Understanding how web design impacts SEO is one of the most effective ways to gain a competitive edge and outperform similar businesses in search engine results. Companies often focus so much on optimizing their content that they overlook the significance of design as it relates to Google rankings.
This can be a detrimental mistake, hindering the performance of your optimization efforts and busting your budget over time.
In today’s post, I’ll be highlighting the relationship between web design and Google rankings, providing you with the insight required to make smart marketing investment decisions and to secure meaningful gains online.
Let’s get started.
Here are 3 Ways to Improve Google Rankings With Web Design
1. Layout Consistency
Did you know that Google favors websites that stick to a uniform layout structure? Hubspot recently proved this in a study they conducted in an effort to appear in more of Google’s snippet features. By using the same layout across all of their blog posts, they were able to bump their snippet feature appearances up from just 1-2 per cent of their posts to a considerable 8-12 percent.
This is one of the most critical connections between web design and Google rankings, and it’s one that only an experienced website designer can assist you with. A knowledgeable designer can help you create blog templates that can be easily replicated to ensure consistency. These templates can be designed with all of the major SEO components in mind, including headings, calls to action, meta data, and more.
It’s also important to note that these practices don’t just apply to blogs. Every page of your website should be designed with seamlessness in mind, both visually and in terms of SEO performance. If your layouts vary from page to page, you’ll likely struggle to strengthen your rankings despite making content tweaks and other changes.
2. Website Crawlability
Google relies on search engine robots to scan the content of your website and determine what the content is about, what products or services you offer, and how valuable your content is to potential customers. If your website is not designed in a way that makes it easy for these robots to do your job, it can have negative effects on your rankings— yet another example of how web design impacts SEO.
The architecture of your website plays a major part here. Most websites organize in a hierarchical structure, with the most important pages at the top (homepage, about, etc) and less important pages at the bottom. There are some, however, that utilize a flat structure, simply grouping pages into categories.
Whatever structure you decide to go with, Google wants it to be easy to navigate from page to page throughout your entire site. This means buttons must be visible, internal links must be included on each page, menus can’t be cluttered, and your mobile navigation experience should be just as strong.
Hiring a qualified web designer who understands site crawlability is essential if you’re looking to improve Google rankings with web design.
3. Site Load Speeds
As an Edmonton website designer, I frequently speak with my clients about the consequence of site load speeds. If your website has large image files, poor coding, custom web fonts, too many pop-ups, or a number of other elements, your load times will be negatively affected. For this reason, it’s critical to work with a web designer who understands how design impacts load speeds, and subsequently, SEO performance.
One of the best ways to enhance your load speed is to simplify your website design and eliminate elements that aren’t 100 per cent necessary in terms of user experience or value.
Remember, even a one-second delay in page load times can result in a 10 per cent decrease in website conversions. That’s a hit that most businesses simply can not afford to take. And why would you, when it can be avoided?
Google prioritizes sites that have a strong user experience, so if it notices that visitors are leaving your site shortly after clicking on it or that users tend to drop off as they click through your site, it will begin to penalize you with lower rankings. So, to put it simply, site load speeds are not something to be overlooked.
Looking for Someone to Help With Web Design in Edmonton?
I work with local, national and international clients, educating them about the relationship between web design and SEO while also recommending customized solutions that best suit their needs.
If you’re interested in working with a web designer that understands the necessary balance between flair and functionality, I’m confident I’m the right person for the job. Let’s create something remarkable together! Reach out today.