Bearing the identity of your brand, your website can easily be considered as the home of your business on the Internet.
Moreover, building a website is also kind of similar to building a shouse, isn’t it?
Think a bit deeper and you shall find a positive answer.
There should be a strong foundation in place before we begin with creating a website.
And, when it is an entirely new website for your new start-up, you would require constituting design systems as well as templates to get the most out of search engine optimisation.
To most marketers and business owners out there, building original content and working hard on keywords is enough to get the best results out of SEO.
Yes, in the most cases, the designs are not quite prioritised when it is about SEO.
So, if we go back to the previously mentioned analogy, focusing just on content without putting much effort in design systems, would be similar to setting up a solid roof over feeble walls.
We are not denying the importance of content here.
Yes, crafting the best quality content is an integral and one of the most important parts of any SEO strategy, however, that does not give us the liberty to disregard design systems.
So, no matter how skilled writer you hire, they cannot overshadow the requirement of having a great design system.
So, …
What Are Design Systems?
There are a good lot of people who have a misconception regarding design systems. They consider it to be the same as designing a website.
However, that is far from truth.
Despite of having a spectacular deign, your website will remain the same till eternity.
And, that is why you need to keep on auditing, refreshing and, if required, designing your websites and applications, entirely.
This is perhaps the only way to keep your website audience interested about what you have to offer, and being a step ahead of Google’s sudden occurring algorithms.
So, it is quite important to keep on redesigning your website in every three years, at least.
And, if you experience a drop in your regular website traffic graph, then a website redesign could even be the need of the hour.
Here, before getting started, you need to calm your mind, and analyse all your data in order to find out the reason behind your website traffic graph going down.
Now, if you finally found out that your website design is the reason behind the same, wait no more as this drop in traffic will keep on increasing with time. Hence, the sooner the better.
Building a website from scratch is subject to requiring time and money abundantly.
Yes, and as every website that you have built for your business will be scrapped at a point in time for something new to take its place, having a design system might bring down your strain.
The best quality web design systems make sure that your design and development team has a reliable base to help them kickstart the project. Yes, we are talking about a robust blueprint.
And, as website design is a creative work, when you take your head up from the workstation after an intensive work session, you will find the expenses touching the sky, without a design system a place.
Moreover, these design systems are also responsible for creating a positive user experience. And, UX plays a crucial part in improving your SEO results.
As we already know that in this fast-paced life, it is imperative to keep up with the speed as well as the taste of your target audience.
So, if you do not have a robust design system which is capable of meeting the expectations of your website visitors, then you are bound to fall back.
And, of course, that is not something that Google will overlook.
What Impact Do Design Systems Have On SEO?
In a streamlined process of website development, SEO might not seem to be going hand in hand with each other.
And, that is because, web design focuses on making your website look the best along with providing it with an easy navigation.
On the other hand, when it comes to content crafting, which is an integral part of SEO, focuses on making sure that your website delivers each bit of information that is required to solve the queries of your searchers as well as establishing your brand in the bright light.
But, as the final outcome approaches, content crafting and web design keep on coming closer to make sure you get the most out of your SEO endeavours.
Now, let’s dig deeper in this equation.
While planning for a redesign endeavour for your website, if you do not keep SEO in account, then you are about to hit the ground very hard.
And, that might result in Google wiping out your entire SEO strategy.
Here, all you can do to save your website, your business as well as yourself, you can come up with interactively designed 404 pages.
Yes, if you have that placed, you might still keep up with Google, till you bring SEO back to work.
Moreover, no matter how fantastically mobile friendly a website you have designed, you should always set limits to your designing endeavours.
This is because, a lot of designers often overdoit and as a result, it becomes too complex for your website users to navigate.
An out of the box design might interest a lot of new website visitors, but will do worse, if not same, to your SEO in the long run.
And, will also negatively affect your website’s overall rankings in the search engine results pages.
How To Create the Best Web Design to Boost Your SEO?
As we mentioned earlier, your website should be updated in a regular interval.
And, as there is no hard and fast rule of updating your website, you can do it as per your interest or necessity, if you are not doing it in vast intervals.
Keep on tweaking your website regularly even if you are getting satisfactory results from your SEO endeavours.
This is because, it is a lot easier to keep the flow of traffic coming, rather than working on it all over again to gain back your traction from zero.
And, while tweaking, make sure you keep up with the following things to make sure that your website redesign does not hamper your SEO.
These are,
1. Investigate Your Competitors
As we have been talking from the beginning, it is important to keep on updating your website for necessary changes once in a while.
Besides the same, you should also keep on having an eye on your competitors.
Yes, keep on checking what they are doing with their web development endeavours as well as SEO. And, especially those who are getting great outcomes from their SEO.
Now, as you have all the data in your hands, stack them up accordingly.
Once, done with the same, check with of the improvisations can be embraced in your website while it is undergoing betterment, in order to get the best results.
But, among all these efforts, what matters the most is your way of thinking.
Yes, if you, yourself, are successful enough in upgrading your website to meet all the industry standards, then it would not take enough efforts to gain that extra inch.
2. Stay Mobile-Friendly
Going ahead with the spectacular design that your web designer came up with might look quite impressing on a full-size HD screen.
But, that’s not enough. You should also make sure that you are bringing mobile screens in consideration.
So, before finalising the design, think about how it would look in a 6’ display of a smartphone as most of your website visitors would come from the same.
Yes, with time, more and more of the Google searchers are going mobile, hence, if you do not have a mobile-friendly design ready in hand, it is hard for you to keep up with this ever-changing market.
And, if you fail to do so, not only you will lose website visitors, you will also be successful in getting yourself enlisted in the bad book of Google.
3. Keep Your Brand Message Clear
This is perhaps one of the most important points that you need to keep in mind.
Yes, before getting started with the development of your upgraded website, make sure that the design templates can deliver your brand message clearly enough, as well as your mission and vision.
To do this the easy way, step into the shoes of a first-time visitor of your website.
Think like them and check if the person would be able to decipher what your business offers to them from the new website design.
And, this process of delivering the necessary message should not take long.
In this fast-paced life, if you cannot capture the mind of your audience in less than 15 seconds, then you can take this for granted that they will be bidding your website adieu in no time.
And, guess what, that will astonishingly increase the bounce rate of your website causing Google to frown.
4. Keep Up with The Industry Trends
Industry trends are important.
Yes, there is not a single doubt about the fact that every website visitor or customer is unique, but that does not mean that you can ignore the fact that they tend to have a herd mentality.
This might sound harsh, but is quite true.
So, while you are burning your midnight oil with the design system, make sure that your design keeps up with the industry trends.
Try to showcase social awareness campaigns too.
Also, stay on toes to change your payment platform or make some major tweaks when a new financial platform comes up and makes their mark in the industry.
Yes, try your best to keep up with whatever is in trend.
There are hardly any customers who would like to stick to a website that fails to keep up with the modern-day tastes.
5. Focus More on User Experience
Before starting with this point, ask yourself, why are you trying this hard to make sure website and SEO does great in the market?
To get better with your ROI?
Well, who can help you the most in the same?
Yes, your customers, who used to be your website users at some point.
We all try our best to come up with the best ideas which can impress our website users enough, and, that makes this point the most prominent of them all.
UX is important.
And, to get better in this aspect you need to keep on putting some efforts like running A B testing.
Also, in the race of impressing customers, don’t end up adding unnecessary pages in your website or stuff numerous to keep customers stay on your website for an eternity.
Keep in mind, it all comes down to simplicity and speed.
6. Craft The Best Meta Tags
Yes, you are right about the fact that meta tags are not directly linked to getting a better rank in the SERPs of Google as they do not have much impact on their quality score.
But the best meta texts and tags placed on images are something that can be easily traced by search engines while a visual search gets triggered.
Moreover, placing the best meta tags on your images also improves the experience for visitors who are visually impaired.
7. Have Ease of Adjustment
A good lot of business out there who lack a robust development team or do not have a development team at all, often look for a third-party agency to help them develop a website or develop it completely.
On the other hand, there are businesses who craft their websites relying on in-house resources.
If you are among the latter, that’s great. But, if you among the former ones, then it is better to make sure that you have a good understanding of how to perform small changes in your website whenever required.
It is better not to rely on a third-party in the hour of need. So, be self-sufficient.
8. Keep Away from Intrusive Adverts
While surfing through Google or any other search engine, you will often come across websites that have lots and lots of ads all over the website.
These advertisements act as a necessary evil for these businesses.
They surely help such companies to keep up with their revenue on investment, however, end up spoiling the user experience to a great extent.
So, it is better to allow no intrusive adverts on your website as there are lots and lots of cons that come along.
Yes, static advertisements that are capable of filling your entire page or ad videos, play a crucial role in slowing down your website, infuriating your website visitors. These ads not only increase the bounce rate of your website, but also reduces your quality score in Google’s books.
And, if you wish to allow intrusive adverts, then make sure you check where they are getting placed or what the style of the advertisement is.
Always keep in mind, a slow loading website and a website that focuses more on ads than delivering their own content, often fail to impress website visitors, big time.
9. Source First-Party Data
While redesigning your website to get better SEO results, keep in mind to source first-party information for future use.
Yes, we live and breathe in such an age where information is the real currency.
And, abiding by the same, all the data that your website visitors have provided you with all their will, they are important.
Such valuable information will help you a lot in shaping up your SEO endeavours in the future.
Hence, giving up on them would be a poor call.
So, make the most out of any chances that you get for retrieving such data. It will help you a lot by saving your money, time and efforts.
10. Check Your ROI
Lastly, how do you measure the success of your SEO endeavours? By checking whether your ROI graph is going upwards, isn’t it?
Yes, so, it is important to keep an eye on your ROI.
This practice comes with a good lot of benefits such as suggesting whether it is a good call to upgrade your SEO tool at this point in time, as it would require a monetary investment.
Moreover, you should think about the Key Performance Indexes or KPIs which you have tracking regularly. This will also help you understand whether the design system of your website supports such upgraded SEO tools as well as plugins.
If not, give it a second thought.
There is no point in pouring money in your SEO endeavours if you do not even know how to track their performance.
Bonus: Think Like Google
Google is the centre of this planet at this point in time, of course metaphorically.
And, we are all just a part of that digital world and abide but Google’s rules to make sure we get what we deserve.
So, to make sure you do not end up violating any rules, keep an eye on the algorithm updates of Google and try to stay ahead of them with your SEO endeavours.
There are numerous examples of websites that lost all their achieved results just because they failed to adhere to Google’s sudden algorithm updates, and you surely do not want your business to get added up to that list.
So, stay on toes to make sure you can do your best to keep yourself afloat.
What’s Your Take?
As we mentioned earlier, even the best copywriter cannot help your website do better if you have not done enough with the design of your website.
So, makes sure that coming up with a stupendous website design is your first priority.
Although, that does not mean that you can just give up on content. It is important too!
Just make sure that your SEO endeavours, your website design, and your copies go hand in hand so that you can E-A-T your competitors!
Get started now. What are you waiting for?
