So you want to improve your website, but you don't have the time or money for a full-scale redesign. Well, we've got good news: You can still make your site better by taking some simple steps. In this post, we'll show you how to perform a content audit, set up Google Analytics, optimize for mobile devices and more---all without breaking the bank.
1. Perform a Content Audit
- Perform a Content Audit
A content audit is the process of analyzing the content on your website and checking it for consistency, quality, and accuracy. This can be done manually (which can take a lot of time) or by using an automated tool (which will save you loads of time). A content audit should include:
- An analysis of all pages on your site to determine if they are meeting their goals for visitors, readers, and customers - who is visiting? What do they want from this page? Is it getting them there? The resources available to help with these questions vary widely based on what type of business you operate. The best place to start would probably be Google Analytics - which provides information about where visitors are coming from; what keywords they're searching that bring them to your site; where they go when they're finished reading; and much more! Many sites have templates built into their CMS platforms that allow quick assessment and action plans at the click of button (or mouse click...whatever sounds better).
2. Set Up Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to see how people interact with your website. This can be immensely helpful in understanding who your audience is and how they are interacting with the content on your site. With Google Analytics, you can see which pages are most popular, where visitors are coming from, what keywords they used to find you (and how many times), where they drop off, and more!
3. Optimize for Mobile Devices
For starters, you need to know that mobile is important. In fact, it's the most popular way people get online these days. According to Google, half of all searches are made on smartphones and tablets---and this number continues to rise.
That said, optimizing your website for mobile devices isn't just a nice-to-have any more; it's an absolute must if you want to keep up with the competition and stay relevant in today's digital world. The easiest way to do this is by making sure your website is mobile friendly (which we'll discuss below). Mobile users also tend to spend longer on websites than desktop users do---so in addition to being more efficient with their time on a smaller screen, they're also more likely to make purchases or sign up for services while they're there!
4. Check Your Speed & Performance
Speed and performance is one of the most important factors that determine how good your website is. You can check it by using a tool like Google Page Speed Insights, or Pingdom Tools or GTmetrix.com.
If you want to improve your speed, here are some tips:
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Optimize images: Most images on websites are not optimized for maximum performance, so they make your page load slower than necessary. Optimizing images has become easy with tools like Imagify and Compressor.
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Reduce CSS code: To reduce CSS code size and increase loading speed, you can use YUI Compressor ([https://developer.yahoo .com/yui/compressor/](https://developer .yahoo .com /yui /compress or https://tinypng .com/ ).
5. Test Your Lead Capture Strategy
Test your lead capture strategy. There are a couple of ways to do this, but the easiest is to set up a heatmap tool such as CrazyEgg and track where people click on your site. You can also use one of these tools to track where people are scrolling once they land on the page---this will give you insight into whether or not their eyes are landing where you want them to be landing.
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What To Test: Try testing different headlines, offers, price points and more!
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How To Measure Success: If you aren't already tracking site traffic with Google Analytics (which we highly recommend), start now! Then create goals in GA based on whatever metrics matter most to you (for example: email signups). Once that's done, divide the number of leads by total visits and see how many conversions per visit it takes before feeling comfortable with your results---if it's less than 3%, then great! If not...time for some tweaks.
6. Check Your Conversation Rate Optimization Strategy
Conversation Rate Optimization is the practice of engaging in meaningful conversations with your customers. Categorized as a subset of CRO, it's a great way to improve your website without spending money and can be accomplished through messaging tools such as Facebook Messenger and Slack.
You can improve your website without spending money if you know what to do and have some time to do it yourself.
You can improve your website without spending money if you know what to do and have some time to do it yourself. It's a long term investment and one that requires patience, but it will pay off in the end.
You'll need to know what needs fixing, how to fix it, and how much time you're willing to spend on it. If you're short on either of those things (namely knowledge or free time), consider hiring someone who knows what they're doing or outsourcing parts of the process like hosting or domain name registration.
Conclusion
That's all for now! Remember that these are just a few of the many ways to improve your website without spending money. If you want more information, check out our blog for more tips and tricks on improving your site.