A search engine ranks website content depending on informativeness, validity, and trust. That is to say, the more you address a subject that is germane to your business, the more likely the search engines are to rank your site higher. In today’s SEO landscape, website design practices, especially user experience, have become crucial search engine ranking factors. As a result, website design and its interactability with users can affect the site’s ranking in the search engine results. Here are a few web-design practices that might have a direct impact on a site’s SEO performance:
A website’s navigation structure impacts many important metrics such as average page on time, bounce rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate. While these factors improve rankings in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) s, they contribute to increased revenues and profits. If users find it difficult to find information they want, they simply move on to other websites.
Needless to say, ‘404 error,’ occurring either due to a broken link or an inactive page, is the most annoying thing anyone encounters while browsing. So, a page displaying 404 can do nothing except encouraging users to quit your website. So, basically, your website should not have any dead links.
Gone are the days when people used to wait for several seconds to get results from a website. In today’s fast, technological world, people expect a website to get loaded in a second or two. If it takes longer, then expect an increase in the bounce rate.
Every website uses images. However, using too many images can slow down a website, which can affect the search engine rankings. More so, if the images take forever to load, then the best thing a user can do is to leave your website and move on to another related site.
Attracting a user to your website using your search engine tactics is NO easy task in this competitive world. However, after a user lands on your website, you must not invite him with pop-ups. On one hand, you are sure to annoy him. On the other hand, you lose credibility.
Reading experience is possibly the most crucial aspect of your website design that will significantly impact the efficacy of your SEO strategy. Users look up the web to discover the answers for their questions. If your website doesn’t provide those answers in an easy and user-friendly way, you can’t expect a long on-page time.
All in all, a well-designed website offers a better user experience, which is now the most key factor in SEO. Your website should have impressive content and it should be pertinent to your business – informative, valid, and trustworthy.
If you realize that your website functionality is affecting your SEO, then redesigning your website is a great idea. In many cases, website redesigns are a marketing investment planned to grow your revenue through increased rankings and traffic. Another reason you may want to redesign your website is you want it to be more compelling to your prospective customers. Theoretically, the more attractive a website is the more revenue it generates, and produces an ROI many times over.
While you are redesigning your website, it is important that you don’t disturb your SEO value. By doing so, you strengthen both of its main functions. Your website will do a better job in enticing new prospective customers, and help them transform into paying consumers. There are many factors you need to keep in mind, including taking inventory of your page, using a test site, auditing your redesigned site, activating your new site, verifying robots information, setting up search console, and monitoring SEO performance changes.