Using web design for better SEO and rank at the top in Google search results

Every business needs a website to establish its online presence in this digital era.

However, simply having a website is not enough. To succeed in the highly competitive online landscape, businesses must focus on search engine optimization (SEO).

One crucial aspect of SEO that is often forgotten is web design. The design of your website can have a significant impact on your search engine rankings, as well as your user experience and engagement.

In this article, we’ll look at how to use web design to boost your SEO and rank higher in Google.

From website speed and mobile friendliness to sitemaps and metadata, we’ll cover all the critical elements of SEO-friendly web design and give you practical tips for optimizing your website.

What is web design?

In the early days, web design only focused on websites that were for desktop browsers only.

But after the launch of iPhones and Android, the focus shifted towards designing for mobile/tablet browsers.

Today, web design is a keystone to making or breaking a business by dealing with a website’s appearance, layout, font, color, images used, and navigation.

Web design vs. website development:

Building a website for the business as well as personal use shares two major aspects:

• Web design
• Web development

1. Web design: It is the process of creating the look and feel of a website that majorly deals with layout, color scheme, typography, and other visual elements.
2. Web development: Web development appears to be synonymous with web design. But web development is the process of turning those designs into a fully functional website where visitors can interact.

The main goal of web design is to ease communication problems between users and web page information.

Plus, it also helps businesses rank better on search engines.

Why is SEO web design essential for businesses?

A business can effortlessly use social media ads and PPC campaigns for good traffic.

But it is important to find them organically. And you should consider SEO web design for better rankings.

There are a few elements of both SEO and web design that are inextricably linked; I’ll mention these elements below:

● website speed
● Sitemaps
● Image file names
● mobile-friendliness
● navigation
● indexable content
● metadata
● alt tags
● URL structure

You should keep in mind that SEO and web design are ongoing processes, and it takes time and effort to see results.

5 common website design errors that will kill your dream of ranking first on Google:

1. Poor mobile experience:
The increasing number of mobile device users highlights the importance of mobile optimization.

Over 54% of website traffic is generated through smartphones, and almost 92.1% of people access the internet through their mobile phones.

Thus, website owners should prioritize their website’s content to read on small screens with appropriate images.

2. Slow website speed:

Google has stated that page load times factor into site rankings. Thus, you have to avoid using heavy graphics and videos on the webpage because it will make web pages slow.

You can fix this by using CDN or a caching plugin like Lite speed, or w3 cache which can reduce the page loading time.

3. Ineffective page, URL, and image naming:

Properly naming images (file names and alt text), meta titles, and URLs with relevant keywords is crucial for SEO.

However, it is important to avoid keyword stuffing in alt tags, which is an outdated and ineffective practice that can hurt your rankings.

Instead, use alt tags to provide clear explanations about your page and image content.

Above all, focus on relevance and describe and name page content in a meaningful way to your audience.

Additionally, optimizing alt tags is important for website accessibility, especially for those with vision impairments.

4. On-page optimization:

On-page optimization is an ongoing process that requires editors to regularly review keywords and update content.

To achieve this, it is crucial to write web pages using targeted keywords that potential customers would use when searching for products or services.

If you are a business owner and have a website to rank, you should try to add targeted keywords to your page headings (H1, H2) and subheadings.

Pro Tip: SEO tools such as Google’s keyword planner, ahref, and Semrush can help find and track targeted keywords.

5. Bad user experience:

The user experience includes content relevance and ease of navigation which play a significant role in website engagement rates, visitor retention, and bounce rates.

Unnecessary Javascript, ads, and pop-ups are other examples of bad user experience, distracting visitors to read content on your websites.

The design should showcase important content and direct readers to what matters.

Final Words:

A well-designed website can attract millions of visitors, increase engagement rates, and ultimately boost rankings.

From using relevant targeted keywords in page titles, URLs, and alt tags, to ensuring fast page load times, there are various design elements that can impact SEO.

Moreover, a successful website not only looks good but also functions smoothly, provides effortless navigation, and showcases meaningful content. By considering these design elements and incorporating them into your website, you can improve your SEO and increase your chances to end at the top of Google search results.