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6 Best Practices for a Better-Performing Website

January 15, 2025 / by Roger West

The Dos and Don’ts of Website Optimization in 2025

The new year brings renewed momentum—a rekindled desire to tackle business growth opportunities set aside over the year, like website optimization. Can you remember the last time you read your product or service descriptions or reviewed your data analytics? Your website is one of the most reliable tools you have to boost brand awareness, increase engagement and generate new leads. So channel that new year energy into these 6 best practices for a newly optimized website that can serve you well far beyond Q1.

#1: Do Prioritize User Experience

When in doubt, always fall back on the best possible user experience. Make your website easy to navigate. User experience is the universal thread that runs through any website optimization exercise, and it deserves its place as #1.

Don’t complicate it. Ask yourself:

Can you easily find product/service information?
Do the pages load quickly to minimize delays?
Does the design naturally guide your attention?

Start a list of items needing attention, and don’t get discouraged. You’ve taken a critical first step in improving your website performance, and you don’t need a degree in marketing to do it. Just ask yourself: “Is it easy?”

#2: Do Keep up with SEO Tactics

Ironically, good user experiences often equate with good SEO. And vice versa. Use the SEO tools at your disposal to increase visibility and maximize search engine optimization (SEO). But remember: SEO isn’t a one-and-done event. It’s an ongoing process of following tried and true best practices and incorporating new updates. The search engine algorithms that can rank your business at the top of organic searches continually update, so keep yourself informed to stay competitive.

Follow tried-and-true best practices:

Do incorporate relevant keywords. Choose your keywords carefully. If a user searches the phrase “cheddar cheese recall,” your content better deliver on it. And don’t stuff your website content with keywords unnecessarily. Search engines find that spammy.

Do update title tags and meta descriptions. Clear, descriptive title tags and meta descriptions help search engines (and users) understand your website content and determine your relevancy. It’s well worth your time here to craft unique, compelling content.

Do focus on readability. Scannable text with subheadings, bullets and callouts makes website content easier to read, and a well-organized content structure improves search engine rankings.

Do add internal links. The right internal links can not only boost user experience they can also boost SEO. Don’t pass up on the opportunity to guide website visitors (and search engines) to a page with more of your valuable, relevant content … like a new blog. Consider a high-value internal link another form of a strong, clear call-to-action.

Adopt SEO changes for 2025:

Don’t stress over word count. Word count alone is not a significant factor in boosting SEO. Google, for example, values content relevance, quality and overall user experience over length. Focus your efforts on the intent of the content, providing the content you’re promising with the topic’s appropriate depth and specificity.

Don’t lean too heavily on AI-generated content. Search engines, like Google, reward original content. Don’t make the mistake of relying on AI for final content. We’ll dive deeper into Google’s stance on AI-generated content later. (Their announcements may surprise you.)

Do an EEAT Audit. Search engines evaluate your website across four key quality factors: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. You can boost your rankings by citing sources, updating outdated content and providing transparent contact information.

#3. Don’t Ignore Mobile Users

We’ll keep this one short and sweet. It should come as no surprise that more users are browsing on mobile devices than ever before. If yours is one of the websites without a responsive design for a seamless device experience, opportunity is knocking. You’re essentially turning business away with a website that hasn’t been optimized for mobile viewing.

54.67% of the global website traffic comes from mobile devices according to Statista.¹

#4. Don’t Sacrifice Speed

We all get frustrated when a web page is slow to load. A slow website can drive potential customers straight to the back button and on their way to a competitor’s website. Here are three ways you can improve your website’s load time:

Compress large image files, choose smaller file formats and serve up smaller images on smaller screens.
Enable browser caching to store frequently accessed data, reducing the need for repeated downloads.
Improve code efficiency by removing unnecessary characters, deferring non-critical resource loading, and optimizing CSS and JavaScript files.

#5. Do Refresh Outdated Content

Have your product or service offerings changed? Maybe you updated your brand voice? Opened a new office? Update website content to ensure it aligns with all current products and services. Consistently refreshed content signals to search engines that your website is active and current. It also goes a long way in establishing credibility.

Is your last blog post from 2022? Remember, search engines reward relevancy. Offer website visitors value with compelling, helpful, high-quality content. Make sure it’s easy to read, unique and accurate. Current, engaging content that speaks to your audience’s interests boosts search engine rankings and visitor engagement. For more proof of just how critical high-value content is to your website’s performance, check out our blog on how to leverage Google AI overviews.

#6. Do Use AI-Generated Content Thoughtfully

“Quality” content is king. And maybe now more than ever. To continue to serve up helpful, reliable search results to users, search engines like Google are fine-tuning their algorithms to reward authentic, high-value content. But don’t take it from us. Here’s a statement from Google on how they approach AI-generated content:

“When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.”²

In summary, AI tools have a role to play in the content creation process, such as creating outlines and brainstorming ideas, but AI alone isn’t suitable for final content creation.

Conclusion

Finally, a well-performing website is more important than ever, and the new year is the perfect time to capitalize on what seems like endless opportunity. Channel that new year momentum into enhancing your website for enhanced visibility, engagement and growth.

Partner with the Best in Custom Web Development

For a personalized, strategic deep dive into maximizing your website with data-driven objectives and a team of seasoned web designers, developers, writers and tech geniuses, partner with Roger West. We specialize in creating custom, intuitive websites that deliver big results. Contact us today to get started!

References

1-Statista, 2024: https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/

2-Google, 2023: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content

Roger West Creative & Code is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps companies build brands, generate leads, and keep customers inspired and engaged. The agency provides a dynamic environment for marketing pros to innovate and team up with clients to drive traffic to vibrant places and send messages that pack a punch.