There are so many buzzwords going around the digital marketing sphere at the moment that it’s almost impossible to keep up. For this reason, when many of us come across an unfamiliar phrase, we tend to roll our eyes and just keep moving.
Well, thankfully, profile optimization is neither a buzzword nor some complicated marketing strategy that requires hours of lessons and multiple courses to attain proficiency in.
It is simply a step that is enough in itself to help your business stand out and attract new visitors like never before. In fact, there’s a high chance you’re already familiar with the term but to help you get even better at maximizing this process, below is a quick guide on profile optimization and everything it entails.
What is Profile Optimization
Profile optimization is simply the art of maximizing your profile’s conversion potential. It’s actually pretty straightforward when you think about it. What’s the function of an online profile? To pass across just enough information to allow new and existing visitors to learn more about you and what you have to offer.
In an online world where there are thousands of users all with the same things to offer, having a unique profile is one of the best ways to stand out and separate yourself from the pack.
And seeing as anyone just discovering your account naturally goes straight to the profile, it is the perfect page for maximum optimization.
Types of Profile Optimizations
Profile optimization is usually divided into two main categories – the visual side of things and the text-based aspects. The following a short note on both type of optimization.
Text Optimization
Virtually all profiles allow users to say a few words about themselves using text only. This is usually found in the bio field and characters are always limited, necessitating the need for promptness and directness.
While texts are not as flashy as images and videos, they can go a long way in passing across messages in succinct manners and therefore help push visitors to become long-term followers.
Visual Optimization
Visual optimizations of profiles include avi or profile image optimization, cover image selection, and, for applicable platforms, cover banners and background image selection.
Visual optimizations are incredibly important seeing as humans are visual creatures – we are more easily attracted and impressed by images and videos that we see. For this reason, we advise that you pay close attention to this aspect during any kind of profile optimization.
Ultimately the text-based and visual optimizations should work hand in hand to achieve the ultimate goal, which is to turn mere visitors into long-term fans. While the visual elements attract and sustain, the text elements should provide the call to action that eventually convinces the user to hit the follow, subscribe, or any other pertinent button.
A Few Profile Optimization Tips
Passing Across Information
The first goal of your profile is to pass across important information that makes you sound appealing to users. Ideally, you want to let them know what you have to offer, and you want to do it in the most appealing way possible.
Obviously, there’s a limit of not just characters, but also space. For this reason, you want to choose every aspect of your design carefully, both texts and images.
Going straight to the point is important, but you must also ensure that you strike the right balance between being concise and being thorough. That is, you don’t want to say too much but you also don’t want to say too little.
Consistency
Employing a uniform design in your profile means that you should try as much as possible to keep things similar all through. For instance, when it comes to color, message, font, it pays to go with the same style on your cover image as you have on your profile picture and background image.
Not only does this provide an overall bigger aesthetic appeal, it also ensures that users don’t get disoriented by a lack of uniformity.
Furthermore, consistency in style breeds familiarity. And if there’s one thing you want your profile to do, it’s to make users familiar with your page so that they can develop a long-term interest rather than a fleeting one.
Aesthetics
It is always advisable to have it in mind that the reason for profile optimization is deeply rooted in aesthetics. Yes, you want people to like your profile and follow you, but guess what, to do that you have to make your profile beautiful.
It is only when your profile is beautiful enough that a user will feel compelled to follow. So during all of the text-based optimizations and the visual optimizations and the profile picture selections, you should always have it in mind that your overall outcome must be beautiful.
Of course, all the principles discussed here including balance, moderation, simplicity, consistency, and conventions are all indirectly geared towards aesthetics. If you follow the advice as we have specified, you should have yourself a beautiful profile in no time.
Niche Conventions
Lastly, it is important that you understand the conventions already established in your niche. Users in certain niches are already familiar with a certain style in profiles. This is why it is advisable to do a quick study of similar accounts in your niche before you proceed to design your profile.
This way you get to not only understand the style but also pick up a few pointers here and there that you can customize and employ on your own page too.
Final Thoughts & Summary
As a closing advice, we understand that all of these steps may be daunting to pull off. That is why we always recommend for those who don’t quite have the wherewithal to design themselves to either hire a freelancer or make use of professional ready-made templates.
Thankfully, the latter can be obtained free of charge from Designurbate. This way you won’t have to worry about rules and principles, and you can get your final design customized and exported in only a matter of minutes.