Where Does SEO Belong In Your Web Design Process

Most businesses that operate online are aware of the importance of SEO, but they do not realize it must be built into the web design process.

All digital platforms within your marketing world run to your website — the place where it all begins. The most influential traffic sources for this website are typically organic search results.

Take the time with a design agency to examine how SEO should play a role in your website design (or redesign). Creating a search engine-friendly and lead-generation website requires you to consider a few factors.

Image optimization

If the conditions are right, image SEO can drive a reasonably large amount of traffic. We need to remember the importance of context as well. The content of images is not (yet) used by Google, so the context of the image within the site and the page as well as basic optimization techniques are important here.

Optimization of images is straightforward from a technical perspective:

• Provide a name for the image that describes it clearly.
• Use alt text — descriptive alt text can reinforce an image’s content to those who can’t see the images.
• Share the image with social networks by adding OpenGraph and Twitter Cards.
• The image should be at the right size to ensure it can be downloaded quickly.
• To optimize loading times, reduce the size of the image.
• You can also insert images into your sitemap in XML format.

The process of optimizing an image is relatively easy. Just make sure the image is relevant. Don’t overuse keywords in filenames and alt text. It is important to describe the image.

Meta description tags

It is not possible to directly influence rankings with meta descriptions. That’s universal knowledge, right? However, nothing could be further from the truth here. Meta descriptions are what appear in search engine results as advertisements for your pages. They are what make people click on your links. In order to drive traffic to your pages, you need to win those clicks, as winning clicks can help improve visibility.

It is imperative that meta descriptions include:

• Provide a true description of the page content.
• Drive more traffic to the page.
• Please consider what the user is thinking and why they are clicking on this page.
• Whenever possible and natural, incorporate keywords.

It is the title and meta description of your page that the search engine highlights, which makes it easier for a user to scan it. Nevertheless, do not use this reason to spam your meta description, or Elsevier will just ignore it, and that will prevent you from getting that all-important click!

In some situations, it makes more sense not to create a meta description and instead allow the search engine to pull data from a page to form a description based more accurately on what a user is searching for. You cannot cover all the options for a longer piece of content in a concise meta description.

Heading tags

An H1 tag, an H2, an H3 tag, etc. helps structure a page and indicate hierarchy. In heading tags, ranking is correlated (albeit slightly), but what matters is how aligned site structure, behind-the-scenes optimization, such as meta descriptions and page titles are with the content itself. Organize everything, and users will have an easier time understanding things. While assisting search engines with categorizing our content, we also implement on-page optimization in all its simplicity.

The header tags should be aligned with the visual hierarchy. Meaning that the biggest element on the page should also be the most important header (typically the h1>). Your use of visual aids here makes the document easier to understand and ensures that both design and content are working together to deliver the most effective results.

Page content

Generally, the most important part of a web page should be the content. The common practice of overt keyword density and a lack of connecting words in the content is still prevalent in archaic SEO practices. Such practices are ineffective. You won’t get better search engine rankings. Users will have a negative experience as well.

To make sure our page makes sense, we want to clarify the context. We should direct users to the appropriate pages by using our navigation, URL, page title, header, etc. While we do this, we should write in a natural manner, using synonyms and other natural languages.

Put a lot of effort into creating engaging content. Use keywords, but do not overuse them.

Considerations for page content:

• Keywords used in the content
• in relation to the page structure
• Position of keywords in the content
• Synonyms and alternatives
• Co-occurrence of keywords

Rich snippets

An effective way to increase click-through rates is by using rich snippets. Search engine listings that stand out in the results naturally attract our attention. Your search engine listings work harder when you increase click-through rates. You can create a low-effort, high-output SEO strategy by considering the possibility of ranking improvements.

A good place to start is schema.org, which lists snippets relevant to businesses in various fields.

Usability

In order to improve web usability, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration: device-specific design, page speed, design conventions, and intuitive planning for the end-user.

Key factors to consider include:

• Page layout
• Visual hierarchy
• Home page and site navigation
• Site search
• Form entry
• Design

Page speed

In the mobile age, page speed is another very important factor to be taken into consideration. A user might be impatient with the process, or their data connection may not be as good as they would like. For a modern SEO-friendly website design, it is vital to make sure the pages have a lean and mean design.

The mobile-friendly test from Google is a great starting point if you’re just getting started. Using this tool, you will be able to see how your site appears on mobile devices, how fast it loads on desktop computers, and more. The report also details what exactly you can do in order to speed up the process and gives you the opportunity to implement it.

Aside from the quality and suitability of your hosting service, your website’s speed is also an important factor that you need to take into account.

Domains

In some cases, you may wish to use example.com as the primary domain for your business. However, there may be other domains you may be interested in. In order to be successful, it is incredibly important that your domain name relates to what you do. The most important factor to ensure is that the variations and subdomains must all redirect correctly to the main site, and all variations must point at the same canonical version of the site.

There is no evidence that having keyword-locations-in-my-domain.com will boost your search results. That would be a ridiculous thing to do. It can be helpful for small businesses, but you should ensure you are mapping to the real world so that you are making the most out of it.

Hosting

It is also crucial that you take good care of your hosting. Users are likely to become frustrated with a slow website if it is unresponsive. Make sure that your hosting service follows all common-sense hosting guidelines. Be sure to pick a hosting service that is close to your target audience. Your host should be fast and should support your platform of choice, if necessary. It provides a platform specifically tailored for WordPress websites, which makes WP Engine an excellent example.

CMS

It is very likely that what you choose as your CMS (content management system) will have a positive impact on the success of your business. An affordable website design company assists you in managing vast content for your website. The use of WordPress can be an excellent solution in nearly all situations, even though it’s not the only one. In summary, the content is certainly wired up at a core level in a way that Google can understand.