One of the cardinal rules of online marketing is “Never underestimate the power SEO and web design.”
And it’s a cardinal rule for good reason.
Well-developed SEO and web design make your business site a more likely candidate for Google’s top search results.
Being in Google’s top search results means higher site traffic.
And higher site traffic means more money for your business.
But how do you go about prepping your site to win that top search result spot on Google?
There are a variety of techniques you can utilize.
Below, we’ve included some of our favorite tips and tricks for incorporating the best SEO and web design practices:
Include Short, To-The-Point URLs
We’ve all seen those long, spammy-looking URLs.
They consist of the homepage’s URL and a bunch of random numbers, letters, and symbols behind it.
Not only are they unattractive, they’re also bad for your site’s SEO and web design.
Long, spammy URLs make it hard for Google to hit on your site.
For example, let’s say you’re Janet of Janet’s Cooking Site.
And let’s say you have a page on your site called “The Top 10 Best Chocolate Brands.”
Instead of leaving the URL as that spammy string of nonsense, you should change it.
In fact, you should change it to something short and easy to remember and read.
A user-friendly URL, in other words.
A good choice is “www.janetscookiingsite.com/ten-best-chocolate-brands.”
It’s short and easy to remember and read.
Plus, Google will hit on it with no trouble!
Sprinkle Keywords Throughout Your Content
One of the most important elements of SEO and web design is keywords.
Keywords are the basis of SEO, after all.
To establish your keywords, determine which keywords are most relevant to your site.
Brainstorm ideas. Make a list. You’re just planning at this point.
Next, review your keywords. Pop them into Google and see what comes up.
There are online tools and software that can help you determine which keywords work best for you.
Once you have established your target keywords, sprinkle them through your relevant pages.
Let’s take “Janet’s Cooking Site” for example again.
As Janet, your “Top 10 Best Chocolate Brands” page needs to contain keywords related to chocolate.
Obviously, you’d choose “chocolate” as one of your keywords, but what else?
How about types of chocolate–“milk chocolate,” “dark chocolate,” and “white chocolate?”
Next, how about “best chocolate brands?” It is the name of the page, after all.
Finally, you might try a combination of these keywords–“best milk chocolate brands” and so on.
You need to find a balance between popular and specific when determining keywords.
You also need to find a way to incorporate your keywords while making your content sound natural.
Customize Meta Descriptions
You likely have noticed the short descriptions under each search result on Google.
That is the meta description of that particular page.
Most of the time, Google simply displays a snippet of relevant content from that page.
However, you can customize the meta descriptions to include SEO keywords.
That way, you’ll increase the chances of Google hitting on that page regardless of what’s in the content.
Add Keywords to Titles
To make the best use of your keywords, you need to include them everywhere.
One place you need to include them is in the title of your pages.
What’s more, you should make your keywords the beginning of your title.
Doing so optimizes your title, further optimizing your site overall.
Let’s look at “Janet’s Cooking Site” again.
As Janet, your web page title “Top 10 Best Chocolate Brands” is already pretty well optimized.
If, however, it was called “Janet’s Top 10 Best Chocolate Brands,” a bit of editing would be in order.
Add Keywords to Headings As Well
It’s best to divide your content up via headings.
And like titles and the content, the headings should include your keywords as well.
Headings can get a bit tricky here because they also need to say exactly what your content’s about.
So you need to summarize and optimize all in one go.
It’s actually not as hard as it sounds.
After all, your keywords summarize your content in a way.
It’s the same concept here.
What would make a natural-sounding, SEO-toting header for “Top 10 Best Chocolate Brands?”
How about “The Best Chocolate Brands To Give Out At Halloween” or “America’s Best Chocolate Brands?”
Of course, it depends on your content, but you get the idea.
Choose and Format Images
Looking at a bunch of text can be really boring really quickly–and you want your readers to stay engaged.
A great way to keep them engaged is by adding appropriate photos.
Photos should be small and include a descriptive caption that ties them to the content.
What’s more, photos also need to include your target SEO keywords.
To do this, you will need to edit the source HTML for the photo.
When you do this, you will see the image’s title and alt attributes options.
Within these perimeters, you can add your keywords to increase your chances of Google hitting on your content.
Images are a sneaky but effective way to further optimize your site.
Incorporate SEO and Web Design Strategies
SEO aside, you should also follow good web design practices.
For example, all of your content needs to be organized neatly.
Messy content won’t hold your readership for long.
Your layout shouldn’t be cluttered in any way, shape, or form.
Additionally, your layout should feature a few basic web design techniques.
These include an attractive color scheme and recognizable logo.
After all, you’re not aiming to provide your customers and clients with just a great presentation.
You’re aiming to provide them with a great experience.
And a well-designed site that properly and effectively implements SEO and web design strategies will do just that.
If you’re still not clear or have questions, feel free to contact us! We’re always happy to help!
And if you have your own useful tips and strategies for implementing great SEO and web design practices, please comment below!
We always love to hear our readers’ thoughts!
