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Web design and SEO go hand in hand. One is of little use without the other. We will try to explain a little about why this is the case.
The last couple of years has seen a massive growth of online businesses and this is expected to be even better. The development of ultra-modern technology means that most businesses now need to highlight their presence online. However, for you to take your online business to the next level, your website needs to have a good design and you have to put various Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques in place.
Establishing an online presence for your business doesn’t mean that you simply create a basic website or use any SEO technique. There are millions of businesses that already have websites and use SEO to market themselves but how many of them are recognizable? How many of them feature among the top results when it comes to search engine ranking? How many of them are making sales? It is therefore important for businesses to use effective and updated web design methods and new SEO techniques if they want to remain visible in the market. Incorporating the right tools in your business website will eventually produce a positive outcome. Both SEO and Web Design are crucial in the progress of any online business. Outlined below is how both SEO and web design work and their current importance for an online business.
How Can a Website’s Design Take Your Business to the Next Level
Technology is constantly changing and so is web design. This year the design of your business’ website is what can make or break it. The design of any website is what attracts clients and visitors because it helps to make a difference in how the target audience will view your brand. A good web design should be attractive, simple, unique, and easy to navigate. Some of the important aspects of web design that can improve your online business include:
1. Engagement
A good web page has a layout that is impressive and attractive. It should appeal to more users and make them want to engage with your website’s content. Customers can engage with your page by making purchases, leaving reviews, inquiries etc. all of which are vital for the growth of your business.
2. Content
Your target audience will mainly feed on content that you post and this includes the visual elements, audio and textual content such as articles, images, animations, and videos. If these elements are arranged attractively on your website and it delivers your business message describing what your business is all about, this greatly increases the likelihood of an increase in conversion rate The percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal..
However, saturating your website with content will make it messy. Visually cluttered pages are difficult to read and lead to disinterest and loss of clients. To avoid this use, streamlined, simple, clear and detailed content which the web designer can incorporate easily into the site. Note that the designers are also capable of adding spaces and gaps that add uniformity and allows the eyes of the reader to rest midway through the content.
3. Brand Message and Consistency
A Website for any business is what outlines its message and also consistency. Good web design makes a unique but identifiable impression. Just like the traditional print media, a business’ website will showcase its logo, services, and products. But unlike the traditional methods, modern web design allows you almost full control of how you brand your business’ image and its reputation. The main goal of your site is communicating with your target audience what your business is all about and what it represents and how you can solve their problems.
For the sake of consistency, it is important to integrate your logo to your website. This way, the target market can easily identify your brand in different kinds of mediums and locations.
4. Search Engine Optimization and Organization
A good web designer will create a site that is divided into sections i.e. top, bottom, left, right, centre etc. Good organization makes it easy to categorize the contents of a website and this makes it easy for clients to search and navigate through pages.
Aside from organizing, incorporating content with specific keywords in the text will improve help both your visitors and search engines to understand your message and help your site’s ranking in Google, Bing or Yahoo and increase conversion rates.
5. Credibility and Trust
A business’ website is often the first point of contact between the business owner and the targeted audience. Days of carrying out face to face business are not yet over but are nearing their end and therefore the way your web is designed is important for first impression which leads to credibility and trust. Research studies indicate that over 75 per cent of users make judgments on businesses credibility based on web design alone. Also, 94 per cent of first impressions are design-related.
It is therefore important to build a credible site that makes it easier for clients to trust your business. A good web design will make them feel comfortable and they will ultimately be confident enough to carry out transactions with you. Note that online business is all about credibility and trust because clients have to share private and sensitive information with you.
How SEO can take your business to the next level
Search Engine Optimization, also simply known as SEO, is a marketing approach that is focused on improving a website’s visibility or ranking on search engines. Currently, there are hundreds of millions of businesses online which means that businesses owners are continually trying to outdo each other by using different marketing mechanisms but SEO still stands out because almost everyone is on the internet nowadays. SEO can take your online business to the next level because:
1. It is Cost-Effective
SEO is primarily a cost-effective method of online marketing. If your website is optimized and well-designed, it will have longer marketing standards compared to other methods of advertisement. SEO targets users who were already actively searching for services or products online and its inbound nature means that businesses can save more money. The traffic that also results from it is more qualified and bound to increase conversion rates. Once your website ranks among the top ten in search engines, you are bound to get free targeted traffic with the minimum of effort.
2. High Return on Investment (ROI)
SEO offers quantifiable and trackable ROI for any site. Businesses can track their conversion rates, traffic, and rankings. These comprehensive marketing analytics help businesses to gain appropriate data that is relevant for things such as demographic information, what selles and what does not, engagement metrics, keywords used to search for products or services etc.
3. Enhanced Site Usability
A site that is well-designed, optimized and usability-intensive attracts first-timers as well as repeat clients. However, SEO also helps to make your website to be easily navigable for search engines. It helps to re-arrange the website’s links and architecture by making pages within the site easier to locate and navigate. This makes it easier for search engines to find pages on your website and it eventually translates to search engine users.
4. Brand Awareness and High Sales
SEO helps websites to rank among the top positions in search engines which results in significant impressions and brand awareness because of the high exposure. The more your content and pages rank high in search engines, the more chances of conversions which subsequently leads to more sales. However, SEO is constantly changing and evolving. Some of the new techniques which are used in SEO 2018 include:
• Use of Mobile-Friendly Web Pages
Websites with contents that are not mobile-friendly are being given notices by Google that their search results may not rank highly on mobile search. This means that search engines are focusing on SEO contents from websites that are mobile-friendly.
• Keyword Research
Although the use of specific keyword search has been in SEO use for a while, a new keyword research technique tool has been established and it takes consideration of things such as keyword groups and parent topics. This means that search engine users can use content which incorporates different series of phrases that are contextually relevant.
• Sharable or Linkable Content
Great Content is always king in the search engines hence it should be shareable in order to generate increased natural backlinks. Always keep your content fresh, simple and updated.
• Page Redirect and Reclamation of the 404 Link
Giving your website a facelift is vital for your business. As web developers, we normally work on websites and more often change the URL structure of the site. Altering a website’s URL Structure can be for SEO or structural purposes. Regardless of that, it is important to implement SEO techniques that will help with the reclamation of the 404 page or facilitate page re-direct. Page redirects especially the 301-redirects help to link the old website page with the new page. If you don’t implement the right page redirect, your site will lose its search engine ranking leading to a decline in traffic. If you fail to implement that, the old website will give users a 404 error but you can still use SEO software toolsets to solve this.
• Use of Social Media and Influencers
With the rise of social media, SEO isn’t complete without the use of Influencers. By using off-page SEO techniques, influencers help to increase social media engagements and conversion rates through backlinks.
• Visual Optimization
In order to sell a product or service online, your target audience needs to have a clear visualization of your commodity. Images and videos are attractive to visitors, hence it’s important for your site to optimize high-quality images which are relevant for on-page SEO. Effective image optimization can be done by naming the images appropriately, using an ALT-Text to describe the image (an Alt text is a text you get to see if the image doesn’t load), using captions and placing them in appropriate sections. Also, the images should be light in weight in order for them to load quickly.
• Schema Markup and Structured Data
These are the most buzzing SEO techniques currently. A website has three major parts i.e. markup, text and structured data. The text depicts what the content is all about while markup is used to show the browser how the website content will look. Structured data on the hand allows bots in search engines like Bing, Yahoo and Google to know what your business data is about. It helps to improve the website’s appearance and it enables the search engines to categorize your website.
So, Web Design and SEO
Web design and SEO have become very important aspects of the running and marketing of online businesses. The growth of the digital age means that most businesses have developed their own respective websites already in order to become easily accessible to customers and to attract a big clientele base. Most of them are also using different SEO techniques to improve their search engine rankings. However, most of these businesses are still not receiving high conversion rates or business traffic and they are going down because they can’t keep up with the pace of changes.
Web technology is rapidly changing. The increased usage of smartphones means that online business owners should create sites that are mobile-friendly and easily navigable. Millions of people explore the internet daily in search of products and services and businesses owners do not want to miss out but they need websites that are upgraded and well-designed in order to lure potential customers. SEO this year is very different from what was there a few years ago. There is an increased use of images and videos; hence there is a need for an online business to use the latest SEO techniques in order for them to remain visible in their market. All these are not easy to implement and they require professionals to drive them forward.
As a web design company that also specializes in Search Engine Optimization and modern web design methods we assist business owners to develop user-friendly web pages that are impressive, navigable and where users can easily get the relevant information. Furthermore, we will also help you in devising relevant and updated business campaigns that will amplify your business rankings in search engine results and improve your conversion rates. We are your SEO and Web Design Experts and you can contact us at any time for quality services.
