7 SEO Things You Should Remember When Designing a Website

You have the idea for the coolest website with the most stunning design – but have you considered SEO?

You might already know that SEO involves including relevant keywords in your page titles and headings. That is a great start – and it is certainly important to remember. But SEO is much more than that.

This guide is written for those designing a website for a client. However, if you are designing for yourself, I still recommend reading along – if you want to rank highly on Google.

As a web designer, you might think that if the client wants their website optimised for search engines and has no SEO experience themselves, they should hire an SEO consultant. That makes sense, but remember: the website is the very foundation for all future SEO work. As a web designer, you play a crucial role in determining whether the SEO consultant will be working with or against the wind when optimising the site.

If you are designing the website for yourself, you will also be doing yourself a favour by factoring SEO into the web design from the very beginning. That way, you will not have to spend time making adjustments later on.

Let us start with one of the most fundamental things that should be on your SEO to-do list for website design:

1) Organise your menu structure based on keyword research

You might say keyword research, but have you considered that I am a web designer?

Yes, I have considered that. But see it as an investment in long-term client satisfaction. In the short term, the client may be happy as long as the design looks attractive and professional. But in the long run, it is the traffic to the site that your client will depend on. That is why it is crucial that the website is set up to achieve the best possible rankings in the search results. 

Alright, but how do you actually conduct keyword research?

First of all, if your client already has an SEO consultant, have them carry out the research in collaboration with the client. It is far easier for the consultant to do the job properly than for you, whose main strength is web design.

Often, however, the client does not yet have an SEO consultant, as this is typically considered later – once the website is up and running. But this is your opportunity to factor in relevant keywords already at the design stage.

A keyword analysis can be broken down into the following steps:

a) Ask the client

What are the client’s main products and services (the low-hanging fruit)?

What does the client want to prioritise? 

b) Make a list of all potential keywords

Brainstorm. No keyword is too creative at this stage, as long as it is relevant to the client.

c) Enter your keywords into Google Keyword Planner

Explaining this in detail would require an entire blog post of its own. So until we create one, I recommend searching YouTube, where you will find plenty of video guides on how to use Google Keyword Planner for your keyword research.

When selecting keywords, keep the following parameters in mind, as they are important for determining the potential of a keyword for your client:

• Relevance: Is the keyword relevant to your client and the client’s target audience?
• Search volume: Does the keyword have enough monthly searches to be worth targeting?
• Purchase intent: How likely is it that a particular search indicates an intent to purchase the service offered on the website?
• Competition: How much competition is there, and how difficult will it be to rank highly for the keyword?

d) Get a clear overview with a fishbone template for your website menu structure

Once you have selected the keywords your website should target, it is a good idea to create a clear overview using a fishbone template, like the one shown here:

As you can see, I have suggested defining keywords at both the homepage and category levels. Under “Category 1”, for example, there are four subcategories where each URL should be optimised for its own keyword. You should do the same for “Category 2”, “Category 3”, and so on.

2) Create SEO-friendly URLs

Now that you and your client have agreed on which search queries are most relevant, you are ready to create the individual pages in your website menu. When defining the URLs, you should incorporate the keyword in a user-friendly manner. This helps both visitors and search engines understand what the page is about.

Keep it short and precise! Several studies have shown a clear trend: the best rankings in Google are often achieved by pages with the shortest URLs. This may be because Google prioritises user-friendliness. After all, Google thrives on satisfied users. And it is much easier for users to process a URL that is short and clear, rather than long and complicated.

Here is an example of a short and user-friendly URL:

3) User experience is crucial – also for SEO!

As a web designer, you may feel more at home in this section than when we discussed keyword research and URLs. User-friendliness is a key aspect of good website design. Here is the explanation – from an SEO perspective.

Google monitors your website’s bounce rate and session duration. The bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors who interact with only one page before leaving. If your page loads slowly, is confusing, or otherwise puts users off from engaging with your content, your bounce rate will increase. And Google will certainly notice. Google’s priority is satisfied users – and nothing signals dissatisfaction more than users leaving your site moments after arriving. The same goes for session duration: Google tracks how long visitors stay on your website.

You can monitor both bounce rate and session duration in Google Analytics.

4) Image sizes and loading time

Do not use images larger than those displayed on your website. This keeps both Google and your users happy, as it results in shorter loading times compared to uploading unnecessarily large images.

As a rule of thumb, use JPG instead of PNG. PNG files are larger and should only be used when the advantage of higher image quality outweighs the negative impact on loading time.

Once you have saved your image in the right format and size, you can further optimise it using the compression tool Kraken.io.

You can read much more about this in my colleague’s post on image optimisation for search engines.

5) Mobile-friendly website

More than half of all searches now take place on mobile devices. That is why Google is implementing Mobile First, meaning Google will primarily assess the mobile version of your site. This will impact how well you rank in search results – both on mobile and desktop. So now, more than ever, it is vital to design a website that offers a great user experience on mobile.

Today, there are mobiles and tablets of all screen sizes, all used to search on Google. It is therefore essential that your website interface is flexible and can be adjusted and proportioned depending on the size of the user’s device. Responsive design is an absolute must.

You could also consider implementing AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) on parts of your website. AMP loads directly in the search results and can bring significant benefits. It means users see your content much faster after clicking on an AMP page. Additionally, AMP pages are marked with a small “lightning bolt” icon in the search results. More and more users are expected to click these results as they learn the symbol represents fast loading. This increases CTR (Click Through Rate), which is also important for Google’s assessment of your page – and therefore its ranking in the search results. 

6) Call To Action

With the right CTAs placed in the right locations, you can significantly increase conversions. You should, for example, ensure your contact form, newsletter sign-up form and similar elements are clearly accessible to users. This could be via a sleeknote slide-in that appears when the user has read half the content on a landing page, or as an exit intent popup when the user finishes reading and is about to leave the page.

If you run an online shop, you should also consider the colour of your “Buy” and “Go to Basket” buttons. It is crucial that users never have to search for the button you want them to click. Always ensure these buttons stand out clearly from the rest of the content on your website, making them easy to spot.

Also, think about “white space”. The more “empty” space you place around your call-to-action button, the more noticeable it will be.

7) H-tags and titles

It is not enough just to bold your headings. They need to be tagged with <h1></h1>, <h2></h2>, and so on.

For the best SEO effect, you should only use one H1 heading per landing page on your website. However, you can use as many H2 headings as you like – as long as they are relevant to the content.

Your H1 should ideally include the keyword you want that page to be found for in the search results – that is, one of the keywords identified in your keyword research.

When writing your website titles, it is just as important that the chosen keyword is included. Google reads from left to right, so the further to the left your keyword is in the title, the more value Google will assign it. In other words, Google assumes your page is mainly about what you have written furthest to the left. However, your first priority should be that your title is attractive and relevant to your target audience when your result appears in their search results. Ultimately, what matters most is that users click on your search result, and that it is the right users who click.

Pssst. Bonus tip:

Remember to install SSL on your site as well. In my colleague’s blog post What is an SSL certificate? you can read more about the SEO significance of this.