Site Design Structure

While most webmasters are aware of the basics of search engine optimization such as individualized titles and meta tags for each page, many are unaware of the massive effect that site structure has on ranking in search engine results pages (SERPS). We’re going to discuss site design and organization and their effect on SEO in this article

Site Design

Despite the fact that site design is one of the easiest aspects of web site creation insofar as user input goes, it is also one of the least followed rules among webmasters. Simply following the best example you can find within your industry and following your current users’ advice and opinions should be enough to help you to design the most efficient and well-organized site possible. Navigation should be crystal clear and users should always feel confident in surfing your site that they will easily find everything that they are looking for. The internet was designed for browsing and surfers themselves will be quick to leave your site if the information they’re looking for is buried or difficult to find. A high bounce rate (the percentage of people who leave your site after viewing only the landing page) will ensue, leaving you with unhappy users and little or no word-of-mouth advertising. Natural backlinks, a necessity when considering search engine optimization, typically come from happy users who tell a friend (or a group) about your site online. If users leave your site frustrated or without a positive lasting impression, they aren’t likely to help you to spread the news about your site and services.

It’s important to keep a few of the relatively small design aspects in mind from the beginning: the basic table structure of the site, the title and header design, and the main content area structure. The use of images and backlinks within the content is crucial as search engines are known to automatically attribute these design aspects to an authority site, helping you to receive more constant visits from spiders and giving you an immediate edge over competitors lacking the same practice. Images should be kept small and unobtrusive and be used only when necessary. This has the combined effect of helping you to be better indexed in the SERPs and allowing you to provide your users with clean, fast-loading pages.

Another important rule of thumb is to keep your design simple! While many designers focus on having the best-looking or most creative site, search engines give results based on textual content, no extreme use of graphics. Color schemes should be kept simple and help to create definition between the different areas of the site. Using an abundance of extreme colors or visual effects will only serve to irritate your visitors as they attempt to peruse your content. A clean and easy-to-see reading pane is a must for your main content.

Site Organization

Site organization is crucial to user retention, and therefore site popularity. The organizational structure of your web site should be the first step in your planning process. There are a few simple rules that you can follow to help you achieve the desired results, page-by-page:

One: Your home, index, or main landing page is the communication center of the entire site. Link structure, to-the-point content, and easy to use navigation is crucial. Your main landing page is typically the first page that your visitors will see when they visit your site. Providing them with clear link structure and an obvious path to the information that they are looking for (and information that they don’t yet know they’re looking for) is a sure way to keep them on your site. Combine this with freshly updated content on your landing page and you’ll keep them coming back as well.

While navigation planning and basic link structure is important to your visitors, it’s very important to the search engines as well. When spiders visit your page they not only index it, but they rank it based on content and link structure, having an immediate effect on your search engine results page ranking. The link structure also helps to guide the spiders to other areas of your site. A clear and easy-to-understand link structure allows spiders quick access to your other files, helping you to get indexed more quickly, and more often.