Does Web Design Matter For SEO?

Website design doesn’t seem like a component of SEO, but the way your website looks and feels matters a lot in terms of its search engine rankings.

Especially for smaller businesses, digital marketing efforts are usually divided into major components, usually kept separate from each other. So you may hire a web designer to create your site, and get someone else to focus on search engine optimisation. However, this approach may create some disconnect in the way your website can support your SEO efforts.

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How SEO and Web Design Connect

Web design and development is much more than just creating a visually-pleasing site, and the quality of yours can have a direct impact on how well your SEO efforts pay off.

Here are some major ways web design supports your SEO strategy:

1. It improves user experience

Search engines care a lot about user experience, meaning how pleased a user is with your website in terms of the information they find on it, how easy they can navigate it, and other essential elements that are ranking factors.

Good web design has the ability to improve your SEO ranking because it can address the key elements search engines and users expect when it comes to a modern site. Poorly designed sites that don’t live up to these expectations will not earn a high rank even if the content itself is relevant.

2. It can keep users on your site longer

A huge sign that your website is not high-quality is a high bounce rate, a metric that shows how quickly a user leaves your site after clicking on your link. High bounce rates show Google that the user was not pleased with what they found, which lowers your ranking.

For instance, if a user clicks on your link in the search results, but the page takes too long to load, they are more likely to hit back than wait for the page speed to improve. This increases your bounce rate and tells Google it should not award your link with such a high rank.

Through good design, on the other hand, makes the user spend more time on the site, and maybe even visit additional pages, which search engines regard as a positive sign.

3. It makes for search engine-friendly sites

Modern web design services don’t just focus on making beautiful web pages. The goal is to make high-quality, functional sites, which in these times means SEO-friendly sites.

This means that most modern website should:

• Be mobile-friendly
• Have a good page speed
• Have an intuitive navigation
• Be responsive (ensuring it works on different-sized screens and different browsers)
• Have a good URL structure, etc.

Such websites are rewarded with a better ranking in the search results because they manage to live up to expectations.

Is Website Design Enough?

The design of your site is only a portion of your SEO strategy. Though it does hold some weight, having a high-quality site alone is not a guarantee your platform will earn a good ranking in the search engine results pages.

SEO is a much more complex strategy that involves several different components, such as:

• Keyword research – finding and leveraging essential search terms to ensure you effectively match search queries and user intent. Keywords can be used throughout the content, URL structure, and even alt tags, such as image descriptions;
• Content marketing – high-quality content matters both for search engines and users. People need content to find the information they need, and it may even be the reason they return to a site. Additionally, content allows you to target essential keywords, which could help with your rankings;
• Link building – internal and external links are crucial to a site’s navigation and visibility, especially when it comes to backlinks (links on other platforms that lead to your website);
• Social media marketing – these efforts can help you improve visibility and gain additional website traffic, another factor that helps support your SEO efforts.

Search engine optimisation is also a long-term strategy that needs time to show effects.

Improve Your SEO Strategy Now

Good website design aims to support a business’s SEO efforts, and we can help ensure your strategy gets you the results you’re looking for. Australian Internet Advertising is the Google Partner Sydney business owners need to improve their optimisation efforts and reach their target audience.

If you want to get a personalised SEO strategy from us, please reach out to our SEO team online, or call our office at 1300 304 640 and let’s start discussing your SEO needs.