Web Development and SEO: How They Work Together

seo web design

SEO does not mean you build links and leave it at that. There are a lot of complex measures put in place to determine a website’s ranking.

Google has done a lot of work in creating a smart and effective system that ranks sites based on relevancy. By evaluating sites on a more in-depth level, customers get better results. If you want to run a successful SEO campaign for your site, you can’t forget about web design and development.

Let’s take a look at several reasons why SEO and web design belong together.

SEO and Web Design Goes Hand-In-Hand

You can’t have one part of the equation without the other. If you’re designing a website and not thinking about the SEO implications, think again.

The process of creating a website that is SEO-ready might take longer, but it’s worth it. Getting a knowledgeable SEO expert involved during the design process helps.

They’ll be able to structure your site the way search engines would want it. They will also be able to provide guidance on internal linking and the setup of pages.

SEO Drives Traffic, Web Design Keeps Traffic

The purpose of SEO is to bring people to a site. It’s as simple as that. SEO helps a website grow by putting it in front of more people.

Web design keeps people on the site. A beautiful website that’s interactive and relevant will keep your audience engaged. An easy UX flow will help customers understand where they should go.

These two aspects of a website complement each other. Without one, the other would fail.

A good SEO should always think of their campaign with the web design in mind. Vice versa, a web designer should prepare a site that’s easy to optimize with SEO.

Let’s talk about an example. A team creates a gorgeous website. Top of the line structure and amazing effects.

The problem is that they forgot to put in place any SEO measures. They gain a slow trickle of visits and their site dies from inactivity.

The team should have prepared their site with an SEO structure. They should have optimized the titles, text, and descriptions already.

Technical SEO And Responsive Web Design

One of the main ways that SEO experts and web designers can work together is by achieving these. Technical SEO looks at topics like domains, hosting, indexation, even link structure. A web designer might know a bit of this, but it’s not their specialty.

When dealing with domains, you want to have something that is relevant to what you do. It shouldn’t focus on a keyword, it should focus on your business brand.

Don’t go overboard by trying to stuff keywords into your domain. A web designer’s branding will go a long way in tying the domain to the site.

Indexation is another key feature that SEOs and web designers have to work together in. A search engine has to be able to understand what your site contains.

That means behind the flashy designs and interactive elements, there has to be text. Your site should be text-based first. This gives crawlers a chance to digest what your site consists of.

Once you have a strong text base, you can supplement it with images and videos.

Link structure is a technical item that web designers should understand. Luckily, SEOs are able to handle this.

Beyond your home page, your site might contain hundreds of other links. An XML sitemap can help crawlers dive into your site’s structure to find new pages.

The Intersection and Collaboration

SEO and web design have a lot of intersections. Content is one of the big things that SEO and web designers have to consider.

SEO experts have to prepare the content in a way that makes it easy for search engines to crawl. They do this by optimizing keywords and phrases.

They introduce internal and external links to bind content together. They also have to choose the right phrases to target for titles, descriptions, and slugs.

Web designers have to prepare content in a way that makes it easy for readers to digest. They need to make content visual and it has to flow.

The page’s schema and structure have to be ready. The user experience is what web designers have to focus on. A happy reader is a happy site visitor.

Page speed is another thing that SEOs and web designers can figure out together. Search engines consider page speed as a key indicator of a good website.

In today’s mobile-dominated world, your site has to load up fast. By using website’s like Google’s mobile-friendly test, you can check why your site is slow. If a page is too loaded with interactive elements or scripts, it might be a good idea to dial it down.

Nip Problems in the Bud Early

Last but not least, small SEO problems can become big problems later. The earlier you can tackle a problem, the better. A website’s design can look flawless, but under the hood, there might be huge problems with the SEO.

It’s better to prepare your links and keywords early on than wait till later.

Waiting could cost you several months of work. You would have to revisit every page of the site and dig through all the content. You would have to click every single button to make sure that it’s tagged right. You would have to do a deep dive into the structure of your site to make sure that there is nothing broken.

A web designer and an SEO have to be partners, because that’s how you’ll avoid headaches.

Ready to Learn More?

Webmasters have to be able to discern between their web design and their SEO. Both will have huge impacts on the success or failure of the site.

If you’re looking for more ways on how to build a successful site, we have great resources on our site.