Why SEO and web design go hand in hand
SEO, or search engine optimization, is undoubtedly one of the modern business terms that has gained remarkable significance in an even more remarkably brief span of time.
Following the advent and sudden growth of the world wide web, the discipline of SEO represents the lifeblood of online businesses and people looking to make their mark beyond the geographical and social parameters of everyday life – and within a landscape that offers untold opportunities to those who learn how to navigate it.
Of course, more than just a to-do list of administrative and creative tasks, search engine optimisation represents a long-term commitment to maintaining, augmenting and improving your online presence in order to keep up with competitors and, more importantly, ensure strong visibility within your target market online.
Just as we consistently work to uphold a high standard for our brick and mortar businesses, so too must we work to ensure we make a strong impression on anyone looking for a business like ours online.
This, of course, leads us naturally to the topic of web design – namely, how its necessity runs largely concurrently to the necessity for search engine optimisation (and why it’s so important to invest in the services of a top website design company if you have the budget).
A strong website makes your efforts tangible
SEO is, as we mentioned above, a significant and long-term commitment to improving your visibility, and offering an effective reinforcement to your rankings once you reach a strong position. This is, in and of itself, a monumental effort – and it will produce results that are tangible to you, in the form of metrics and increased revenue.
It will not, however, alter the ways in which site visitors perceive your brand. This is why it’s so important to hire services offering web design Laois (or anywhere else) to improve your website branding.
In essence, receiving visitors requires strong SEO – and, in turn, converting those visitors into genuine admirers of your brand (and, of course, paying customers) requires a strong website. Not only that, but they require one from the very beginning, rather than a pro-grade site representing an investment for established businesses to pursue further down the line. This is, of course, where the use of site builders offering honed website templates and a scalable platform has proven so indispensable – particular as the significance of SEO and e-commerce has grown over the years.
By creating a foundation of strong design, user-friendliness, and cohesive, professional branding at the very onset of your digital journey, you can ensure that both the customer-facing and the ‘off-stage’ aspects of your online presence are prepared to develop in tandem.
Visibility does not automatically equal a strong performance
We all want to be visible on search engine results pages (SERPs). It is, afterall, one of the most effective ways of ensuring that the traffic heading onto your site is able to grow indefinitely, and that it is not hijacked by a competitor.
Still, merely getting that search traffic onto your site is really only half the story. Even if your site appears in one of the top positions for a broad array of relevant search terms, that offers no guarantees for your bottom line. It is, of course, a strong indicator that you are doing something right, and a sign that your brand is seen as valuable within relevant markets – but it is important to remember the distinction between a site that is simply search engine optimised, and one that is optimised for both the search engine, and the human user.
Promoting positive brand awareness remains a necessity for your business, even if you have all the technical SEO tools operating at peak performance.
Some aspects of web design have a direct bearing on SEO performance
Consider the last time you did a Google search for something new, and found yourself clicking through to a new, though high-ranking, site. Inarguably, the first thing you will have noticed is the speed with which the page itself loads onto your screen.
In days gone by, we may well have blamed it initially on our internet connection – but, these days, as internet users grow increasingly discerning, the blame is falling back onto the site owners themselves. What is also important to consider is how the future will continue to shine the spotlight on the sites themselves, rather than the users device or supposed connectivity issues – particularly in light of the fact that 5G Is anticipated to reach almost two thirds of the global population by 2025.
This is not only applicable when we consider user experience, either. It is now a well-known fact of SEO that search engines like Google take page load speed into account when ascertaining the overall authority – or lack thereof – of a site. This is yet another reason why a professional, industry-leading website builder is so essential.
The same goes, of course, for myriad other features. For instance, the inclusion of a well-written and thoughtfully constructed blog is an element that compliments both your SEO, and your human visitors.
Google is concerned with ensuring that it consistently offers high quality, well-maintained and professional resources to its users, and that means that many of the most fundamental aspects of web design will inevitably overlap with many of the core tenets of strong search engine optimisation.
These practices are, of course, not one-and-the-same – and both represent entire disciplines in their own right. Still, one cannot prove wholly efficacious without the other.
