SEO and Web Design

When it comes to web design, not a lot of webmasters see how much it can benefit SEO efforts if it’s completed right. Ultimately, a good web design can provide an excellent user experience and that’s something more and more search engines are requiring. The last thing a search engine wants is to display results to pages that offer visitors no value whatsoever. If you’re trying to get a small advantage over your competitors, it’s important you concentrate on your website from the bottom up, starting with your web design. Here are some of the web design additions/alterations you can make to increase user experience and thus, improve search engine presence.

Take Advantage of HTML5/CSS3 When It Matters

Improving user experience these days is all about increasing page loading times so users don’t have to wait. That can be done by avoiding the use of images where possible. With HTML5 and CSS3 now working together nicely, there’s plenty you can do to avoid using images altogether. Of course, when you have complicated gradients or background images of landscapes, you don’t have any other option. But, if your design is simple and pleasing to the eye, you can usually get away with using just a couple of images or even some simple lines of HTML/CSS code. One or two images less might not seem important, but it could be the difference with a customer growing impatient of waiting for a page to load. If you’re really looking to make everything count when it comes to SEO, invest in an SEO technical audit so you know what else you can do to improve both on-page and off-page SEO efforts.

Opt for a One-Page Design

One-page designs are increasingly growing in popularity thanks to the user experience benefits they provide. But, not only do they give users access to all content of a website on one page, they also use fewer images which could increase page loading times further. One-page designs are also perfect for mobile optimization and it makes it very easy to increase speeds on several other devices, too. Of course, mobile devices are used much more these days when it comes to surfing and shopping, so ensuring the user experience is perfect for those visitors is just as important as anything else.

Minimalistic HTML Forms

Another good way to increase user experience is to design your HTML forms with a minimalist feel. The problem some websites/businesses have these days is that they try to get too much information from a user without really needing it. It might only make a small difference in terms of speed and user experience, but the fewer fields you have in your forms, the more chance you’re going to build new relationships. Minimalistic forms use less code, increase user experience, and could make the difference in securing new customers.

There’s plenty you can do regarding web design if you want to improve SEO, and the above are just some of the simple features you can implement to ensure your site provides the best experience for your visitors.