Tips to Improve SEO with Web Design

Tips to Improve SEO with Web Design

Being seen as relevant by Google is one of the biggest challenges online businesses face today. Everyone wants to place first in the platform’s search results pages, knowing that Google controls more than 90% of the search traffic in the country alone.

This is where SEO comes in.

Search engine optimization plays a major role in improving your search engine ranking, and it’s not just on Google. The more optimized your website is, the higher your chances are of ranking well. Having an SEO friendly website is definitely the way to go if you're looking to boost organic traffic, qualified leads, and sales.

A lot of SEO is dependent on how well the content is. There are many practices SEO specialists and writers apply to set up content so that it gets an impressive ranking, like using the right keywords and building links.

While it’s these SEO experts, writers, and other digital marketing team members who usually manage the search optimization strategy, web designers also have a responsibility here - crafting an intuitive UX (user experience design) and attractive UI (user interface design).

That’s right. Your website’s design, format, and code will affect how your pages perform in search engines.

As an SEO and web design West Palm Beach company with years of experience, we know very well how companies can increase their visibility online by having a solid website design. That said, we’re here to help make things easier for you.

In this post, we’ll be showing you ways on how you can improve search engine optimization through the power of web design. We’ll look at six best practices that strike the perfect balance between web design and SEO.

Let’s begin!

Keep Each Page as Unique as Possible

Google is always looking for relevant content not found anywhere else on the Internet. It wants to provide users with results that hold value, hence ranking the relevance of each site based on the content it contains.

What does this tell you?

Simply put, each page of your site should be completely different not just from any other website,  but also from the rest of your own website’s pages. Otherwise, you’ll be dealing with duplicate content, and you definitely don’t want that.

Publishing any content that appears somewhere else on the web will put you at risk of being ignored by search engine spiders. The algorithm will need to search for content that distinguishes your site from everyone else.

For this reason, you should make all of your content as unique as you can. This will assure you that your site will be free of obstructions. At the same time, your design standards will support your SEO efforts.

Also, be careful of the wording you use in your snippets. If you’re planning to include snippets to drive your audience to follow a link, avoid repeating any information contained on other pages within your site.  You might get penalized for duplicate content.

Structure Each Page Carefully

There are two reasons why you should take page structure seriously: For scannability and readability.

With a well-structured page, both your website visitors and Google will quickly determine what the page is all about. And, because it’s easy on the eyes, your visitors won’t mind reading the page all the way through, instead of just skimming through it.

Use header tags whenever necessary. Headers aren’t just for adding a larger and stylized piece of text, but they can actually help you create a sense of hierarchy on the page.

In fact, Google bots use these tags to get a summary of the post. Header tags help them identify whether the content is organized properly and if the subject has been unpacked based on other high-ranking pages that discuss the same topic.

Next, you have to consider the user experience. When it comes to longer pages, you can use header tags to establish clear breaks in the text and signal readers when there’s an incoming shift in the topic (or you’re moving into a sub-topic).

Header tags also enable people who use screen readers to get a high-level summary of the page before they can proceed to the entire content.

Aside from using header tags, you can structure your page effectively using these tips:

• ‍Set the minimum font size to 16 pixels. Not only is this useful for readability, but for accessibility, too. Visitors who have eye problems won’t have a hard time reading your content.‍
• Break long sentences and paragraphs up. Keep them to no more than three or four lines.‍
• Use bullet points for lists. If the post contains several points, make sure to turn them into a bulleted or numbered list to give your visitors a better reading experience. ‍
• Limit your font styles to two so that your visitors won’t become overwhelmed and confused.‍
• Include relevant images. Use complementary visuals to increase your readers’ comprehension and keep them engaged.‍
• Use italics and bold to emphasize important words or sentences. Stylize certain words or phrases that need to be called out. ‍
• Highlight paragraphs with special call-outs, click-to-tweet boxes, or long quote block so that readers will pay extra attention to them.

Design the Navigation with Logic and Order

A website with well-built navigation can make a difference in two SEO-related matters:

First, search engine bots will have trouble figuring out whether your site deserves a great ranking if they can’t find your pages or see how they all tie together. Second, your visitors will likely leave your site the minute they realize it’s so hard to navigate around.

So, how do you solve these problems? Provide a clear view of your site’s information architecture AND keep your menu simple and predictable.

Follow these steps when designing your navigation and sitemap:

• ‍Logically arrange the pages from left to right in your menu. For example, if someone visits the Locations or Services pages first before they go to Contact, it makes sense that you list them first. ‍
• Position the navigation menu where people normally expect it. Predictable placement makes it faster for them to visit the page they intend to visit.‍
• Provide a short name for each page. Instead of using “About Our Company”, go for a simpler name like “About” or “About Us”. ‍
• Ensure that the hierarchy from the first level matches with subsequent levels. For secondary pages like “SEO” or “Web Design”, for instance, they should belong under your “Services” menu. ‍
• Never go beyond two or three levels in the main menu, or else you’ll be creating difficult-to-navigate mega menus that people don’t really enjoy. ‍
• Add a search bar to the right of the navigation. Your visitors can use this as a shortcut to look for exact information. ‍
• Use breadcrumbs if your site goes deeper than two levels of pages. That way, your target audience will be able to retrace their steps in case they don’t want to go all the way back to the search.

If this seems a bit too complicated for you, you can always hire a team of experts from a leading web design in West Palm Beach to work with you.

Pay Attention to Your Metadata

As you’re already aware, pairing your content with high-quality content and design can improve your site’s visibility and search ranking. Why not take a step further? Simply add metadata to your content.

Though you won’t be in charge of writing most of your metadata, you’ll be the one to implement it. So, it’s critical to understand what to include.

Before we provide you the general metadata guidelines,  however, you should know the two components of metadata that show up in Google search results - the title tag and meta description.

Think of the title tag as the H1 tag of the page. It appears as the title for the web page in search results. Title tags should only have a maximum of 60 characters.

As for the meta description, it’s what accompanies the title tag in the search results. You’ll see it just below the title. You should keep it under 160 characters.

For your metadata to actually help boost your search engine rankings , keep these three things in mind:

• Include the focus keyword in the title, description, slug, and the first image on the page.
• Make it unique so that your web pages won’t be competing against each other in search.
• Describe it properly so searchers can easily decide if they want to click on your link as shown in Google.

It’s also worth noting that all images on your page should come with alt text, which basically describes what’s happening on each photo. Don’t forget to include the focus keyword on the primary image.

So, why bother using alt tags? Here’s why:

• They allow your page to rank both in Google Images and in regular Google search engine results pages.
• They’re super accessible since they clearly describe the content of an image.
• They provide Google an overview of what your page is about.

Add Footer Links to Every Page

Another tactic web designers use to boost their SEO rankings is by using plain text links to link between web pages, with the target keywords in the anchor text.

However, if you’re using graphical, Flash, or JavaScript navigation, you won’t be able to utilize anchor text. As an alternative, you can use footer links, with the target keywords included within the anchor text of the links.

Include Google Analytics on Each Page

Google Analytics is a must-have for web designers and SEO specialists alike.  

As you might already know, this free analytics software package gives you a range of critical data about your website, as well as its performance in search engines.

Features like Goal Tracking, Event Tracking, Intelligence, and bounce rates can give you a clear idea of which keywords, traffic sources, and search engines are producing leads or sales. You can use these data to learn how you can improve your site over time.

An SEO and Web Design West Palm Beach Company You Can Trust

If you’re not confident about your skills in using web design to improve SEO, we’ll be happy to give you a hand.

At Digital Resource, we are committed to helping our clients reach their business goals through digital marketing, and yes, that includes web design. We’ve worked with companies of all sizes and industries across the United States, and so far, we’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback from them.

If you’re interested to learn more about our services, feel free to book a consultation today.

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