From Designing to Ranking: How Web Design and SEO Connect

Your site is the digital hub of your business. You need it to rank well in order to do business. But did you know that your site design plays a huge role in how well you rank?

In fact, web design and SEO are more interconnected than you think.

Your SEO goes down to the very bones of your site. And web design builds your site from the ground up. It’s a match made in heaven.

Here’s how web design benefits your SEO performance and why you should be paying more attention to your site design.

Using Web Design for SEO

First, it’s important to understand how web design can be used to improve SEO.

Imagine this.

You’ve got a website. You’re doing alright, but you’ve been monitoring your SEO ranking and, frankly, you could be better. So, you do some research and call an SEO agency.

You want to improve your ranking. You want to get inquiries. You want to know why you’re not ranking for relevant keywords.

Here’s the problem: you’re thinking of SEO like a Band-Aid.

SEO isn’t a Band-Aid. It’s integral to the core structure of your site. Why? Because when a search engine assesses your site, it does an assessment right down to the brass tacks.

This is why web design and SEO go hand-in-hand.

Site Structure

Take your site structure, for example.

Most site owners don’t think much about it. But your site structure forms the foundation of your SEO strength.

Site structure determines two things:

1. Findability
2. Usability

Think of your site like a filing cabinet. The major categories, like the About page, are drawers. The subcategories, like sections of your blog, are folders within the drawer. An individual page is a document contained within the file.

If your site has no central filing system, it will be impossible to find a webpage.

And since a web crawler trawls the Internet much as a person does, if it can’t find you, it won’t rank you well.

This is where web design saves the day. Web design doesn’t just create the filing system–it builds the entire cabinet that houses the filing system. From the first line of code, web design is there to ensure that your site hierarchy is organized in a way that will benefit later SEO efforts.

Mobile Friendliness

One way it does this is by optimizing your site for mobile users, which is especially important since the introduction of the Mobile-First Index.

These days, most online browsing doesn’t happen on a computer. It happens on the go–in the elevator, in the car, between tasks at work, on your lunch break, standing in line. So, most users don’t need a site that’s designed for a computer.

They need a site that’s designed for a much smaller screen, with on-the-go browsing in mind.

Search engines know this, which is why they’ve given ranking priority to sites that optimize for mobile.

Here, again, web design can help you boost your SEO from the ground up.

You can optimize for mobile, but unless your site is designed for mobile viewing, it isn’t going to get you far. New techniques like responsive web design allow you to meet your customers where they are.

It seems pretty basic at first, but remember that a web crawler assesses your site on all front. No detail will be missed.

Attracting More Visitors…

There’s a difference between attracting traffic and attracting customers. Traffic might help you rank higher, but unless that traffic converts, it doesn’t help your bottom line.

Web design can do this if you work with a professional.

To do this, you need to identify who your target audience is, what they want, and what features and visuals would appeal to them. Once you know what this audience wants out of a website, you can work with a designer to build it.

This way, your desired audience will be sure to stay (and convert) when they click on your site.

…And Keep the Visitors You Attract

And if your web design has really done its job, those customers will keep coming back for more. All the better for your SEO and your bottom line.

Think of it this way.

A visitor comes to a site to solve a problem. They stay on that site if the site solves the problem better than someone else, and they come back if you continue to respond to their wants and needs.

Good web design gives you the framework you need to give customers what they want.

For example, let’s say you’re a small local food blogger whose audience resides primarily on Pinterest and Instagram. It’s visual and scrollable. And let’s say you want to draw in (and keep) this audience.

A good web designer can help you build a site that presents information like Pinterest–easy to see, easy to click, easy to find information. And if your visitors like what they see, they’re hooked and willing to recommend you to friends.

Credibility and Authenticity

Your site design also lends that critical level of credibility.

The website visitors today are Internet literate. They know the difference between a well-designed site and a site that was thrown together on the fly. And they’re not inclined to trust a cheap, poorly-designed site.

At best, you don’t care about presentation. At worst, you’re trying to steal their money.

Bringing Your Site to the Top

When brought together, web design and SEO accomplish one simple goal: improving your site.

After all, you’re in the business of serving your customers. SEO and web design are both intended to give your visitors a better online experience. Why wouldn’t you invest in every last detail?

If you need somewhere to get started, remember what we said earlier–SEO isn’t a Band-Aid and you shouldn’t treat it like one. Treat it as a fundamental part of your site. Then, get in touch with a web designer to find out how you can improve your site from the ground up.

Author Bio:

Ben Shepardson is the founder of NoStop Content, a boutique writing agency focusing on helping small business clients take their websites to the next level. From social media topics to articles on niche industry issues, NoStop’s articles are written with style, attention to detail, and with the client’s audience in mind.