A Great Website Design Company Does Not Really Understand SEO

Portrait of two business people pulling SEO banner

 

Over the past few years, the search engine has experienced a radical change. These days, web design companies must understand how the latest SEO works. Much like design, the SEO of a website highly influences the visibility of its content.

However, SEO experts have kept none on the key concept of SEO which designers need to know. This has created the impression that the majority of well-designed website lacks the key SEO optimization (which is actually true). Here are the important SEO strategies designers should know before setting up a website.

Always design the Mobile first

According to Google, “In future, our algorithm will use the mobile version of a website to determine its ranking”

Does this really affect the design of a website?

Yes, it does. Responsive design is not all about making the elements fits into a screen. The main focus is on usability. This means setting up a strategy that focuses on a consistent, top-grade design experience across different devices.

Here are a few of the things users love on a website:

  • Flexibility to view images and read texts
  • Ability to view website from any device or position (portrait or landscape)
  • Your content and design should be overall responsive.

To achieve this, you need to understand their online behavior and preferences. You don’t have to focus on text-only; gifs, videos, and infographics all contribute to a responsive website.

Long-form content is taking over

Creating long-form content is important for a website to rank. In the years back, a 400-word article is considered a long-form content and they rank on Google. Today, long-form content starts from 1000 to 3000 words. You should start writing a long-form content that is engaging and easily navigated. If you need more information, you can read this article by Neil Patel. 

Understanding User Intent

User experience is a critical part of SEO. User’s search queries provide really valuable insights on what people think about a product, content or service. Studying the intent of users can help understand what’s on their mind. Google tackles user intent by putting their attention on micro-moments like:

  • I want to know: Here, the user is looking for information.
  • I want to go: This query is based on the quest for a location.
  • I want to do: The users are searching for want they want to do. The key is a tutorial.
  • I want to buy: Here, the customer’s intent is to buy online. They might be looking for reviews or deals before making a decision.

There are some tools that help with search intent, they include:

Google Trends

  • Google trend helps validate if a particular subject is actually popular, steady or waning. The free tool is easy to use.

Answer The Public

  • It is a fast way to check what people are searching for on Google. Additionally, you can sort by language for deeper navigation.

Internal links

And lastly, we have internal links.

To search engine bot, putting links on your website means that you value a page over the other. A perfect internal linking strategy provides both an SEO and UX benefit. It provides a good way for readers to engage with your website.

Conclusively, since search engine has experienced a radical change, designers must also learn the new SEO rules in order to stay updated with the trend and provide a customer-satisfactory service.