Web design aims to make your website aesthetically appealing and organized for your users. However, it should not be your only goal when creating a custom website design. You should also keep in mind your SEO or search engine optimization. It doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice the look of your site because there are ways you can achieve an attractive website that will also boost your SEO. However, a bad website design can ruin your SEO, and here are some ways on how it does that.
It’s hard for search engines to understand the website
Search engines use crawlers, also called spider bots, to index websites. Indexing means searching the entire content of the websites, including their meta descriptions, images, and URLs, to determine which best match the search. Those that best match the query will be included in the search results. If you reach the top rank, users will see your site, and they are more likely to access it.
However, if your website is designed poorly, it will be difficult for the search engines to read it; thus, indexing will also be challenging. It may not have an easy-to-read URL and meta description. The images may also not have their titles and descriptions. They will just be images that do not contribute to your SEO, as search engines cannot read pictures without the descriptions. Safari SEO Bradford explain that image alt tags can be used to convey image context and meaning to search engines that require meta data to understand the purpose of an image on the page.
It increases bounce rate due to slowness or difficult navigation
A bad web design can be hard to navigate. The options may not work, and it may be difficult for users to find what they need. It may also be slow, and it could be due to big sizes of images and videos and too much flash or animation. All these things could increase your bounce rate as users may leave the site right away.
Bounce rate is one of the things that search engines consider when determining your search engine results rankings. If you have a high bounce rate, it may think that your site is unhelpful to users, thus affecting the search results ranking. Ensure that your web design allows users to navigate your site quickly and find what they need right away. Do not go overboard with flash animation because they contribute to your site’s slowness and make indexing difficult for search engines. Also, resize images and videos so that they load faster.
It creates a bad user experience
A bad web design may create a negative first impression on users. They would think that you are unprofessional and may doubt your credibility. Instead of spending more time browsing your site, they may leave right away, so the time they spend on your site will only be short, affecting your SEO. A poor web design can affect the entire user experience. Since their experience is bad, they may not go back to your site, and there’s also a possibility that they will leave you negative reviews or poor ratings. It will affect your site traffic, which also affects your SEO.
It doesn’t reach the mobile users
If your website design is bad, it will not be mobile-friendly. It will be hard for mobile device users to access it or browse its content. Several mobile users go online looking for the products and services they need. Not reaching them can also negatively affect your SEO because there will be less traffic on your site and fewer mentions on your name.
Conclusion – Doing custom website design
Consider SEO when designing or redesigning your website. You want an aesthetically appealing site that will also help you rank higher on search engine result pages.