In just a few years, SEO has gone from being relatively unknown to being a staple of modern business marketing.
While some companies may have been able to get away without formulating an SEO strategy for their website, it is becoming harder and harder for companies without a clear SEO strategy to find new business and achieve success online.
Even with a better understanding of how web design with SEO is used and contributes to business success, marketing departments and companies continue to ignore how good web design plays a factor in any successful SEO strategy.
Connecting web design with SEO may not be completely intuitive to everyone, but it is important to understand. Here are 8 reasons why you need an SEO-ready website:
1. Mobile-Friendly Web Design with SEO
The number of people using a mobile device to search the web is continuing to increase rapidly, so much so that Google has decided to favor the websites with a mobile-friendly design.
That means that in order to implement a truly SEO-ready web design, your site needs to be mobile friendly, or risk missing out on appearing in front of mobile searchers, resulting in a loss of customers or business in favor of your more mobile-friendly competition.
2. Quality Content Focus
Regardless of the kind of website and company you are operating, you want to have space to add good content. The text on your site is what allows search engines to see what services you offer and what information you provide.
So, while you don’t want to put up a website with boring blocks of text alone, you’ll want to ensure there is sufficient space to add product or service descriptions, details, and blog posts.
3. Image Optimization
Surprisingly few people take full advantage of image optimization, but it can make a big difference when it comes to the success of an SEO strategy.
When planning the web design process, you’ll want to ensure you have the ability to optimize your images with alt text and keywords to increase your chances of appearing prominently in search.
4. User-Friendly Navigation
The content on your site is only valuable to your users if it is easy to access, and intuitive to locate. Hiding good content in hard to reach places ensures it is rarely seen.
Ensure your user experience is well thought out, and use calls to action to guide users down your preferred funnel. Finally, use an XML sitemap to ensure the search engines know your site’s layout too.
5. Good User Engagement
User behavior is becoming an increasingly important factor in search rankings. When determining which pages to display first, search engines will take into consideration things like bounce rate and how much time a user spends on the website.
A good strategy for web design with SEO tries to prevent visitors from coming to your site and immediately leaving because it is too difficult to find the correct information or it isn’t visually appealing.
6. Good URL Structure
Having clean, easily interpreted URLs is also a factor to consider in your SEO strategy.
When determining which content management system or platform to build in, ensure you have the ability to control what the URL is for each page of your website, or that it is user-friendly by default.
7. Optimized Loading Times
No one wants to wait too long for their website to load. That’s why search engines choose to more easily overlook sites with too many images or that otherwise take too long to load.
Optimize your site for speed, implement caching, and consider a web design that allows for easy and quick page-load-times to make visitors and search engines happier.
8. Social Media Integration
Social media also plays into your SEO strategy.
With a good web design, you should be able to easily connect your social media channels to your website to engage your website visitors and customers across multiple channels.
Related: 13 Web Design Mistakes To Avoid
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency has spent years ensuring that our designs are SEO-friendly from the get-go, including incorporating the advice of our SEO professionals during the design phase. These 8 tips will ensure that you are well on the way to having an SEO-ready website!
