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18-minute read
12 Quick Fixes to Boost Your Site's Performance
Managing a site isn’t always a time-consuming or nerve-wracking process. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple tweak to see a significant improvement.
Today, I’m going to tell you about these quick fixes that will help improve your SEO, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and UX. So, read till the end.
Contents
- 1. Fix your headlines to be clear
- 2. Fix H1 - H6 HTML tags
- 3. Remove duplicate titles and descriptions
- 4. Add the right CTA at the right place
- 5. Create a custom 404 page
- 6. Place internal links to converting pages
- 7. Add badges for trustworthiness
- 8. Add user-generated content
- 9. Provide transcripts for audio and video content
- 10. Add alt text to images
- 11. Update old/declining posts and delete unnecessary ones
- 12. Add structured data
- Conclusion
1. Fix your headlines to be clear
Headlines and subheadlines are the first things people see once they land on a page. That’s where you can either grab their attention or fail to do so.
Here is a quick test to see if your headlines are good: Imagine your website would be just your headline, subheadline, and a call to action. Then ask yourself: “Would anyone understand what my service/product is about and take action just based on my headline?”
If yes, don’t touch your headlines. If not, consider fixing them.
However, there is a disclaimer part: Change your headlines only after a successful A/B test. Otherwise, you risk lowering your conversion rate instead of raising it.
While you can certainly get all creative with your headlines and subheadlines, it's important not to lose sight of the following rules:
- Highlight your business’s unique selling proposition (USP) on home and product pages. You should state your unique qualities and what sets your product or service apart from the competition. Compare: “Audit your website today for better SEO” and “Maximize your website's potential with our all-in-one SEO audit solution”. The second headline seems more appealing since it tells users they can address all of their SEO issues and maximize their potential for better rankings and traffic.
- Get it SEO’ed – include your main keyword. If you aren’t managing Nike, Apple, or Ikea sites, make sure you signalize to people and search engines what your whole page and business are about. However, don’t abuse the rule, making your whole title a broad keyword won’t make you stand out.
- Use power words for a better impact on visitors. Discover, unleash, master, secret, revolutionary, one-of-a-kind, powerful, proven – such strong words have been proven to evoke certain emotions or responses in people.
- Watch out for the length of headlines, keep them around 50 – 60 characters long. Try to use all 60 as long headlines tend to work better. As for subheadlines, make them even longer (within reason – up to two-three lines).
Let’s see a couple of good and bad examples in the wild. The good ones:
Mailchimp benefits from all the above-mentioned rules: there are USP (#1 marketing and automation brand), power words (win, more, revenue, sales), and keywords (marketing, automation).
Helpshift does pretty much the same: it sends strong messages, mentions benefits users will get, and is optimized for search engines.
Now let’s move on to the bad examples:
Here, there is no headline at all, except for the plain welcome text marked as H2.
What's wrong with this landing page? The name of a company or service isn’t the best headline for the homepage. It doesn’t communicate your message as a business. Placing a product/service name in the upper left corner is quite enough.
2. Fix H1 - H6 HTML tags
H1 - H6 tags help to structure content on a webpage and make it more readable and accessible to users and search engines.
And while improved accessibility and better UX and SEO sound like something we all wouldn’t mind getting, it makes sense to pay due attention to these semantic HTML tags.
What I mean:
- Don’t use header tags purely for styling purposes. While header tags can be used to style text, they should always accurately reflect the content of the page. Using header tags incorrectly can confuse both users and search engines about the structure and content of your page.
- Put several H1 headings on a page only if it makes sense for your users. In HTML5, it is technically allowed to have multiple H1 tags on a single page, as long as each H1 tag represents a distinct section or topic of the page. However, it’s better to stick to the “one H1 tag per page” rule.
- Use H2 - H6 to create subheadings of different levels. Use them hierarchically to create a logical page structure. However, note that by using H4 - H6, you make your text structure too complicated. That means you should think about simplifying it.
- Add descriptive and relevant keywords to your H1 - H6 subheading. That’s the old gold SEO best practice.
WebSite Auditor life hack
Quickly check if you have issues with your H1 - H6 HTML tags in bulk in the Site structure module, Pages section > the On-page tab.
Download WebSite Auditor
3. Remove duplicate titles and descriptions
Google considers multiple pages with the same title tag and description as duplicate content. And the duplicate content issue is not a joke.
Duplicate titles and descriptions can negatively impact SEO because search engines will likely struggle to determine which page is the most relevant. This potentially results in lower rankings of the competing pages and a waste of your site’s crawl budget.
Besides, duplicates can lead to inaccurate representation on SERPs, resulting in lower click-through rates and fewer visits. It's important to ensure that each page on your website has a unique and relevant title and description to improve SEO and attract more traffic.
Here is how to detect the issue and quickly fix it:
- Detect duplicate title and meta description issues in WebSite Auditor's Site Audit section:
- Scan the lists of pages, analyze them, and decide which titles and descriptions you can change ('cause sometimes you just need canonicalization).
For example, such duplicates may appear due to pagination. The issue is easily fixed by adding the page number to the title and meta description:
4. Add the right CTA at the right place
It may seem like the design and placement of a call to action is such a small, almost insignificant thing. But it’s not. There are case studies that claim that improving CTAs can result in a breathtaking conversion boost.
Conversions, however, aren't the only thing that CTAs affect. A well-designed and properly placed CTA makes it easy for users to find and complete the desired action. That, in turn, reduces frustration and creates a more positive user experience.
There is even more. Many CTAs are designed to collect user data, such as email addresses or demographic information. Skillfully planned CTAs can help you collect more valuable data that will help improve your marketing strategy in the future.
Disclaimer: Don’t blindly change your site’s CTAs. A/B testing is necessary before making any fixes. Also, use all kinds of click maps to analyze if users are clicking on your CTA buttons.
So what makes a CTA irresistible?
- Clearness and precision. A CTA that simply says "Click here" or "Submit" doesn't provide enough information for the user to understand what they're getting or what they're expected to do. In contrast, “Download our free e-book now”, “Book your appointment with us” and “Sign up for our newsletter for exclusive discounts” sound more, if I may say, transparent.
- The right wording. CTAs should always be action-oriented to prompt users to take action. Using passive language or unclear wording can make a CTA less effective. Compare: “Our Products” doesn’t sound like a CTA at all, while “Find Your Perfect Product” sounds more encouraging.
- Placing your CTA in strategic locations. That’s a common mistake – placing a CTA at the very bottom of a landing page. If a CTA is too hard to find, users may not take action. Some common CTAs placements are above the fold, near relevant content (e.g., near the product description or reviews), at the end of a page or section, in the sidebar, or in the header.
- Attention to the customer journey. Carefully place your CTAs throughout your sales funnel. For example, “Sign up for our newsletter” won’t be much effective if placed on the Pricing page (awareness stage CTA and action stage page won’t work together).
In brief, at the awareness stage, CTAs should be placed on a home page, landing pages, and blog posts, encouraging users to sign up for your email list or download a free resource.
At the consideration stage, CTAs should be placed on product pages and in emails, encouraging users to learn more about your products and consider making a purchase.
Finally, at the action stage, CTAs should be placed on the purchase page and in confirmation emails, guiding users to complete their purchases.
- Limiting choices – one CTA per page. There should be only same-type CTAs on a page, which you can place multiple times. If you give your visitors too many options on what to do, they will likely do absolutely nothing. For example, we saw that limiting choices has a positive effect on conversion of our automatic emails for SEO PowerSuite users.
Let’s compare good and bad examples. The good ones, to my mind:
The CTA is concise and clear and of the same type throughout the landing page.
Here is what I consider not the best-executed CTA:
The wording is inspiring but what should I expect, where do I go if I click? It is a bit unclear.
Here is another not-the-best approach to CTA placement:
There are too many CTAs per page. As a user, I’m confused.
5. Create a custom 404 page
A 404 page is a web page that appears when users try to access a URL that does not exist or is broken. As a rule, users see this plain 404 Not Found text in black and white. This page may become their journey's endpoint.
But a solution exists – a custom 404 page that redirects visitors to relevant content and helps them navigate through your site. Such a page can improve UX and prevent users from leaving your site.
How do you make a perfect custom 404 page:
- Keep the design consistent with the rest of your website or your business theme. You should use the same fonts, colors, and branding elements to create a seamless user experience. Moreover, ensure that your page coding is correct after converting your 404 page design from PSD to HTML. All elements should both look and function properly.
- Include a clear error message. Let users know that the page they are looking for doesn't exist and explain why they may have reached the 404 error page. For example, “Seems like the page is under development or you entered an invalid URL”.
- Provide helpful links and navigation. Include links to popular pages on your website or a search bar to help users find what they are looking for (don’t forget the CTA). As a bonus, you get the chance of retaining users and keeping them engaged with the content.
Now let’s see some examples starting with the best ones:
Tripadvisor placed creative text and added a couple of navigation buttons to direct people to useful pages.
Adobe did a great job placing product banners on the page and providing a link to the homepage.
Here are the examples of sites that didn’t take care of UX and CRO:
Netflix could do better. There is no creativity, no care for user experience.
Here is another example, rather interesting but not beneficial for your site:
Figma created an interactive 404 page. Genius idea, but not CRO-friendly, though.
6. Place internal links to converting pages
You must have done internal linking for the sake of PageRank distribution and building topical authority. But have you ever tried linking to your high-converting pages from traffic-heavy, backlink-rich pages? I promise it will boost your conversion rates.
First, make a list of converting pages (Excel will do) – product pages, blog posts, and service pages. Consult Google Analytics to find ones. Then think through where you can place these links:
- Pages with high traffic and engagement scores. These are pages with a high number of views, comments, or social shares. Linking from them can increase the visibility of your converting pages and attract more potential customers.
- Pages with many backlinks. These pages have higher authority and can pass on some of that authority to your converting pages and of course direct some traffic.
- Pages with could-be-better user behavior metrics. Identify pages with high bounce or exit rates, and consider placing internal links to converting pages on them. It will keep users engaged and increase the chances of conversion.
Remember, the key is to ensure that the internal links to your converting pages fit naturally into the context of the page and provide value to users.
WebSite Auditor life hack
Don't overdo linking, as too many internal links can be overwhelming and may negatively affect the user experience. You can quickly check if there are too many links coming from your pages in the Site Audit section.
Download WebSite Auditor
7. Add badges for trustworthiness
Trust badges are visual indicators that a website has undergone some form of verification or certification, indicating that it is secure or popular.
If a website is new or relatively unknown or deals with sensitive information, trust badges can help increase users’ confidence in your biz. That may result in improved conversion rates and reduced bounce rates.
But what badges should you add?
- Security badges. They prove that you protect user data and prevent unauthorized access to it. For instance, you can place your SSL certification badge from your provider on your site. FYI, Norton is considered the most trustworthy.
- Payment badges. These badges indicate that the website accepts secure payment methods and that the user's financial information is being handled securely. I’m sure you saw those PayPal, Visa, or Mastercard badges on almost any ecommerce site.
- Social proof badges. They show that the website has received positive reviews or endorsements from other users or industry experts (Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, Yelp, G2, etc.).
To add trust badges to your site, you will need to find the badge image from their providers, copy its code, and paste it into your website's HTML. Or you can use a special plugin or app that enables easy badge integration.
Here is my favorite example of trust badges placement:
8. Add user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any content that is created by users of your website, such as reviews, comments, and social media posts. It has many benefits: UGC establishes trust with your audience, creates a sense of community around your brand, and provides social proof for your products or services.
Let’s not forget that UGC can also help to increase the number of long-tail keywords that a website ranks for. This, in turn, can improve its visibility in search results.
Solid reasoning to think of adding some UGC, right? Now, let’s see how you can approach this:
- Determine the type of UGC you want to add. Depending on your website's goals and niche, you should decide which type of UGC you want to add. It could be product reviews, comments, social media posts, photos, or videos. For example, if your website is a community or social networking platform, you may feature user profiles, forum posts, or message boards. If you sell products or services, user reviews, ratings, and testimonials will be of great help.
- Encourage users to submit UGC. You can encourage users to submit UGC by promoting it on your website, social media, or in email campaigns. You can also offer incentives like discounts or giveaways for submitting UGC.
- Important! Moderate UGC. It's crucial to have clear guidelines and moderation policies in place to ensure that the content is appropriate and adds value to your site. Low-quality or spammy UGC can actually harm a website's SEO. So, use moderation tools like automated filters, manual reviews, or a combination of both. For more detailed information, read Google’s guide to user-generated content.
Now, let’s see some real-life examples. This is how Gerber Life Insurance encourages clients to write a review:
And then they share these reviews on their site:
Amazon, for example, uses UGC not only to display it on their site but also as a way to help users sort through products. They have a feature called Request Review which sends an email to customers after they make a purchase, asking them to rate and write a review about the product. The average rating is shown on the product page, and customers can choose to see the highest-rated products.
9. Provide transcripts for audio and video content
A transcript is a text version of the audio or video content, which makes it accessible to users who are hard of hearing. Non-native speakers who find it difficult to grasp spoken language will also appreciate the effort. Besides, transcripts can also improve the SEO of your website by providing additional text for search engines to crawl and rank.
So, if you use such type of content, consider adding a transcript. Here is how to approach this:
- You can try a manual transcription or use an automatic speech recognition (ASR) tool like Descipt, Rev, or Sonix to transcribe your video or audio materials.
- Edit and format the content. Work with it just like with any other content on a site: use headings and subheadings, optimize the title and description, provide links, and add alt text if there are images in your transcript.
Here is what it may look like on a page:
10. Add alt text to images
Though this tip seems trivial and not big news, I’m sure you’ll learn something new.
When search engines crawl a webpage, they cannot "see" images in the same way that humans do. They rely on alt attributes along with their computer vision algorithms to understand the content of the image. By providing relevant alt text for your images, you improve your chances of ranking well in search results, including image search.
Additionally, alt text can improve the accessibility of your website. For users who are visually impaired and use screen readers, alt text helps grasp the content of the image and the overall message of the webpage.
So, how to write alt text correctly:
- Describe the exact thing in detail. Alt text should accurately describe the content of the image with concise and specific language. Think about what information the image conveys and describe it in a way that would make sense to someone who cannot see the image.
Pay attention, it's easy to describe a pic like this:
It will be something like “a cup of coffee placed on a table”. But how would you describe this:
It’s incorrect to write an alt text like this: “home sales, inventory, and months supply chart”. People who use a screen reader would never get the point. The right alt text would be “home sales chart that shows a decline in home sales from January to February 2009, followed by a slight increase in March”.
- Don’t add alt text on decorative elements. Some people use stock photos to break the text, making it more readable. In this case, alt text isn’t needed – it will be confusing both for search engine bots and visually impaired people. Imagine: you publish a text about SEO and a pic is about people laughing at a park. There is no relation traced, just big fat nonsense.
WebSite Auditor life hack
It doesn’t mean you have to immediately rush to fix all your alt text. There will be too much work. Start by adding alt texts to images with no alt texts at all. Find pages with a large number of empty alt texts in the Site Structure module, Pages section > the On-page tab.
Download WebSite Auditor
11. Update old/declining posts and delete unnecessary ones
By keeping your content fresh, relevant, and informative, you can attract more visitors, improve your SEO, attract new readers, and maintain credibility in your industry.
So, you need to update old/declining posts at least once in a while. For that:
- Identify the content to update with Google Analytics. To do that, find pages with low traffic, high bounce rates, and other indicators of decline. Also, if you notice that certain pages are consistently dropping in rankings, this may be a sign you need to update them.
- Review the content. Once you have identified the content to update, review it carefully to determine what changes are needed. Consider updating the text, images, or formatting to make the content more engaging and informative.
During your site audits, you may notice that there is unnecessary content that no longer serves its purpose or adds value to your website. Such content can be deleted for sure.
However, make sure this unnecessary page doesn’t have many incoming links (internal or external). Otherwise, choose redirection or page update. Read more about effective content pruning in our guide.
12. Add structured data
Structured data, also known as Schema markup, is a semantic vocabulary of standardized tags that are added to the page’s HTML. These tags help a search engine understand the content and context of your web page and better represent it in search results.
How do you work with structured data:
- Choose the appropriate schema. First, identify the content to mark up, and only then choose the appropriate schema. There are many schemas available, including schema.org, which is widely used and supported by Google, Bing, and others.
- Don’t overuse it. There is no need to mark up every page. Prioritize high-traffic and high-value pages – the ones that are the most important to your business. Usually, these are product pages, category pages, and pages with high engagement.
- Test and validate the structured data. You need to ensure that it is working correctly. You can use tools like Schema Markup Validator to test and validate your structured data.
Conclusion
Small changes can make a big difference. Try these 12 quick fixes – with no rush and with a bunch of A/B testing and SEO audits – and I’m sure you’ll see positive changes.
If you have more ideas for quick fixes, share them in our private Facebook group.
