It seems like everyone has a website or least a blog site these days. Even if some people don’t have a website chances are the thought has crossed their mind. More and more people are turning to resources like WordPress, a company which offers free easy to customize website templates, to easily create stunning websites. Whether you are new to the website world or a WordPress veteran you need to keep you website fresh.
Website owners are constantly struggling with old or outdated web designs. Websites need to be updated regularly in order to improve interface, design and accessibility. These are the main strategies website owners need to consider if they want to optimize search results, and attract and/or maintain customers.
For many business and website owners, the task of updating your website seems insurmountable. But it doesn’t have to be. With just a few considerations and improvements you can optimize an old web design in no time. Even if you don’t have a website but would like to plan one, these top 4 tips will help ensure you get a cutting edge website equipped to succeed in today’s fast paced internet world.
1. Manage your SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a design and functionality strategy which improves website responsiveness, exposure, and usability. If you’re designing your first WordPress or just looking to get more out of the site you’re running you need to consider implementing SEO strategies and design elements.
Basically SEO strategies and designs help viewers find your website on search engines and ensures users have an efficient and usable experience. SEO will increase website responsiveness. Having a responsive design is imperative.
An unresponsive site will lead to a host of problems, but most importantly unresponsive site will lose search engine rankings. The lower ranking leads to lower exposure. The lower the ranking the harder it is for people to find your website.
SEO can also reduce your need for urls when optimizing for mobile access. If you want your website to be accessible on mobile devices many outdated website require a separate url for the mobile site conversion. Having multiple URLs for one website can lead to problems with rankings due to content duplication (a big ranking pitfall) and decreased responsiveness.
2. Get the best Hosting
Choosing the best hosting for your website is crucial to the success of your website. Web hosting is where your website is located. This service provides internet space and access for, and to, your website. A hosting company essentially publishes (or uploads), and saves your website for access on the web.
Hosting can make or break a website. A good hosting company will ensure your website is always connected and accessible to you and your viewers. A good hosting company will ensure your website is properly protected from cyber attack, hacking, and malware.
If your website goes down for any reason rankings can be negatively effected. Any time your website is down you are losing potential users and customer. Many of the best hosting companies are starting to include additional services, like design optimization, and migration services.
Bluehost web hosting, a leading voice in the industry, advises costumers to find hosting companies which offer essential services like, “Google integration, 24/7 tech support, and professional security measures.”
3. Create new and unique content
In the website world content is king. If you want to be sure your website stays relevant and highly ranked you need to be creating new a unique content. Search engines, like Google which has by far the largest user and search base, are using algorithms which query all hosted websites on a regular basis.
These queries help search engines decide how relevant you are in your particular space. They do that, in part, by looking at new an unique content. Sites which are constantly updating and creating new content are considered more important and thus ranked higher.
Creating content also helps solidify your website as an authority in the space. You want to be the one talking about your industry. Content allows you the chance to do just that.
By creating new and unique content, and getting that content out on the web, you will attract more viewers and more customers. If your content is strong and relevant, new viewers may link to your content as an authority. The more people you get to link to your content the better your website rankings.
4. Consider Navigation
How users navigate your website is extremely important. People want to see your information easily and quickly. This means they have to be able to navigate your website whether they are do so through a PC or a mobile device.
One trend in website design is long scrolling navigation. Website design is shying away from designs which require people to click to additional pages to navigate through the site or content. More and more users are accessing the web on mobile devices. That means you need your site mobile ready.
To make websites more mobile friendly users and designers prefer sites that can be navigated without having clicking through to new pages. Mobile devices have smaller screens which can be difficult to click through.
When considering navigation consider loading speed. How does it take for website to come up. Large high mega pixel images load too slowly and should be avoided. If your website is not formated or optimized for mobile or load time can be slow, and you might be driving away potential viewers.