Creating an aesthetically pleasing website can be extremely easy on the eye for users. However, if there are elements on the site that prevents them from using your website then all that work you’ve put into the web design becomes practically pointless. Common reasons can be because it’s too hard to navigate, the information is hard or the website can sometimes prevent them from reading the content.
Users often choose search engines to find a particular service or product. When they do, if they happen to click on your website then that’s fantastic news, but if they immediately click off it as due to the highlighted reasons above then this can seriously harm your search engine optimisation (SEO). It will increase your bounce rate and indicate to search engine providers that your website is providing a poor experience to users. As a result, your website will be demoted in rankings and prevent less users from looking at your website.
If you find this is the case with your website then it probably needs a re-think. Web design and SEO go hand-in-hand. Here are 5 ways effective web design can help to benefit your SEO strategy.
Creates a better user experience
First and foremost, Google has a big emphasis on ensuring users have an enjoyable experience when they land on website pages. The purpose of websites are not to only showcase your expertise and services, but entice the user to actually consider using or purchasing it in the first place. If your website has poor user experience, users are a lot less likely to use you as they would have had a negative first experience of your brand. First impressions are key.
Users need to be able to view your content and navigate through it successfully so they can find what they’re looking for. Improving the UX of your website is likely to increase your conversions far more.
Entices more traffic through mobile
Google introduced a mobile-first index approach back in July 2019. This meant for the first time, search engines would now consider users’ experience over mobile more than what they would over desktop. They took this approach as data suggested that users are more likely to make searches through their mobile device rather than through a desktop.
Ensuring that you have a responsive website design means users can actively use your website through other mobile devices when they’re on the go. A responsive website design means easier access and a better experience through mobile.
Faster loading web pages
Another approach that Google has taken when it comes to SEO ranking factors is the speed of websites. This has become an extremely important aspect of SEO as Google looks to adapt to users on mobile and those that are on the go. Faster loading pages means users can find what they’re looking for, quickly.
How can web design help with this? Well firstly, as a web designer you need to make sure that the elements that you incorporate onto the page don’t slow it down. Images and videos can take a while to load due to their file size or quality. By compressing these to the smallest file size without damaging the quality, it can help these elements to load far quicker.
There is also the benefit of incorporating accelerated mobile pages (AMPs) which have been created to help content load on mobile devices quicker.
Decrease bounce rate
This was mentioned earlier in the article. Bounce rates occur when a user enters a page through a search engine, but then immediately returns back to the search engine results page or goes to a different website in quick succession. This may be because they feel the design is poor or what the website provides isn’t what they’re looking for.
If you have a website that caters to the audiences needs and provides them with a pleasant experience, it’s unlikely that the user will immediately bounce off the website. At the same time, it’s also worth considering what type of website that you have. Service pages tend to have lower bounce rates compared to blog pages, for example. Just try to cater your website to your audience as much as possible.
Prevent duplicate content issues
There are several features in web design that can help with the prevention of duplicate content on your website. Duplicate content is considered extremely unethical in the world of SEO as it strongly suggests that the work is not unique and knowledgeable.
You’ll likely have two forms of your website, the mobile version and the desktop version. To prevent duplicate content issues occurring, responsive website design helps to create a website that arises from one location, but is adaptable to all sizes. This means all your efforts can go into one place, improving your ranking for the better.
Conclusion
Your main priority in website design is that your efforts help to benefit the user. By improving their experience, you’re better off because it improves your SEO ranking and engaging more users to your website. Heading over to a design agency and creating a new website for your business can be an exciting time, but don’t forget the importance of SEO with your website design.