Why website design is important for SEO

Woman reading about web design on a computer screen

The goal of SEO is to bring the right people to your website. But that’s only half the battle. Once they’re on the website, the design of your website is responsible for creating a clear experience, free of confusion, which encourages the visitor to engage and take action.

A good website design can help you establish authority. It presents the content in the right way for the right audience, so great website design relies on great copy. That’s because first impressions matter. People make split-second impressions based on what they see, and the memory of these unconscious opinions influence their future interactions for a long time.

But a good website design does so much more than convince your website visitors that you’re trustworthy. And you don’t need a fancy or ultra-creative design to get people to trust and like your website. Simple but professional designs can be much more user friendly and generally easier to navigate.

High-quality, relevant content convinces your audience to revisit or recommend a website. Many new businesses focus too much on adding trending effects such as sliders and parallax backgrounds when these elements often only distract the reader and hurt conversion rates. On top of that, these effects also require additional code that can slow your website down, also hurting your SEO efforts.

So, what else do you need to do in order to improve your SEO with website design?

Prioritize for mobile experience

Mobile traffic is at an all time high, now accounting for almost half of all web traffic worldwide. And mobile traffic will become even more important for startups in the near future. Websites that don’t offer a great user experience for mobile devices are not catering to the majority of user devices that visit their website.
Incorporate clear and effective calls to action

Once visitors land on the page, they should have an accurate idea of what action to take next, whether it’s signing up for a webinar, buying a product, downloading a freebie or something else. And your visitors can’t do any of that without clicking at least one button.
Never stop improving

Website design is much more than aesthetics. It encompasses everything from site structure to usability and other factors, so it has a huge impact on your website’s SEO success.

Keep in mind that website design is not something you do once and forget about. There’s always room for improvement. Track your website’s performance and make changes when necessary. Updating your website design and tailoring it to the content will increase your chances of converting visitors into buyers.