If you were to start listing all the ranking factors that Google uses to determine where a website should appear for any given search, you would end up with an extremely long list. We are talking about at least two hundred of them, and more. However, that should not deter you from trying to optimise for as many of them as possible, and the first place to start is your web design.
Whether you need a new website created, or plan a redesign of your existing website, both of these are ideal opportunities to implement several optimisations that should improve your rankings. These optimisations are not only proven to gain favour with Google, but in addition, Google themselves have published information that tells us they are web design attributes which it wants to see. Here are five of the most effective web design practices that work.
Your Website Should Encourage Visitor Engagement
One of the core principles your web design must adhere to is to ensure that the experience for visitors to your website is positive. This can be achieved in many ways, but one of the most effective is to engage with them. This can be achieved by ensuring that the content on your website is of the highest quality, having an appealing website layout, having interactive features in your website, and including different types of media such as videos, infographics, and audio.
Your Website Pages Should Load Instantaneously
Nothing will kill your website’s rankings more than if it loads slowly. With today’s fast broadband speeds, including on mobile networks, Internet users are not used to waiting for websites to load. Instead of waiting, they will be gone before you can say, “Google”. Your problem is that Google identifies websites that visitors click away from, and those websites soon see their rankings plummet. So, whatever it takes within your web design, make your page load speeds quicker.
Ensure All Your Metadata Is Accurate And Complete
You will read a lot of advice relating to web design that focuses on the visual aspects of your website. As important as they are, some technical elements of your web design also need to be optimised, and when it comes to rankings, your metadata is certainly key to that. Much of this is configured in the back office dashboard of your website, and as it is read by Google’s bots as part of their evaluation of your website, it must be configured 100% accurately.
Implement An Internal Linking Strategy
Backlinking plays a huge role in ranking your website, but it is not just the external ones from other websites that matter. Often overlooked, the internal linking structure within your website must be planned and implemented properly. Doing so will allow some of the authority that flows from your external links to be shared throughout your website. It also helps Google identify what each page is trying to rank for which is important for SEO purposes.
Enable Your Visitors To Navigate Your Website Easily
Part of the previous point about internal linking will play a role in this. However, the main reason for having simple navigation which visitors can easily follow, is it removes the risk of them becoming confused as to where they are on your website. Further, if they find navigating your website easy, it means they stay for longer and they also feel more inclined to follow any calls for action they find within your website.