Uncovering The Hidden Link Between Web Design & Ecommerce SEO

Web design has become an integral part of today's eCommerce SEO landscape. User experience is a key factor for successful search engine rankings; the way your website looks and how users interact with it can have a major impact on your rankings. In this blog post, we'll cover a few web design practices that can influence SEO performance, as well as tips on how to improve them.

Web Design Practices that can Influence SEO

Navigating the Structure of the Website

The structure of your website's navigation has an impact on many key metrics, such as average page on-time, bounce rate, engagement rate, and conversion rate. These elements help boost search engine rankings in the SERPs and are a major source of revenue and profits. If visitors cannot find the necessary information on your site or have difficulty knowing where to go next, it can result in lost opportunities and missed earnings.

Creating a good navigation structure is essential for providing a positive user experience. Here are a few tips to help you create an effective structure:

• Keep the main menu simple and limit the number of items to avoid confusion.
• Use words that are easily understood by your visitors in the main menu.
• Ensure that the main menu is always visible and accessible on all web pages.
• Make sure that the menu is also accessible on mobile devices.
• Include a search bar to help users quickly find the web pages they are looking for.
• Make sure that the URLs of the web pages are concise and descriptive.

Designing a navigation menu that is both aesthetically pleasing and SEO-friendly can be a challenging task. While it's important to maintain a creative vision, it may require some compromises to ensure that the menu is easy to use and optimized for search engine rankings.

Focus on the Loading Speed of Your Website

Your website must load quickly to achieve a good search engine ranking. Design plays a critical role in how quickly your web pages load. Utilize our free tool to evaluate the loading speed of your website. Generally, the ideal loading time is less than one second. If your website takes longer, you can use the following tips.

• Reduce your JS and CSS files
• Use compressed images
• Minimize HTTP requests
• Use a caching solution
• Upgrade your web hosting solution
• For Magento platforms, you can go for a Magento SEO audit
• Use a CDN if possible.

Image and Its Size, Along with Alt Text

Using images on websites is essential for increasing page engagement, yet too many images can slow the loading time and impact search engine rankings. Furthermore, if those images don't load properly, users are left with a broken page, which can be detrimental to their experience. To avoid this, it is important to ensure images are relevant, interesting, and optimized for optimal loading. Here are a few tips that can help with using images on your website.

• Make sure you add relevant keywords and titles to your images.
• Ensure you include a descriptive and keyword-rich 'alt text' with each image you use. Search engines can't 'read' images, so they depend on alt text to understand and index them for relevant keywords. The alt text is also displayed when an image fails to load.

The 404 Page

A user will likely leave your website if they encounter a '404' error page, which appears when a link is broken or the page no longer exists. However, by employing some creativity and having a plan, you can make your 404 page more user-friendly and encourage visitors to stay on your website. Here are a few tips to help your 404 pages work in your favor and enhance your website's SEO.

• Design a unique and eye-catching 404 page that communicates that the user has followed an incorrect link or the page does not exist.
• Include a search bar functionality to give visitors another chance to find the information they need.
• List the most important web pages on the page to encourage visitors to explore them.

Ideally, your website should have no dead links, but it is impossible to completely avoid the 404 error. A user may reach a 404 page by typing the incorrect URL. To make the most of this situation, create a helpful 404 page. This will encourage visitors to remain on your website while also increasing their on-page time and reducing the bounce rate. Eventually, these favorable signals can improve your search engine rankings.

Pop-Ups

When users arrive on a website, they may be presented with pop-ups, which can have a negative impact on the credibility and user experience. The immediate presentation of pop-ups may frustrate visitors, causing them to leave the website. This sends a signal to Google that the website is not providing the expected user experience for the specific keywords, which can result in fewer views in the SERPs.Reduce the number of pop-ups displayed. For example, if you need to advertise an event or free offer, think about using an exit-intent pop-up that only appears when the user is about to leave the website.

Key Takeaway!

Web design and SEO are two distinct elements of an online business. Nevertheless, the boundaries have become less noticeable. Implementing a well-crafted website ensures a better user experience, which is now an essential component of e-commerce SEO. At Ecommerce SEO Tools, you can find a wide range of free tools that can help you with various ecommerce SEO strategies, and that too with no additional cost. So visit E-commerce SEO today and bring your online business to higher google rankings!