Website Management & Optimization for Online Businesses
'Renting your online presence'
Let's start from the very basics, owning a website can be understood as renting a place in the online landscape, getting used to terms like server, hosting, domain, domain registrar, extensions, IP address, and hyperlinks sometimes seems too much of a daunting task to smaller businesses and local businesses in particular but they don't hold much weight to them as once we go through them, they are a easy cake to cut. So as I said earlier about renting a space online, a website is a space rented on a server, now a server can be explained as a warehouse for the various data stored on websites and the websites themselves, it stores all the data in itself and we as a business or an individual pay the server to store our website as well. A domain is nothing but the name of the website we type in the search bar in our search engines, remember the last time you logged into Instagram or Facebook on your laptop or your computer, you must have typed in "instagram.com" or searched "Instagram" and clicked on the very first link or result was nothing but a domain, in easy words, anything after www. on the search bar on top of your screen in a search engine and with an extension such as .com, .uk, .in, .org is a domain name. The IP address is a bunch of numbers separated by dots(.) serving as your online address on the internet, type in 142.250.189.238 in your search engine as see what the result is. Once you enter the domain name in a search engine it requests the server to load up the website and content associated with the domain and serves you the results. Domains are to be purchased or rented out through domain registrar services like GoDaddy and many more, this is done to make sure that there are no two different websites with the same domain as it would make the search engine confused about which website content is to be served when requested by the user. Another important aspect of websites is hyperlinks, these are nothing but visuals or text which redirects you to other websites when clicked on.
With the basics of technical aspects of websites straight, we can move on to the other part of this blog which is optimizing the face of your website which the visitor lands upon after searching up your name on the search engine. First and foremost is the speed with which your website loads up on your visitors' screens, it must be quick to load as this is the digital age where the attention spans of humans are getting shorter day by day, if your website takes even a second more your visitor would lose interest and immediately exit the website. Your website can be made quick to load through the use of clean code by the developer whom you hire for creating the website or you yourself if you are one of those DIY type guys, using smaller files such as images, videos and any other visuals is one way to go about it. The design of the website should be simplified as much as possible with a clear call to action(CTA) to the visitor regarding his next step on your website, use of dark text on a light background makes it easy for a visitor to adapt to the website color scheme, avoid using dark and bright colors such as bright red, yellow, remember the last time you went to a website which was so clean and subtle that you didn't even had to blink your eyes; take inspiration from websites of successful businesses in your industry, research what they did right in their website which made it easier for visitors to make that decision of purchase or signing up for a newsletter or anything depending upon the businesses' objective with it. Try to step into the shoes of your target audience and evaluate your website with that mindset, integrate those elements that your target audience would be pleased with, keep the layout across the pages on your website the same. The navigation buttons should be clear and placed comfortably on the pages, navigation buttons are those buttons or icons you use on a website to go to a specific page such as the search icon, or the logo of the brand which takes you to the home page once you click on it. The home page or landing page must be designed keeping in mind your visitors mindset of clicking on your website on the search engine. With a mobile device being in 9 out of 10 hands you cross by in a street, it is of utmost importance to make your website mobile friendly and responsive or in easy words adaptable to the screen on which your visitors open up your website be it mobile, tablet or any other device.
Lastly, make your website more than just a sales pitch for your business, try to explain what you do and offer in everyday terms to your target audience, use testimonials to gain their trust, and do not forget to add a form to contact you in case the visitor decides to avail your services. Remember that a good website is not only about aesthetics but also about functionality and users. experience. Always prioritize the needs of your audience and ensure your website reflects your brand's values and goals.
Comments
Post a Comment