When you think of SEO, what comes to mind? Usually, the first thing that many people think of is improving your rankings on search engine result pages. To achieve this, you commonly see people using relevant keywords on their websites that end up resonating with your customers and target audience. A way to achieve this, without only focusing on keywords is by creating an SEO-friendly website design. This type of design helps impact your website’s ability to rank in search engine results.
Google is changing constantly, and they now are looking to shift the focus of SEO to ensure the users have a great experience. This means that it has become crucial to balance the science and art of website design with SEO.
Best Practices to Ensure You Have a SEO-Friendly Website Design
Whether you are redesigning your website or starting it from scratch, the importance of having an SEO-friendly web design is something to consider. This can seem overwhelming; however, you can easily begin by following our tips below to help improve your site’s SEO design.
Include a Description on the Home Page
When it comes to your home page, you may think that you want to keep the information to a minimum. However, search engines like to see your description on your homepage. Sites that have SEO-friendly website design, allow for enough space to incorporate a description that features the page’s keywords. This could be as simple as incorporating a small text box, which helps optimize content.
Research Keywords that Relate to Your Audience
Keywords are the heart and soul of SEO. If you notice that your website is not getting as much attention as it used to, or you are just creating one, having the right keywords for your appropriate audience can help you immensely. Doing research to see what keywords work and which ones don’t is a great way to help attract more of your target audience. Make sure to find keywords that resonate with them, to not only attract new customers but to bring back old ones as well.
Some Mistakes that Can Hinder Your SEO-Friendly Website Design
There are some common mistakes that can occur when you are creating your SEO-friendly website design. Make sure you are monitoring your website’s performance closely after your new design goes live. This allows you to see if there is a dip in inquiries or page rankings. IF you notice these signs there are two things you should consider looking into.
- The 404 redirects for your website have not been properly placed on all of the URL’s of your website, not your websites pages. The site URL’s include videos, PDF’s, Images, and even blog posts.
- Another issue could be the no-index tag. This tag tells search engines to not look for your site during the design phase, which is helpful. However, once your design is live make sure this is turned off so that your design can be seen by the public.
If you have any questions about SEO-friendly website design or want professionals to do the designing for you, give us at Hometown Marketing Group a call today! We are here to help you with your website design, and digital marketing needs!