Search engine optimization and web design go hand in hand. In the past, they were mutually exclusive, but if you end up moving forward with setting up a website that is within this notion of exclusivity, you are going to have an uphill battle to work with. Most people don’t realize how complicated this all could become and it’s something that you should denote before you start building any page. At the core of web design, there are 5 elements of SEO that you should consider, and vice versa. These are interchangeable, but when you start to work on coding, you’ll see that it’s important. No major website today, especially none that are reaching the heights of optimization for search engines, are without these 5 elements of good web design. Even the poorest site design will have some of the structures mentioned below.
Optimized Images
The first major thing that you have to understand for the forward progression of web design, is optimization of images. Every image that you are going to use, upload, and link to has to be optimized for slower connections. You have to remember that not everyone in the world has a high speed broad band connection to work with. Millions of people are still working with dial up, some are working with smartphones, and others are working with a provider that is just down right slow. You have to optimization images within the web design that you’re doing to fit through all browsers and load fast. This will pay off dividends, if you just focus on simple optimization elements for the images you’re going to use.
Clearly Defined Navigation (Where To Go)
When someone hits your page, they have to know what to do, and where to go. You’ll have to focus on web design that is thoughtful of the end user’s ignorance. You may be a great tech person, and you may have friends, family, and others in your life that think of website navigation with common sense, but you’ll find that there are a lot of people that aren’t quite on the same page. For the millions of people that are easily confused with site design, make sure that you work on navigation that clearly defines a path. If you have a call to action, don’t hide it, and make sure that you add elements to get people going back to the home page. Bad web design starts with confusing the end user, that’s for sure.
Create A Mobile Friendly Version
One of the premier elements of web design is in regards to mobile friendly versions of your page. When someone searches online, they will be hit with a lot of results. Those results will have a little line next to them that will say “mobile friendly”, especially in Google. You want your web design to proclaim that before someone clicks through, and if you can isolate that simple phrase, you will get ranked higher and have more clicks through mobile devices. Do not underestimate the power of this solution, as it’s definitely worth pursuing.
Limit The Content You Post
Setting up a website with web design and SEO in mind, you should limit the content that you are going to put up. Unless you’re starting an essay website, don’t just throw a lot of words on the page. Instead, focus on getting to the point, and creatively discussing the things that you want to, with as few words possible. Remember, when starting out, people aren’t going to stick around if you’re posting long epic posts. Instead, focus on limiting the vocabulary, and using marketing tactics to display keyword selections for optimization. Over time, you could add a little more in terms of content, and your web design can evolve as a whole.
Create Mirrors
One of the secrets of web design today is to create mirrored pages. You want to create several versions of your page that will detect the browser that someone has, and deliver the right page within their monitor. If you just have a strict coding style, you are going to find that your page doesn’t look good across all major browsers, and that could be detrimental. Focus on creating mirrors that are going to deliver content across several platforms with relative ease, that way you’re not losing out on SEO or web design credibility.
The aforementioned 5 elements of web design are just a few things that you should be considering moving forward within your marketing collateral. Whether you have a main site or something a bit more elaborate, focus on the above as you start designing any page.
