We're back with another instalment in our web design series! Today we're delving into SEO and chatting through the importance of this step in your web design process.
Think of SEO like the underground network of cables transporting electricity and connection to thousands of homes all around you. We don't usually see it on the surface, but it's an integral part of your website's success and the main reason people find your site. Let's explore further!
Creating a SEO-friendly web design for your company will help you draw in visitors who are very likely to become paying customers and spread the word about your brand. This is achieved by including design processes, features, widgets, stylistic components, graphics, and text that specifically appeal to your unique target audience.
This calls for in-depth investigation, SEO testing, and expertise before a website build even begins. (Hint: You won't find many of these features on pre-made, build-your-own web development platforms!)
In order to draw in the right customers, a good web designer with SEO expertise considers:
All of this research and planning is part of website SEO. What you find out as you explore these elements determines:
A. What you do on the website itself to strengthen it from within — or On-Page SEO
B. What you do off the site to strengthen how the site from the outside — Off-Page SEO
It also determines what you do on an ongoing basis to maintain your website’s traction, rankings and place in the lives of customers. This is something called ongoing SEO maintenance. A site that’s not maintained on a weekly, monthly and sometimes even daily basis will get stale.
It will begin to decline as new, better websites overtake it. Not ideal!
Attracting people to your site who are potential customers is important. But you have to be able to “close the sale” with them. SEO web design is also conversion rate optimized (CRO).
SEO website design should seamlessly guide a person through the site’s internal links to your calls to actions. It helps your target client make the desired action like scheduling an appointment or buying your product a no-brainer.
But micro-conversions matter as well. Micro-conversions are little things that people do on your site to get more invested. They may:
An SEO expert analyses these micro-conversions. They learn from them to further optimize the user experience. On top of that, search engines like Google “track” these little interactions.
If someone is clicking on links and staying on the site, they consider this a positive user experience.
Website SEO must demonstrate that a website offers a great customer experience to earn top spots in search results.
Put simply, organic search results are the search results in Google that are not paid ads. A high ranking result on organic search drives over 50% of traffic around the web.
Being at the top of the results effectively demonstrates social proof that your site is the best site to answer that query. Over 75% of this traffic goes to people who are on the 1st page of the search results.
Search engines like Google are continually improving their algorithms to make sure the best sites float to the top. Benefits of having top results include:
Check out this great video we found that explains the benefits of organic search vs. paid search!
After reading this article, we're sure you have questions! For example:
- How do I fix the SEO on my current website?
- How can I get my site to the #1 ranking spot on Google?
- Will fixing SEO help me get more traffic?
The good news is that there are a lot of things you can do right away to improve an existing site's SEO and increase website traffic even after it's been built. However, it's hard to fully optimise an existing site.
The best place to start is by fully building a website with SEO as part of the planning process, which will inform the design, sitemap and integral features of your site. Websites that incorporate SEO web design get results and deliver the best ROI - built around your business, customers, industry, and goals. Both your ideal customers and Google respect these websites as leaders in your industry.
Get started today with a digital strategy call! We'll look over your site's current SEO rankings and mark areas of improvement. Best of all, it's completely free!
