Understanding the connection between web design and search engine optimization is crucial. Web design determines the experience of your customers. At the same time, it helps search engines to better understand your website and rank it higher. That’s why we want to explore the impact web design has on SEO.
Website structure improves crawlability and indexation
When discussing web design, we must consider more than just the website’s aesthetics. Website structure includes the correct position of elements and the structure and hierarchy of pages. It’s important to design a well-structured website if you wish to improve Google rankings. That substantially improves the crawlability and indexation of the pages.
Improved user experience reduces the bounce rate
Reduce your bounce rate by improving the web design and user experience.
Let’s consider how many websites there are today. Each website has a unique design, aiming to provide value to its clients.
However, some websites fail to do so. Users who visit a website that doesn’t deliver a smooth customer experience will quickly leave the page. This increases the page’s bounce rate, and that hurts your search rankings. If you use web design to make the user experience better, that will also benefit your SEO.
Understanding these SEO basics is crucial to help your small business grow. It’ll help you better understand the impact web design has on SEO and how you can use that to your advantage.
Good web design improves the loading speed
Another way to reduce the bounce rate through web design is to ensure the website loads quickly. A well-designed website won’t be overcrowded with unnecessary bells and whistles. Often we see websites that use too many sliders, pop-ups, or ads that slow down the page speed.
Your web design should be crisp and clean. It should focus only on customer value. Once you accomplish that, the pages should load faster. There are also a number of technical solutions to a page that’s too slow, like condensing CSS, caching, and other things your web designer is familiar with.
The importance of mobile-friendly web design
It is no secret that Google values mobile-friendly websites since more than half of all searches are done from phones. If your website isn’t responsive to mobile devices, you have less chance of competing well against other websites: Google will tend to rank them higher.
Even if customers find your website, they may still be discouraged by the lack of responsiveness. That can also affect the bounce rate and your overall SEO ranking. In other words, don’t overlook the importance of mobile-friendly web design to ranking well on search engines..
Social media in web design
Add social media share buttons on your website to help the visitors share your content.
An underused social media technique in web design is adding social media “share buttons” on your website. Sharing website content on social media is very important. Allowing users to more easily share your content can improve the visibility of your website and provide more organic traffic.
If you add “share” social media buttons in addition to the more common “follow” buttons on your website, you’re making it possible for your clients to share content on their social media profiles. See the floating share buttons on the left side if this blog for an example of this technique in practice. By improving website visibility through this strategy, you may also improve your search engine ranking.
Internal link optimization
Link building is one of the most important SEO strategies you can use. When it comes to internal links, they can play a big part in the website’s aesthetics. Just think of a web page stuffed with links so much that they distract the user from the flow of information on your page. Too many links will have users quickly switching pages, which is not a good practice. We also recommend having your links open in a new browser tab instead of permanently directing users away from your page.
Properly placed links will add value to your users and connect pages on your website. Both parts are essential for on-page SEO. You want to address key parts of your website holistically and make sure that they all contribute to search engine ratings.
Website accessibility
Another essential element of web design is website accessibility. It’s important that you allow all users to equally experience your website. Those who suffer from various disabilities may not be able to perceive traditional web design like everyone else.
Website accessibility is now a standard in quality web design. You want to ensure that all pages are equally accessible to all of your customers. This not only improves the customer experience but also may increase search ratings.
In some countries, your business might even be legally prosecuted if it’s not accessible. Some claim that website accessibility is as crucial as responsiveness to mobile devices. It’s one of the Google ranking factors.
Web design consistency
Link building is an essential element of web design that greatly impacts SEO.
A website is just a part of your business. It is one platform that works together with other elements to create a brand image. You should show consistency across all website pages and across other business materials like brochures and stationery.
If each page is designed in a different style, that can cause confusion. What you want is to create a familiar feeling for your customers. No matter what page they visit, they should be able to predict where each element is. Web design should make your customers feel at home.
Websites that follow the practice of consistent web design will create a personal connection with your customers. That can affect their brand image and indirectly positively affect SEO.
Website navigation affects user experience
Another web design element that significantly affects user experience is website navigation. Visitors should be able to quickly navigate your website without too many issues or questions. Just like with other elements, web navigation should also be consistent across all pages, including your blog.
The idea is to help users have a smooth experience and find all the information they need as quickly as possible. Website navigation also has an impact on SEO. It’s a part of website structure, and it helps search engines to better understand your website.
The impact web design has on SEO – explained!
We hope that you now understand the impact web design has on SEO and that you see how important the connection between the two really is. Ensure your web design is always straightforward and aligned with the latest trends and your business goals. Remember to introduce new changes to your website from time to time. It is crucial to provide a fresh experience to your customers and ensure a high-ranking position. A good way to assure fresh content is to have a blog, for example.
About the Author
Marcus Johnson is a seasoned web designer specializing in visually appealing and user-friendly web design. He wants to share his knowledge of web design and SEO with the help of his passion for writing.
Where you show up in Google search results is determined by an algorithm that evaluates many characteristics of your website. Those characteristics, or ranking factors — both positive and negative — affect how visible you will be in search results.
Google’s ranking algorithm is reported to contain more than 200 SEO ranking factors, each with its own weight or level of importance.
Nobody knows all of the Google ranking factors, but experience gives us a really good sense of which are the most important.
Categories of Google ranking factors
There are three groups of ranking factors that are important to understand.
Technical ranking factors tend to be mostly managed by your web designer. They have to do with your website’s level of performance and what I refer to as Google-friendliness. These are typically site-wide factors rather than factors relating to individual pages on your site.
On-page ranking factors are typically controlled by you and relate directly to the content of your web pages and keyword optimization.
Off-page ranking factors are things you have somewhat less control over because they’re not on your website. These typically relate to your authority or importance on the web, based largely on backlinks.
Here is what I considered to be the top 10 positive Google ranking factors today. This list isn’t in any kind of priority order for a couple of reasons. First, it would be pretentious to claim that I know which of these factors are more important than which others. Secondly, good SEO is a function of many small techniques that support each other. No one of them is critically essential to good rankings — it’s the sum total of all of them that matters.
Mobile phones now account for more than half of all searches done. As a result, it’s essential that your website be mobile-friendly. I typically recommend ensuring your website is “responsive” which means that its display varies depending upon the device connecting to your site. That ensures that the same information is available regardless of the platform your visitor may be using.
2) Security (SSL and HTTPS)
Whether or not your website is secure is a ranking factor at Google. Beyond that, many browsers will show a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar when someone arrives on your website. Some website plug-ins actually display a warning page instead of the page on your site, encouraging people not to visit your site. Many people mistake the “not secure” warning as meeting your website is dangerous or may load viruses on your computer. The result is a certain portion of the people trying to visit your site abandoning it, costing you business.
To be secure you need to arrange to have an SSL certificate and your URL needs to begin with HTTPS instead of the insecure HTTP.
High-quality content is essential. It has a big effect on whether people stay to read it or bounce away (which Google sees as a negative ranking factor. Readability is a critical part of quality content. Another is customer focus; it’s important to focus on what’s in it for your reader/customer. That means focusing on benefits to the customer rather than features of your product or service.
Keyword relevance is also essential here. Your page has to show search engines that it’s all about your target keywords. That means having your keywords and related words and phrases in your content enough to make sure Google easily understands what your page is all about. But avoid keyword stuffing as that detracts from the quality of your content.
5) Headings and meta tags
Having keywords in headings and sub-headings gives them some extra weight with search engines and helps readers navigate your content efficiently. For that to happen, they need to be coded within heading tags to search engines can tell they’re headings.
While meta tags are not visible on the page, two items in the HTML code of your page are very important: the page title and the description tag. The page title isn’t a heading on your page, but it acts as the headline for your listing in all search engines. So it’s a critical place to include your keywords. Google says keywords in your meta description tag don’t influence your ranking, but since this description often ends up in your search listings it has a direct impact on how likely a searcher is to click on your listing.
6) Image keyword optimization
Every image on your page provides two or three places to put your keyword phrases in front of the search engines without keyword stuffing your text content.
The image filename is most obvious. An image filename of img183572x6.jpg tells Google nothing. But one that’s got a keyword in it (like nj-real-estate-lawyer.jpg) can really help.
Alternate text is text describing the image for visually impaired visitors who have their computers read the page out loud. It’s a great place to show your keywords to Google.
And if an image acts as a clickable link to someplace else, a title attribute generates a little text box that pops up when the user hovers their mouse over the image. It’s meant to tell the user what’s at the other end of the link if they click it, and is another place you may be able to use a keyword.
7) URL structure
Your URL structure helps you in three ways.
It improves the user experience of your listings in Google:
Links can sometimes serve as their own clickable text of a link.
Here’s an example from Moz:
8) Schema code
Schema markup is a common short term for structured data, named after Schema.org, the website for structured data markup. It’s sometimes called structured data markup and it tells the search engines exactly what kind of information is on your website. It’s totally in the HTML code behind your website and doesn’t affect what visitors see on your site. If you’re a local service area business, it can be especially helpful to identify your location and service area for local searches.
You can easily check out your own schema code in this schema code validator. If it shows you don’t have schema code, it’s time to fix that.
Page and Domain Authority strongly impact your rankings. These are metrics developed by the folks at Moz that attempt to predict how well a given website will show up in search results. It’s based largely on the number and quality of other websites that link to you and is designed to correlate with Google’s internal PageRank scoring.
10) Local prominence
Prominence refers to how widely across the web you’re listed with a correct and consistent NAP (name, address, phone). It’s particularly important for small businesses to show up in local search results and in the Google Local 3-Pack. These listings are often called citations and citation management deserves ongoing attention from small local businesses. But don’t be misled by many of the common misconceptions about citations that are floating around.
Feel free to use our free tool to check on several dozen top citation sources to see how your own prominence looks.
Bottom Line
None of these are absolutely essential. But none of them can be ignored either. Where you rank is the result of all of these things (and more). Just do your best with as many of these as you can.
How’s your experience been with these issues? What other factors do you think deserve to be included? Start a discussion below.
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When you’re creating a website for a new business, think carefully about the domain name for your website. It’ll represent your business in a unique way and it will become as important a branding consideration as your company name.
You want it to reflect your company, but there are several other considerations as well.
Decide on your top level domain.
This is the suffix at the end of your website address. Businesses should normally have a .com top level domain (TLD). But there are exceptions. Internet-based businesses, like web designers, may want a .net TLD. Not for-profit businesses and trade organizations may be best served by a .org TLD. And of course colleges and universities qualify for a .edu TLD. Also consider that the Search Engine Institute recommends avoiding .info domain names claiming that they have a reputation for being spammy websites. Learn more about TLDs here.
Start with your company name
Does it lend itself to a unique domain name for your website? Or does another business already have a domain name that matches your company name?
If your name includes keywords, so much the better. Jones Brothers Plumbing Co. might choose JonesPlumbing.com or JonesBrothersPlumbing.com. The keyword is likely to be slightly helpful in search rankings.
You can also think about geographic keywords — like MorristownPlumbers.com. But don’t get carried away with something like MorristownNewJerseyPlumbingAndHeating.com.
Beyond this, you may find that the domain name you’ve chosen has already been taken. It may be in use, or it may be held by a squatter who ill happily sell it to you for an exorbitant fee. If that happens, you may find some help in this article from Search Engine Journal: What to Do When the .COM You Want Is Taken.
Consider your domain name thoughtfully
And finally, look at your domain name with a careful eye. Make sure you don’t choose an unfortunate domain name that can be easily or disastrously mis-read. I have a few surprisingly bad examples here.
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Schema is a common short term for structured data, named after Schema.org, the website for structured data markup. It was created by a collaborative team from Google, Bing, and Yahoo. It’s not too often that competitors come together with a common purpose. But structured coding is important enough for them to do it. It creates an agreed-upon set of rules for structured data that tells the search engines exactly what kind of information is on your website.
Schema code goes into the HTML code that tells a browser what information is on your website and how to display it. According to schema.org:
Most webmasters are familiar with HTML tags on their pages. Usually, HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. For example, <h1>Avatar</h1> tells the browser to display the text string “Avatar” in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means — “Avatar” could refer to the hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture—and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.
Schema for SEO
We always recommend that our SEO clients include schema structured data markup as an important SEO technique. That’s because giving the search engines structured data helps them understand your webpages better and results in a ranking increase for you. It’s especially critical for local SEO.
One study determined that websites with schema coding rank an average of four positions higher in search engine results than those without schema markup.
Schema allows search engines to better understand addresses, dates of events, phone numbers, email addresses, and other information about you. So it helps Google understand:
who you are
what you do
how to reach you,
and (critical for local businesses) where you are.
Since schema is in the HTML code of your website, it’s the responsibility of your web designer to understand how to write that part of the code for your site. The structured code in schema tends to be detailed and complex. Unless you’re acting as your own web designer, the two things you need to know about schema on your website are
Did I say this stuff is complex? True. Above is a small sample of structured code from Google’s Structured data Testing Tool. But that’s why your small business’ competitors are probably not using it. So implementing it on your own site gives you a significant advantage over those competitors who don’t use it.
There is a stupefyingly simple way to implement this stuff on your website. It’s a lifesaver if you’re doing your own coding, but even if your webmaster does it for you, this solution can save significant time, effort, and money.
I have long been a proponent of Yext PowerListings for local businesses. Yext is the leader in local data management, and many of my clients subscribe to their Knowledge Graph service. [Full disclosure: I am a Yext Certified Partner] In a nutshell, PowerListings gives you a single place to enter tons of information about your business which is then published on more than six dozen local search engines, directories, maps, and mobile apps.
Yext Knowledge Tags is an enhancement to their Knowledge Graph PowerListings which provides a simple short snippet of code to add to your web pages that will implement full schema coding throughout. If anything changes in your Knowledge Graph, it’s automatically reflected in the schema code on your website. Immediately.
A CTA is a direction that asks or tells your reader to do something. It’s an image or line of text that prompts your reader to take an action, like download, buy, learn, request, sign up, subscribe, join, phone, ask, get help …
Why are CTAs important?
Do you want more orders? More inquiries from potential customers? How about more readers for your blog? More social shares? None of that is likely to happen without good calls to action.
If you’ve ever ordered a fast food burger, you were almost certainly asked “Do you want fries with that?” That’s a call to action, and it sells a lot more fries than if they don’t ask.
It’s a very important part of getting your website visitors to convert into customers, and it’s often overlooked in writing website content. A call to action can determine whether or not a visitor on your website does what you want them to.
And customers actually expect them. When they get to a breaking point in a page or reach the bottom, they often look for direction to help them move on to the next step – whatever that is.
How to create and use Calls to Action
There are a few guidelines for effective use of CTAs. Here are what I consider to be the most important of them.
Almost all of your marketing content needs calls to action:
brochures
emails
blog posts
web pages
coupons
print ads
Make them brief. Occasionally for SEO purposes, a call to action may be longer for the sake of including keywords, but in general they tend to work better if they’re brief.
Make them clear – ambiguous CTAs don’t work.
Demonstrate a benefit. Give your readers a reason to take the action you want them to take.
It never hurts to emphasize that something is FREE!
Use strong action verbs:
Download
Buy
Sign up
Subscribe
Join
Get Started
Call Now
Ask Us
Get Help
Wherever possible, avoid weak directions like “click here” or “learn more”.
Make your CTA as specific as possible:
Download my E- book
Call to talk with us
Sign up for our email newsletter
Ask us a question
Make your call to action stand out visually on the page.
The best locations are at the end of a blog post or web page, in between separate topics on a page, in a side panel, or in a pop-up or slide-in.
The Daily Egg has a nice article on examples that work.
Neil Patel suggests avoiding CTAs like Sign up — Buy now — Learn more. He offers some detailed advice on how to write calls to action that are more likely to convert visitors to customers.
And here are a few CTA’s of our own:
We welcome your opinion. Join the conversation in the Comments below!
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Need more traffic so more customers can see and respond to your Calls to Action? Rank Magic can help! Ask me how.
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Schema is a common short term for structured data, named after Schema.org, the website for structured data markup. It was created by a collaborative team from 
We always recommend that our SEO clients include schema structured data markup as an important SEO technique. That’s because giving the search engines structured data helps them understand your webpages better and results in a ranking increase for you. It’s especially critical for 
There is a stupefyingly simple way to implement this stuff on your website. It’s a lifesaver if you’re doing your own coding, but even if your webmaster does it for you, this solution can save significant time, effort, and money.
Yext Knowledge Tags is an enhancement to their Knowledge Graph PowerListings which provides a simple short snippet of code to add to your web pages that will implement full schema coding throughout. If anything changes in your Knowledge Graph, it’s automatically reflected in the schema code on your website. Immediately.
A CTA is a direction that asks or tells your reader to do something. It’s an image or line of text that prompts your reader to take an action, like download, buy, learn, request, sign up, subscribe, join, phone, ask, get help …
Make them brief. Occasionally for SEO purposes, a call to action may be longer for the sake of including keywords, but in general they tend to work better if they’re brief.