SEO by Design: Simple Tweaks and Top Tips
Search engine optimisation or SEO is never a one-time thing. The algorithms behind search engines continue to evolve. The way websites are crawled is also changing. Even search engine result pages (SERPs) are evolving to cater better to the users.
SEO is also something that requires careful planning. Yes, you can get ahead with organic content optimised for users, but the site itself needs to be optimised for search engines for that content to shine. That?s where SEO comes in.
We spoke to the SEO experts behind WSI Digital Web and discovered some interesting web design tips and SEO tweaks that will help you gain a substantial SEO performance boost this year. This is how you can do SEO by design.
1. Make It Mobile-Friendly
If your site isn?t already mobile-friendly, you are missing out on thousands of potential users every minute. Being mobile-friendly is a necessity rather than an option. Search engines like Google and Bing now prioritise mobile-friendly sites in their mobile SERPs.
You don?t have to develop a dedicated mobile site either. Going the responsive route is the way to go right now, especially with so many tweaks and optimisations you can now implement to speed up the mobile view of your site.
2. Use Snippets
Adding snippets to your pages is a great way to become more visible in SERPs. Google has a few snippet formats you can use to highlight certain features, but the basic excerpt from the page is often more than enough to give your site an SEO performance bump.
While you are at it, make sure the code is clean and that elements such as images come with ALT tags. The more diligent you are, the more crawlable your site will be.
3. Tap into YouTube
YouTube, and other content-sharing and social media platforms in general, are critical for SEO. Google now places social media posts, particularly YouTube videos, higher in search results. This means you can gain traffic from the videos you post on YouTube and not just the other way around.
Social media posts are also good for boosting your site?s SEO performance. Even better, you will gain a substantial boost when your posts get shared by other users. Add a section on your site that highlights those posts, and you are all set.
4. Designed for Performance
User experience is key if you want your site to perform well in search results. The site needs to load quickly, offer a consistent UX, and must have the ability to keep users interested (and browsing through other pages) for longer.
According to the web design specialists at WSI Digital Web, clean and minimalist design themes are still very popular. Users are steering away from bloated pages and now prefer pages that highlight the content they want to consume.
5. Updates!
Last but not least, make sure the site gets regularly updated. Updates are good for showing activity and allowing crawlers to prioritise your site against other older pages. It?s a simple tweak, but it is a tweak that works really well in today?s competitive landscape.
That last tip, combined with other tips we covered in this article, is how you gain an advantage. SEO is something you do by design and these tweaks will help you get started right away.