Most business owners have released the importance of having a website, even more so following the global impact and aftermath of COVID-19, moving access to their products and services online. However, whilst the aesthetics of your website will be one of the first things you consider, make sure it is not ‘all style and no substance’. In this article, we look at how some aspects of web design will directly affect how efficient it is and how it can impact your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Why should you be worried about SEO?

SEO is vital in determining how likely your website will rank highly in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). Better Organic Visibility will increase high-quality website traffic and visitor engagement with your website. Read our previous blog, the basics of SEO, for more information.

How can your website design help SEO?

Traditionally, content and keyword targeting were core focus points of all SEO tasks. Whilst these are still important ranking factors, search engines now look at other indicators when ranking your website. For example, when building your website, you must consider other aspects such as:

  • User Experience – The User Experience (UX) and the Bounce Rate score of your website will play a crucial role in how search engines rank your website. Search engines can assess the quality of your website by its Bounce Rate – visitors who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page – or if they don’t leave straight away, how much time visitors spend on your site once there, known as UX. The design and build of your site and how visitors access content can significantly improve these two elements and, subsequently, your SEO ranking. Features to consider include; clean and easy-to-use navigation and ensuring your site is responsive and mobile-friendly. Making your site easy to navigate with easily accessibly content will ensure that users find the information they need and improve how search engines can crawl and index your pages.
  • The need for speed – Search engines are increasingly using site speed as one of the top-ranking factors, but many site owners do not release this when implementing creative design features. If images, media elements and other rich features are causing your pages to take a long time to load, your site speed will significantly be reduced, which will have a knock-on effect on your search positions. In turn, if visitors are frustrated by the speed of your site – currently, a typical web user expects web pages to load in less than 3 seconds – this will negatively impact your Bounce Rate and UX scores discussed above. One of the easiest ways to increase page speed is by decreasing the file size of images and ensuring they have been optimised correctly. Additionally, too large CSS and JavaScript files will take longer to download, and thus the entire page will take much more time to render. Many other elements can affect the site’s speed, and it is essential to consider these when improving your site. A good web developer and SEO expert will ensure your site is built and working efficiently and implement effective website speed optimisation techniques to help you improve this essential ranking factor.
  • Mobile-friendliness  – In 2022, 58 percent of all worldwide traffic came from mobile. By 2025, it is expected that three-quarters of the world will use only smartphones to access the web. A responsive website helps improve your SEO and ensures your target audience has a seamless experience regardless of whether they are accessing your site from their computer or mobile device.

One of the critical things to remember is that whilst a smart-looking website might make a good first impression about your business, you won’t get a second chance when it comes to user experience. It is also essential to understand that search engine crawlers are effectively blind, so how it looks won’t necessarily impact how highly you rank in the search engines. However, they will use indicators such as those mentioned in this blog to determine the strength of your site. High-performance websites result in high return visits, low bounce rates, higher conversions, engagement, higher ranks in organic SERP, and better user experience. Therefore, keep in mind some of these factors to ensure your beautiful website is not harming your SEO efforts.

SEO and Web Design Services

At FireTap, our marketing team can develop a strategy to help you benefit from the full potential of SEO. We work with you to keep on top of ongoing changes in search engine best practices to ensure your website is at optimum performance, improves Search Engine Ranking Results (SERPs), and drives traffic to your website.

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We are a team of expert digital and content marketers for professional services and other businesses, specialising in marketing for law firms and solicitors in London.

Our approach is transparent, engaging, and flexible.

For excellent marketing for your business, contact us today.