1. For goodness’ sake, make sure it is MOBILE-FRIENDLY.
Do me a favor and pull out your phone. Go to your browser and navigate to your website. Cool, you should be on your home page now. Do you like what you see? Is the content ordered properly? Are words or images cut off? Can you click on your CTA’s? Do you even have CTA’s? If not, please for your own good, make having a mobile-friendly website a super high priority. According to an official Google statement, over 50% of search queries now come from mobile devices. So, if your website is not mobile-friendly, you’re not catering to those folks. Why would they care about your content if it’s not designed for them?
Mobile-Friendly Test: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
2. Slow Site Speed = DEATH!
Make sure you don’t die in your website visitors’ mind. You only have a few seconds to grab their attention when they land on your site. Do you really want that viewers time spent on watching a page load? NO! You want them to connect with your content as quickly as possible. Make improving your site speed a priority. I bet you’re thinking, “Wow, that sounds great, but how on earth do I do this.” Am I right?
Here are my top 5 starting points:
1. Choose a lightweight website theme. The less clunky, the better.
2. Make sure to compress ALL images – Use TinyPNG to do this quickly and easily
3. Use site speed test tools to benchmark your site, but don’t stop there (if your score is an 85 or above, you’re all good, but, if not, keep reading)
~Tools including Google’s Pagespeed Insights, Pingdom, and GTMetix
4. Choose a fast web host; don’t settle for the cheap turtle-speed deal – We use Bluehost now, but do your research
5. Optimize your homepage, removing any unnecessary widgets or plugins and only including excerpts of posts
Be on the lookout for more website musts coming soon. If you need a new website or revamp, reach out to our team of specialists by scheduling a phone call. Let us help take your vision live. Visit https://vision.live/contact/ to inquire about the new or optimized website you’ve been dreaming of.