Your website should be designed to impress. If you want anyone to see your site, however, you first need to optimize your site for search. So, as you build your site, keep both the visual aspects and the SEO aspects in mind.
Web design and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand. If you are able to strike a balance between the design and your site’s SEO, you can expect the following results:
- Attract qualified visitors to your website.
- Keep their attention on your web content.
- Convince them to do business with you.
As you work through the design of your site, make sure to keep these 7 important SEO tips every web designer should know in mind.
Table of Contents
Keep it Clean and Simple
It can be tempting to add a ton of design elements on your website. However, this have the effect of making your site visitors distracted and annoyed.
This explains why we only use web design elements that are absolutely necessary so they don’t hurt search visibility.
White space
We love white space. It minimizes distractions and helps the right elements stand out. Using an ample amount of white space gives your content room to breathe.
Simple navigation
It is also important to note that your website navigation is part of your web design. Providing a simple web navigation experience allows your site visitors to go from point A to point B with ease ‒ making it is easy for them to explore your website efficiently.
When that happens, you can easily educate a site visitor about your brand and what you can offer. This can lead to the outcome of achieving a boost in your conversions.
Design for Mobile Experience
Studies show that more than half of the global internet traffic is from mobile devices. More and more people access the Internet on their smartphones.
This means that you should have a mobile-first mindset when designing a website. Simply put, you should first consider how your website will be displayed on mobile.
Use Consistent Web Content Structure
The content you place on your site is hugely important, but without the right content structure, it can all be a waste of time. As a web designer, your job is to ensure that the site you design is presented in an easy-to-navigate, visually appealing and consistent way.
Website structure matters a lot when it comes to SEO. And whether you are designing a business website, an online store, or an online magazine, the rule of thumb is that a web page should not exceed four clicks from the homepage.
Aside from usability issues, it could mean that your content is too deep in the hierarchy that a search engine bot may be unable to crawl it.
Optimize Your Visual Elements
Other than high-quality content, what makes a site visitor hooked to your website are the visual elements. This includes the font, colors and patterns you use on your web design.
While these elements can make your website look appealing, it is important that they do not bog down your loading speed. The key here is to ensure that your visual elements can load fast.
Luckily, there are WordPress plugins that you can use to help optimize the images that you upload on your website. You can also opt for Accelerated Mobile Pages, which allows you to optimize your website ‒ especially for your mobile site visitors.
Lastly, make sure that search engine bots can “read” your visual content. Since these robots do not know that they are crawling an image or a video, what you can do is add a keyword-rich ALT TEXT on the HTML code. That way, the bots will know what your image or video is all about.
Create Crawlable Designs
In relation to the previous point, you should also keep readable web fonts in mind. This is ideal if you are designing banners or images with texts on them. That’s because popular search engines like Google enable images with web-fonts to be readable.
Content writer and marketer Amy Copadis notes that you could combine web fonts with HTML. This is to ensure that the text on your visual content is crawlable. That way, search engine bots can still see what your image or video is all about.
The best part? You can add a keyword to it, which could come in handy for SEO reasons.
Insert Expandable <div> Tags
Aside from ALT TEXT and web fonts, you can also insert expandable <div> tags to put together minimalist web design and optimized content.
For example, you have a panel of product images. As far as minimalism is concerned, you will just leave the images as is and then use the ALT TEXT to make it crawlable.
You can add an expandable <div> tag to insert an important text for each image. So when a site visitor clicks on an image, the expansion on the bottom will provide a space for SEO-friendly content.
Doing so will make both your site visitors and your SEO team happy.
Keep Page Load Speed in Mind
One of the most important ranking factors is page load speed. That’s because when your website loads fast, it’s easier for you to capture your site visitors’ attention and keep them from bouncing.
Meanwhile, the more time your site visitors spend on your website, the more search engines deem that the content is useful and are more likely to serve it up in search. On the opposite side, if your site visitors leave in a jiffy as soon as they land on your website, your search position may suffer.
You want to do all you can to maintain a fast load speed to avoid high bounce rates. In fact, when your website takes 5 seconds or more to load, there is a 90% chance that your bounce rate will increase. And this could have a negative impact on your search engine ranking.
That said, it is important to implement web design practices that can help boost page loading speed.
Great User Experience is Key
The aim of every search engine is to provide the most relevant and useful results to Internet users. Hence, it is important that you provide a great user experience once people land on your website.
To do that, you need an aesthetically pleasing website that has informative content and practical functionalities. Not to mention that it should be mobile-responsive.
Remember: If a website can offer a great user experience, a site visitor will spend more time on it. This signals search engines that your website is useful and informative. As a result, you will likely see an improvement in your search engine ranking.
Enjoyed reading the blog? Sign up for our bi-monthly newsletter to receive marketing news and advice.
- 7 Important SEO Tips That Every Web Designer Should Know - March 5, 2020
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard
on. Any tips?
Thanks so much for reading, Lenore. Here is an article with some excellent tips to help you determine what plugins might work for your security needs. https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/wordpress-data-protection-plugins/
Hi there, yes this post is genuinely nice and I
have learned lot of things from it concerning blogging. thanks.
Thanks for reading. Glad you were able to take some actionable insights from the post!
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers?
I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?
Thanks for the comment, Lucio! Here’s an article on securing your WordPress site that you might find useful. https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/how-to-secure-wordpress-from-hackers/
Good day! This is my first visit to your blog! Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done an extraordinary job!
Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success. If you know of any please share.Many thanks!
Hi Kathie. Try Yoast. That’s my go to SEO plugin. https://yoast.com
Marvelous, what a webpage it is! This web site presents helpful facts to us, keep it up.
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this on to a coworker who has been conducting a little research on this.
This article gives clear idea for the new people of blogging, that in fact how to do blogging.
If you want to obtain a good deal from this post then you have to apply such strategies to your won weblog.
These are important tactics to implement in your own blogging strategy. If you fail to focus on SEO, you don’t stand a chance.
Hello! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d ask.
Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring
a blog article or vice-versa? My website goes over a lot
of the same topics as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other.
If you’re interested feel free to send me an e-mail.
I look forward to hearing from you! Terrific blog by the way!
I’d be happy to discuss this, Jolie. Please submit your inquiry here: https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/about/
Hi there! I could have sworn I’ve visited this web site before but after looking at some of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Nonetheless, I’m certainly pleased I found it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back often!
Thanks for your support, Katrice.
Hey! Would you mind if I share your blog with my twitter group?
There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content.
Please let me know. Cheers
Sure, please feel free to share. Thanks, Damaris.
Excellent blog here! Additionally your site rather a lot up fast! What web host are you using? Can I am getting your affiliate link to your host? I desire my web site loaded up as fast as yours.
I’m using TheWPHelp. If you stop by their site and use the code ANTHONY10 when you sign up, you will receive a 10% discount on the monthly cost. You can learn more at this link: https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/thewphelp-website-hosting-review/
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO?
I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results.
If you know of any please share. Thank you!
Yoast is a really great plugin for SEO on WordPress. There is a free version with paid options. If you want to dig deeper into SEO, though, I recommend a tool like Moz or SEMrush. Here’s a write up on SEMrush if you are interested. https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/semrush-product-review/
Hmm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum
it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to everything.
Do you have any helpful hints for first-time blog writers?
I’d definitely appreciate it.
First and foremen, Margherita, you need to be passionate about your subject matter. And you need to love what you do. If you don’t enjoy your blogging efforts, success will likely be difficult to achieve. Here is a link to some great resources on blogging that can help. https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/category/content-marketing-advice/blogging-tips/
Hey! This is kind of off topic but I need
some guidance from an established blog. Is it hard to set up your own blog?
I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast.
I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure where to start.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Appreciate it!
Thanks, Dewayne. You can find a lot of great info on WordPress, my personal favorite place for building blogs, here: https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/category/web-design/wordpress-tips-from-experts/
Additionally, here are some great articles on enhancing and growing your blog: https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/category/content-marketing-advice/blogging-tips/
Hope these articles help!
Hey! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My website looks weird when viewing from my apple iphone.
I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to correct this problem.
If you have any suggestions, please share.
Thank you!
Hi, Blaine. Here is a great piece highlighting 10 mobile responsive website themes. Hope this helps! https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/responsive-wordpress-themes/
I have learn a few excellent things here. Certainly worth bookmarking for revisiting.
I wonder how much effort you put to create such a fantastic informative website.
It does take effort, but blogging is worth the time and effort if you are passionate about the content you promote. Which I am, and so are all the wonderful guest bloggers who contribute their expertise to the site.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a writer for your weblog.
You have some really good articles and I feel I would be a good asset.
If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d love to write some content for your
blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an email if interested.
Thanks!
My spouse and I absolutely love your blog and find the majority of your posts
to be precisely what I’m looking for.
Does one offer guest writers to write content in your case?
I wouldn’t mind creating a post or elaborating on some of the subjects you write related
to here. Again, awesome weblog!
I’m glad you found the info useful. We do offer guest writing opportunities. Please check out the guidelines here: https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/write-for-us/
Woah this blog is great i love reading your posts. Keep up the good work! You already know a lot of people are searching round for this information, you could help them greatly.
Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for the kind words!
Ϝantastic beat! I would like to apprentice even as you amend your website. How could i subscribe for a weblog website?
You can subscribe to the newsletter on the right sidebar to stay in touch. I highly recommend checking out the section on WordPress to learn how to start your own blog. https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/category/web-design/wordpress-tips-from-experts/
Wow, that’s what I was looking for, great data existing here at this blog, thanks admin of this web page.
Glad you found what you were looking for. Feel free to content us via the contact form you if you have questions! https://www.anthonygaenzle.com/contact-us/
Hello! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok.
I’m absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
You can visit me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AnthonyGaenzle. Also, each author typically has their Twitter handled linked within their bio.
I’m impressed, I must say. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and without a doubt, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
The issue is something that not enough people are speaking intelligently about. I’m very happy I stumbled across this in my search for something regarding this.
Glad to hear you enjoy the blog. Thank you for your continued support! Much appreciated, Grover!
Valuable tips. Having more white space and a simpler navigation would definitely improve the usability of the site and make it easier to read and navigate.
Very true. Having too much going on with your site can create a confusing experience. It makes it difficult for visitors to find what they’re looking for. On the opposite site, a nice, simple layout with plenty of white space helps the right items stand out and makes for an improved user-experience. Thanks for the comment!