How To Identify And Optimize High-Impact Website Pages

Think quick—without looking it up, can you tell me the top 10 performing pages on your website?

You may have thousands of pages on your website, but only a small fraction of those pages get the most traffic or make the biggest impact for your business. So, how are you using those pages to your advantage?

Before you can optimize, you need to identify. How do you define a high-impact website page? You might focus on traffic or specific types of conversions. Perhaps you have a contact form on a niche service page that doesn't get a ton of traffic, but is one of your best lead generators. 

Here are the steps we're going to look at in-depth for identifying and optimizing your high-impact website pages:

1. Gather your microscopes.

First, you need data. Before you can get started identifying your most important pages, you need access to real data, not just a feeling or a hunch.

We use these tools on the regular: HubSpot reporting dashboard, Google Analytics, and heat mapping software like Hot Jar or CrazyEgg. These tools will give you an accurate picture of what pages get the most or least traffic, if you have broken links, how long visitors stay on a page, how often they jump right off the page, and other important stats.

2. Identify high-impact pages.

Visits, leads and sales are 3 of the most important metrics for your website, but every company and website is different. Here are a few examples of how you might identify your priority pages:

• Visits (what pages/blog posts get the most organic search traffic)
• Conversion rates based on your focus metric (offer downloads, event registrations, etc.)
• Leads to customers (what pages/content make an impact at the bottom of your funnel, lead to sales)
• Referrals (pages that get good referral traffic from credible websites)

3. Optimize for SEO and marketing best practices.

You can download our free Back to Basics: SEO for Marketers cheat sheet for an easy reference guide. It covers content optimization, keywords, images, meta description, H1 titles and more basic best practices that anyone can master. Optimize according to these standards:

Keywords: do your keyword research for each page.

• Include target keyword phrase in the body content
• Use keyword fewer than 5 times
• Link targeted keywords to related internal pages

Call to Action (CTA): does your page lead the visitor to the next step, to take an action?

Images: make sure the images on your page aren't slowing you down.

• Include alt tag text (use straightforward description of image)
• Include image title text (include keyword, bonus)
• Make sure image file size is reduced for faster page load times

Internal links: link back to related pages and blog posts.

• Include internal links, but fewer than 100 total
• Check for broken links

H1 Tags: this is usually the title of your post or page, and will be the largest text on the page.

• Include H1 tag on the page
• Use fewer than 10 H1 tags
• Include targeted keyword in H1 and H2 tags
• Use H2 as subheadings

Meta Description: this is a short description of the page, search engines use them to display a blurb on search results page.

• Include a meta description
• Make sure length is fewer than 160 characters
• Meta description should not contain page title
• Include your keyword in the meta description

Page Title: the page title appears at the top of the browser and is used by search engines

• Include a page title
• Page title should be unique
• Page title is fewer than 72 characters
• Include targeted keyword in page title

Copy: examine the copy and content of your page.

• Tighten up copy and proofread for spelling and grammar errors
• Use bulleted lists or numbered lists to explain steps or complex information
• Create more white space by breaking up long paragraphs
• Update outdated copy

Download Back to Basics: SEO for Marketers Cheat Sheet

4. From micro to macro—step back and get the big picture.

Examine the flow of your website, from page to page as you click through. You may want to gather feedback from users who aren't familiar with your site for a different perspective.

Where do your top performing pages fit into the buyer's journey? Are they working together? There should be a logical flow that takes the visitor through a journey, learning more about your company and services, and leading them to take action, engage, or buy from you.

You may find that some pages are out of place or hard to find, or that they lead to a dead end.

5. Rinse and repeat.

This is just the beginning! Optimization is an ongoing process. Make a regular appointment on your calendar to repeat this process every quarter or annually, depending on how quickly your business or industry changes. You can do it!