Web Design: The Anatomy That Google Will Love
Digital Marketing • 30th Jul, 15
When creating a website, it’s clear that it can be compared to making a cake. You don’t believe us? Well, give us a minute to explain… Just as we want our cakes to look presentable and taste just as good, we want our websites to bring in traffic and meet the highest standards. This is why we’ve compiled a list of things that you should keep in mind when building your very own website, putting the cherry on top (do you see what we did there?)
1.The header
Since this is the primary focus of each page of your website, it’s very important that you put a lot of thought and work into your headers. With every website which you open being easily identifiable just by the header image alone, you can see why this is necessary. Your logo should be placed here, along with and other essential details, like service tabs, tag lines, or contact number. Give it something extra by sparking it up with colour that represents your business best to allow users to truly feel your brand.
2.Navigations and headlines
You should be sure that anything which follows after the header should be placed and displayed neatly in either columns or boxes, whichever blends best with the overall design of your website. Ensure that users will be able to navigate freely and clearly through your site without any trouble, which is why the flow of your content should be controlled based on the underlying web layout which you’ve chosen. This way your website will have impressive user functionality, which will see their time spent on your landing page increasing. With overall site hierarchy determining how your website will be ranked in search engines, the easier it is for consumers to browse categories for content and products, the higher you will rank.
3.Body content
Content marketing which is effective is what you will see separating a good website from a bad one – which is not an overstatement. You might not know it, but the content which you out onto your website is very important. With what it is that you choose to post defining what your business and brand is all about, there should be an efficient use of relevant keywords and phrases which will determine how the Google Webmaster tool responds to your website. Avoid keyword stuffing and the rambling of certain words, which will be picked up by Google algorithms, along with having a negative impact on user experience. By maintaining a balance between keywords and your content not only will you make your users happy, but Google too! Grab the attention of users with your unique, compelling and exciting copy.
4.Readability and Typography
Your goal here is to provide your users with text which is both readable as well as interactive. Attention should not be paid to the text, but do the way that you lay it out too. It’s essential for you to make sensible use of typefaces which will suit your webpage best, making sure that it doesn’t conflict with the overarching theme. Matching your theme along with the service which you’re providing, your font should be readable and clear without any clusters.
5.Images and videos
No one wants to spend all of their time reading really long texts, so add some more spark to your page with visual content such as videos and images which will engage the user. By exciting the visitor, they’ll be sure to return for more to see what else you have to offer.
6.Footer
Remember not to overlook the website links at the page footer, with is being an essential elements on every website. On each page of your website, a user should be able to refer to any links which can take them to where they need to be on your website.
7.Content on each page
With each landing page being distinguished by the content which it contains, unique content will result in longer engagement time. By making use of sliders and videos which will inform visitors about business as well as any related areas, you will in turn bring in more traffic.
8.Responsive design
Being a relatively new concept, it’s time for all businesses to jump on the bandwagon which is the mobile internet. Any great website worth having a look at will have a responsive design which adapts to the various screen widths and will continue to display perfectly on all mobile devices. Let’s not forget about all of the SEO benefits which will come with this too!
1.Load times
Always remember that a good website will not take too long to load. By optimizing the amount of visual and written content which you’ve uploaded onto your website and ensuring that your back end server is giving you the best hosting, you’ll be good to go! You can be sure that if a visitor has an experience where your page took too long to load, they won’t be coming back again.
2.HTML and CSS
As the standard mark-up language which is used to create web pages, HTML is the skeleton which will give structure to each of your webpages. Everything which is placed on your website is based on how your HTML language is written. CSS is just as important, defining the layout of HTML documents and formatting a document written in mark-up language.
3.URL structures
Any website which is made with HTTP will be dependent on a simple and reliable URL structure. This should be friendly not only to search engines, but to users too to point out the resource which it’s attached to. Making it readable, easily comprehendible, and memorable, you will ensure to obtain regular users. By creating URLs which are complex, you’ll find that Googlebot will be unable to index the content of your website which will result in problems for crawlers.
4.Linking hierarchy
A clear hierarchy is at the core of a site’s functionality as well as text links, which should be leading to a different page. Any links which are on your homepage should be leading to other relevant sub-pages which should link to further sub-category pages. A pyramid should be built in order for a visitor to know exactly where they will be taken next.
5.Optimization of images
In order to save the maximum amount of bytes possible and adding valuable visual space, high performance websites ensure that their images have been optimized. If your pages are designed in a way in which they can be easily readable by bots, your SEO will be enhanced. This will then see that the browser loads pages as quickly as possible, displaying what’s necessary for increased usability.
6.Keywords and anchor texts
It’s not only important for you to choose keywords which are relevant to your business, but you should also make sure that they are put in the right places. These should be placed in headings, drop-down menus, slider menus, and pop-ups. With visitors being granted with what they are looking for in a matter of seconds, you can be sure that you’ll be seeing an increase in traffic and conversions. By including anchor texts, users will be made aware on the front that there are more pages which relate to what they are looking for and are available with just one click. Avoid confusing the visitor with generic content by ensuring that the anchor text is representative of what’s coming up next.
7.Call to action
If you want to engage with your audience, then this is what you need. You could offer them a newsletter which they could sign up to, or have them fill out a contact form so that you will be able to contact them with products and services which you are offering. Not only should it be aesthetically provoking, but also smartly engineered to ensure that it catches the eye of your users. This can be achieved by using certain colours, texts, and placements. It can be made even easier if you give out incentives such as coupons or the chance to win something free. Users shouldn’t just stumble on them, but it should be loud thanks to your effective web design.
8.Social sharing
Millions upon millions of people from all over the world come together on social media, so there’s no going wrong when you keep tabs on all of the popular platforms. By staying in the loop with what’s going on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, you’ll be able to see what they like and dislike about you. Make sure that you add social tabs which will allow your audiences to interest through comments as well as share your posts.
These tips will hopefully allow you to have a better understanding of what Google is looking for and what will allow you to rank better on the Google search page. If you have any other tips which you would like to add, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know!