To put it plainly, yes! Website design can absolutely affect SEO. Before we explain why, it’s important to gain a better understanding of SERP rankings. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website in order to improve its visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). In order to achieve high SERP rankings, certain elements must be present in the overall design of your website. In this blog, we will review some of these elements and ways that you can improve your SEO though improved web design!
Keyword Density
One of the most rudimentary principles behind SEO is that it’s important to include keywords relevant to your business within page titles, content, descriptions and URL slugs. This helps search engines understand what your site is about which then contributes to higher rankings. Furthermore, designing with responsive web design ensures that users have an optimal viewing experience across all types of devices such as tablets and smartphones without having to zoom or scroll horizontally. Responsive design also eliminates the need for creating multiple versions of a website, which can result in duplicate content issues that are penalized by search engines.
Loading Times
Another factor to consider when it comes to SEO and design is how quickly your pages load. Google has made it clear that page loading speed is an important factor for SEO as faster loading pages lead to higher rankings and better user experience. To ensure fast loading times, you should use streamlined images, compress any code and take advantage of browser caching. In general, its better to have a more responsive website, even besides the SEO benefits that it brings. You don’t want any annoyed visitors on your site because they are waiting too long for your site to load!
Mobile Friendliness
Finally, a mobile-friendly website is essential if you want to rank well with search engines because the majority of people now access websites through handheld devices. A good design strategy will help make sure your site looks great on any device while also making sure all of your content is easily found by search engine crawlers.
In conclusion, website design plays a critical role in SEO because it helps to ensure that your site meets all of the necessary criteria for good rankings. Taking the time to look into and optimize the design aspects of your website will pay off in the long run with higher SERP rankings and more traffic.