– Do you think SEO and Web Design of a website are separate elements?
– Guess what, you shouldn’t!
– In fact, to do both correctly, you must make them work together.
When you build a website, there are two major aspects you need to consider: Consumers and Search engines. The only way you can be successful online is by making these two audiences happy. Yes, search engines are also your audience.
If your website is not performing on search engines, it will never reach your targeted audiences. And to reach your targeted audiences, you need your website optimized. This is where most marketers realize the importance of SEO in their web design,
The major conflict for the site owner is to perfectly find a balance between SEO friendliness and user-friendliness. To further complicate things, most businesses have two separate teams to look after SEO and Web design of your business website.
The truth is that even if the in-house team is performing well if their work is not synchronized, the result will just be mediocre. The most happens because both the teams have different methodologies.
So, how do you balance when both teams come with conflicting suggestions? Well, that’s why we are here – To answer all your questions.
What Is SEO Web Design?
If you are here looking for the connection between SEO and Web Design, then you must be aware of what SEO and Web Design are all about. However, if you are new to the digital marketing industry, a small definition of the two might be needed.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a practice that helps optimize your website according to search engines. If you can pull that off, your website will perform better on SERP.
Web Design is the website design of your website. The simpler your website design is, the better your visitor experience will be.
Looking at the definition, you will think that both are different pillars of the business. Well, they certainly are, but connected at the same time.
For instance, having a clean and simple website is a part of SEO. And having a well SEO-optimized website means your website is easily navigable.
As you can see, both complement each other in many ways. So, if you put them together, you get an SEO web design for your business website.
Why Is SEO Web Design Important?
If your website has a stunning design but can’t get your website performed on the search engine, how can your audience reach you? While social media and PPC are great ways to attract traffic to your website, those are short-term solutions.
You need something evergreen that ensures traffic keeps on flowing to your website year long. This is when you need SEO.
Let’s go over a few benefits that SEO offers.
- Boost in organic traffic to your website.
- Attract high-intent traffic.
- Improve user experience.
- You can do everything without investing even a single penny. Just need to optimize your website.
How Do SEO & Web Design Go Together?
Building a website that keeps search engines and your consumers happy needs more than just SEO or High-Quality Web Design; you need BOTH.
Here is how you can blend SEO and Web Design together.
1. Mobile Compatibility
In 2021, 55% of worldwide internet traffic came from mobile users. Experts expect that this number will rise to almost 80% by the end of 2025.
That means having a responsive website helps to improve your SEO. While you are designing your website, ensure that your website is able to open on any device. This practice will blend SEO and Web design perfectly.
2. Make It Lightning Fast
What is the most annoying thing about any website you visit? It is the amount of time it takes to load. According to data, if your website is taking 3 seconds or less to load, your visitor will stay on your website. However, if it exceeds the 3-second limit, you risk losing your visitor.
Always ensure that your website has an optimum speed and is never slowing down. If it does slow down, look for the elements that are making that happen and rectify it.
3. Outline Accurate Sitemap
When you create a website, all the different pages connecting to the homepage can look like a mess. Adding a site ensures that all your web pages are organized for the search engines’ crawlers to go through.
Although SEO puts so much emphasis on structural workmanship, it is still unclear just how effective it is. But experts know they are effective, so why not just use them for your website.
4. Focus On Readability
Readability is one of the important ranking factors. Hence, you can’t mess it up even when you are designing your website. If your visitors visit your website and can’t read the copy of the website, they will not get anything valuable out of their visit to your website.
Best practices say that while you are designing your website, your bold and large font ensures your visitors can clearly read the important messages you want to convey.
5. Don’t Forget Image File Names
Image file names are so small that you might not even consider investing your valuable time into them. But, believe us or not, they are the actual asset of your content. The images you use are just images for crawlers. Adding a name ensures that crawlers know what kind of image it is or what context it carries.
Furthermore, it improves overall accessibility. People who are using screen readers to get what you have to offer might not be able to understand what is depicted in the images. Having text supporting the image content makes things much easier.
Connecting SEO & Web Design
The key to developing a website that not only performs on SERP but is also liked by your audiences is to bridge the gap between SEO and Web Development. Yes, we know, it’s easier said than done.
For your website to come out perfect, you need to encourage your team to work together and discuss several courses of action.
You must remember, it is not about your business and website; it is all about providing value to your customers. If you can do that, your website will constantly make it to the top pages of SERP.
That being said, optimize the element we have mentioned above and see the results for yourself.