SEO and Web Design: How to Create a Website That Will Rank High

One of the most common complaints I have seen from bloggers, businesses, and SEO specialists is, “We are doing everything, but our website is still not ranking!”

A lot of SEO specialists focus too much on keyword research, writing semantic content, social sharing, and building backlinks. However, they ignore (not intentionally) one of the biggest factors that significantly affect Google rankings. I am talking about web design.

If your SEO and website design don’t go hand in hand, then it will lead to the following:

• Lower or no rankings on search engines
• Unsatisfactory user experience
• Lower conversions
• Issues in accessing content
• Mobile responsiveness problem
• And most importantly, negative brand perception

That’s why, in this guide, I will share some of the proven tips that emphasize SEO in website design and help you achieve those higher rankings you always wanted.

So, let’s dive in.

What Is SEO-Friendly Web Design and Why It Matters?

Creating websites that work well with search engines while still being fun for users is what SEO-friendly web design is all about. This helps websites rank higher in search results and brings in more visitors.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) falls into three categories:

Web designing SEO is included in the technical part of the SEO spectrum. This includes creating CTA buttons for conversions, choosing appealing brand colors, optimizing page load speed, and more.

To determine if you have done SEO website design correctly or not, check these parameters:

• Distinct Titles and Meta Descriptions: Every page should have a unique title and meta description that appropriately summarizes the information and includes relevant keywords.
• Structured URLs: To improve readability and relevancy, URLs should be descriptive, lowercase, and separated by dashes.
• Fast Loading Times: Slow websites can result in high bounce rates. Therefore, websites must load quickly to meet search engine criteria and retain visitors.
• Responsive Design: With the growing use of mobile devices, a responsive design is essential to preserving usability.
• Optimized Images: To increase user engagement and SEO performance, images should have meaningful filenames, alt text, and size compression.

But why does an SEO web design matter? Here are some major benefits you’ll see when you sync SEO in website design.

Google Will Favor Your Website

Your website will show up higher in search results if you build it with SEO in mind. In fact, FirstPageSage reports that 70% of people click on one of the top three organic results.

We recently worked with Poke 23, a food delivery company that offers wholesome meals on the go. We did website redesigning for them to help them boost their brand recognition. Here are the results:

Enhances User Experience

Research indicates that people prefer to interact with websites that have good design. In fact, Adobe reports that 59% of consumers would choose to spend their time on a well-designed website over a plain one.

A website with good design attracts search engine crawlers and improves the experience for visitors. This leads to visitors staying longer and fewer people leaving.

Reduces Quick Exits

When many people leave your site, it hurts your company because it tells search engines that customers aren’t finding what they need. A well-designed website encourages visitors to look at more pages and keeps them interested.

You can cut down on quick exits by using a simple, easy-to-navigate design. For example, companies who made design improvements to their websites reported a 30% decrease in bounce rates, boosting time on site and improving rankings.

Creates a Mobile-Friendly Experience

Smartphones and tablets generate 60% of website visits, as reported by Exploding Topics. Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means it ranks and indexes pages based on a site’s mobile version.

Your website’s poor mobile experience might cause big drops in search rankings. In fact, 48% of people think less of a business when its website doesn’t work well on mobile devices. (Google)

Offers a Fantastic Return on Investment

Making an early investment in SEO-friendly web design can minimize future costs. Building a website based on SEO principles saves money and time compared to redesigning it later in the future.

Businesses that prioritize SEO when building their websites eventually spend less on advertising. This is due to their higher organic traffic and improved conversion rates.

Combining web design and SEO is essential for increasing online visibility, improving user experience, and supporting business expansion.  

Essential Elements of SEO-optimized Website Design

Creating an SEO website design involves integrating various essential elements that enhance both user experience and search engine visibility.

Effective and SEO-Aware Site Structure

A well-structured site architecture forms the backbone that supports both user experience and search engine optimization. It plays a crucial role in effective SEO and website design.

Good site architecture makes navigation easier, helping users find information. It also helps search engines crawl and index content.

When you design menus with a clear hierarchy and use consistent navigation patterns, users can reach important pages in just a few clicks.

This approach makes users happier and helps search engines figure out which pages matter most. As a result, these pages become more visible in search results.

Most people visiting your website will end up on your homepage. This is why you should always include links to key pages on your homepage. Adding a menu that appears when you hover over it, a button that asks users to take action, and links to what you offer are excellent ways to mix SEO with website design.

Header tags (H1, H2, H3) create a well-organized layout that helps users and search engines.

These tags help divide content into easy-to-read sections, allowing visitors to scan and find what they want. They also give search engines context about how the content is structured.

Create an XML sitemap that shows how your website is set up. This helps search engines grasp your content and guides visitors through your site.

You can make sitemaps for free using SEO tools like Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO.

Search engines need clear structures and logical paths to understand how different pages link together. A well-organized site makes it easier for crawlers to index your content.

For example, a basic URL structure and smart internal linking can boost how search engines view your site’s value.

Connect related content on your website to guide visitors through similar topics and help search engines find new pages. If you have the budget, try a tool called Link Whisper. It spots isolated pages and makes it easy to add internal links.

Google’s page experience guide suggests you check your website’s page experience by asking yourself these questions.

When you focus on creating a well-structured site layout in your SEO and web design work, you make a site that’s better for users and ranks higher in search results.

Clean and SEO-Friendly URL Structure

Just like you need an address to reach a place, your website users need a URL to reach the web page. This URL is crawled by Google’s bots and indexed in the search engine directory.

A bad URL, for example – http:example.com/post-id-24561/24112016, does not just make your brand look bad but also affects the search rankings. 

Ideally, a URL must be under 60 characters and include the primary keyword you want the web page to rank for. You can have a flat URL structure (on the right) or with categories included in the URL if you cover a lot of categories and sub-categories (on the left); according to Google, it does not matter.

There are various other fixes that you can do to make your URL SEO-friendly. Such as:

• Hide the www. prefix
• Serve website with HTTPS protocol
• Keep the URL short and simple
• Include a relevant keyword
• Check your URL, title, and meta description on a Google SERP Simulator before going live.

Web design and SEO are the foundation pillars when designing your website. Telling your web developer to create SEO-friendly URLs can benefit you in the long run.

Always ensure that your website visitors are served the HTTPS version of your web page. It secures your website from bad actors on the web and builds trust with the user. That’s why Google now checks the HTTPS version of your web page before indexing it.

🔔 Bonus Section:

For WordPress websites, it’s very simple to customize your URL structure. Go to settings >> permalinks and add/remove what you want in your URL structure. This will become your default URL structure for all the blog posts.

Read Also: Best WordPress Web Design Agencies with Expert Services

Intuitive Design

A study in the ACM Digital Library shows that 94% of users form their first impressions based on design. This highlights how UX important for SEO by drawing in new visitors and keeping existing ones.

Good site structure plays a key role in effective SEO and website design. It makes the user experience better and helps search engines find the site more.

When web designers organize content in a logical way, they create a site that’s easy to navigate. This helps users find what they need. As a result, fewer people leave the site right away, which tells search engines that the site has value. This can lead to higher rankings.

This method has an influence on the quality of available info and builds trust and authority. Google takes these factors into account when it ranks websites.

SEO and web design need to work together through easy-to-use navigation. Simple menus and clear paths help users find key pages without getting lost.

For example, adding breadcrumbs lets visitors see where they are on the site, making it more user-friendly.

Implementing structured data makes the SEO web design process better. By marking areas for structured data—like breadcrumbs, events, or reviews—web designers help search engines index sites more.

Micro animations, 3D elements, and dark mode rank among the trendiest web design trends; include them to give your website a fashionable look.

Read Also: Top Web Design Practices for Creating Stunning Websites

Clean and Optimized Code

In terms of SEO and web design, a clean and optimized codebase is crucial for obtaining top search engine results and offering an outstanding user experience. 

Let’s explore how optimizing your JavaScript for better performance, minimization, and asynchronous loading can improve your website’s SEO and overall usability.

Code Cleanliness and Accuracy

SEO web design is built on a foundation of clean, organized code. Clean code guarantees cross-device compatibility and accurate content rendering. 

You can minimize the content display problems that could negatively affect user experience by eliminating coding errors. Search engines prioritize good user experiences, so keeping your codebase clean is essential to SEO success.

JavaScript Optimization

A lot of websites rely greatly on JavaScript to deliver interactive features and content on their website. However, if JavaScript isn’t correctly optimized, search engines may have trouble reading and indexing your content.  

Search engines have limited capabilities in executing and interpreting JavaScript code, and therefore, their crawlers struggle to understand your web pages if they are rendered solely through JavaScript.

I recommend using server-side rendering or other optimization strategies to overcome this barrier and ensure that search engine bots can efficiently access and index your information.

Code Minimization

Reducing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML file size can significantly improve page loading speeds. Minimizing these resources decreases the amount of data the browser needs to download, resulting in faster load times. 

This is particularly important for search engines and users, as Google considers page speed a ranking factor, and users expect websites to load quickly. 

You’ll see lower bounce rates and higher engagement with faster load times, which improve SEO performance.

Asynchronous Resource Loading

Render-blocking can drastically slow down your website. However, it can be avoided by loading resources asynchronously, including styles and scripts. 

This ensures that your users see the page’s main content instantly, as the external resources load asynchronously. This leads to increased user interaction and faster page loading speeds.

Use of Readable Fonts

Readability directly impacts user experience and engagement, making it an essential component of SEO and website design. Your text must be readable for all users, including those with visual impairments. This improves a website’s overall effectiveness and branding and makes it look better.

In SEO web design, you must follow readability guidelines. In my opinion, body text should be more than 16 pixels (font-weight > 400) to ensure clarity. The headings must be in bold, and avoid using any color other than black (#000000) for your text.

Using fonts with simple patterns and sufficient contrast against the background helps users easily read the content. 

Additionally, implementing white space around text improves legibility and guides users’ focus on important elements on the page.

Collaboration between web design and SEO content writers is vital in achieving optimal readability. Writers can enhance content by using concise language, short paragraphs, and headings that break up topics, making it easier for readers to skim through information. 

Meanwhile, designers must select appropriate fonts and colors while ensuring ample white space is present to create a comfortable reading environment.

Visual communication does not only mean exciting graphic elements or a bright color palette; you can also enhance your website design with the right typography.

Here are a few more pointers to remember to make the best use of SEO in web design:

• Stick with only one font (use different font weights of the same font for headings, subheadings, and body text.)
• Do not choose fancy or artistic fonts like cursive or Aguafina Script. Go with simple fonts like Rubik, Montserrat, or Georgia.
• Create a contrast between the color of the text and the background.
• Ensure there is ample white space between and around your text. This can singlehandedly boost your website’s readability and aesthetics.
• Choose a theme that offers dark mode, as many people prefer it nowadays.

Readability should be prioritized in your SEO and web design strategy. It enhances user experience and positively impacts SEO metrics such as time spent on the page and click-through rates.

Focus on Design that Drives Conversions

There are some proven design elements like CTA buttons, product card designs, and so on that you should incorporate into your web design for better conversion rate optimization. You can significantly enhance website conversion, turning more visitors into leads. Let’s break down the basic elements and tips for web design of it:

Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons

CTA buttons play a key role in directing users to take specific actions, such as joining a mailing list, buying an item, or grabbing some content.

A good CTA button should catch the eye using colors that pop against the rest of the page. Think of a bright “Buy Now” button that grabs your attention and makes you want to click.

The spot where you put CTAs matters a lot; they should be placed where you get the most eyeballs. If you are a business, I recommend you put it in the header (primary menu). If you want a user to sign up for a newsletter, then place a button below the sign-up form.

We’ve put two CTA buttons on our homepage—one in the header and another above the fold. This grabs attention quickly and allows users to contact us easily.

Product Card Design

On eCommerce sites, how you design product cards plays a big role in keeping users engaged and making them click on the “Buy Now” button. A simple layout with premium images, brief descriptions, clear pricing, and easy-to-spot “Add to Cart” buttons can boost the user experience.

For example, if product cards are messy or missing key details, users might feel swamped or lost, leading to cart abandonment. By ensuring that product cards look good and provide all the needed information, you create a space that builds trust and encourages users to buy.

Divide Main Categories into Sub-categories

A well-organized menu layout helps users find what they want fast and easy. Adding features like dropdown menus for groups or breadcrumbs to go back easily can make the site much more user-friendly.

Some companies might find it hard to balance SEO and web design, so I suggest hiring anaffordable web design agency to create your strategy. They have all the expertise and resources to get the best results.

Adaptability for Various Devices

According to Think with Google, 2 out of 3 mobile users say that if the website is responsive, aka mobile friendly, they are more likely to buy a product or service from that business. 

Screen size optimization of your website ensures that users have a consistent experience regardless of their device. If a website doesn’t work well on mobile devices, visitors might have trouble reading your content or navigating your site.

Here are some quick fixes you can make to boost your website’s mobile friendliness without needing to bother your web developers:

• Use larger fonts for readability.
• Graphics are significant in SEO, but make sure they look good on small screens.
• Ensure essential information is readily available.
• Use hamburger menus for simplified navigation.
• Do not focus on device-specific design; create a universal design. 

An adaptable user interface is one of the key principles of UI design, as it is crucial to provide a consistent user experience across desktops, tablets, and smartphones. 

Google prefers mobile-first indexing, which means it uses a site’s mobile version to rank and index it. Therefore, a responsive design improves user experience and positively impacts search rankings.

You can outsource web design to a subscription-based web design agency like Duck Design to get the best responsive SEO web design. Since they are the experts, you can get the best mobile-friendly website with minimal effort from your side.

Low-Weight High-Quality Images

Visual content like gifs, animations, images, videos, etc., are very useful in attracting and retaining your target audience. It amps up the appeal of your web page by breaking up the text, illustrating concepts, and providing an engaging user interface.

However, if you upload images in PNG, JPEG, or JPG format, I want you to stop now. These image formats are too big. I recommend you switch to Webp image format. It is what Google recommends. 

A webp image is smaller, loads faster, and looks the best even when optimized. The formats mentioned above lose their image quality when compressed. 

When doing website design for SEO, especially when dealing with images for your websites, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• File Size: I recommend you keep an image below 30kb. The smaller the size, the faster it will load. Use a webp converter if needed to convert your PNG or JPG images into webp formats. 
• Filename: One of the most ignored website design and SEO practices is naming your files. Do not upload files to your websites with names like filename24563. Instead, describe what the image is about or insert some relevant keywords.
• Alt Text: Another website design and SEO tip is adding alt text to your images. Alt texts are descriptions of what is depicted in the image. Users can read it when they hover their cursor over the image. But most importantly, it can also help visually impaired users (and users whose browsers do not support your files) understand what is being shown.

Do not upload videos to your website. This will severely impact the website’s loading speed. Instead, use a video player service like Vimeo or Presto Player + Bunnynet and upload your video on their servers. Then, simply embed the video on your website.  

Site Speed and Performance

How fast your website loads and performs greatly affects user experience and search engine rankings. A quick-loading site keeps visitors interested, lowers bounce rates, and makes people want to check out more pages.

Compressing images, using browser caching, and reducing HTTP requests are key techniques for making a page load and respond faster.

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can evaluate your site’s performance on computers and phones and give you useful tips for improving it.

A Pinterest study found that making a website 40% faster led to a 15% increase in conversions and organic traffic. Search engines like Google give faster websites better spots in their search results. 

🚀Ways to Make Your Site Faster

To speed up your website and boost its performance in your SEO web design, try these approaches:

• Compress Images: Upload compressed images in webp format to speed up loading without losing quality. Try tools like webp converters, tinypng, etc.
• Pick a Good Hosting Company: Go for a host that loads fast and stays up most of the time. Some options are Hostinger, A2Hosting, and Cloudways.
• Turn On Browser Caching: Save often-used stuff on users’ devices to cut down on server requests.
• Use Tools to Check Performance: Keep an eye on your site’s performance using tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google PageSpeed Insights, or GTmetrix.

By making website speed and performance a top priority, you can develop an effective SEO website design strategy to improve user experience and boost search engine visibility.

Evaluating Your Website: Does It Meet SEO and Web Design Criteria?

A complete SEO review of the UI/UX factors helps identify areas to improve usability, accessibility, and the overall user experience, which are key parts of SEO and web design.

💻Tools for Conduct an SEO Audit

• Google Analytics: This tool shows how users behave on your site. It tracks bounce rates, visit durations, and page views, which helps you make better decisions about your website.
• Google Search Console: This gives you key info about your site’s search performance. It flags indexing issues and checks mobile-friendliness. You can use this tool to fix your site’s technical problems.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider: This desktop program scans websites. It finds broken links, copied content, and other SEO issues. These technical glitches can hurt your site’s search rankings.
• Ahrefs: A powerful SEO tool that analyzes backlinks, keyword rankings, and overall site health. It shows you how well your site ranks in search results.
• GTmetrix: Checks how fast pages load and offers tips to speed things up, which is important for user experience and SEO.
• Hotjar: Shows heatmaps and recordings of user sessions to reveal how people interact with your site, helping you find usability problems and areas for improvement.
• Lighthouse: An open-source tool from Google that checks the performance, accessibility best practices, and SEO of web pages.

By using these tools to run an SEO audit that examines UI/UX factors, you can improve your website’s performance, keep users happy, and climb higher in search results.

Duck Design: SEO-Optimized Web Designs for Top Search Engine Rankings

At Duck Design, we have collaborated with numerous brands and helped them with SEO website design. Let us show you some of the websites from our portfolio that are a perfect example of SEO and website design.

#1. High-contrast Website

Modern website design focus a lot on aesthetics; this website template does just that. The logo is white, which means it will be stylishly visible on the website with a high-contrast background color. The menu is neatly arranged, and a dropdown menu for “Services” guides customers to the right place.

The CTA button is rightly placed above the fold, in the hero section, to entice customers to get in touch easily.

The menu turns into a hamburger icon when a user is on mobile. The text is centered, and the buttons are displayed above the first scroll to promote quick action.

#2. One-page Website

Sometimes, you don’t even need an entire website to do business; a one-page website is enough. This design shows a registration form and a CTA button that lets users book a free demo.

The colors are in high contrast to each other, and the image is optimized to load fast. The fewer the sections on your webpage, the less code there is, which means it will load super-fast.

#3. A Business Website

A business website must look professional; this template goes well with almost any business website. It is minimal, has an establishing hero image to retain users, the menu only includes essential page links, and the CTA button is rightly placed.

The video is embedded using a third-party video player to remove the video loading requests and provide a better user experience. The form shifts below the second scroll to accommodate the design.