What is SEO Web Design?
A critical feature of your website is a web design that drives traffic to your site, which is why search engine optimization (SEO) design is so important. When you create a website that incorporates smart web design and strong SEO, your website will rank higher in search results- making it easier for people to find you, whether they are looking for you by name or looking for services, products, or information that you provide. The following are SEO web design elements that can be incorporated into your website design to create a website that is attractive to both visitors and search engines:
Code. Search engines view a website through what is contained in the HTML document. JavaScript and CSS code need to be externalized or they can add several lines of code to HTML documents, often getting ahead of the actual content, which can make crawling sluggish.
Readability. SEO web designs select fonts and font sizes thar are easy to read, and they leave ample space for copy. Informative, optimized content pleases visitors and helps with search engine ranking placement. Do not use images for text without using a CSS background image text replacement technique.
Responsiveness. Ensure that your website is responsive whether it is viewed on PCs, laptops, tablets, or mobile phones. It is particularly important to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, as this directly impacts your website’s ranking in Google search results.
Image optimization. Images can be optimized through:
- File names- search engines can see image names, so give them descriptive and logical names
- Alt tags- these are descriptions of images that help visually impaired users and search engines understand what is being displayed
- File size- keep file sizes small through compression, in order to speed up loading times and to improve UX
Simple site structure. Smart web designs will make it easier for visitors and search engines to explore the content on the website. Search engines have a difficult time crawling a website that uses Flash, for instance, so simple designs, or designs using CSS and JavaScript, are better design choices.
Off-page optimization. Off-page optimization refers to managing the marketing and amplification of a website. Off-page techniques can include:
- Making links to content deep within the site
- Using keyword-rich anchor text in inbound links
- Having inbound links from websites that are considered authoritative by search engines
- Analyzing your competition to better understand what SEO strategies are being used
Metadata. Use unique metadata with page titles, description, and keywords that all different. Every page should have its own set of metadata.