Although they represent different website components, web design and search engine optimization go hand in hand. Design elements and content even depend on each other to make the website and, thus the business, profitable. This interdependence of the two is not difficult to grasp once the connection between web design and SEO is revealed.
Why do we need web design and SEO?
The importance of web design and SEO lies in the purpose of search engines such as Google. The better and more accurate assistance a search engine provides, the higher the reward for a website that complies with its regulations. And those are simple: to get rewarded with a high ranking, a website must
- be easy to navigate cross-device
- provide engaging, well-optimized content that is easy to understand
- be responsive and loading quickly
- have good markup.
What do web design and SEO provide for a website?
Web design and SEO work together in the best interest of a website and the business it represents.
Web design provides more than just simple aesthetic solutions. Without proper site architecture and interlinking of subpages, we can’t speak about adequate site setup. Excellent user experience is based on great web design, but only if the user finds the website.
This is the part where SEO comes into the game. There are strategies and various SEO Tools that help the site up through Google’s rankings. However, even the most compelling content and the best SEO strategies and tools can’t do much if the site is slow to load, difficult to navigate, and visually unattractive.
Where is the connection between web design and SEO?
The most obvious meeting point between the two elements is website navigation. If it’s clear and well-structured, it allows both crawlers and users to find what they want on your pages quickly. In other words, the better organized the hierarchy and categorization of your web pages, the easier the navigation.
However, this vertical hierarchy is more a part of the website design. Website navigation connects the pages on your website using links. These links are the paths search engines use to explore, find, catalog, and understand the relationships between your web pages and their subsections.
On the other hand, horizontal linking more belongs to SEO. The links SEO uses to connect pages on your website, the so-called internal links, are a prerequisite for better ranking of all other pages at your domain. This is because the popularity of a well-ranked page is distributing to others. Horizontal linking tells search engines that an already known page with high authority finds another page on the same website important.
Together, the vertical and horizontal hierarchy of website navigation make your website a lot more convenient to browse by visitors and Google crawlers. While both web design and SEO provide many elements and features working toward the same goal, navigation remains one of their most important meeting points.
A few final notes
It is vital to grasp the connection between web design and SEO well before the work on a website begins. Ideally, SEO should be implemented parallel to the website building. Only a well-coordinated team of web designers and SEO experts can produce a site that offers an attractive design, a high-quality user experience, and leading rankings in search engines. One without the other will either lead to a visually charming site found by no one or an easily discoverable site that appeals to a scant few.
