While designing your website, you have to make sure that everything is placed correctly so that it is easily readable and accessible. The design and layout of the website always play an important role in improving SEO. It’s not only about locating and placing the right content at the right place but also about packaging the overall website so that it can easily be browsed by the user.
Where to Begin Website Design:
The home page is the most important and introductory part of your website. It creates an initial impression on the user’s mind, that’s the reason why you should focus on the homepage. It is not complicated to create a user-friendly website as it may sounds, it just has to be systematic and logical.
Website Layout:
The layout is nothing but how you want your user to navigate your website. The homepage layout is all about putting the right content in the right place. Website layout decides the flow of the content of your website and if you do it carefully, then it can increase your SEO score. An effective layout design lets the user identify your business. Suppose, the homepage of your website has some information that a user is looking for, but it is placed at the bottom of the page then the user will not stay for long and will leave the website without further browsing the content. This will increase the bounce rate and will affect the ranking in the search engine.
Create User Engaging Content:
The user should know the next step to follow on your website and you should provide valuable information to your users to keep them engaging. While you engage the user with the content, you can draw out some valuable information about them that can add on to your database to make your website according to the behavior of the user.
Visitors always look for something unique. If your website design & layout is similar to another website then no matter how relevant and unique your content is, there are chances that the visitors will not be going to stay for long.
Use Images/Videos:
People understand pictures more easily than texts. Pictures help in creating an impression in people’s minds and therefore it’s better to provide relevant and easy to understand video/image rather than adding texts of thousands of words making the content look boring.
Logo:
A logo is a graphic symbol or mark that is used for recognition and promoting public identification. Your logo should be inventive and different from others. It should convey information about your website. However, it is recommended not to use irrelevant texts and characters. Also, make sure to keep your logo simple yet stylish.
Basics for Website Design in SEO:
As we discussed earlier, if the user doesn’t find anything interesting or relevant on your landing page, then they won’t think even once before leaving your website. So if you want to make sure that users do not leave your page, you have to give them some valuable and relevant content that they are looking for. Don’t give them what ‘you’ want to give them instead provide some valuable information that ‘they’ actually looking for.
Two types of readable content that exist on your web page:
- Above the fold: This type of content can be accessed without scrolling down the web page. Maximum users explore the content that can be seen right after clicking on your website.
- Below the fold: To access this type of content you have to scroll down and search.
There are very few people who scroll down the website if they don’t find what they are looking for in the ‘above the fold content’ and that is why it’s very important to plan your above and below the fold content according to the needs and demands of the user after analyzing what they want.
1) Primary Content Arrangement:
A) Heading/ Sub-Heading:
In the primary content, you should put the content that best describes your website. Headings must be short, precise and to the point. The aim of this is to develop an interest of the user to read the content further.
B) Call to Action Button (CTA):
A CTA(Call to Action) refers to the use of words or phrases that can be incorporated into sales scripts or advertising messages that encourage consumers to take immediate action. It provides the user with an option to perform any action on your website. This button tells the user to take the next step after they have read all the basic information.
2) Keyword Placement:
Keyword are the special words that visitors use to reach your website through search engines.
Users will search your website with some relevant keyword which means those keywords should be present everywhere on your website. it is recommended to use keywords in the content, headings, title, meta description, etc.
3) Path Navigation:
Make sure to make navigation easy so that even an inexperienced person can browse through the website easily.
Following are some points that you can use while designing the navigation flow:
- Initial navigation on the homepage should be at the top of the page to make the users aware that there are more pages on your website.
- On the other pages add navigation bar at the bottom of it.
- To make the user aware of the navigation flow use breadcrumb on every page.
- Always use the search box at the very top of the website so that the user can easily search anything with relevant keywords.
- Don’t add too many steps for navigation, it can confuse the user.
- Keep the template the same for every heading or category.
4) URLs:
URLs are the important thing that attracts the web spider to crawl on your website even from other websites.
The following are some important points that you should keep in mind while attaching links to your website:
- Use keywords for links to tell the user what the page is about.
- Don’t make it too long. Keep it simple, easy and short.
- Avoid using words with numbers or special characters.
- Don't forget to use relevant keywords for the content you upload on your website such as documents, images, HTML, etc.
- Always use hyphens instead of using underscores for URLs.
5) Page Speed:
Speed is one of the important factors that affect the SEO ranking of your website. When the user finds the loading speed of your website slow then they will automatically shift to some relevant pages according to their search.
You should avoid using unwanted plug-ins and other irrelevant content to reduce the page loading speed. The loading speed of the website is different on desktops and mobiles so always make sure that they don’t take to much time to load on both the platforms.
Guidelines for Website Design and Layout:
The content of your website may be the best and unique and the design of your website may look attractive to the visitor but if the design of your website is not as per SEO guidelines then it will not help you in achieving a higher ranking. Because the way of interpretation of the search engine can be different from the way of interpretation of the user.
SEO guidelines for website designing:
- You must focus on your on-page optimization that includes contents, web architecture, coding format, font size and another call to action buttons.
- You should also take care of off-page optimization that includes link building, bookmarking, etc.
- It is always a good and recommended option to make a website that fulfills the needs and demands of the user.
Mobile-friendly Website Design:
Nowadays the majority of people use mobile phones than desktops. So, to make a mobile-friendly website you should know what mobile users look for.
Following are some tips you should keep in mind while designing a website for mobile phones:
- Try to create web pages that look exactly similar to desktop versions and make sure to put a “call to action” button so that it can be easily seen on the mobile as well.
- Use font style and size that are suitable for a mobile screen. The user should not get confused while browsing the website.
- Use compressed images and other media so that it can easily be loaded on the mobile screen.