A business in the 21st Century needs a website; and one that looks great. It also needs search engine optimization to bring in traffic. Design and SEO go hand in hand. For SEO success, can website design affect the promotion? It sure can. Your web design has a huge impact on your business’ online presence and, therefore, should be a part of your marketing strategy. Great web design goes far beyond making a positive visual impact; it also makes it easier and better for users and search engines to use the site.

SEO Optimization

Here’s How Website Design Affects the SEO Promotion

  1. Aesthetics

The goal is when users use search engines to find a product or a solution, they should be able to find your business’ website. However, if your site looks outdated and poorly designed; users are discouraged from engaging with it. They will exit and go back to the search page. That’s not just a lost opportunity to convert. What’s worse is this tells search engines that your site was not able to address the user’s questions; pushing your site further down the ranking. Therefore, it’s essential to spend a lot of time and effort in making the website’s appearance and feels beautiful.

  1. Navigation Ease

Besides making the site look pretty, web development must also focus on ease of use. Your website must be designed to be easy to use and navigate. Navigation must be intuitive and easy because it makes users stay longer on the site. If it is easy to find the information they are looking for, users are bound to come back. This tells search engines to push your site to the top of the ranks.

  1. Page Loading Speed

As search engines defer to the users’ experience; page speed is increasingly becoming one of the most important factors used to determine to rank. If your web pages load fast, users will be happy and would probably visit again. This will help boost your search engine ranking. Avoid heavy images, pop-ups, flash plugins, and other unnecessary items that could slow down your loading speed.

  1. Mobile Readiness

Because more people are on mobile devices than traditional computers; Google and other search engine algorithms give priority to websites who are mobile devices ready.  Your website cannot just look good on computers; they must look and feel good on all devices. Your content must be designed for all screen sizes.

Website Development: Design Dos and Don’ts

  • Do use legible text. Fonts must be big enough, clear, and easy to read. Additionally, use colors that are visually appealing. If your content is hard to read, users are going to leave.
  • Don’t use pop-ups. No one likes pop-ups. They are irritating and make the page load slower. If they cannot be avoided, use very few and use them after you have already established some trust with them. Do not use them as soon as the users click on your website.
  • Do mute videos. If your page features videos that automatically play, make sure they are muted.
  • Don’t use big files. Big files make loading a page slower. As already established, slow-loading pages irritate users and discourage any more interaction with the website.
  • Do use good layouts. Make sure the website is uncluttered, the answers are the easily-locatable using heading tags, and enough white space is present.
  • Don’t use poor content. High-quality and relevant content will encourage more user engagement. Content is part of any good search engine optimization

Conclusion

Can Website Design Affect SEO Success? The short and true answer is yes. A website that is well-designed, easily navigable, fast, and mobile-ready has better chances of ranking high on search engines. It also, therefore, has more chances of getting traffic and conversion. Web design is a crucial part of any business’s SEO strategy if they want to succeed in the 21st Century marketplace.