Website optimization
Website optimization: how to turn your website into a tool that brings in customers. A website that isn't optimized is like a physical store with the door locked. It exists, takes up space,...
Website optimization: how to turn your website into a tool that brings in customers. A website that isn't optimized is like a physical store with the door locked.
It exists, takes up space, costs money every month, but nobody walks in. If you have a website for your business and don't see concrete results (visitors, quote requests, orders), the problem is almost certainly related to optimization.
Optimizing a website covers several areas: loading speed, page structure, content, mobile user experience and visibility in Google's organic results.
This article takes them one by one, with steps you can apply right away, without hiring an agency and without advanced technical knowledge.
Whether you have an online store on Shopify, a company website on WordPress or a page built with Wix, the principles are the same. Only the buttons you press differ.
On-page SEO optimization, the elements you control directly
When we talk about website optimization, the first step is to make sure every page is ready to be understood correctly by Google. This is called on-page optimization and involves changes you make directly in the content and structure of your website.
Optimized titles and meta descriptions for every page
Every page on your website has a title (title tag) and a meta description. These are the texts that appear in Google's organic results when someone searches for a service or product you offer. If you leave them blank or generate them automatically, you lose control over the first impression you make on a potential customer.
- Title tag: maximum 60 characters. Include the main keyword and the name of the town if you have a local business. "Licensed plumber Timișoara | 24/7 service" is clear and optimized. "Home: SC Instalații SRL" tells neither the user nor Google anything.
- Meta description: maximum 155 characters. Write a sentence that sums up what the user finds on the page and includes a concrete reason to click. Avoid vague wording such as "we offer quality services at competitive prices".
- Headings (H1, H2, H3): each page has a single H1, which contains the main keyword. H2 and H3 subheadings structure the content and help both the user and Google understand the hierarchy of the information.
URL structure
Your page URLs should be short, descriptive and contain the keyword. Compare these two versions: "your-website.ro/accounting-services-bucharest" versus “your-website.ro/?page_id=182”.
If you already have a live website with “?page_id=” type URLs, don't change them without setting up 301 redirects from the old addresses to the new ones. Otherwise, you lose any authority those pages have built up and you will see 404 errors in Google Search Console.
Loading speed, the factor most business owners ignore
A website that takes more than 3 seconds to load loses more than half of its visitors. This is not an exaggeration, it is a fact confirmed by Google studies. And if your website loads slowly on a phone, the problem is even worse, because over 70% of web traffic in Romania comes from mobile devices.
How to test your website's speed
Open Google PageSpeed Insights and enter your website address. You will get a score from 0 to 100, separately for mobile and desktop, plus a list of concrete problems. Focus on the mobile score, as it matters more for ranking in Google's organic results.
A score between 90-100 is very good. Between 50-89 is acceptable, but with room for improvement. Below 50 means your website has serious problems that affect both your visitors and your position in search.
The most common problems and how to fix them
In day-to-day practice, most small business websites in Romania suffer from the same speed problems. Here is what you can do concretely, without a developer.
- Uncompressed images: this is the most common cause of slow loading. If you upload photos straight from a phone or camera, each image can be 3-5 MB. Use a plugin such as ShortPixel or Imagify (on WordPress) to compress them automatically. On Shopify, the Crush.pics app does the same thing. The ideal size of an image for the web is under 200 KB.
- No caching system: the cache stores a static version of your pages and serves it to visitors without loading everything from scratch on every visit. On WordPress, install LiteSpeed Cache or WP Super Cache. The basic setup takes under 10 minutes.
- Too many plugins or external scripts: every plugin adds code that has to be loaded. If you have 30 plugins on WordPress and actively use only 10, deactivate and delete the rest. The same principle applies to tracking scripts, chat widgets or social media buttons: keep only what you actually use.
Optimizing your site for mobile, it is no longer optional
Google has used "mobile-first" indexing for several years. This means Google evaluates your website primarily based on the mobile version, not the desktop one. If your website looks good on a laptop but is unusable on a phone, your ranking suffers.
What to check on the mobile version
Open your website on a phone and go through it like a customer visiting for the first time. Notice a few concrete things.
- Is the text readable without zooming?: if the user has to zoom in to read, you have a responsive design problem. The recommended minimum font size is 16px for the main text.
- Are the buttons and links big enough?: Google recommends a tap target of at least 48×48 pixels. If the menu links are crammed together, the user will tap the wrong one and leave frustrated.
- Does the contact form work correctly?: actually test it: fill in the form on a phone and submit it. Check that you receive the message. Many business owners discover after months that the contact form never worked on mobile.
Optimized content, what you publish and how you publish it
There is no SEO optimization without quality content. You can have the fastest website in Romania, with perfect URLs and flawless meta descriptions, but if you don't offer content that answers your potential customers' questions, you won't climb in Google's organic results.
Service pages that convert
Every service you offer deserves a dedicated page. Don't put all the services on a single page with one paragraph for each.
A cleaning company in Iași, for example, should have separate pages for "office cleaning Iași", "post-construction cleaning Iași" and "home cleaning Iași".
On each service page include: what the specific service involves, which geographic area you cover, what the work process is, an indicative price range (if possible) and a clear way to get in touch. Practical information always beats generic texts about "our vast experience".
If you run a blog, do it well
A blog on your website can bring consistent traffic from Google, but only if you publish articles that answer real questions. A 300-word article written just to "have new content" helps no one.
Identify 10-15 questions your customers ask often. Turn each question into an article of 800-1500 words. A lawyer in Brașov could write about "What documents are needed to set up an SRL in 2025" or "The difference between a PFA and an SRL, which suits your business".
The website map (sitemap) and correct indexing
It doesn't matter how well you optimize your website if Google doesn't know your pages exist. The website map (sitemap) is the file that tells Google the full structure of your website.
On WordPress, plugins such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math generate this file automatically. You can usually find it at "your-website.ro/sitemap_index.xml". The next steps are simple: go to Google Search Console, open the "Sitemaps" section and submit the file's address. Google will start crawling your pages systematically.
After submitting, check the "Pages" section in Google Search Console periodically. Here you see how many pages are indexed, how many have errors and what the reasons for exclusion are. If you have 40 pages on your website but only 15 are indexed, you need to investigate.
Common causes: pages blocked by mistake in the robots.txt file, pages with a "noindex" tag set accidentally or duplicate content that Google chooses not to index.
Monitoring and adjusting, optimization never ends
Website optimization is not a project with an end date. It is an ongoing process, just as maintaining a physical store doesn't stop after the renovation. Google's algorithm is constantly updated, your competitors improve their websites, and user expectations rise from year to year.
Set up a minimal monitoring routine: check Google Search Console twice a month for technical errors and keyword trends, review Google Analytics monthly to see where traffic comes from and which pages perform, and every three months do a short competitive analysis, search for your business's main keywords and look at what the websites that appear ahead of you are doing.
Well-done SEO optimization has a cumulative effect. Every optimized page, every technical error fixed and every piece of useful content published contributes to a more solid foundation.
Results don't come overnight, but they do come. And when they come, they are stable and don't depend on an advertising budget you have to feed every month.
Source references
Dorel Tănase
Original author at GOAI. Published here in English with permission.
