Website Design and SEO: How to Build a website that Ranks and Converts

In today’s digital world, having a well-designed website is no longer enough to stand out. To truly succeed, your website needs to not only look good, but also perform well in search engines and convert visitors. That’s where SEO web design comes into play. When you combine website design with SEO principles, you create a website that not only attracts visitors but also encourages them to engage with your content, make a purchase, or take other valuable actions. In this article, I will guide you through practical SEO web design tips to help you build a website that truly converts.

Table of Contents

1. What is SEO Web Design?
2. Why is SEO Web Design Important?
3. 9 Website Design and SEO Tips
4. Monitoring Web Design and SEO Efforts
5. Build a website that Ranks and Converts Today

What is SEO Web Design?

SEO Web Design is the process of integrating search engine optimisation (SEO) principles into the design and structure of your website. This goes beyond simply adding keywords to your content by ensuring that your website is technically user-friendly and optimised to rank well in search engines like Google. From URL structure and metadata to page speed and mobile responsiveness, every element plays a role in improving your website’s performance.

Why is SEO Web Design Important?

SEO web design is essential for two primary reasons:

1. It improves Search Engine visibility: Websites that are optimised for SEO have a higher chance of ranking well on search engines. Higher rankings mean more organic traffic, which is essential for growth and conversions.
2. It enhances User Experience (UX): A well-designed website that is easy to navigate, loads quickly and provides valuable information improves user satisfaction and your website ranking. The website experience can affect metrics such as bounce rate, interactions and time spent on the page. These values are picked up by Google’s algorithms and can directly impact your ranking.

Also, it’s important to keep in mind, that the more time a user spends on your website, the higher the chance they will convert.

When these two elements are combined – design and SEO – the result is a website that not only attracts more and better quality traffic but also converts that traffic into loyal and engaged customers.

9 Website Design and SEO Tips

Now that you understand what SEO web design is and why you should apply it to your website, here are some tips that can be useful for your strategy:

1. Understand and Target Purchase Intent

Before you begin designing your website, it’s crucial to identify pages with purchase intent. These are pages where users are likely to make a buying decision whether it’s product pages for an e-commerce site or service pages for a local service business. Focusing on these pages will help you target high-quality traffic that is more likely to convert.

In the case of e-commerce stores, you should always optimise your product pages and collection pages for SEO, as they can be the main pages that convert. Use transactional, short-tail and medium-tail keywords on these pages.

Blog pages should also be paid special attention to as they bring traffic and visibility to your website. Try to always add a CTA so you can convert the users who visit these pages.

2. Align Pages with Competitors in SERP

A search engine results page (SERP) is the list of results returned by a search engine in response to a specific query or keyword phrase. To outperform your competitors in the SERPs, it’s crucial to understand what they’re doing right and identify areas where you can improve. One effective way to start is by analysing the design, layout, and content of top-ranking competitors for your target keywords. Look closely at elements such as their product listings, page structure, and user experience features such as navigation, internal links, reviews, and content blocks. However, don’t just copy what they do – it’s important to be unique and offer something new and valuable that your competitors might be missing.

A great way to dig deeper is to check the SERPs for your target keywords in different regions, such as “pre-owned rings in London” and “pre-owned rings in Manchester,” as search results can differ based on location. This can help you stay a step ahead in your SEO and web design strategies!

In terms of design, it’s important to align your pages with industry standards. Be sure to follow best practices for user experience, such as:

• adding breadcrumbs
• displaying the number of products available
• providing filters
• including internal links and reviews

Look at each page carefully, keeping an eye on the content you display above and below the fold. Ensure you’re guiding the user journey effectively (e.g. on a product page – include product and shipping information, cross-sell with product carousels, etc.), and your pages will be well-optimised to rank higher in the SERPs.

3. Website Structure and Internal Linking

Usability is all about website structure and how clear you make it to your visitors. Meanwhile internal linking is essential for SEO because it helps search engines crawl your site more efficiently. It also provides a better user experience by guiding visitors to other relevant content.

Ensure your website has a clear, simple structure with important pages easily accessible from the main menu.
Every page should be reachable in three clicks or less from the homepage. This minimises reliance on the site search function and makes it easier for both users and search engines to navigate your site.

For more tips on site structure, check out our  eCommerce site structure guide.

4. Optimised Navigation

An optimised navigation menu is critical for both SEO and UX. Focus on ensuring that the menu navigation is simple, intuitive and contains all the important pages that your users may be interested in. This can reduce the reliance on the search function.

Incorporate faceted navigation filters that allow users to easily find what they’re looking for. Your menu should include key pages such as product collections, services, and blogs. The search function can also help optimise the navigation, but your focus should always be in keeping your navigation so simple that website users might not need it.

5. Strategic Use of Call to Actions (CTAs)

A call to action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step or the action that the marketer wants the consumer to take. Calls to action can be direct, such as a button that says “Buy Now” or softer such as “Read More.” A Call to Action is an essential part of converting visitors. You can place CTAs strategically across your website:

• Use sticky CTAs that stay visible as users scroll down a page, to constantly remind them to take your desired action.
• Throughout your blog posts, include CTAs that prompt users to explore products, subscribe to newsletters, or schedule consultations. Internal links are a good option as well.
• At the end of blog posts, encourage users to contact you or make a purchase using a CTA.
• When creating your CTA, always keep in mind that it should be a natural extension of your page content and its intent. For example, if you have an informative blog post answering a user’s need, your CTA should push the user to the next step of your funnel.

6. Mobile Friendliness and Responsive Design

Mobile optimisation is crucial for both SEO and User Experience. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your site to rank it. Ensure that your website is responsive i.e. it adapts seamlessly to any device, whether it’s a desktop, tablet or smartphone.

Website designers use the mobile-first technique since consumers use their phones more often than desktop devices. Keep your mobile experience always top notch to help your page ranking.

7. Improve Website Speed and Core Web Vitals

Website speed is a major ranking factor, and how your users can perceive your website too. That is why your website should always try to meet the Core Web Vitals requirements. Slow-loading sites, and pages that are difficult to scan and read can negatively impact both SEO and user experience. To meet Google’s Core Web Vitals benchmarks, focus on:

• Minimise the number of elements on the page that the browser needs to load.
• Optimise images: compress images without sacrificing quality and pay attention to the right format (stick with JPEG and PNG, and when needed WebP for better compression). Make your images responsive, by thinking about how the images will look and behave on each screen size (desktop, mobile and tablet).
• Optimise Web Fonts: use WOFF2 font format (which is more compressed than older formats) and only include the font weights and styles you actually need.
• Implement lazy loading for images and other resources to speed up page loads.
• Use white space throughout the page strategically to improve the page scan ability.

8. Readability and Accessibility

Readability and accessibility are critical components of SEO web design because they directly impact both user experience (UX) and search engine ranking. Search engines like Google are increasingly prioritising user-centric metrics such as readability, usability, and accessibility, making these factors key for achieving high rankings and creating a website that people and search engines can interact with effectively.

For readability:

• Use legible fonts: choose clear, sans-serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Helvetica) for body text and ensure adequate font size (at least 16px).
• Optimise line spacing: set line-height to 1.4-1.6 for better readability.
• Maintain high contrast: ensure sufficient contrast between text and background (e.g., dark text on a light background).
• Break text into short paragraphs: keep paragraphs concise (2-3 sentences) for easier scanning.
• Use descriptive headings: structure content with clear headings (<h1>, <h2>, etc.) to guide readers through sections.
• Avoid jargon: write in simple, clear language to cater to a broad audience.

For accessibility:

• Provide alt text for images: always add descriptive alt text to images for screen readers.
• Ensure keyboard navigation: make sure all interactive elements (links, buttons, forms) are fully navigable using a keyboard.
• Use semantic HTML: use proper HTML elements (<button>, <a>, <form>) to improve accessibility and compatibility with screen readers.
• Add ARIA labels: use ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attributes for interactive elements that need additional context.
• Make links descriptive: avoid generic link text such as “click here.” Instead, describe the link’s purpose (e.g. “Read our privacy policy”).
• Test with accessibility tools: use tools such as Google Lighthouse, WAVE, or Axe to audit your site for accessibility issues.

9. Image Optimisation for SEO

Images are an essential part of any website, not only for enhancing user experience but also for improving SEO. However, it’s important to optimise them properly so they don’t slow down your site or negatively impact your rankings.

• Compress and resize images: all images should be compressed without losing noticeable quality. Large, high-resolution images can really drag down your site’s loading speed, which is bad for both user experience and SEO. By compressing images, you can reduce their file sizes, making your pages load faster and improving your site’s overall performance. Tools such as TinyPNG or ImageOptim can help you compressing your images.
• Use descriptive, keyword-rich alt text: make sure every image has descriptive alt text that accurately conveys what the image is about, and where possible, includes relevant keywords. This not only helps search engines understand your content better but also improves your chances of appearing in image search results. Alt text is also important for accessibility, allowing visually impaired users to understand your images.
• Consider the number and size of images: while it’s tempting to use lots of images, too many on a page can significantly impact loading times, especially if they’re large in size. The more images you have, and the bigger the files, the longer it will take for your page to load. Slow load times can frustrate visitors and harm your SEO, as search engines such as Google take page speed into account when ranking sites. Try to strike a balance: optimise image sizes by using formats such as WebP or compressed JPEGs, which offer good quality at smaller file sizes. Tools such as TinyPNG or ImageOptim are great for reducing file sizes without compromising too much on quality.
• Use lazy loading: to improve page speed, consider implementing lazy loading for your images. This means that images only load as the user scrolls down the page, rather than all at once when the page first loads. Lazy loading can dramatically reduce initial load times and improve the user experience, especially on image-heavy pages.

By carefully managing both the number and size of images on your site, you can boost both site speed and SEO performance, leading to a better experience for your users and higher rankings on search engines.

Monitoring Web Design and SEO Efforts

Once your site is live, it’s essential to track its performance. Use tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor traffic, bounce rates, conversions, and more. Regularly review your design and SEO efforts to ensure they are aligned and continue to drive positive results. There are a few tools that you can use to help you tracking your efforts and optimising your results:

Google Analytics: use it for tracking traffic and user behaviour

Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools for tracking website traffic, user engagement, and performance metrics. Here’s how you can leverage it:

1. Traffic insights: track overall website traffic, visits by traffic source, goal conversions and user journey/checkout behaviour.
2. User behaviour flow: analyse how users navigate your website, which pages they visit first and where they exit. This helps identify potential issues with navigation or UX design.
3. Bounce rate: a high bounce rate (users leaving without interacting) may signal that your page design or content is not engaging enough. Monitor and optimise pages with high bounce rates.

Google Search Console: use it to track Core Web Vitals

Google Search Console is a powerful tool that lets you track your website’s Core Web Vitals – key performance metrics that directly impact both user experience and your SEO. By checking these metrics regularly in GSC, you can get a clear picture of how your site’s design and performance changes are affecting things like loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

Monitoring Core Web Vitals in GSC isn’t just about fixing issues; it also helps you see how updates to your web design and SEO strategy are influencing your site’s rankings, traffic, and overall visibility in Google search results. This way, you can make informed adjustments and keep improving both your user experience and your search engine performance over time.

Page Speed Insights: use it to understand what is causing poor values on Core Web Vitals

Page speed Insights is a free tool where you can add your website URL and get useful insights about how your users are experiencing desktop and mobile screens. You can get insights into your overall performance, website accessibility, best practices and SEO. Use it in your favour to understand where you need to improve your website’s performance.

Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar: use it to track user behaviour on your website

To optimise both your web design and SEO, you should track user behaviour on your site. Heatmaps and session recordings are invaluable tools for understanding user interactions:

• Heatmaps: tools such as Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity provide heatmaps that show where users are clicking, scrolling, and engaging with content. This can help you understand which parts of your page are working (or not working) and how users interact with your design.
• Session recordings: session recording tools allow you to watch user sessions in real-time, providing insights into navigation patterns, potential frustrations, or usability issues. These tools help identify specific pain points that could be harming both user experience and SEO performance.

Build a Website that Ranks and Converts Today

Combining SEO with killer web design is the secret to creating a site that not only attracts visitors but also keeps them engaged and ready to act.

By integrating SEO best practices such as optimising page load speed, ensuring mobile responsiveness and enhancing user experience with sleek, user-friendly design, you can craft a site that ranks high on search engines and provides an excellent experience for your users. Plus, tools such as Google Analytics and heatmaps help you keep track of your progress and make data-driven decisions to keep improving your site over time.

Here at Autify, we are always ready to help you to create a website that stands out in search results and converts visitors into customers. If you’re ready to take your website to the next level, check out our SEO and Web Design Services to see how we can help you create a website that works as hard as your company does!

Feel free to contact us, if you need more information or consultancy!

Phone: +44 0115 778 6950

Email: info@autify.co.uk