A website is an essential business tool, no longer just for conducting online sales, as advanced technology has enabled a wide range of activities on the Internet. Good website development is crucial, and now is the best time for incorporating on-site SEO with web design as part of your internet marketing strategy.
Web design elements
Visual appeal: Your website must be attractive to Internet users in your target market. Its theme and colours must complement the subject of your website. Aesthetics, however, must be balanced with loading time and search engine friendliness. Heavy graphic files and Flash files tend to take longer to load onscreen and often don’t contain the relevant data in their codes for search engine robots to index and store.
Domain name: Every website or web page needs a domain name which serves as its Internet address, to distinguish it from millions of domains on the Web. Ideally, a domain name will be brandable and easy to remember, having theme keywords in the name is a bonus.
Navigability: A clean design with enough white spaces makes it easy for Internet users to find all of a website’s pages. Every page must be clearly indicated and linked to the home page for easy navigation. It should also display a link to its XML sitemap for search engines to find its pages.
Content management system: A content management system allows you to create, edit and add posts and pages to a website easily. Depending on the web platform you use, it is possible to change the look and feel of a website and its individual pages frequently.
On-page SEO: Incorporate relevant keywords in strategic parts of a web page such as its title, page URL, meta description, body of content, description of video and image alt attributes. These are sought by search engine robots which are responsible for finding, indexing and storing keywords in the search engine database.
Additional web design options include an opt-in or email sign-up form for building a list of potential clients, an embedded video near the top of the page, and links to social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Intelligent web design is not entirely about visual appeal. It must address search engine visibility and navigability to promote website success. Small business owners need not be tech savvy in order to build a website. When choosing a web development service, look for one that is backed by personnel with experience in design and on-page SEO strategy.
