Why is SEO website design so important for my business?
(SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is the name that is given to any activity undertaken with the intention of improving the ranking of a website within a search engine.) SEO website design will make a difference to your ranking in major search engines such as google – Learn more in the SEO article below.
85% of web traffic is driven by search engines
There are many ways you can improve your website’s rank within a search engine with SEO website design.
Paying careful attention to how your content is written, what words are used and how other websites link to yours will help to make your site easier and more relevant to your users. Good quality content will demonstrate to the search engines that your website is an authority in the area of expertise you are writing about.
If a customer wishes to find your business online, the easiest way should be to use a search engine.
Since ‘google it’ was coined a phrase, it became apparent we’re all pretty familiar with how to use a search engine. Yet as popular sites made it so easy for us to access the information, some may say we’ve become lazy at doing the research ourselves. Others might say that the companies that are not showing in the first page are not trying hard enough to compete.
Due to this fascinating statistic companies are doing all they can to get at the top of your results, and this is where SEO website design makes a huge difference.
SEO makes it possible for your site to be found and then indexed in the search results returned to web users. Even, simple ‘best practice’ SEO will help your site to rank higher in the results. There are lots of resources online to help you get started with SEO, but really, if you do anything, you want to target your efforts on performing within Google’s results – all other search engines will fall in line behind Google.
So how does search engine optimisation work?
Search engines use automated robots, to crawl the millions of websites and documents on the internet. When a search is initiated, the keywords or phrases entered are analysed and matched against relevant content to produce a set of results pages that show the best possible match to the original search criteria.
Search engines use mathematical equations known as algorithms to determine these factors.
Factors such as keyword repetition and the distribution of your search terms throughout your webpage content and titles, will affect your results position. But be careful not to ‘cram’ your content with keywords as this will appear spammy (we talk more about this below) to the search engine and could lead to a demotion in your placement rather than the gain you had hoped for. Good SEO practice is a delicate balance, which can take some time to perfect, but is hugely rewarding when you get it right and start seeing your results position moving up!
52% of users do not return to the search results from the first site they click through to
Remember: Search engines such as Google do not share precise information on how their algorithms work, but they do give recommendations on how to ensure your site is found or to boost site traffic – so search these out and start implementing them asap.
Spam SEO damages your website
It is key to build your website with these recommendations in mind. When it comes to SEO cutting corners will get you nowhere. Think of a search engine as a business, they want to deliver their customers the best, most relevant information, if you try and cheat their systems and appear for searches with little relevance to your content, they will penalise you.
These clearly show that investing in SEO website design is essential to bringing in new customers and revenue. Remember that people will not just come across your website as they may do with other forms of advertising such as posters and adverts, they will need to be looking for it in order to find it. It is the SEO that will get them there.
SEO black hat techniques such as keyword stuffing (cramming), invisible text, duplicating content (plagiarism) or including popular search terms not relevant to your content, could seem like easy shortcuts, and may appear effective at first but they will be ultimately unsuccessful and are frowned upon by search engines. These techniques can be thought of as ways of forcing people onto your website regardless of whether they actually want to be there or not.
Paid backlinks placed onto other higher ranking websites could at first seem like a legitimate way to gain extra traffic, but search engine algorithms are designed to spot this activity and will quickly weed out your content and demote you if it feels it is breaking the rules.
In 2012 Google launched the ‘Penguin’ algorithm update. It was designed to penalise any website that had invested in unsolicited backlink programs. This was deemed to be a very unfair release as Google had previously promoted link building as a genuine way to increase traffic and build popularity, but unscrupulous developers used this loophole to sell services to genuine businesses and guarantee top page placements. For years, companies had invested in this technique but overnight Google changed the rules and many high ranking companies simply disappeared deep into the search results.
85% of users do not go further than page 3 of the returned results
Equally, spam comments placed onto popular message boards or blogs, at first seem like the simplest way to build an instant backlink, and with automation might seem very appealing. But, if you are offered this service, don’t bother. It’s will not affect your ranking in any way as these types of comments are have no value or ‘link juice’ associated with them. Of course this should not discourage you from writing genuine comments as you can easily build a good rapport on a popular message board that could lead to potential business opportunities.
The lesson here is that if you play fair and create good quality, relevant content that is targeted at your customers, you should find a natural placing in the search engine results. Then you can build on your knowledge and start to tweak your pages until you reach the top.
SEO website design is an ongoing process. The internet is an evolving playing field and this means you must keep on top of your optimisation.
We design your website with SEO in mind from the start
Putting your trust in a company with experience of creating bespoke websites is essential if you want to a website for your business that will really work for you and your customers.
Ask about our combined SEO web design services to see how we help small and medium business professionals just like you, achieve their goals.
Remember, as well as ensuring that visitors can find your website, SEO website design helps to create a website that provides users with a fast and friendly experience, increasing the likelihood of them returning in the future. High ranking with search engines make your site appear valued and trustworthy which is of immense benefit to business.
We’ve done the research so you don’t have to:
- Why SEO should be important to you? – Divisions