Reasons behind the growth of Website

Artefact (proposed) to be developed

The project intends to design as well as implement an online restaurant which shall receive orders from customers. The design will further attract performance of some of the tests on speed and other parameters that attract traffic, as well as generate sales. The research will therefore provide room for code speed optimization which is said to enhance the speed of the website with the help of HTML, PHP and CSS The basic requirements for this project include an internet browser, a text editor and knowledge in CSS and HTML. A text editor allows one to input the characters before introducing a HTML skeleton. After coding the necessary details, one is allowed to open the web page in the browser before a review is performed. At the end of the project, a number of tests can be performed including the functionality testing, usability testing, interface testing, compatibility testing, performance testing and security testing. More attention towards performance testing attracts tests under separate speeds when having either peak or normal loads. The test entails putting an app under amounts of stress to a point where it stops working.

Introduction

The survival of any given business would largely depend on the sales as well as the modern business environment. According to Rivera (2019), modern businesses call for strong digital presence. The research conducted in the year 2017 showed that e-commerce alone accounted for around $2.3 trillion in terms of the global sales with the figure expected to rise to $4.88 trillion before the year 2021. Rivera (2019) asserted that if any business wants to get part of the sales, the website optimization is the way to go. The understanding of website optimization largely encompasses marketing techniques and technical methods that are used in acquiring traffic, converting it into prospects and engaging visitors at the same time. Even after understanding what website optimization is, most of the stakeholders would always get stuck when it comes to the skills needed for website optimization as well as the corrective actions. Technology provides three approaches to website optimization. Search engine optimization is more common and it largely touches on sub-activities attached to development of website content and stabilization of an advanced search.

Across Europe and the United States, SEO narrows down to Google while Yahoo and close competitors are thought to have made their ways into various markets. Since the year 2018, SEO has largely been based in three fundamental pillars. First, the tool relies on website content where resources as well as quality content would allow one to engage visitors while selling solutions as well as products. Content can be videos, visual and written with keywords used to enhance the ranking. The second pillar is on-page optimization, which is known for covering technical aspects associated to ranking. The last pillar includes the links, which can fuel the search engines in a positive way (Quinton and Khan 2009). Apart from search engine optimization, website optimization is possible through optimization of technical performance. The latter can be split into optimization of the site speed, which can be enhanced by such tools like PageSpeed, GTMetrix, Webpagetest, and Pingdom Website Speed Test among others. It is important to mention the display on tablets and even mobiles.

In the year 2018, it is stated that 52% of the global traffic was dominantly generated by mobiles. The introduction of landing pages is likely to save on time especially when customizing web pages for different displays. Lastly, it is good enough to talk about user experience and optimizing conversion. The conversion rates constitute what is given to visitors for the purposes of realizing interaction experience as well as better browsing (Rivera 2019). Google analytics shares insights on the user type, the abandonment rate, bounce rate and even conversion rates, which are part of the UX mechanisms. Based on this recap, the project intents to cover the growing gap of the reasons that make people run for website optimization. Perhaps, more attention should be given to common practices and possible pitfalls a business or individuals encounter while pursuing website optimization. This would attract equivalent attention towards designing and implementing a website that would prompt performance-testing, realization of the essence of speed and reasons linked to generation of traffic and sales.

Initial Research into sources of information

The first step towards building a project lies with identification of relevant sources, which are necessary in building the required knowledge. In this context, the project invests in identifying sources that can be aligned to every objective aforementioned. The objectives construct meaningful details of the project’s backbone and therefore avail the referral platform for the entire process.

First, the research delves into investigating the common pitfalls and best practices behind website optimization. The research was attracted to the study conducted by Gudivada et al. (2015) on understanding website optimization and the best practices that accompany it. The study touched on the increased use of the search engine rankings as part of the strategic marketing. Among other practices, the study goes on in highlighting the essence of keeping the consistence of the brand through the B2B and B2C website design, creation of better and stronger CTAs and attracting the first loading time. Notably, websites are growing bigger and since 2013, the growth is indicated to have gone up by at least 32%. At least 47% of the visitors would expect the website to load not more than 2 seconds. This means that it is time businesses need to check on the content delivery network, new image formats, cache, evaluate the plugins, and enable compression and HTTP. It is of note that among best practices, the search engine optimization has to be mentioned. The practice is paramount in increasing the number of visitors on one’s website while attracting high ranking placement across the search engine results page. This can happen via a keyword, a single phrase or any other readable compelling content. Same attention has been given by HATAB (2014) who also touched on SEOs, easy navigation, quality photos and use of social media as part of the best practices.

However, HATAB (2014) went beyond touching on the consumer’s perceptions and beliefs while engaging the significant characteristics of the website. Perhaps, most of the companies have been trapped in pitfalls regarding online customer satisfaction before attracting the purchase intention. In as much as designers adopt best practices in the market, most of them fail in clearly identifying the visitor’s intentions and attitude while making a purchase on internet. Perhaps, it is not all about attractive appearance and adequate information that would pull a customer towards the website but also the presentation style, search functions, transaction details and navigation structures among others.

Secondly, the research narrowed down to sources linked to significance of speed of the websites in the modern world of internet of things. In this context, the research was attracted to the study conducted by Ziegeldorf et al. (2014). In this study, it could be noted that speed is what keeps a customer a particular page. At least with the loading speed of 2-3 seconds is more acceptable in the world of internet of things. Speed has been noted as a significant component in handling the size of connected things that range from 50 billion to trillions as predicted by Cisco, HP and IBM. IoT probably increases size of networks depending on the amounts of the devices. The second area of concern is interconnection with technological advances tapping into wireless communication as one way of advancing speed. The key area of concern for the smart things entails the distance and pervasive interconnectedness. Ziegeldorf et al. (2014) further looked at the association of speed with system interaction and lifecycle.

As time goes by, the level of interaction among things, group of things, services and even systems determines the environment while elaborating interfaces noted through the speed of coordination and collaboration. While keeping an eye on the lifecycle, systems are attracted to simplicity where speed is necessary in ensuring the system’s response without experiencing insignificant delays. This fact equally applies to website optimization where speed determines whether a client would stay on a given page or not. Same attention to speed has been given by Yousuf et al. (2015) who talked more about the IoT infrastructure, policies, heterogeneity and key management systems. The architectural standards discussed in the study demands that protocols, services and even devices should have a common goal of boosting the efficiency of the system as noted with smart homes and even smart towns. Efficiency is accompanied by speed noted at both the macro and micro levels. Speed is essentially supported by a range of devices, operating systems, humans and even languages.

While focusing on speed, the literature is bound to code speed optimization, which is almost a new area of concern when handling websites. Fish (2009) asserts that code speed optimization is a technological concept that denotes tuning of codes to bolster significant aspects of the website, including the memory consumption, the speed, output and input among others. Notably, there are concerns aligned to programs linked to code speed optimization. The common type is the real time programs, which are known for responding to events. According to Fish (2009), optimizers have a pool of techniques they can choose from while trying to improve the codes. Based on this, Cooper and Torczon (2012) insisted that programmers are tuning to GPU sorting algorithms where generic programming strategies are being adopted. Based on the researchers, they noted that the key goal behind code optimization is to ensure latency hiding. The GPU has the capacity of switching the waiting thread for the purposes of facilitating the right loading speed.

The research is further attracted to identifying reasons that make businesses and individuals to use web optimization to attract traffic and generate sales. Quinton and Khan (2009) assert that organizations consider a website as being compulsory with the real challenge lying behind driving traffic. While using the SEM tools, the study delved deep into realization of the effective use of search engine marketing. Notably, both heuristic and analytical searchers can only be made by the potential customers. The study notes that the website traffic can be formed via online partnerships with commissions being paid for every lead or sale. With notable examples such as Amazon, affiliate marketing plays a significant role of enabling the website to be enhanced or promoted on thousands of other websites while relying on the affiliate network. The study further outlines reasons why web optimization is better placed for generation of sales and attracting traffic.

First, it should be noted that web optimization hosts search engine marketing, which also improves the search engine listings. In this sense, web optimization promotes online marketing effectiveness while channel users constitute the source of revenue for the websites. Besides, the sponsored links or the paid listing, denoted as PPC listing, charges every click depending on the user type. However, PPC have consistently received negative reviews because of the costs of fraudulent reviews. Again, PPC listings are never build up with time. This means that the top positions can easily be acquired when the business is ready to pay the highest amount. Apart from the PPC listing, website optimization has always been regarded as bedrock for link building, which is sometimes referred to as gaining backlinks. With increase in the number of the backlinks, the search engine would regard the website as more genuine and more credible as ranking improves.

Artefact (proposed)

As mentioned before, the project intends to develop an online restaurant that shall receive orders from customers. Development of the website requires the basic knowledge in PHP, CSS and HTML, internet browser and a text editor. The symbolic website will be necessary in performing tests on speed and generation of traffic while using best website optimization practices. The project adopts the wide-angle approach and agile methodology. The wide-angle approach is architectural-based and largely adopts playful creativity as well as theoretical sophistication in project development. The agile approach taps into practices that embrace continuous iteration in terms of development and testing. The approach promotes customer collaboration, response to change, working software as well as individual and teal interaction. Besides, the development cycle supported by the agile approach is better placed in carrying out project development from scratch to completion while giving room for errors. In the event that the tests fail, then a repeat of the entire process is necessary.

Plan/Schedule

The project will take a total of 3 months before it can be completed. Below is a breakdown.

Reference and Bibliography

Quinton, S. and Khan, M.A., 2009. Generating web site traffic: a new model for SMEs. Direct Marketing: An International Journal, 3(2), pp.109-123.

Yousuf, T., Mahmoud, R., Aloul, F. and Zualkernan, I., 2015. Internet of Things (IoT) Security: Current status, challenges and countermeasures. International Journal for Information Security Research (IJISR), 5(4), pp.608-616.

Ziegeldorf, J.H., Morchon, O.G. and Wehrle, K., 2014. Privacy in the Internet of Things: threats and challenges. Security and Communication Networks, 7(12), pp.2728-2742.

HATAB, R.J.T., 2014. Improve website rank using search engine optimization (SEO) (Doctoral

Gudivada, V.N., Rao, D. and Paris, J., 2015. Understanding search-engine optimization. Computer, 48(10), pp.43-52.

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