While a beautifully designed website may keep visitors on your website for longer, it’s not enough to attract visitors in the first place. The most effective business websites are built for both users and search engines.
Check your website design for the following nine common mistakes to see if your design is helping or hindering your search engine rankings.
1. Missing H1 Tag on the Homepage
The H1 tag is one of the first elements search engines check to determine what a web page is about. According to a 2015 Searchmetrics study, 80 percent of the top 10 pages in search engine results used an H1 tag. A missing H1 tag is therefore likely to decrease your chances of ranking higher.
Solution: Explain the purpose of your website by using a descriptive, keyword-relevant H1 tag near the top of each page.
2. Large Images and Media Files
According to a 2015 Adobe report, 39 percent of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load. This poor user experience is likely to result in lower rankings.
Solution: Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to test which of your site’s images Google thinks are too large. Resize or compress these images and re-upload them to your site.
3. Using Text in Images
Search engines can’t read text within images, so these words have no impact on search rankings.
Solution: To ensure search engines can “read” your content, use a text layer over an image, or use the alternative image meta tag to describe your image.
4. Slow Page Loading Times
One of Google’s top ranking factors is page speed. The Searchmetrics report found that the highest ranking pages loaded in an average of 1.16 seconds, so it’s obvious Google rewards pages that load quickly.
Solution: Test your website’s average loading speed under “Performance” in Google Webmaster Tools, or use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool for tips and recommendations.
5. Intrusive Popup Ads
According to HubSpot, four out of five consumers have closed a browser or left a website because of a popup ad. Is your website guilty? If it is, you may be hit by Google’s recent Interstitial ad penalty.
Solution: Keep your users and Google happy by removing annoying popup ads that get in the way of your content. Consider in-text hyperlinks as a calls to action instead.
Familiar and straightforward navigation is essential for both visitors and search engines. Are you using clever or unusual navigation techniques for the sake of originality? It could harm your rankings.
Solution: Use a navigation bar on each page that remains consistent so visitors and search engines never get lost. Use link titles that are familiar and easy to understand.
Footer links are still an important part of clear navigation, but some websites still don’t use them, which sends a signal to search engines that the website is harder to navigate.
Solution: Insert footer links on every page, and include relevant anchor text for each page link, so that visitors and search engines can find their way around your site.
8. Missing Contact Information
Google penalizes sites with hard to find or missing contact information. Web users also want to find contact information easily. According to a KoMarketing study, 51 percent of people think “thorough contact information” is the most important element missing from many company websites.
Solution: Clearly display contact information on every page of your site. Visitors that see your phone number and address will trust you more, and search engines will rank you higher for local search results.
9. Cluttered Design
An Adobe study reported that 38 percent of people will stop engaging with a website if the layout is unattractive. The goal of good design is to provide guidance to users and search engines. When there are too many elements vying for attention, users will become confused and search engines are likely to penalize your site for usability issues.
Solution: Eliminate nonessential elements on each web page. Use a consistent color scheme and layout, leave enough whitespace between elements, and cover only one topic per page.
When SEO and Design Combine
SEO should be treated as a part of the design process; the most effective websites balance aesthetics and functionality so that they’re nice to look at and easy to use.
Avoid these nine web design mistakes and your website will achieve higher search engine rankings, your content will reach more customers, and your reputation will remain intact.