Building a successful website has never been easy. You have to consider a lot of things—design, content, optimization. However, with the pandemic going on, people are starting to value websites a lot more than before, especially now that there are limited ways to gather information.
A study has claimed a 1.5% increase in traffic across 20 industries from January to October 2020. In other words, you have a higher chance of gaining a large following, right? Wrong. Because of the traffic surge, more businesses are building websites, so the number of competitors increases. It’s only a matter of time before you get left behind. And, before that happens, you have to use techniques to up your website game.
Below are simple techniques that successful websites use to climb up to the big leagues.
1. Pay attention to the UI design
UI or user interface design is one of the most crucial components of a website. For one, it’s responsible for the interaction between you and the audience.
At first glance, it only focuses on aesthetics, but UI design is critical to other components of the website. It can improve your content quality, make a slow load speed worth the wait, and many more. Simply put, the UI design will be one of the deciding factors in readers’ decision whether they’ll stay or not.
2. Optimize your website for search engines
SEO or search engine optimization is a given when it comes to websites, but website owners seem to be neglecting this element right now, but no one can blame them. After all, SEO and coronavirus aren’t exactly a great combination, especially since the pandemic brought forth sudden changes that messed up the current SEO techniques.
However, that doesn’t mean that SEO is entirely irrelevant during the pandemic. Once you master SEO during this time, you will have an edge against your competitors. But, before you optimize your website, you have to remember to minimize what you add since it may contribute to a slow loading speed.
3. Speed up the website
Most websites forget about their load speed. Naturally, when a website takes longer to load, users will leave the page and visit other sites, which is a big no-no if you have many competitors.
There are many reasons why a website has an extended load speed, including:
- Images have large file sizes or follow incompatible formats
- Images link to attachment pages and other URLs
- Codes consist of unnecessary characters
- Hosting service provides limited resources
4. Make the site mobile-friendly
From 2020 to 2021, the number of smartphone users increased by over 300 million, making the mobile industry a lot more appealing for website owners. But, you have to remember the differences between the format of websites on a mobile device and desktops.
To be precise, it’s more difficult to cater to mobile users. You have to follow some strict rules to make your site mobile-friendly. These are:
- Keep the design simple: Having a simple design allows your audience to see information even with large images.
- Make fonts larger: Larger text will naturally lead better readability.
- Avoid flash: Flash tends to slow down load speed, and its benefits are not worth the disadvantages that it brings to your site.
- Provide a desktop version: If you often use your mobile device to check websites out, you’ll notice a way to switch to a desktop version. Having this function will help users if they can’t adapt to the mobile version.
5. Add a search bar
The primary purpose of adding a search bar to websites is for users to find what they’re looking for right away. For example, if they already have a specific topic in mind before going to your website, typing in the keywords will make their job a lot easier.
On the contrary, if users can’t find a search bar on your website, there’s a big chance that they’ll go to other websites, most likely one of your competitors.
Conclusion
Most website guides often talk about ‘simple’ tips, like creating topnotch content or coming up with an effective marketing plan. Sure, it’s possible for those with a lot of writing and marketing experience, but that’s not something all individuals can do. If what you’re looking for is a fool-proof method to up your website game during the pandemic without being an expert, the tips above will help you take one step ahead of your competitors.