In our previous article, we wrote about search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) and the relationship between them. To summarize, SEM is described as a type of digital marketing technique that enable businesses to gather web traffic through paid tactics. On the other hand, SEO is defined as the method utilised to optimise websites with the goal of helping it rank on the search engine results page (SERP). Aside from this, three categories of SEO techniques were also identified: on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. One of the elements under technical SEO is site architecture or website design; this and its relationship to SEO are going to be the topic of this article.
What is a website?
According to Techopedia, a website is a group of interlinked web pages that are publicly accessible and share one domain name. Furthermore, it is also described as the central location of numerous related web pages and can be easily accessed by visiting the home page of the website through a browser.
Websites can be created and managed by a single person, business or organisation for various purposes and can come in a nearly endless variety like new sites, forums, educational sites, social media, and e-commerce to name a few. On the other hand, if you want recommendations regarding website improvement or enhancement, you can easily achieve this by hiring an SEO agency in Singapore.
What are its components?
Nowadays, building a website is not as difficult anymore with the help of various content management systems (CMS) available on the internet. One of the most popular CMS is WordPress, which allows anyone to set up his/her own website in a matter of minutes. Even so, a website must have the essential elements. Otherwise, if it looks incomplete or unprofessional, this will significantly affect the experience of any user that visits the site.
Here are the components that any website must have:
Web Hosting Service – these are used to store website files and folders which makes it possible for visitors to explore a site. Apart from this, web hosting can also impact a website’s performance which means that going with a reliable web hosting service is vital as it affects user experience.
Navigation – this is one of the most important elements of a good website as it is like a map users need to navigate around various web pages. Furthermore, it also helps search engines comprehend a website’s structure.
Call-to-actions (CTA) – these are mainly used to convert visitors into leads and get them to click on a specific element on the website such as a button or anything else. This is important for sites that are focused on conversion as it compels visitors to take the desired action.
Headline – on a marketing aspect, this component is probably the most important as it is in charge of attracting and enticing visitors to stay on a website and explore it. Most people spend less than three seconds on any website which is why one must have a headline and an enticing one at that.
Content – on an SEO standpoint, this component must certainly be present on any website. Content helps SEO strategies be more effective which consequently allows a website to gain organic traffic.
Visuals – different types of graphics improve the overall aesthetics of a website. This can be logos, infographics, and images among others. Visual data is processed faster by people so spending on visually stimulating and quality images can go a long way to keeping visitors engaged on the website.
Mobile friendly – this is now a must-have component as smartphones have made it easier to surf the internet which means that websites must also be optimised for mobile usage. Furthermore, Google is also ranking sites based on their mobile capabilities which is something that cannot be ignored.
What is website architecture or web design?
It refers to the process of creating a website or web page’s layout and can include various aspects such as graphic design, content production, and implementation. Moreover, it is conceptualising, planning, and building a group of electronic files that decide the colours, text styles, images, structure, and utilisation of interactive features that deliver web pages to visitors.
In an SEO perspective, websites are designed to be more compliant with the search engine criteria to allow it to be crawled faster and located easier by search engines.
Two common methods for web design that work great with both mobile and desktop are adaptive and responsive. In adaptive designs, the site’s content is fixed in layout sizes that is equivalent to common screen sizes. On the other hand, responsive design allows content to move dynamically depending on the screen size.
What is the significance of SEO web design?
According to columnist Marc Miller, many people do not realise that SEO needs to be incorporated into the design process of a website and not just to be included later. At a fundamental level, a website that is SEO friendly is one that can be easily identified and accessed by search engines. When this happens, the website has a higher possibility of ranking in the search results page which is what SEO strategies are all about.
Speed is another important factor why a website should be SEO friendly. Any SEO company in Singapore would agree that every second matters and the longer a website or web page loads, the more potential visitors it loses.
Aside from this, SEO web design helps attract and retain valuable traffic for the website by incorporating widgets, design features, style elements, imagery and text. Furthermore, it provides a great customer experience as every nook and cranny of the website is optimised to be consistent and user friendly.
Last but definitely not least, the website’s content which plays an important role in the customer journey to conversion. An SEO friendly website has content that incorporates all the necessary keywords that relates to the type of products or services it offers. Content can be anything from informational articles, case studies, reviews to comprehensive guides. The most common type of content would be blog posts which is usually included in SEO packages in Singapore.
A well-structured website that has taken SEO elements into consideration can be the difference between having your website rank on the 1stpage or the 3rdpage of the search results. That is why hiring web designers from an SEO agency is something you should definitely consider,