By Derek Iwasiuk, Engage the Crowd
Companies spend a lot of time and money trying to access the best SEO services - mostly because of the positive impact that higher rankings have on a company's online reach as well as revenue.
What's more, many enterprises have a tough time keeping up with the many changes to the practice. As Internet users expect a top-notch experience from the websites they visit so too do the search engines responsible for delivering those sites to users who are searching for relevant queries. Because of this, Web design and page elements play a big role in not only meeting expectations but also proving relevancy.
Web Elements and SEO
A quick look at the principles of SEO will prove to you just how important it is to design and develop your site according to the specifications of the search engines.
1. Mobile responsiveness
A survey conducted in 2013 showed that at least 87 percent of Internet users access the worldwide Web through mobile devices. Therefore, it should be the priority of enterprises to ensure their site allows users on all devices to access it. Not doing so, will be to the detriment of their website rankings and user experience.
2. Domain name extension
With the increased impact of local SEO, emerging brands may want to consider adding a local extension (like .nyc) to show local relevancy - although the SEO impact is still up for debate, proving a company is a local company that is relevant to local users should prove to be a win.
3. Descriptive page name
The name of a site should be as descriptive as possible. While exact match domains tend to be spammy (cheapnewyorkhotels.com, for instance), the name should have a connection to the brand or the product's name. The previously mentioned local domain name extensions can help brands achieve this goal when their ".com" is taken.
4. Site speed
Website visitors expect a site to load quickly and so do the search engines. Brands may want to consider using Google Page Speed to check for loading issues, as well as cater to current Web design trends that can strip down a site to its most basic elements - and that is minimalist design.
5. Page access
How many clicks does it take to reach a certain page in your website? If someone has perform 10 clicks so that they get to the page they are looking for, it's likely they'll leave and never come back. Put important information where users can see it.
6. Site Content
This is not exactly a function of the website designer, but then the content that is being posted on site can have a grievous effect on its SEO ranking. Take for instance a site that deals with photographs. The photographs could be too large and thus lowering the site's speed or a slideshow can be stalled because of it. There are a few alterations that can be made on the site design to make sure that the speed is not affected too much by the content that is added.
Author bio
Derek Iwasiuk run's national digital search engine optimization firm headquarted in Minneapolis. You can also follow him on twitter @Diwasiuk to find out more about his company's SEO services.
