As you are probably aware, SEO is all about improving your rank in the search engine results pages, therefore increasing your online visibility and maximising the number of web users who visit your site. Most SEO techniques relate to keywords, link-building and the deployment of meta-data. However, here at Orangesoft, we believe that certain ordinary website design techniques can also help to boost your SEO. In today’s blog entry, we’ll go through some core web design principles that can help you secure an excellent position in the SERPs.
1. Creating landing pages for every product or service category
Landing pages are traditionally used to guide web-users to specific types of products or services. However, they can also be used to help your position in the SERPs. If you create a landing page for each product or service category, you can use keywords that relate specifically to that category and may not be suitable for your homepage. By deploying product or service-specific landing pages that use keywords and other traditional SEO techniques, you can ensure that your site appears in the SERPs for a wider variety of search terms. This will attract more customers and help to establish your site. As a result, the whole site (not just your landing pages) will climb higher in the SERPs.
2. Simplifying navigation
As we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, web users tend to ‘bounce’ off sites with complicated navigation systems. Obviously, this is a problem from an e-commerce perspective, because visitors who bounce away from a site won’t convert into customers. However, it’s also worth noting that high bounce rates also drive down a site’s position in the SERPs and undermine its SEO. By simplifying your navigation system, you can reduce bounce rate and improve your search engine optimisation. As web design experts, we recommend utilising a horizontal navigation bar that runs across the top of every screen and provides links to each major sections of your site. Links to other relevant pages can then be provided on the main page of each section. This system is easy-to-use and has been adopted by an enormous variety of websites already, which means it’s familiar to most web users.
3. Deploying video content
Integrating video content into your site is a great web design technique if you want to explain your business, products or services. It is also a great way to encourage prospective customers to spend more time on your site. In fact, multiple studies have shown that consumers spend more time on web pages with embedded videos than those without. Search engines reward sites where customers spend lots of time by giving them a boost in the SERPs.
These three web design techniques are very easy to employ if you want to quickly improve your SEO. However, there are plenty of other web design techniques that can also help with search engine optimisation, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you want more information.