Although a business website is one of today’s most potent sales and marketing tools, many businesses don’t follow good website design practice when they launch, update or redesign this element of their small business marketing strategy. Good website design can help encourage search engine traffic – the primary route that most website visitors take.
What constitutes search-friendly website design?
Search engines all use slightly different algorithms to determine which websites are relevant to a search query, but by incorporating the most common search engine elements into your website design, you can help search engines understand and rank your website, and help clients find your business among the millions of websites in operation today. Here are a few simple tricks you can incorporate into your website design.
Your website design should use subheadings
Search engines use subheadings (the “
Your website design should use tags
HTML tags are browser instructions. You don’t see them, but they can contain a lot of information about your website, its content and its relevance to search terms. As part of your website design strategy, use tags anytime you’re given the opportunity. Each page should have a short, relevant title tag. Use meta tags to describe your website. Use keyword tags to load your most powerful keywords. Use alt tags to describe the contents of images. If you do this, your website will be more easily comprehensible to search engine spiders, and more of your intended audience will find you on the Web.
Your website design should include impeccable navigation
Navigating a website can be difficult, so you shouldn’t make your visitors use the Back button to get back to your landing page. Take time when creating your website design to think about how you want your visitors to move around your website. At the same time, think about how your visitors want to move. (These two things may be quite different!) Let your users know where they are and give them easy ways to get to where they want to be. When it doubt, accommodate the visitor’s needs, even if it means changing your website design a bit.
If you would like more information about website design, or are interested in making your website design more search engine friendly, please contacy our Creative Director, Dave Ramsell, or give Dave a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation.
Photo Credit: cobrasoft, via StockXchng
