Web Design - The Balance Between Search & Content

Everyone wants an SEO-friendly website optimized for search engines where listings show up at the top when consumers are searching for their products. The same site needs to be beautiful and functional that let’s visitors easily find what they want to buy or the information they need.

Consider these web design tips to get best of both worlds.

SEO’s focus is on optimizing navigation for search indexing and ranking. Good design likes to keep navigation very simple. Satisfy both requirements and keep your top navigation simple so that only a few main categories are shown. Then expand navigation through subcategories and ensure the subcategories correspond to terms that you are targeting in SEO. 

Our top three “Insights and Tips” to consider with this approach include a) build a new subcategory when you have more than a dozen products on a page b) use navigation bubbles that show sub navigation on hover or the use of a sidebar c) to support navigation cross link pages throughout your blogs, FAQs, and instructions to support navigation. . See a great example here. 

Design focuses on beautiful visuals and simple layout. SEO focuses on as much content as possible within a pillar page strategy with the goal of becoming an authority brand. To satisfy both, identify what steps you expect a visitor to take on your site to the outcome you want and think about the information that would make you take an action. Also, look at what your competition is doing. Plan your pages and their features based on the journey you map out and incorporate SEO and design elements.

Out top five “Insights and Tips” to consider with this approach include a) consider providing your customer with filters to assist them with finding the right information b) avoid design feature that could hinder search engine indexing such as overuse of Javascript frameworks c) ask the question of what information does the visitor need to leave satisfied or complete a transaction d) 40% of visitors abandon sites that do not load in 3 seconds so be sure to design for fast loading e) always ensure non text media is compressed and tagged.

Bottom Line:   Informed leadership will help in creating a site that is easily found, looks great, has the optimum information a visitor needs, and loads fast. Follow these guidelines for the right balance of SEO, Design and Content to get the most out of your digital dollars.