Does Web Design Impact SEO? Yes - Here's How to Harness It
Curious how web design impacts your Google rankings and search engine optimization (SEO) strategy? We can help!
On this page, you’ll learn all the different ways web design impacts your SEO, and how you can harness the power of web design to rank higher in search results.
SEO web design companies like DC Web Design & Marketing make this happen on a routine basis — in DC Web Design and Marketing’s case, we’ve been at it for over 20 years.
Keep reading or contact us to learn more about the basic tenets of good SEO website design
4 Ways Web Design Impacts SEO
Now that you know web design does impact SEO, let’s look at four specific web design elements that affect SEO.
- Speed
- Navigation
- Content Layout
- UX Design
The very first thing users will notice about your site is the loading speed. If a page from your website shows up in their search results, they might click on it, but they’ll expect it to pull up quickly.
They want an answer to their question, and they don’t want to wait for it — in fact, half of web users won’t even wait three seconds for a page to load before they hit the back button.
Do whatever you can to prevent this from happening. In particular, check for extremely large images that might be slowing things down. The faster your pages load, the happier your users will be.
Once your site is loading successfully, users will hopefully start making their way through different pages on it. To keep them there, be sure your site is easy to navigate.
When users visit your site and then immediately leave, not only do you lose potential leads, Google takes note of their behavior and interprets that to mean that your site doesn’t provide valuable information. The result is lower search rankings.
If a user starts out on a page about your service process and then wants to go get a quote, they’ll probably expect to find something in the navigation bar that will point them in the right direction. A tab titled “get a quote,” or even “get service,” will make it easy for them to see where to go.
On the other hand, if they start getting confused trying to find where things are, they’ll likely abandon you for a competitor, so it’s essential to clearly map out the structure of your website.
It’s not just the structure of the website as a whole that matters for SEO. You also have to correctly structure your textual content. Space out paragraphs. Bullets and numbered lists won’t necessarily work everywhere, but use them where you can.
More than anything, though, make sure your content is genuinely helpful. If it doesn’t answer users’ queries, Google will rank it much lower in the search results.
Something like visual aesthetics may seem like a lower-level priority, but it plays a huge role in how web design affects SEO. Just like load speed, the way a site looks can do a lot to determine users’ first impressions of it.
A site that provides a poor user experience, like a design that’s hard on the eyes, will quickly repel users. It gives off an air of unprofessionalism. On the flip side, though, a site that looks visually stunning or has a pleasing color scheme will draw people in.
This once again ties into the way Google interprets user behavior. If users arrive at a site and think “this looks really nice!”, they’re more likely to stay there, and Google will reward you for that. Whereas if they think “this looks ugly,” they’ll leave faster, and you’ll rank lower.
This doesn’t just go for aesthetics. Anything that could repel users should be minimized if you want to rank higher.
Get Started with SEO Web Design Services from DC Web Design & Marketing
Web design can either tank your SEO or let it soar, and you want to make sure your site does the latter. If you create a good impression from the first, users will be predisposed to think well of your content.
One of the best ways to make this happen is to partner with DC Web Design & Marketing! Our team of over 200 experts has the commitment and experience to provide you with some of the best web design out there. Just give us a call at 202-370-7515 or contact us online today to get started!
