Website owners always ask themselves this question: Does Website Design Affect SEO? The straight answer is Yes.
Your website is a crucial part of Google’s ranking factors. And Google won’t want to rank something that is not easy for their end-users to navigate through. Plus, 75% of website credibility comes from design, so web design is not something businesses should take for granted.
So the question is, how does your website design affect SEO, and how can you improve your website and make it rank on search engines.? These are the questions we’ll answer in this blog.
Search Engines Don’t Rank Poorly Designed Websites.
Think about it for a second. You search for something on Google, open the first website on the Search Engine Result Page and the first thing you see is a website that looks like something from the 90s. Would you want to work with that business?
Search engines look favorably at updated and modern websites with good information and easy navigation. It makes it easy for their users to find the right information from the right website. So, those annoying popups, ads, and difficult fonts reduce your website’s ranking. You should focus on a simple but effective design, so your website can get the message across as quickly as possible.
Slow-Loading Websites Don’t Rank Highly on Search Engines
Again, think about how annoying it is when you click on a particular website, and it takes forever to load. Don’t you just close the website and look for the next one that can give you what you need?
Studies have shown that 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. And the higher your website’s bounce rate, the lower it ranks. More studies show that 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. The above numbers show how important it is for your website to load up quickly and not lose the user’s interest.
Search Engines Rank Responsive Websites Highly
The majority of people are on their phones. And according to OurCodeworld, 57% of all web traffic comes from Mobile devices, so if your website is not responsive, you are not only going to lose the potential customers that land on your website, but search engines will also not easily rank you.
As mentioned before, a search engine’s biggest goal is to give its user the correct information quickly and easily. So mobile-responsive websites have an easy-to-use layout and are easy to navigate and thus looked at favorably by search engines.
Easy Navigation Is a Crucial Factor in Ranking in Search Engines
The plan is to make your website as user-friendly as possible. And this starts with how easily navigatable it is.
The truth is if people cannot easily navigate through your website regardless of how much value you have or any effort you’ve put into optimizing it for SEO, your website will be poorly ranked.
So, it’s something you should consider. The fact is, regardless of how valuable your content is, if people cannot easily navigate around your website and find things, they will bounce off. This becomes an issue for search engines, and even if your website is optimised for SEO, search engines will not rank you with high bounce rates.
HTML And CSS rank better than Websites Coded With Flash
Your SEO can have negative impact if coded with flash. It is more challenging to optimise Flash-based websites, which then affects your search ranking. Your web designer should stick to HTML and CSS as these have a better chance of ranking.
Search Engines Pay Attention to Your URL Structure
URLs with descriptive words help search engines understand your pages and make it easier for your customers to navigate and find the correct pages.
Not every web designer remembers this, but each page should have a descriptive URL that describes what’s on the page. Plus, these words should be divided by hyphens and not underscores and have some keywords. This way, it becomes easier for Google’s web crawler to crawl through your website.
Let SME Digital Help You Design a Website With SEO In Mind
Whether you need a new website or want to improve your existing one, we can help! We have years of experience building beautiful, functional Search Engine Optimized websites for all types of businesses, from small local companies to large corporations.
Our designers work closely with each client throughout the process, so you get exactly what you want – on time and within budget!
Our sites are also built to be responsive, which means they look great on any device, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops/desktops. So whether someone visits your site via their phone, tablet, or desktop computer, it will look fantastic no matter what they are viewing it on.
