Why Good Website Design with SEO is the Holy Grail for Businesses?

The world of website design has come a long way since businesses first started developing an online presence for their brand. These days, it’s not enough simply to have a website. It needs to be good looking, easy to use and designed with the sales funnel in mind.

In short, great website design for businesses could be the difference between them making money or not.

In this blog post, we’ll explain why you should be prioritizing your website and reveal why website design is about so much more than just “making it look pretty”…

Why your website is so important

Your website is the online manifestation of your brand. And a platform to showcase your products and services in the best light. So in the same way that your shop, restaurant, or office should look clean and professional for your customers and clients, so should your website.

And in today’s digital world, your customers expect a lot from your online presence.

The generation that never knew a life without the internet have long since grown up and become adults. So it’s no longer enough for your website to display relevant information. It needs to surprise and delight. It should add value to your target audience, inspire them to connect with your brand and encourage them to purchase.

Great web design does this and so much more.

Why website design is more than just looks

Your online presence should make communication between your business and its customers easy and fast. The aim is always to engage visitors and turn them into customers.

Try to think of your website as a lead generation platform, not just a shop window. Because it’s not just your online “shop”; it’s your shop assistant too. It has to be able to showcase your products and at the same time sell them with appealing imagery and compelling copy.

Your website is also your receptionist. Customers today want to be able to go online and make a booking or enquiry in no more than three clicks. So the design of your website has to make it easy for them.

And we live in a social world. People want to share the great things they find online. So it’s essential that your website is synced with the social channels your existing and potential customers use.

A mobile responsive website is also a must. Depending on your target demographic, the majority of your customers would already be accessing websites via their smartphones. If your website isn’t responsive, very quickly you’ve lost that customer.

Don’t fall into the trap that many small businesses do: don’t treat your website as an online brochure. It’s a shop floor, a receptionist, sales assistant, and social network all rolled into one. But you can only achieve that with good website design!

Website Design with SEO is key to online marketing success

In today’s noisy digital landscape, it’s just not realistic to create a website and expect businesses to flood in through Google.

Great website design can only do so much. Even the most good-looking websites need Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or they run the risk of not being seen. So, awesome website design with SEO, now that’s the key to digital marketing success.

In this blog post, we’ll explain what SEO is and why it’s the key to a successful online business. Plus, we’ll also provide a couple of top tips to improve your Google ranking…

What is SEO?

SEO is how your website becomes visible in search results. Literally speaking, it’s optimising your website for search engines.

SEO is usually divided into two parts: on-page and off-page. And there are tactics for each. However, SEO is a complex and forever-changing beast. Since its function is to please search engine algorithms (the formula by which search engines come up with results), the various ways in which this is achieved evolve depending on changes made to the algorithm.

Simply put, Google is constantly evolving and improving its algorithm. So SEO practices are changing constantly in order to keep up.

But there are some basic SEO principles that have remained relatively constant. Websites that follow these rules stand a better chance of being found in Google search:

Regularly post new and relevant content

Websites are meant to be living, breathing, interactive content platforms. Google rewards these sorts of websites by ranking them higher in search results. A blog is an easy way to post fresh content on a regular basis. And each post is an opportunity to be found by your audience. So, the more blog posts your website has, the better. More on this later.

Have fast page load times

Google reads websites by “crawling” their pages. Like humans, Google has a short attention span. So if your page is taking too long to load, Google will penalise that website. So make sure there are no server issues with your website, or image files that are too large to load quickly.

Have no broken links

When Google crawls your website pages, it follows all the links you have embedded into text, images, Calls To Action (CTA) and other elements. If you change the URL of a blog post or website page, and the old link still exists somewhere else on the website, Google will find it and penalise you. So remember to check all your links are working!

Other strong websites link to them

The more inbound links your website has, the stronger your “authority” becomes. When other websites are linking to yours, it tells Google that you’re an expert at something and your website is worth looking at. But beware “black hat” backlinking tactics, as Google only rewards genuine inbound links from non-spam sources.

Remember, website design with SEO gets your website found by your target audience. With greater opportunity to be seen, your brand has increased chances of getting leads and making sales. Without making your website Google-friendly, it’s very hard to generate enquiries.

On-page optimization
Ok, now we understand a little bit about what SEO is and why it’s important, let’s take a closer look at on-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the way in which you make your website page (or blog post) Google-friendly. As a bare minimum, a website page should be optimized through target keyword placement in these five places:

The body text and headings
Image alt descriptions
SEO title
Meta description
The URL

These five things are collectively called metadata. Metadata is the information Google “reads” in order to understand what your page content is about.

Most Content Management Systems (CMS) will automatically generate an SEO title, URL and meta description for you based on the content of that page. However, creating your own is a much smarter idea.

Your SEO title and meta description are the first things a searcher will see when your content appears in search results. So if you create your own, not only can you ensure that your target keyword appears there, you can also entice viewers to visit your website with engaging, clickable copy.

Your SEO title should be short; just your brand name and succinct tag line. Google typically displays the first 50–60 characters of a title tag, so bear that in mind when you’re writing. As for the meta description, this should also be short and simple, stating what content you offer to your website visitors.

TOP TIP: If you’re using WordPress, Yoast SEO and ALL in one SEO are recommended plugins for simplifying your on-page SEO process. It’ll provide a checklist for your critical on-page optimization actions and give you an overall score once you’re done.

Conveyz is a specialist in website design with SEO in Brisbane. Every website we create is delivered with all the basic optimization done for you, so you can rest assured it’s complying with best SEO practices. Ask us if you have any SEO queries and we’ll do our best to help you out!

Generate more enquiries, stand out and attract clients online. For more information on great website design for businesses, contact us today for a free consultation.