Websites have become a critical element for many businesses as it is an ideal platform for promoting your activities and connect with your audience. For a website to be effective or to carry out the intended purpose, the role of web designers has become very significant. The effectiveness of sites depends on the web design strategies employed by the designers.
Times are changing, so is ranking factors. Many new ranking factors have come into the picture right now. For Example, mobile responsiveness, snippets, are some of the new dynamics as far as ranking factors are concerned. It is not easy to get higher ranking for your website these days as the trends have changed. So, those who adapt to new trends will find it easier to get good ranking for their site. Let us discuss some of the web designing factors that help improve the site ranking.
1. Ensure that your site is mobile responsive
Mobile responsiveness is a very crucial matter in today’s time and this should not be ignored at any cost. These days the internet is accessed via mobile devices, and the trend is bound to increase going forward. So, if your website is not optimized for mobile phones, then you will lose a lot of business potentials, and endanger your SEO rankings. You will also lose a lot of visitors in the process. So, it is pertinent for your website to have a responsive design, especially for mobile.
2 Bring on the Snippets
Google has been going through a lot of changes and modifications in the manner in which it displays search engine results pages (SERPs). Among the latest trends, the usage of featured “snippets” is very common. The Snippets are, to be precise, a paragraph excerpt from a featured website, which is shown above the regular results on the SERP. Majorly snippets come into the picture when a user posts a query on the search engine. The snippet provides an accurate response to the query and curtails the number of clicks the user is required to perform. The snippets take the top-most slot in search results and go a long way in getting your site ranked higher.
3. Switch to HTTPS appropriately
In case you don’t make a transition to HTTPS, it won’t create any problem for your website. But if the high ranking is your priority, then it makes perfect sense to switch to HTTPS. Google brought in many changes since it announced HTTPS as a ranking signal in 2014. In fact, the search engine major said that it would consider those site as ”not secure” if they aren’t from HTTPS. These things highlight the importance of HTTPS in securing good ranking.
However, it has to be mentioned that if the switch to HTTPS is not made properly, then it can trigger off a lot of problems for your site. So, make sure that the switch to HTTPS is being implemented by an experienced designer or a web design agency. This is definitely a potent web designing plan to increase the ranking of your website.
4. Accord high priority to User Experience
User experience plays a vital role when it comes to ranking. If you care less for user experience, then you would be better off without having a website. What is the point in spending money on something which hardly of any use to you? It is being observed that if a user is not happy with the layout or the design, then he or she will never come to your site again.
So, user experience is very much instrumental if you want to make an impact on search engine pages. Otherwise, even if you have good and useful content, people won’t come to your site, and this will negatively impact your site ranking. Hence, providing better user experience should be one of the significant strategies in web design.
5. Ensure pages load swiftly
If your web page takes sufficient time to load, then you can bid your ranking prospects goodbye. Nobody likes to wait for a page to load. The process has to be very quick. In fact, the speed of pages has now assumed the characteristics of a mobile ranking factor as far as Google is concerned. If your sites take a lot of time to load, you will end up losing both visitors and money.
Hence, as an essential part of web design strategy, it is pertinent to check the average speed of a site. There are several tools for the same as well. In case of any issue, it can be fixed by an able designer or a web design agency. Do not ignore the loading speed of your web page as it can lower your site’s credibility in the eyes of Google.
6 Avoid graphic overdose
There is a perception that by using too many graphics things can be explained easily. This is true, but conveying too many messages through graphics is a bad option. Some people pack in too many graphics on their websites, thinking these would bring in more audience. But in reality excessive graphics can drive them away.In fact, graphics arevery tough to optimize as well. Also, search engine robots won’t be able to read content in an image. So it might be construed as less content and this would hit your site ranking badly. Hence, it is better to limit the usage of graphics while designing a website.
Finally
So, these are some of the useful and contemporary web designing tips that help your site to rank higher on search engines. For a website to rank higher, it has become very clear that users have become very important. Hence, a website should be designed only after considering factors such as mobile responsiveness, user experience, swift loading time etc. We hope this article helps you in designing a high ranking website.
I’m Jay M, a web designer cum blogger working with iPraxa – A Web Design & Development Company in Simi Valley, who has proven expertise in resolving all the technical complexities involved in the designing of innovative, unique websites and web apps. I spend my spare time on the web to learn about the latest technologies and love to share my knowledge with others through my content.