- Security
Now, let’s talk about security. As much as a website’s speed is critical to attracting customers, it is no good if it’s open to cyberattacks and data leakages.
First, you need to make the foundations of the website strong by enforcing SSL/TLS via authorities like Let’s Encrypt. If the platform was initially built upon HTTP, apply a redirect to HTTPS, so that you have a stronger, more secure protocol for the site.
Second, implement a Website Application Firewall (WAF) to protect your platform from common attacks and hijacks.
Source: Cloudflare
Although there can be many other sources of attacks like DDoS, a WAF is like a basic shield that your destination servers must wear to establish some basic security for your websites.
Third, speaking of DDoS and common cache poisoning attacks, you must always keep your DNS records up to date and correctly configured. A tool provided by whatsmydns.me can help you to check the DNS records. It allows you to quickly verify if the domain is pointing to the right name servers and troubleshoot potential DNS-related issues that may affect website accessibility.
Fourth, try to enable MFA (Multi-Factor Authorization) on your websites to help secure data entered by users. If you want to establish yourself as a credible, trustworthy e-commerce platform, SaaS solution, etc., start taking care of user data.
Lastly, securing a website also means keeping your software updated. This includes your CMS, plugins, etc., as they can provide a gateway for hackers to partially or completely take over your site, resulting in major losses.
- SEO
Our third crucial element in optimizing a website’s performance is SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)
First, craft unique content for every website page, along with proper Meta Titles and Descriptions, per the recommended guidelines. Ensure to follow a proper hierarchy in content (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to make it easily crawlable.
Second, optimize the content according to user intent. Targets keywords naturally using tools like Ahrefs. But avoid keyword stuffing on every corner of your platform. Instead, the primary concern should be providing information/value to the visitor.
Third, work on the technical aspects of SEO, such as fixing or removing error 404 links on your website and using canonical tags to resolve duplicates. Also, submit XML sitemaps to the search engines and properly configure the robots.txt file to allow crawling.
Fourth, work on Local SEO by creating your GMB (Google My Business) page and optimizing it for users. Gather reviews and share them here to add credibility and authority to your business.
These are just a few SEO performance hacks for your website; however, explore more options that fit your niche or industry.
Best Practices for Sustainability of Online Platforms
While knowing these basic and some advanced level tips for boosting website performance is essential, there are some best practices that you must learn to ensure the sustainability of your online platforms.
- Doing Constant Monitoring
You must always be on the lookout for ways to increase the performance of your website. Use tools like Google’s Page Speed Insight to check platform accessibility through various devices. Also, see if your site follows best practices for SEO, Security, and Speed, and later, try to come up with solutions.
- Upskilling the Workforce
As you soar to the top, you must take the workforce and try to upskill them. If your front-line employees cannot handle complex software and tools or make critical, time-dependent decisions, your business may lag behind competitors.
- Updating the Used Tools and Resources
Finally, learn when and how to migrate to newer solutions for your website maintenance/optimization processes. This will ensure that the platform remains sustainable for future users, allowing you to take the throne of your niche successfully.
Final Thoughts
As we conclude this post, we want to remind you of one thing. One can implement many different tools and methods to boost their site’s performance.
However, the decision is yours to make according to the size of your platform, its concurrent users, and the niche in which it lies.
Whatever you do, always prioritize and boost your website’s Speed, Security, and SEO. Your online success depends on these three critical factors.
