If you have a physical and online store, you must have an SEO-friendly website. The design of your website plays a vital role in capturing and retaining customers. In a nutshell, if you want to improve customer experience, raise engagement, keep your website at the top of search engines, and get the highest ROI, you must consult with web design experts like itonly.com.au.
10. Factors to Consider When Designing an SEO-friendly Website
Designing a website is not complicated. But when it comes to installing all the plugins and ensuring it’s user and SEO-friendly, you’d have to work with professional web designers on top of learning how SEO works in business. These are some of the factors to consider when designing an SEO- friendly website.
1. Loading Time
When users are looking for information online, they want fast-loading sites. Therefore, customers will quit if your site has a long loading time. So, before designing your website, you must determine the hosting services to guarantee efficient website speed.
A website with a short loading time increases customer retention and enhances user experience, thus giving it a competitive edge.
2. Mobile Optimization
The development of smartphones has made it possible for people to access websites through their phones. So, when designing a website, you must ensure that it is mobile-friendly by using a responsive design.
A responsive design allows people to access your website from their phones, tablets, or desktops as it’s compatible with the changes in screen dimensions. It also makes people stay on your site longer, thus boosting your website ranking.
3. Keyword Research
Content creation is a crucial part of a website as it helps drive traffic to your website by providing people with valuable information. Content also helps establish yourself as a leader in your niche. To ensure that people are redirected to your site by the Search Engine, you must use high-value keywords.
You can subscribe to the Keyword research apps and make a list of keywords to use using a keyword planner. This list consists of words your followers and customers will use when searching for your products or services. Then use these keywords in your content and ensure they blend seamlessly.
The keywords consist of short and long-tail keywords and primarily inform you about customers’ search habits. Long-tail keywords are the best for driving traffic to your site. Your content can be in the form of blogs, ebooks, infographics, or videos. Above all, ensure that it’s informative and easy to understand.
Creating an SEO-friendly website requires you to integrate keywords in all your pages, from the landing page, about us, and contact page.
4. Tags Optimization
You need to consider the proper use of tags; for instance, title tags give the search engine an idea of what your page is all about.
You must optimize your headers using the keywords. For the title tag, you must integrate the main keywords. This also applies to the H1 and some of the H2. And make sure to use other keywords for the rest of the tags, as they will help rank your website.
5. Internal and External Links
Consider using internal and external links to build your site’s authority. Internal links are used to connect different pages within your website. This helps increase the visibility of other pages. It also increases the time a person spends on your website, thus enhancing engagement, boosting your site’s ranking, and leveling up your chances of making a sale.
External links make your site appear trustworthy to search engines. Therefore, aim to link authority websites that provide valuable resources to your followers.
However, don’t spam your content with links, as it may appear unprofessional, and you may incur penalties. You can also link your socials, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
6. Navigation
It would help if you considered your website accessibility when designing. Make sure to use a clean design that allows your customers to navigate easily. This reduces bounce rate and ensures customers spend more time on your site.
A clean design also makes it easy for the search engine to crawl through your site; you can increase your site navigation by including a site map, which helps users know where to find everything. Streamlining navigation in your website eliminates issues that prolong loading time while increasing your online presence.
7. Meta Description Optimization
When designing a website, ensure you have a plugin that uses meta descriptions. This is the short paragraph that appears after the title on search engines. It previews what the reader expects to find upon opening the content.
Optimizing your meta descriptions using the main keywords would be best as it earns you more clicks and website traffic. A meta description should be a maximum of 150 characters.
8. Image and Video Optimization
Images and videos are a great addition to your website as they enhance your website’s appearance. However, they can significantly lower your site’s loading times, especially if they are large files. So, consider compressing your images and video size to improve your site’s loading time.
9. Readability
When creating an SEO-friendly website, it’s possible to get sucked into the technical aspects of website design, forgetting that your readers and customers need to understand all the information on your site. Therefore, you may have a visually appealing website, but you won’t get any traction if your readers cannot understand a thing.
Therefore, while the visual impression is crucial, you must also focus on your site’s readability. This is because Search engines promote sites that users find relevant. So ensure all the content on your website is easy to read, using the correct font style and size that do not need zooming.
It would also be great to use short and easy-to-read paragraphs or bullet points as it allows the reader to skim through them.
10. Call to Action
Placing a call to action on your website and the content encourages your customers to contact or provide feedback. This helps you create a connection with your customers while improving engagement.
Benefits of an SEO-friendly Website
- Enhances user experience
- Strengthens your online presence
- Increases customer engagement
- Improves your website ranking on search engines
- Delivers the best return on investment (ROI)
Final Thoughts
You must design an SEO-friendly website to grow your online business. Ensure that your website incorporates all the factors above if you want to increase traffic, drive engagement, and rank higher on search engines. Creating an SEO-friendly website is a process that takes time; therefore, you’d better work with an SEO expert.
