The relationship between website design and SEO is analyzed by experts from these four dimensions!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and effective website design go hand in hand. Good website design is about creating a website that appeals to the target audience and gets them to take some kind of action. However, if the website does not follow current SEO best practices, its ranking will suffer, resulting in a smaller number of visitors who actually engage with the website.

On the contrary, if the focus is on SEO and how to please search engine spiders, then the website may rank high and receive a lot of search engine traffic, but if the design is not satisfactory, it is not the same. In order to succeed in today's digital environment, the focus must be on website design and SEO.

But doesn't SEO stifle the creativity of web designers?

In the past five years, a huge demand for "optimized design" has been embraced by web designers. Before that, designers mainly focused on the user experience, not the "robot" experience.

Nowadays, designers not only have to make a website look attractive, but also ensure that the Call to Action must meet the requirements of the website's page "folding", the website must load quickly, the breadcrumb path must be used, the navigation choices must be clear, CSS must be used, JavaScript files must be kept to a minimum... this is a difficult task.

Some designers may be wondering whether all these new SEO rules are harming the freedom to create websites.

For "clean" website design, it can help a website load quickly and be easily crawled by search engine spiders. Therefore, in reality, creativity and optimization need to be able to "flourish" together.

Second, bring them together

There are a few core elements that underpin every SEO strategy and website design project:

1. Keyword analysis

When launching a business website project, a thorough keyword analysis must be conducted. In order to do this, the web designer must have a close in-depth understanding of the client's target audience and define how the demographics in that audience fit into the larger target market the business is trying to reach. Then, the website should be properly keyword/long tail keyword optimized.

2. Content hierarchy

For a business to create good content, it is not enough. They must also strategically plan the location of the content.

Effective planning means putting relevant content in virtual containers, making the content hierarchy clear through creative design and internal linking. And, an optimized website is one that is friendly to both users and search engine spiders.

3. Think from the user's perspective

In general, the more pages or articles your website has, the more chances your target users have of finding you. When they land on these specific pages, you need to make sure you can help them find you easily.

Therefore, you must think from the user's perspective, providing users with a clear and immediate understanding of the current location of the page they are visiting, and assisting them in transitioning from page to page with as few clicks as possible.

Why is SEO strategy so important?

Having the right website structure and information architecture will ultimately help businesses provide an engaging user experience while reducing the need for each new growth. But unless your brand is well known, it is usually the search engines that are responsible for the majority of the traffic a website receives. SEO strategies have the power to tap into important customer data and tap into new potential revenue streams.

For website owners who are trying to do SEO, there are some places that are often troublesome. Now, I will provide SEO advice to website owners to get higher ranking pages.

1. URL structure

Most websites create URLs that contain a lot of random characters like question marks, no keywords or anything of value. When a search engine's URL contains keywords or phrases for SEO, the page will rank higher in search engines. Therefore, it is very important to have keywords in the URL.

2. The title of the page

One of the most important factors in search engine rankings is the page title. However, many websites do not change their page titles. In the Lime build website platform, you can easily create titles for your articles and pages by using the SEO title tag plugin.

3. Duplicate content

No search engine likes to see duplicate content. Duplicate content is a major problem for some websites, as category pages and calendar/date pages often cause search engines to find the same content on multiple pages.

For website owners, there are several ways to overcome duplicate content. One is to use a robot.txt file to guide search engines on which pages should be ignored, leaving only the main pages to index.

4. Meta Label

When designing a traditional static website, you can enter meta tags (descriptions) for each page. Although these tags are not as influential in search engine rankings as they used to be, it doesn't hurt to have them on your page.

However, most build website platforms do not give users the option to add meta tags when writing articles. For users of the Lime build website platform, the add meta tags plugin will allow you to enter meta tags for any page.

What are the responsibilities of a web designer in SEO?

Search engine optimization is an ongoing process, and it cannot be achieved by designing a website in a specific way. Of course, web designers should put considerable effort into helping clients build an optimized site, but what are the responsibilities of a web designer in terms of SEO, and what are the responsibilities of a client?

As a business owner, the optimization of your website is more important to you than the designer (this is not to say that the designer doesn't care, but the designer's attention is usually focused on the visual and functional aspects of the website). You know your customers/prospects better than the designer, so you should have more constructive input on your goals.

Perhaps some clients may not have a good understanding of SEO and target keywords, so the ideal situation is for the client to work collaboratively with you on this issue.

In my experience, one of the easiest ways to get customers involved is to simply explain that the words and phrases used on a website (title, copy, etc.) have a direct impact on website rankings.

I usually ask clients to give me a list of words and phrases they think a potential visitor might use in a search. This is especially important when designing a website in an industry I'm less familiar with.

Of course, some research may be required. Should the client take responsibility for keyword research, or should the designer do it?

My experience has been that the research is usually more effective if the client is involved, but this is not always possible. The designer should be knowledgeable enough to advise the client and should be willing to help, but in the end it is better to keep the client as involved as possible. In fact, if the client cares about SEO, the engagement process will meet a more reasonable expectation.

Setting realistic expectations can also be the responsibility of designers.

I've had potential clients come to me and say, "I've been told by SEO experts that just inserting a competing keyword on a website page can make my website rank first or second."

In this case, I would obviously point out that "SEO requires continuous work, and this kind of work cannot usually be done by creating a website in a certain way."

I often advise clients to add a blog to their website in order to gain more content and improve their chances of ranking.

conclusion

Although this is just a brief summary, these are the most important SEO topics that website owners and designers will face. By understanding this knowledge, you can better create websites that are friendly to both users and search engines.

This article is designed by the Yiyou editor, and the original authorization to publish the Yiyou website is unauthorized.