What do you get if you put a dedicated web designer and an equally dedicated search engine optimisation expert in a room together? An argument. A polite argument, but an argument none the less. Although a lot of web designers are aware of the needs of SEO, web design in itself has a tendency not to be SEO-friendly.
For this reason, it’s important to be mindful of your site’s design when you begin to think about search engine optimisation. The design of a site is one of the major things a search engine optimisation expert will think about when first looking at a site, and you can discuss this with our experts at SEO Consult Australia. There are lots of different ideas to think about for web design when it comes to SEO. There are, however, three basic principles you need to keep in mind:
- Keep things simple.
- Keep things clear.
- Keep things straightforward.
These three principles may sound similar, but there are subtle shades of difference between them that make all the difference. Read on to discover how.
- Keep things simple. Keeping things simple on your site can benefit not just your SEO but your site in general. There are several reasons most SEO experts advise to keep the use tools and gadgets down on a website. These reasons include ‘because the search engines have a little trouble dealing with such things’ and ‘it slows your download time.’ Complicated site designs affect more than just the search engines, however. Internet users often have trouble dealing with these things, too, so sticking to a simple site design is of benefit to everyone.
- Keep things clear. Simplicity will only get you so far. You can have a page that is solely text, and yet it can be completely impossible to understand. In order for your message to get through, you need to present it clearly. This involves not only the text itself, but the elements around it. An image might make your message easier to understand. Space around the text will make it easier to read. When looking at the design of each of your pages, look for ways to present information without cluttering up the screen.
- Keep things straightforward. Again, straightforwardness is different to clarity or simplicity. Information can be presented on a page in a clear structure, but it’s possible to have too much of it. This happens fairly frequently, when site owners are too focussed on the information they want to present, instead of the information their site users are looking for. A straightforward approach involves thinning out the information on the page and honing it to your purpose. Being straightforward is a desirable quality on the net, and something that not that many sites have mastered.
As you might guess, having only one of these qualities present on your page is not going to get you very far. The approach you take to your whole site needs to be a combination of the three.
