SEO Web Design: Is the marriage between design and SEO possible?

Written by Michael Evans on 07 Nov 2011
14,705 Views • Web Development

Introduction

Restrictions and creativity cannot go hand in hand. You need to sacrifice in one front or on the other if you are to rise up to the expectation level. This is the same reason why designers are still groping in the dark how to make a marriage between SEO concept and website design. SEO follows certain guidelines as put down by search engines whereas great designing concept goes beyond tradition and this is where conflict brews. But as we all know that a good design is good-for-nothing, unless it manages to get some visibility online. So, here we are going tread some unfrequented paths and come up with solutions to this baffling problem that unsettles you every time you take on a new designing project. Follow these steps to make the term ‘SEO web design’ something tangible.

Experiment with Sensibility

I have bumped onto different websites and have found something which might appears superb but they are hardly manageable for a first time user. The best way you can judge whether you have gone too far in the experiment or not is by asking your grandma to take a look at the design. If she says, she can understand the layout and can navigate the layout without your help, you are right in course and no worries. However, if it is just the opposite, take a relook at the layout and try to cut down on the complexities so that first time viewers can have a great time. This will increase average time on page and on website which will have a direct impact on the visibility of the website.

Do Not Add any heavy Images

Designers are always in the habit of adding large images that usually havoc with the visibility of a website. So, if you have a plan to design something big make it a habit that the images are not taking too much space of the template. It will make the while template bulky and the loading time may go haywire.

Have a Pretty Code

Make sure that you are using semantic coding because it is easily manageable and you would not have to toil hard to get things done when you need to make some changes. Moreover, by using descriptive tags, you will make it easier for search engines to understand your website content in a better way. Do not add unnecessarily comments along with all the codes, it does not look nice and try to keep things neat, clean and tidy.

Use Javascript/ Javascript Framework

For navigational purpose, you should avoid using flash. Though Google has made dramatic improvements as far as its capabilities to index content of every description, it is still having some serious issues indexing flash files, so you will be better off if you use jQuery rather than using the flash at least in the navigation section.

Get Acquainted with Microformat

There is no better way to present your information than using Microformat. And the good thing is that Google is itself endorsing Microformat and there is a tool to check whether you are proceeding in the right direction or not. Google Rich Snippets. Just paste the URL of the website where you have implemented code and you will get a live preview of how it might appear in search engine result page. However, if you are new around here, you can visit schema.org for more information about Microformat.

Think About the User

This is what search engines are talking about these days. They are asking webmasters to give less attention to search engine and more attention to visitors. So, the focus of the attention while designing a website should be on the users. Try to make it look as elegant and beautiful as possible and you will reap the benefits at the end of the day.

Join the discussion

Comments will be moderated and rel="nofollow" will be added to all links. You can wrap your coding with [code][/code] to make use of built-in syntax highlighter.