Your website is one of the most powerful tools in your business’s arsenal.
Customers can get to know everything about your brand, the people behind it, and your business offerings. In addition, it connects visitors to the rest of your digital presence, presenting things like links to your social media, email list signup, and content.
Because your website is so critical for your business, optimizing it at every turn is integral. The following 10 tools made our list of the best website optimization tools.
GTMetrix
Search engines pay a lot of attention to how fast your site loads when determining how your pages rank. It’s important to understand the ins and outs of high-speed internet and how your site responds to varying internet speeds since visitors will have different providers and plans.
GTmetrix is one of the best tools to help you figure out how fast your site loads with varying internet speeds. The data and suggestions you get for improving your site will enable you to create a website experience that accommodates even the slowest internet connections.
Features:
- Advanced analysis options
- Record and playback page loads
- Test pages in various locations on different internet connections
- Get an in-depth report on each page’s performance and page load speed
What it’s best for:
- Optimizing page load speed
- Enhancing the user experience
Pricing: If you choose the individual plan, you have a choice between the free Basic account, Solo $13/month, Starter $25/month, or Growth $50/month. If you choose the business plan, you have a choice between Champion $75/month, Team $200/month, or Enterprise $530/month. There’s also an option to create a customized plan. There is a discount if billed annually.
Google Analytics
Your website houses an abundance of data. And it’s a big mistake not to use that data to your advantage to better your business. A data analytics tool like Google Analytics enables you to collect, analyze, and process data about your customers and website.
With this tool, you can better understand the customer journey. You can also ensure your content and marketing efforts on your website are producing a positive ROI.
Features:
- Extensive reporting and visualization features
- Tag management system
- Track your goals
- Traffic analysis
What it’s best for:
- Collecting and analyzing customer data
- Understanding website performance
Pricing: Free
ShareASale
Your website isn’t just a place to share information about your business and connect with your customers. It’s also a money maker if you set it up correctly. Setting up your website with appropriate affiliate marketing solutions contributes to this.
ShareASale is one of the fastest-growing affiliate marketing platforms. You can leverage their network of trusted partners to open up a new revenue source on your website.
Features:
- Real-time data on performance
- Track influencer partner activity
- Access to eCommerce integrations
- Create short links and custom affiliate links
What it’s best for:
- Affiliate marketing
Pricing: $125 minimum deposit, a one-time $625 network sign-up fee, and a fee of 20% of the commission amount you set for each transaction.
Ahrefs
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for your website’s success. As more and more people turn to search engines for research, ranking as high as you can on results pages is in your business’s best interest.
Ranking high in search engine results is a competitive game. You need a tool to help you cut through the competition. Ahrefs is that tool. It’s an all-in-one SEO suite with everything you need to rank high and get a constant influx of website traffic.
Features:
- SEO site audit
- Competitor analysis tools
- An extensive keyword and phrase explorer
- Analyze SERP volatility
What it’s best for:
- SEO
Pricing: Lite starts at $99/month, Standard starts at $199/month, Advanced starts at $399/month, Enterprise starts at $999/month. If you pay annually, you get two months free.
LiveChat
One of the best things you can do for visitors on your website is to provide them with exceptional customer support. People may go to your website for one thing, but you can count on more questions emerging the longer they spend on your site.
A live chat option ensures they get all their questions answered, even if they’re browsing in the middle of the night. LiveChat deems itself “a complete customer service platform,” but its foundation is facilitating customer communication, particularly through live chat and chatbots.
Features:
- Customized chat widgets
- Analytics dashboard and reporting capabilities
- 200+ integrations
- Ability to sync up various messaging channels like Facebook, SMS, and WhatsApp
What it’s best for:
- Live chat
- Chatbot
- Customer communication
Pricing: Starter $24/month, Team $49/month, Business $69/month. Request a call for Enterprise plan pricing. A 14-day free trial is available.
Wave Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools
An optimized website is an accessible one. You must ensure most, if not all, people can equally enjoy and engage with your website, regardless of ability, background, or experience. Therefore, continually evaluating the accessibility of your website is crucial.
Wave Web Accessibility Evaluation tools can help ensure your website and content are accessible. These tools can identify accessibility issues and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors on each website page and give you insight into how to fix them.
Features:
- Wave browser extensions
- Wave API and testing engine
- Insights into how to improve accessibility
- Access to Accessibility Impact Report (AIM)
What it’s best for:
- Ensuring your site adheres to web accessibility standards
Pricing: Free. You can also subscribe to the Wave API, but you must purchase credits at $0.25/credit to use it.
Web FX’s Readability Test
In addition to accessibility, your website’s readability is critical. You must optimize your website so that everything on it is readable and easy to understand. Web FX’s readability test is unmatched in this arena.
It’s the best tool to test your site’s readability. You’ll get a score based on the most-used readability indicators.
Features:
- Test all or part of a web page
- Accounts for the most-used readability indicators
- Simple to use
What it’s best for:
- Testing the readability of your site
Pricing: Free
Grammarly
Writing well also contributes to the readability of your site. When you’re content is clear, concise, and free of grammar and punctuation errors, it smooths the road to conversion. Grammarly helps you create mistake-free written content.
Features:
- Plagiarism checker
- Chrome extension
- Citation generator
- Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Google Docs integrations
What it’s best for:
- Proofreading
- Concise writing with fewer mistakes
Pricing: Free plan, Premium $12/month, Business $15/month. There’s an option to pay quarterly or annually.
WordPress
Much of the success of your website optimization efforts depends on the software you use to create your site. WordPress is one of the best open-source website creation platforms out there. It’s simple to use and scale as your website grows.
Features:
- eCommerce capabilities
- No coding experience necessary
- Professionally designed themes
- Access to thousands of plug-ins
What it’s best for:
- Creating your website
- Website host
Pricing: Personal $9/month, Premium $18/month, Business $40/month, eCommerce $70/month.
Hubspot
You won’t optimize your website effectively without understanding your customers and growing genuine relationships with them. After all, your site is designed for them.
So, you need a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, like Hubspot, to house your customer data and oversee your customer relationships.
Features:
- Hubspot Academy
- An extensive analytics dashboard
- Live chat and conversational bots
- Content management tools
What it’s best for:
- CRM
- Marketing
- Sales
- Customer Support
Pricing: The CRM software is free. But they have marketing, sales, and customer service products and plans that vary in price.
Continue to Learn About Website Optimization
Keep in mind that the best website optimization tools and techniques will evolve as time goes on. In addition, computer skills like web development and design give you a leg up on the competition. So, stay relevant and continuously learn about website development and optimization through classes, courses, and colleagues.
