Two of the most important parts of successful online marketing is good SEO and effective web design. Although they are two different parts of the equation, these elements are actually dependent on each other. This is a detail that all web design firms must understand in order to create the most effective website for their clients.
Understanding this, web design services also need to avoid making critical mistakes that work against efforts to build SEO.
1. Not Using H1 Header Tags
H1 header tags are the first page elements that web bots look for when indexing and analyzing a website. When these tags are missing from the web design, search engines must look to other details to show what the page is about. This can reduce the effectiveness of keywords and make a page harder to find with the final effect being lower pagerank.
2. Using Popups
Popups are annoying to users and Google knows this. Since Google’s focus is on providing the best user experience, websites that get rewarded with more attention from the search engines avoid popups. A web design firm must reassess the use of popups on clients' sites or eliminate them altogether to achieve better SEO.
3. Not Optimizing Images
Images are important to a great website design. Yet if they are not properly optimized, they can weigh down a site and slow the speed at which a page loads. Your web design service already knows that slower page load speeds cause people to leave a client's website, especially when the page is accessed on a mobile device. Slower speeds and more bouncebacks negatively affect SEO.
4. Putting Text In An Image
When it is necessary to layer text over an image, avoid adding text to the image by editing the image simply because it is easier to do. Search engines do not read image data. Therefore, any text added to an image in a web design is invisible.
Any keywords or header tags that could be used by adding this text using code are omitted, removing the chance to build SEO with these words and tags. You should always add text over an image in the code.
5. Using Infinite Scroll
Infinite scroll is a popular function that many web design firms include in their designs because it makes viewing the site convenient and easy. Unfortunately, infinite scroll can limit search results because of the default amount of content a site is designed to load at one time before it must generate more.
Due to how pagination works, search engines are unable to find content beyond what the default will load. This essentially renders these pages invisible to search engines. Infinite scroll can also slow page load time, so you may want to reconsider using it in your designs.
6. Insufficient Page and Site Content
For a website to build SEO and get good page rank, it must contain enough content to satisfy both the user and search engines. Effective pages should include main content and important keywords, H1, and other header tags.
As a web design service, you should always include individual service and product pages as well. Each of these provides yet another opportunity to rank for specific keywords and items. When pages include more than one item or topic, all of this opportunity is lost.
Today’s web design firms have a good understanding of the various design elements and practices that can increase a site’s SEO. Yet it is also important to recognize the simple web design mistakes that can decrease page rank. When web design services avoid the above few common mistakes that can hamper SEO, site effectiveness and SEO both rise, bringing websites closer to achieving their goals!
