How To Optimize Your Website For More Traffic And Speed Part Two

  • Home
  • How To Optimize Your Website For More Traffic And Speed Part Two

Optimize Website Structure 

Just as a building must have a clear floor plan, your website should also have a logical structure. With the silo method, you divide your subpages into topic clusters, which can have several levels. 

You Should Prevent: 

  • Nested web pages with more than four levels. 
  • Internal links that criss-cross through the various silos without any reference to content. 

The best thing to do is to link from a category to a sub-category to guide the visitor. A clear XML sitemap helps the search engine crawler to organize the subpages.  

Optimize Website Images 

If your website contains images, you should ensure that they are of good quality. Pixelated, amateur photos also make the entire website look amateurish.  

It doesn't always have to be a professional photographer. Websites like Pixabay or Pexels offer high-quality images that are free of copyrights. 

Beyond Looks, Here Are Some Tips To Keep In Mind: 

  • Give the pictures a meaningful name (not pic_1345937) that contains the main keyword. 
  • The search engine crawler cannot rate images per se but reads the alt tag. For this reason, it should contain a meaningful description. 
  • Images that are too significant increase the loading time. Make sure that your pictures are no more than 100 kilobytes in size. 

Optimize Navigation (Menu) 

The most exciting content is of little use if visitors cannot find it. A user-friendly navigation menu is straightforward and contains meaningful terms (for example, "About us," "History," "Contact," "Blog"). It is also important to group the sub-items into meaningful categories. 

If You Are In The Process Of Optimizing Your Menu, The Following Rules Will Help: 

  • The main menu should be visible, preferably at the top, and extend horizontally. 
  • Drop-down menus with too many sub-menus "overwhelm" website visitors. 
  • Do not create more than seven main menu items. 

So-called breadcrumbs are also helpful. The symbols below or next to the menu provide additional navigation aid by showing the path from the main page to the current page.