Website optimisation

Website optimisation covers all measures that make a website faster, more user-friendly, easier to find and more successful – with the aim of attracting more visitors and turning more of them into customers. It combines technology, content, user experience, search engine optimisation and conversion rate optimisation. It is carried out by internal teams or external specialists, who first analyse the website and then propose and implement prioritised improvements.

Why is website optimisation important?

A large share of purchase decisions now begins online – in e-commerce as well as for services and in B2B. Anyone looking for something compares providers online, reads reviews and finds out more before buying or enquiring. The website is therefore often the first and most important point of contact with a company. A slow, confusing or hard-to-find website therefore directly costs customers.

This doesn't only apply to online shops. Local retail also benefits, because many customers find out about the product range, opening hours and accessibility online before visiting the shop. Agencies, software providers and B2B companies win enquiries and new employees via their website.

What areas of optimisation are there?

For a website to be found and to convince, it must meet the requirements of users and search engines. For the most important areas, there are guide values against which to measure your own results:

• Loading time: the Core Web Vitals should be in the green range, such as a Largest Contentful Paint of no more than 2.5 seconds

• Mobile usability: the website works fully and comfortably on smartphones

• Authority: a natural link profile with links from trustworthy, topically relevant websites, compared with competitors

• Content: coverage of the target group's relevant search terms and questions, quality and freshness of texts

• Conversion rate: benchmarks depend heavily on industry, price level and channel; what matters is how your own figures develop

Nobody has to optimise all areas at once. As a rule, everyone works on their own area: content managers revise content, SEO managers take care of structure and on-page optimisation, developers of loading time and technology, UX designers of user guidance. Joint prioritisation is important so that the measures with the greatest effect are implemented first.

What measures can be taken to optimise a website?

There are many levers for improving a website. The most important measures at a glance:

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation ensures that pages appear as high as possible in the organic search results – without cost per click as with Google Ads. Since around 90% of search queries in German-speaking countries go through Google, it is mainly geared to Google's requirements. Google doesn't disclose all ranking factors, but the most important basics are known. SEO is a dynamic area in which constant readjustment is needed.

The field is broad, so here is a summary of the most important SEO measures:

On-page optimisation

Measures directly on the website. These include

• Helpful, unique content that matches search intent and picks up relevant keywords naturally

• Optimised images with descriptive alt texts and appropriate file size

• Internal linking

• A clean HTML structure with a logical heading hierarchy and structured data

• Descriptive URLs

• Fast loading times

Off-page optimisation

Measures outside the website that influence rankings. These include above all

• High-quality backlinks from trustworthy, topically relevant websites

• Mentions, reviews and a strong brand that is also recognised by AI search systems.

There are also sub-disciplines closely linked to website optimisation:

• Mobile SEO: optimising the website for use on smartphones

• Content optimisation: improving texts, images and videos

• Image SEO: optimising images for image search and Google Lens

• Conversion rate optimisation: improving the share of visitors who buy, enquire or sign up

• Checkout optimisation: improving the cart, payment methods and order process

• Local SEO: optimising for search queries with a local reference.

Improving loading time

People don't like waiting for a page to load and leave if it takes too long. Short loading times are therefore a central goal of website optimisation. Common causes of slow pages are images that are too large, outdated image formats, too many scripts, plugins and tracking tags, and a slow server. Modern image formats such as WebP or AVIF, lazy loading, caching and removing unused extensions often bring a lot.

Optimising the mobile experience

Google evaluates websites based on their mobile version (mobile-first indexing). Anything that doesn't work or isn't displayed on the smartphone may well not count for Google. The basis is a responsive design that adapts to the screen size. Mobile display can be tested, for example, in the browser's developer tools and with PageSpeed Insights. Legible text, sufficiently large buttons, simple navigation and a mobile-friendly checkout are important.

Content

Words have an effect – on a website as in a sales conversation. Content influences how potential customers perceive an offer and, at the same time, how Google evaluates a page. Good content answers the target group's questions completely, is clearly structured, easy to read and shows genuine expertise. Keywords belong in the important places, but texts are written for people, not for search engines.

A/B and multivariate tests

A/B tests help base decisions on data rather than gut feeling. If, for example, the conversion rate falls and the team suspects the product description or call to action is to blame, an alternative can be created and tested against the existing version. Some visitors see variant A, others variant B – the data shows which works better. Meaningful results require enough traffic and a long enough test period.

In multivariate tests, several elements are tested simultaneously in different combinations. They provide more insights but require significantly more traffic. Headlines, images, forms, price displays, checkout steps and much more can be tested.

Optimising the user experience

The best technology and the best texts are of little help if the user experience is poor. Visitors should quickly find their way around the menu and navigation, be able to filter and compare products easily and complete a purchase in just a few steps. Trust signals such as reviews, clear shipping and returns information and easily accessible customer service round this off. A good user experience leads to more conversions and more returning customers.

Which tools are suitable for website optimisation?

There are numerous tools that help check and improve your own website. Some important ones:

• Google Analytics 4: traffic, user behaviour, conversions and revenue

• Google Search Console: clicks, impressions, rankings, indexing problems, Core Web Vitals

• Google PageSpeed Insights: analysis of loading time and Core Web Vitals

• Sistrix, Semrush or Ahrefs: visibility, rankings, competition and backlinks

• Screaming Frog or other crawlers: technical errors, meta data, internal linking

• Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar: heatmaps and session recordings for analysing user guidance

There are many other tools. Over time, you'll find out which combination best suits your goals. More important than the number of tools is deriving concrete measures from the data.