Web design SEO trends to pay attention to in 2015
Since the beginning of the Internet decades ago (doesn't that make you feel old?), optimizing websites for search (SEO or search engine optimization) has been important to website owners. It is the science of designing a website both for the user and the search engines.
As the web evolves, so does SEO. What are design trends you should follow to improve your SEO in 2015? Read on.
SEO design trends for 2015:
Put the user first.
This isn't a new trend. It can be tempting to focus on keywords, meta data, and optimizing your page for the search engine results page. But getting a user to your page is only half the battle. If you can't keep them or help them quickly find the information they are looking for, they will leave and not come back. They will get their information, and make a purchase, elsewhere. The user experience design (UX design) is just as important as following other SEO trends.
Half of online sales are lost because users cannot find content. Focus on making the navigation from first contact to conversion as seamless as possible. Even if it means skipping on some of the fancy new design trends.
Don’t jump on the design bandwagon.
Design trends come and go. Sometimes, they can have a great influence on the industry and benefit your users (like responsive design). Other trends, like parallax design, can be detrimental if not implemented properly. Parallax gives more depth to a website but usually means a larger homepage packed with content, and few subpages. Too many keywords on a page hurts ranking, and the fewer pages for Google to rank, the less chance of sending users to the information they are looking for.
Be cautious about adapting new design trends, as some may hurt your site’s web ranking and also negatively impact user experience. Chances are, a particular trend will be gone within the next year anyway. The trends with staying power generally are the trends that will really benefit a site, and you can always make that change at a later date.
More Pages = Better SEO
Websites with more pages get more leads and tend to have much higher conversion rates. Why?
1. More pages allows you to better target keywords on a page, and Google will rank it higher. A page (like an individual product page or a blog page) can focus on a single key term and will be ranked higher by the search engines.
2. More pages means more targeted search results. Users are often looking for a specific term or item. If you have a page dedicated to that particular keyword, the page will appear in search results and the user can navigate directly to the page they are looking for. This removes the barriers to a conversion, making it more likely for them to make a purchase or become a lead. If a user can click directly to the page they want, rather than clicking through three other pages, they are more likely to convert.
3. More pages of quality content will build your brand. If you are continually adding good content, the better the chance of users sharing your content around the web, which will build good links and improve your domain name’s reputation with the search engines, and also increase your brand’s reputation with consumers.
Mobile design
This trend is here to stay. Google is heavily pushing
responsive design, which allows websites to display seamlessly on any device. And if Google is promoting it, you can bet that they are ranking it better. More importantly, Google is flagging sites that don’t display properly on mobile devices.
Not only are responsively designed websites attractive to Google, they are more attractive to users. A responsive design allows your website to display optimally on all devices while still keeping the same design elements. That consistency will appeal to users, as will the ease of using one site rather than going between a mobile site and a regular website. If you have a separate mobile site, this can also split your SEO between the two sites, resulting in lower page ranks.
Responsive design is a trend that has been around for a few years and will probably remain popular with search engines and users alike as long as people are accessing the internet from multiple devices of various screen sizes.
Loading Time
Users expect the web pages to load quickly, and this can be more difficult than ever with internet access from multiple devices and from multiple continents. Optimize your website load time by going easy on the images, avoiding overly flashy, well, flash, and being careful about other special effects. Too many third party services like widgets can also slow the loading of your pages. Loading time aside, sometimes simple and clean design is best for the overall user experience because it makes it easy to find the content they are looking for.
Read more about how loading time can affect your website and what you can do about it.
Keep in mind that trends that work for the industry as a whole might not work for a particular site. And trends that are detrimental to some sites may, if implemented properly, work on other sites. So what should you take away from this to have the best possible SEO in 2015? Be cautious about the trends you follow, listen to the search engines, and pay attention to the user.
What trends have you tried? Have they worked for you?
