When you want to improve your website, SEO and web design must go hand in hand together. In staying on the top page in SERP, this requires extensive work to rank your site. If you dwell much on search engine optimization, you might forget that your web design is being taken for granted.
Don’t settle on your current visual layout; you should create something that could help the viewers navigate your site efficiently. Evaluate your page and consider the comments of the users. Imagine yourself in their shoes and think of a solution that could provide a better user experience.
As a general checklist to start, here are the valuable 5 web design elements that you should keep an eye on.
1. Improve Your Website Speed
Have you found out the culprit on why your page keeps on loading slowly? Well, there are several things that you should check. First, you should have a regular cache clearing to remove unnecessary history and data. For instance, if you’re using a WordPress tool, you can follow these steps.
- Go to Your Settings
- Look for the Web Plugin for Cache
- Then finally, click on the delete cache
There are various plugins that you can use to clear caches, such as W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache. By using these tools, it will be easier to navigate in the dashboard, and it only takes a few clicks to delete the data.
Second, you should optimize your images. Yes, that’s right. Even though you love high-quality photos, you should still need to compress its resolution so that it won’t cause your web to lag. We suggest that you should use vector images rather than the raster ones.
Vector graphics are programmed through mathematical codes, formula, and geometric primitives resulting in a high-resolution image. Some of the formats that it supports are SVG, AI, PDF, EPS, and DFX. In contrast with the raster graphics, these photos are created through pixels such as PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, and TIFF. By knowing the differences between these images, you will know which photo to upload that gives an HD resolution with a low data space.
Lastly, you should check your plugins. Identify the apps that you need and remove unnecessary plugins. You should also do a testing phase to check on which app slows down your website speed.
2. Develop a Competitive Visual and Appealing Site
After you finished checking the first bullet, you may now proceed with the design layout and structure. What is the primary purpose of web design? Is it for a visual representation or attracting viewers?
Design is intended to make the viewers be able to read your message. You don’t have to explain what it’s all about. By just merely looking at the images, layout, and structure of the website, it sets out a clear purpose to drive the viewers with a better visual experience.
How are you going to improve the design? Here are the hacks to level up your web visuals.
- Choose a responsive background with a reasonable low data space
- Make sure that the fonts are readable and visible
- Use bullets and short paragraphs for your contents
- Place your ads properly
- Adopt a modern design that works for computer and mobile formats
3. Use of the Negative Space
A negative space indicates the blank portion of the website. Whereas the positive space, this area includes all the elements of the website, such as contents, images, and more. In the new phase today, negative space becomes an essential technique in attracting a site visitor.
If your website displays too many images and contents, it makes the eyes look confused as to where to start navigating. It is important to use negative space to show your content in a presentable, legit, and readable way.
In using this technique, it does not only focus on the space between the paragraphs, sentences, or images. Sometimes, the negative space is also being used to lure a viewer to visit the site. If you inculcate the 8 seconds rule, you will understand how impatient the viewers are. As the term suggests, it only takes 8 seconds for a site visitor to decide whether he or she will navigate the website.
If you want to keep the visitor interested, you should use negative space and highlight the main headline of your website. Could you keep it simple yet substantial?
4. Make your Website’s Platform Mobile-Friendly
According to the statistics, around 3.5 million people are using smartphones this 2020 year. It means to say; more people are using mobile than computers.
The reason is obviously due to mobile’s handheld usage. You can watch videos, stream channels, and surf the internet anywhere and anytime if you have a smartphone.
For web developers and designers, it is a must to keep your content compatible with mobile devices. If its layout and structure look messy in the smartphone, it would affect your viewers’ interest and may result in a higher bounce rate.
To unleash your website into a mobile layout, you should test it first before launching it to the public. In this way, you will know if its display looks presentable and professional in a smartphone device.
5. Guide Your web Visitors using a Sitemap
Have you consulted an SEO Specialist? You’re probably wondering whom to seek advice for on how to make your sitemap well-designed and SEO friendly. Well, let me tell you the basics and see the results for yourself.
According to Joelhouse, Sitemaps are essential elements of web design because they help in guiding the viewer in navigating the site. It does not only refer to a dropdown list menu and toolbar, but also an essential part of the SEO.
A well-mapped website can be easily tracked and analyzed by Google. Both the internal and external links are also essential to make your site visible to the public. A sitemap contains internal links that guide the online visitor on which section to click and to look for.
Juggling all these 5 elements is undoubtedly a challenging role to take. You must balance all these features to make your website visually competitive and boost its traffic. If you know how to put all these things in one place, then you have the edge to succeed in your ranking.