Every website owner who has spent many years in the industry would know that just having a good product and service or investing in a creative web design is not enough to increase the amount of traffic that your website is getting. Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is one of the things that web developers and designers take time to focus on in order to reach a larger consumer base. This concept basically involves the use of effective strategies to make a website more visible to the consumers by achieving high rankings in top search engines including Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
Gaining more followers for your personal blog, reaching out to a wider reach for your organization’s cause, and drawing potential customers to check out your online shop is an achievable goal if you have the right tools and the proper knowledge to start with. It may take a lot of your time, effort, and resources, but the results are surely long-term and totally worth every penny of your investments.
Check out these five useful tips towards an SEO-friendly web design and start getting increased web traffic in no time.
- Start with the navigation tools
It’s not a secret that having a well-designed website with easy-to-use navigation tools can help increase the time spent by a visitor to your website. If you can’t fit everything on a single page, then make sure that you have a search option available for them to use. Using short yet easily understandable URLs is also a key to having an SEO-friendly website design.
- Go mobile
Since the last quarter of 2016, more than half of the web pages loaded on the internet are being accessed using smartphones and tablets (in contrast to desktop and laptop computers). This event has paved the way for website owners to optimize their websites for mobile viewing and gain that defining edge against their competitors. Google also plans to roll out a mobile-first algorithm next year – making mobile optimization more of a need than an option if your goal is to get more web traffic.
- Aim for speed
It goes without saying that a website with slower loading times has the highest chances of a visitor giving up and going somewhere else. Choosing the right server for your website may be a good thing to start with, but making small steps such as reducing the use of flash elements and unnecessary images would effectively work without additional costs.
- Optimize images too
Before, web developers are too much focused on optimizing texts that they forgot to work on the images too. It may be an unfamiliar strategy for some, but keeping image sizes below 100 kb and the resolution to at least 72 dpi will ensure faster loading times for your web pages without sacrificing a good image quality. Also, don’t forget to take advantage of adding relevant keywords in the alt text section of the images, and to place them in pages where they are supposed to be.
- Connect with social media
Adding links to social media accounts of your blog, organization, institute, and company can help you connect with a larger audience, provide better customer support, and enhance your presence online. Make these links easy to find on the homepage, along with your contact information and a contact form.