When it comes to designing a website, looks aren’t the only thing that matters. No matter how attractive your website is, it isn’t going to help you perform well on SERPs if it isn’t SEO-optimized. Both design and SEO are critical in getting your website on the first page of search results. Let us help you learn more with our list of the 5 most important ways that website design & SEO should be working together to create a seamless user experience – and help you perform well against your competition.
Your Site is Mobile-Friendly
With over half of people using their phones to surf the web rather than their computers, having a mobile-friendly site is more important than ever. Google made mobile-friendliness a ranking factor way back in 2015, and mobile-first indexing in 2017. This means that mobile-friendly sites are going to be favored for mobile searches. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, then your rankings will take a hit, making you miss out on potential customers. It can even end up having an effect on your desktop SERPs as well, if your site ends up with a high bounce rate due to poor mobile performance.
Your Design & Content are Easy-to-Read
If you have paid any time or attention to improving your site’s SEO, then you have likely tried to improve your page content. But even if your content is top-notch and layered with the right keywords at the proper density, poor design can negate all of that hard work.
A poorly designed layout can make content difficult to read. Big blocks of content, awkwardly placed pictures, too many hyperlinks, or a lack of headings can all contribute to poor readability. This means that website visitors aren’t going to stick around to get the information they want – and instead potentially send them to your competitors.
Your Website Loads Quickly
With our modern increased internet speeds and 5G phones, people expect websites to load quickly. Yet many sites end up with slow speeds due to poor website design. As many as half of all website visitors expect a page to load within three seconds. And if it doesn’t, they are likely to leave, giving you a high bounce rate and poor SERP rankings.
Page speed is a major factor for rankings. Not only does your bounce rate come into play, slow loading pages affect Google’s ability to crawl your site. This means fewer pages being indexed into Google’s search algorithm, and fewer chances for your site to be listed in SERPs for relevant searches.
You Have Sitemaps
Another factor that can affect the efficiency of crawling are sitemaps. These provide search engines with a guide of all of the pages on your website, telling search engines not just what it is you do, but also what is most important about your site as a whole. They also help aid user navigation by telling them exactly where the information they are looking for is located. Both of these factors help to boost your SERP rankings.
You Care About User Experience
Considering user experience as a whole involves following both website design & SEO best practices. Having fast loading speeds and quality content on a mobile-optimized site helps users to both navigate your site and get a positive impression of your business. You want people to be able to find the information that they need easily, to keep them on your site and turn them from leads into conversions.
We hope that this article has helped you to learn more about website design & SEO, and how they work together to boost SERP rankings. Interested in learning more about how you can help increase your SERP rankings with a user-friendly and SEO-optimized website? We are here to help! Gulf Coast Web has 25 years of experience in managing all types of digital design and marketing campaigns – even for companies outside of our immediate area. Our staff consists of highly-trained digital design advertising professionals who are both passionate about their jobs and excel at what they do. Contact us today to book a consultation with our team. We look forward to outlining exactly how we can help you grow your business with our digital media agency services.