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Website Design And Semalt SEO


Not many people are aware of the fact that SEO's integration into the design of a website plays a crucial role in the success of online businesses.

When it comes to improving the website's looks, user experience, and ranking in search engines, the focus is either on Website Design & Development services or SEO services independently. 

However, only a small percentage of webmasters or site owners put light on the fact that the integration of website design and SEO is essential for the overall success of a business operating online.

In this article, you are going to learn about the relationship between website design and SEO. By the end, you'll be able to understand and justify why SEO needs to be an essential part of the website's design process.

How Website Design and SEO Go Together?

To improve the performance and rank of a website in search engines, experts say that you should not neglect even the smallest elements.

Below are the elements where website design and SEO collaborate. Let's understand how webmasters use them together.

1. Mobile-Friendly Site

A mobile-friendly site was not necessary earlier, but with the rising number of smartphone users and increased reach of the internet, the mobile-friendliness of a website has become an essential factor.

In 2015, Google declared that the mobile-friendliness of a website is a crucial ranking factor. Experienced and qualified Webmasters and Digital Marketing agencies know the importance of a mobile-friendly website.

In the past few years, people searching on desktop computers have declined, but the people searching on smartphones and other mobile devices have consistently increased.

If stats are to be believed, more than 51% of the global website traffic comes from mobile devices (apart from tablets). It signifies the following two things:
  1. 1Over 50% of your web traffic may come from mobile devices
  2. Over 50% of your audience is on mobile devices
If your website misses mobile-friendly design, you might not get half of your potential visitors/ users/ clients/ customers. 

Websites unfriendly to mobile devices don't load properly on these devices and eventually attract higher bounce. Google, considering it inappropriate, pushes such sites lower in search results.

2. Load Speed

If you do not want to increase the bounce rate or disappoint people clicking your website's link in search results, your site should load faster. Studies suggest that sites taking more than three seconds to load are abandoned by almost 50% of the people visiting it.

The slow load speed of a website is often the result of its design. Many businesses fail to attract new or existing customers just because of their underperforming website.

Webpage's load speed is also a crucial technical SEO aspect. Many websites owners and businesses spend a lot of money but fail to improve the ranking of their site in search results just because it takes too much time to load.

Make sure that your website loads in 2 seconds because most people use smartphones and search through them. They do not like waiting for a website to load slowly.

The site with slow load speed does not offend only users but Google as well. Google crawls fewer pages affecting the visibility of your website on search engines.

There is a specific tool from Google to check the load speed of a website. You can access it by clicking here.

3. Externalizing CSS and Javascript

While coding a website, it should be made sure that CSS and JavaScripts are kept outside the HTML element/ document. 

Search engines learn about a website by evaluating its HTML document. In case, the CSS and Javascripts are not externalized, many extra lines of codes will add to the HTML of your website.

Search engines learn about a website by evaluating its HTML document. In case, the CSS and Javascripts are not externalized, many extra lines of codes will add to the HTML of your website.

When they are not externalized, your site's HTML document gets many additional lines of code. It slows down the crawling of content that, eventually, affects the rank in search results.

Whether you are looking to improve your site's rank on Google, Bing, or any other search engine, watcj\h out the HTML document while designing it. Make sure its codes and scripts are easily and quickly recognized by search engines.

4. Simple yet Effective Design

Whenever the aim is to improve the SEO, webmasters spend most of the time on modifying the content of a website but ignore the design factor.

Some business owners or webmasters do not realize that a website's design adds value to the content. They should understand that well-presented content helps in decreasing the bounce rate.

A poorly designed website disappoints visitors. Most of them are unable to understand as well as read the concept and content of such sites.

You might have seen webpages where content blocks are located in strange places or some pages filled with unnecessary and irrelevant hyperlinks. All these are examples of a poorly designed website.

Website owners (whether individuals or businesses) should understand that the purpose of a site is to satisfy the audience by providing them with the required information.

If it doesn't, people will visit your site and quickly leave it. The bounce rate will increase, and Google will make sure that it doesn't rank high in search results.

There can be many vulnerabilities on a poorly designed website. Some common ones are:
  • Sites that break or do not run evenly on multiple devices
  • Light-coloured content/ text on a webpage with the white background or dark-colored content/ text on the webpage having a black backdrop
  • The text's size is too large or small
  • The font making the text hard-to-read
  • Ignoring people with disabilities while designing a website/ creating content 
Moreover, line length, white space, images, and similar elements also affect the attention of visitors. That's why experts suggest working with web designers who can design a website keeping visitor's and website owner's interests in mind.

5. Proper Usage of Heading Tags

Heading tags need proper attention while creating a webpage's content because they provide Google or other search engines the information about the HTML document's structure. 

Heading tags look like this:

<h1>Heading</h1>

<h2>Heading</h2>

<h3>Heading</h3>

<h4>Heading</h4>


And, so on up to <h6>.

When you are creating the content for your webpage, make sure you use the heading tags properly. For example, <h1> tag for the primary topic and <h2>, <h3>, and other tags to indicate the content's hierarchy and outline blocks.

Experts do not recommend using multiple <h1> tags on a webpage. Usage of more than one <h1> tag dilutes the primary topic and confuses search engine crawlers. 

6. Gaining the Trust of Users

Gaining the trust of users is a crucial factor when it comes to improving the rank of a website in search results. However, there is no exact method to determine whether people trust a brand and its site.

Most people have visited websites that provide enhanced user experience or completely satisfy them. Whenever they browse through any new website, they expect the same kind of perfection.


When things don't happen as per the expectations, visitors form opinions. About opinions, you might be knowing that people quickly form them, and once formed opinions are difficult to change.

Websites looking old, not providing the expected information, or/ and are complex to use often make user's experience unpleasant. When people visit such sites, they quickly leave them.

Make sure your website is clean, allows easy navigation, and quickly provides the required information. Such sites are trusted more than those with poor design and unorganized elements.

Whether you are offering a product, service, or information, your website's design and content should convey it. A poorly designed site affects the trustworthiness of an organization or business.

7. Sitemap

The different elements of your website's design play a crucial role in successfully crawling its webpages. One of them is the sitemap that lets search engines to crawl the pages of your site precisely. 

Yes, the purpose of a sitemap is to guide search engines about the content and pages of a website. It also provides you with an opportunity to let search engines know which pages of your website are most important.

If your website has a lot of content or your new site doesn't have many external links, a sitemap helps you get recognition in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Sitemaps also simplify navigation. It allows easy navigation through different pieces of content on your website. If you are the first-time visitor, a sitemap/ internal link structure will help you easily explore it.

In addition to making your site in harmony with search engines, sitemaps contain crucial metadata about the pages of a website. It means the chances of a website ranking higher increases.

Final Words

The integration of Website Design and SEO brings bright results for every website owner. When you blend SEO strategies with the web design process, search engines include your website in top results. 

Improving the design of a website as per the SEO needs is easy. You can either focus on above-discussed points or take the help of professionals, like Semalt. 

The modifications made by qualified experts at Semalt not only enhance the design/ looks of your website but improves its ranking in search engines as well.