Many factors affect your SEO ranking, and getting the best results from it depends on the same factors that affect your SEO. When people hear the words ‘search engine optimization’ or SEO, they automatically think about optimizing their content through keywords in order to improve their ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, many people may not know that web design can also influence SEO.
Many businesses create a website design with SEO in mind to ensure that their website ranks higher in search results. You might be wondering why you need to do the same and how you should go about it. Read on to learn how web design affects your SEO ranking and how you can improve it to ensure that it’s fully optimized.
Why Is Web Design Important In SEO?
A lot of the factors affecting your SEO ranking are part of your web design. An excellent web design should be able to provide a positive user experience. When people find your site attractive and easy to use, they’ll likely come back and generate traffic. A good-looking website also encourages people to spend more time browsing it. When there’s a constant increase in traffic and when people stay on your site longer, your authority increases, and so does your SEO rank.
How Do You Improve Your SEO Through Web Design?
It’s important to remember that website design is related to user experience. When your website is appealing and convenient for visitors to use, this will further improve your authority and page ranking. If you want to design your website with SEO in mind, follow these tips:
1. Improve Website Speed
According to statistics, a 100-millisecond delay in your site’s load time can decrease your conversions by about seven percent. This shows that slow website speed can affect your conversion rates and how long your audience stays on your site. This, in turn, determines your authority and page ranking. If Google or any search engine realizes that your site isn’t giving positive user experience, they’ll lower your page ranking.
There are many aspects of your website design that affect your site’s speed. Here are some tips to help you improve website loading speed when designing your website:
– Optimize Image Size
It might be tempting to use high-quality images for your website, but using too many and opting for large sizes can increase your site’s loading time. If you want to use more images, you need to reduce their size without compromising quality. You can utilize compressing tools to reduce image sizes so your page loading times are kept to a minimum.
– Reduce Plugins
Plugins add specific features to your site as suggested by third parties. However, when you have too many plugins on your site, they can affect loading time. You might also encounter some security issues.
It’s best to conduct a performance test on your page to see which plugins are slowing down your site. When choosing plugins, try to avoid the ones that load many scripts and styles or generate several database queries.
– Reduce The Number Of JavaScript And CSS files
When a site has a lot of JavaScript and CSS files, this leads to a significant number of HTTP requests when your visitor is looking to access particular files and also slows down your pages. It’s advisable to place all JavaScript and CSS files in one group to reduce the overall number of HTTP requests.
2. Improve Page Navigation
Besides page load time, you should make sure that your site structure is user-friendly and easy to navigate. This is a critical part of user experience and SEO because people get turned off by complicated websites when searching for something. If your site structure is cluttered and confusing, your visitors will leave, which means you won’t get any traffic. In addition, if your site has a poor bounce rate, which is the percentage of visitors who leave your website after checking only one page, then this is also a sign of bad user experience and SEO.
3. Limit Flash And JavaScript
Search engine crawlers have a difficult time reading JavaScript and Flash programming languages. Although you can do many interesting box designs using these languages, it’s better to limit their usage to improve your SEO ranking.
When you can’t help but use them, make sure never to place critical content inside the Flash or JavaScript element. When search engines fail to see this content, you’ll miss out on the much-needed SEO benefits that can boost your ranking and authority.
4. Arrange The Links Appropriately
Another essential element of web design that affects SEO ranking is the link structure within the site. Links within the web page itself are a significant factor in determining search engine rankings. If there are only a few well-placed links scattered throughout the site, it’s less likely to get your desired ranking. On the other hand, if the links are well organized and the text associated with them is readable, the site’s more likely to achieve excellent rankings.
5. Create A Responsive Web Design
Responsivity describes a new approach to website design that makes websites render correctly on various mobile devices and screen sizes, from small to extra-large. It’s essential to consider how users will view your site in different types of environments. This means taking into account factors such as mobile device resolutions and the differences between mobile devices and desktop computers.
Final Thoughts
The more attractive your website is, the more likely viewers will click on it to see what you have to offer. When people stay longer and work their way through your website easily, you’ll increase traffic, which search engines will use as a sign that your site is of high authority, thus making it rank higher on SERPs.
There are many aspects of web design you can adjust or work on to improve your SEO ranking. One of the best web design practices is always to consider your loading speed. When a page is slow to load or takes too long to scroll, it won’t appear as often in search results.
It’s also recommended to improve navigation in order to ensure a positive user experience. Limit the use of Flash and JavaScript, and arrange the links in your content appropriately. What’s more, it would help to create a responsive web design so your visitors can view your site regardless of the screen or device they’re using.