With every website, there is always a greater opportunityto optimize than there is time or resources to implement.Businesses of all sizes must be able to effectively prioritizefocus, energy, and expense towards areas that have the mostpotential impact.Consistently and quickly identifying and optimizing your mostvaluable pages (MVPs) is a skill that requires ongoing attention,and is too frequently overlooked.There is a balance to be achieved between the percentage oftime spent on testing, experimentation, and the creation of newpotential MVPs versus maintaining your proven winners.In this article, you’ll learn tips to expedite this process ofdiscovering and optimizing your MVPs in a structured andmethodical way.
What Are “Most Valuable Pages”(MVPs)?
Put simply, MVPs are the pages or sections of your website thathave the greatest business impact. In some cases, your MVPs may not yet exist; this is somethingyou can discover with content gap analysis and ongoing websiteexpansion driven by key data sets For ecommerce sites, pages such as the home page, contact us,about us, location destinations, etc., are still likely MVPs
However, there would be added emphasis on corecommercial intent and revenue-driving areas of the siteimperative for income.Often, these include a mixture of category and product-levelpages, plus likely core topical elements of the site where thebrand needs to be visible to its audience the most.This may include problem-solving, audience pain points, andother layers of content – including comparison and evaluation– that help move people through the information-seeking andbuying funnel.
How To Decide WhichMVPs To Focus On
MVPs must be closely aligned to your business objectives andhow that translates online – your most popular pages aren’tnecessarily MVPs if they don’t drive traffic where it needs to goor help your company achieve a measurable business outcome.If you are looking for brand exposure, your most valuable pageswould be very different than a revenue-driven set of objectives It’s important to have a broad enough approach to themetrics that matter in order to then apply them into thedecision-making process.If choosing MVPs is a new topic to you and your business,I’d suggest looking at the reporting you currently focus on(online and offline), and what measurements are consistentlyemphasized to review progress in your organization
How To Find MVPs
Once you have clarity on the metrics or key successmeasurements, it will be much easier to decide on the pagesthat become MVPs and assess new priority pages or changes toMVPs over time.For visibility metrics such as online impressions, click-throughrates, search volume, clicks, and other areas like an average pageor term rank, Google Search Console is a useful tool to use.For post-click data such as traffic, website events, goalcompletions, purchases, bounce rates, and more, thenGoogle Analytics is often the main go-to There are plenty of other tools for more specific tasks tied toMVP selection, such as competitor comparison, backlink growth,and other areas like user experience.Ahrefs and Semrush are good starting points if you need toexpand your data collection
Here are some useful posts to help select the metricsthat matter:
Top 13 SEO Metrics to Track Content Performance & Engagement
SEO Reports: Which Metrics Matter & How to Use Them Well
Optimizing Your Most Valuable Pages
Optimization comes in many forms and with myriadobjective-led outcomes As you would expect, the type of optimization activity you pursueis closely matched to the intended gains you set out to achieve,the overriding purpose of the page or content in question, plusother factors like the marketing channel being deployed.It is important to have a varied and consistent way of lookingat performance spanning the main marketing channels andreviewing these in tandem with clear and SMART objectives.With each channel, there are associated traditional andfundamental optimization tactics required. I always suggestbeginning with the basics/fundamentals or seeking expertisefrom a professional agency
Example MVP Optimization– Home Page
Let’s dig in with some practical advice for optimization on one ofthe most common MVPs – the home page.As the frequently catch-all entry destination into the website andone of the highest traffic and visibility pages, the home page canfulfill many functions Initially (pre-optimization), you will need to decide on the roleand function that you need to maximize for the page to bebenchmarked and progressed against
Common home page functions, for example:
Grow and establish awareness of the site for brand andcatch-all (and often newer/smaller) topics. Metrics include:impressions, average page and key terms rank, CTR, visits.
Drive users to commercial impact pages. Metrics includebounce rate, pages per visit, time on page, events (such asclick events from calls to action).
User experience/usability. Metrics include Core Web Vitals,exit rate, and related items mentioned above.
Establish trust, expertise, and authority. Metricsinclude time on page, pages viewed, event clicks,key page interaction.
Sell/promote high ROI products and services. Metricsinclude traffic, revenue, transactions, clicks to convertingpages, and ideal user journey entry/progression
Typically, the home page has a number of key elements thatrequire iterative testing, refinement, and improvement. As always, before making any changes you need to ensure you
have the necessary data in place to support any hypothesis
testing or experience-led updates
Elements you will want to dedicate time and resourceon for the home page could include
- Organic and paid adverts.
- On page headings.
- Pre-scroll content.
- CTAs.
- Content hierarchy.
- Content freshness and depth.
- Trust signals, reviews, testimonials, case studies, social
proof, and validation - Page interaction.
- Navigation (main/sub).
- Visual content (placement, use, variation, content types).
MVPs: An Ongoing &Iterative Approach
Like most (if not all) website and marketing optimization, MVPsshould form an always-on part of your digital marketing strategy.The percentage of focus will differ between active priorities,seasonality, and broader company and industry triggers, but themain takeaway should be having a conscious decision to reduceor change attention as part of the approach.If it’s not possible to have some degree of monthly MVP inclusionin the marketing plan, you will want to ensure basic (quick/simple)checks are made on the performance against expectations sothat data changes are not overlooked regardless of active focuson these pages
In Summary
It’s most effective to have an always-on approach to optimizingyour most valuable pages (MVPs).These valuable pages have a substantial business andcommercial impact and require consistent and reliable ways toassess, refine and improve performance through optimization.Your MVPs will differ, but there are commonalities spanning mostwebsites in what makes an MVP.Identifying and optimizing these pages will differ in some ways,but there are consistent factors to consider. Always look at thealignment of MVPs to company objectives and the purposeof the page when it comes to metrics and measurementof MVP performance.If in doubt, seek independent expertise from well-established andtrusted agencies who can help put in place strategies and sanitycheck approaches that may be in place already