10 SEO Aspects Every Web Designer Should Know

If you are a professional web designer or if you are creating your site on your knees, then it is important for you to know a few SEO basics — very little knowledge that will be useful to you in the long process of creating a site and that will help you get the intended audience.

Understanding these ten aspects of SEO will help you design websites that work great and still look cool.

1. Site structure.

Each site should be designed with a clear and logical structure in mind. The home page should show what the site is and why it is needed in general, and all the details should be divided into subpages.

For example, if you are building a website with recipes, the home page could lead to a separate category of pages for dinners, soups, and desserts. Each of these subpages could then lead to individual recipes.

In general, it is good when you have multiple layers of subpages on your site, but do not go too deep, otherwise, search engines may face an indexing problem. Basically, it is normal practice to dig in 3–4 layers.

2. Link structure.

Links affect a website’s SEO, so it is very important to choose the good ones from the very beginning. Here are some of the best practices to listen to in this direction:

The shorter the better. Short links are better remembered.

The link itself should describe the content of the page as clearly as possible. Use plain language instead of abbreviations or strings of letters and numbers.

For subpages, use hyphens to separate words for ease of readability. Be sure to include keywords in your links whenever possible, but don’t overdo it.

3. Site navigation.

In addition to structuring, your sites should be easy for your visitors to navigate. The site menu should stand out and be at the top of the page or along the sidebar. Each page should be easy to find. Avoid abandoned pages that are not linked from other pages on the site. If visitors can’t find a page from a link, search engines won’t know that the page even exists.

4. Mobile design.

We are now living in the era of mobile devices and responsive design is no longer an option. For a website to give good UX and rank well, it must be comfortable for users with a small display. If you haven’t already, then make the responsive design the basis for your next website. You can easily test if your site is mobile-friendly using a simple tool from Google.

5. Site speed.

Along with the mobile design, site load speed is another UX factor that affects SEO. Google assigns penalties to slow sites, and visitors are less likely to stay on a site that takes a few seconds to load. Google Page Speed ​​Insights is a great tool that can tell you how fast your site is and what you need to improve to make it faster.

6. Titles, titles, and meta descriptions.

These are all important aspects of on-page SEO. Every page on a site should have unique content and its own <title> tag, in other words, don’t copy the same title throughout the site. It must include at least one keyword that is relevant to the content on the page. By the same analogy, include keywords in the heading tags on every page, especially the <h1> tag.

Meta Description — A summary that appears through links in search results. They don’t directly affect SEO, but they can affect how many people click on your site on the search page. In fact, these are free ad space, so make sense of them and include your main keywords to grab readers’ attention.

7. Image optimization.

Search engines cannot read and understand images, but you can tell them what they are and what they are linking to. Here are some tips for optimizing your graphics for SEO:

Name your images carefully. For example, it is better to name images blabla than imgsjndkn.png

Use alt tags. This is a good idea in terms of accessibility and also tells search engines what your images are describing.

Do not use large images as this can slow down your site.

8. Using Flash.

Basically, stay away from Flash if it’s just tough and unnecessary. Search engines cannot see or process Flash content, so in terms of SEO, it doesn’t exist at all. It is very important not to use Flash on important parts of your site such as the navigation or the main text of the pages.

9. Structured data.

Structured data, like schema markup, gives sites a boost in search engine rankings. However, it can help drive more quality traffic by providing valuable information to searchers. Over time, the growth of such traffic can increase your rankings.

10. Site interface.

Good SEO isn’t just about technical details. It also helps people and provides great UX. While it’s important to pay attention to everything on this list while you’re working on your site, don’t let design fade into the background — especially if you’re building your own site using site builders.

An attractive, simple interface will attract visitors to stay on your site, and make it as easy as possible for them to find what they need. This will help you lower your bounce rate. After all, an attractive website is just great for a brand image.

Conclusion.

SEO is not a separate niche as it used to be. Search engines now play an increasingly important role in the future of the Internet, and it is important for people in other technical fields, such as web design, to be able to understand it.

If you design your website with these critical aspects of SEO, then the final product will be both beautiful and functional.