No web designer is happy to create well-designed websites with professional looks if it falls short of the ultimate goal of driving high traffic to it. To achieve this end, web designers must consider the aspects of search engine optimization in their designs. The web design must be friendly to search engines regarding technicality so that it responds well to the needs of crawling and indexing by search engines. The friendliness of design determines how easily it will be for search engines to locate the website during searches. Then the second aspect that is no less important for web designers is that the design must be appealing to users and offer better user experience. The third and perhaps the most important feature of web design today, is that it must be compatible with mobile devices.
Responsive design
Responsive web design ensures that viewers enjoy viewing websites on smaller screens of mobile devices with the same ease as on desktops. Google has made it very clear that sites must be mobile-friendly and taking into account that smartphones give 64% more conversions than desktops, mobile friendliness of web design surpasses the other design parameters of importance. The trend is going to continue for long and optimizing web design for SEO as well as mobile devices remain the focal points in web design. Mobile responsive designs give websites more exposure and ensure more prolonged viewer engagement that leads to higher conversions and gives better ROI. To know how to make web designs mobile-centric as well as SEO friendly, keep on reading this article.
Keep it simple with call to action
You must bear in mind the size of the screen when creating a responsive design. Not only mobile screens are smaller than desktops and laptops, but it also comes in varied sizes. The restricted space limits the options of displaying too many items on the screen for which the design must be simple, yet include all the important stuff. Cramming too many things in a small space will upset the design, and it will affect the user experience adversely.
Use short and crisp content that is subtle and to the point and ensure that the contact info complete with address and phone number is well visible so that it appears inviting to users to click on it. It leads to high impacting call to action that creates better engagement. The contact form design must also be mobile friendly. To facilitate the SEO efforts, improve navigation by using the shorter menu for mobile devices. Longer menu tends to confuse users and best avoided.
Super fast page loading
The users’ patience is rapidly diminishing, and you must never try to test it. In order to provide the best user experience, the web design must ensure that pages load as fast as the eyes blink. The expectation for faster page loading has increased with the spread of mobile devices. Nobody is ready to wait and would not give you that extra second but only move out from that page which might have valuable content. Faster loading pages create better engagement.
Review the image sizes and use smaller images that occupy less space and increases loading speed. Compress larger images and analyze every piece of CSS and Javascript. Some design elements like the logo load constantly and a better way of improving loading time is to utilize the cache that saves the time spent on downloading. Set the cache lifetime of all static resources once a week and for third party resources like ads and widgets, set it daily.
Minimize redirects because every redirect creates an additional HTTP request that increases the loading time of pages. Speedier websites on mobile devices lead to customer satisfaction and improved conversion.
Design compatibility for big fingers
Since you are considering the design compatibility for mobile devices and have in mind what users like, you must not miss the point that finger dimension is an important aspect of design. Since the design has touch screen navigation, there must be provision for natural scrolling for any finger size, big or small. Users must have the same comfort and ease in touching the screen whether the fingers are too small or too big. The design must accommodate all sizes of fingers so that users get the same kind of pleasure and comfort that gives the most pleasing user experience. Better user experience is critical for improved user engagement that is a sign of superior SEO.
Titles and Meta descriptions
The professionals offering SEO services are well aware of the importance of titles and Meta descriptions that are action driven and contain target keywords to show up appropriately on mobile screens. The thumb rule is to restrict titles within 70 characters even though Google allows 78 characters. The idea is to display the complete title on smaller screens without being truncated. For an enhanced mobile experience, take a similar approach for the Meta description by keeping it short but meaningful. Although Google permits the use of 130 characters for Meta description and even accommodates increased text in it for mobile devices, you never know when they might truncate it. Instead of searching for optimal length, better keep away from guessing and create shorter Meta descriptions that are well below 130 characters.
Avoid Pop-ups
Google released an algorithm update on January 10, 2017 that imposes a penalty on websites with pop-ups. The reason is quite understandable because pop-ups are real spoilers that Mar user experience. The intrusive nature of pop-ups can turn off users who get wary of it in no time and leave the website. Since mobile screens are smaller, the effects of pop up on users seem to be more damaging. You might use pop-ups selectively if it does not cover a large part of the screen that eclipses the content. However, if it blocks the entire screen or its major part, just discard it.
With more focus on mobile devices and emphasis on SEO compatibility, modern web design is set to provide the most rewarding experience in search engine optimization.
Sweta Tripathi
Ahmad Mukhtar