Posting Point
Among the most important aspects when creating a page on the Internet there are two that we must always take into consideration: web design and SEO . These concepts are directly related to each other to the point that a good web design can facilitate effective search engine positioning . This means that your page will appear among the first results in search engines, something that is desired by many.
There are different factors within web design that negatively affect good SEO . Here are the five most common mistakes.
1. Delete pages or change URLs
Every user of the insurance website has encountered the message « Error 404 », which indicates that the URL corresponds to a broken or defective link, which is a negative experience for the customer. This is seriously penalized by search engines such as Google, thus negatively affecting SEO positioning.
As a possible solution to this problem there is the ” 301 Redirection “, which is the way of telling the search engine that the URL of the site has changed. That way the strength of that direction is not wasted. So, for example, if a link generates 500 visits of organic traffic, these users would not be lost
To achieve this redirection, the .htaccess file must be edited on Apache servers, which is the most used by hosting servers , something very complicated for people without advanced computer knowledge. Another option is to use plugins that allow you to redirect easily, without running the risk of damaging the web.
2. Arbitrary renaming of images
The name of the images also represents an important point to consider when designing a website. Search tools like Google Images are an open door for many clients who use it to get their content. So, focusing on these portals is nothing unknown to SEO experts .
In image search engines it happens that, with a single mouse movement, about 40 graphic results can be displayed , so it is a good opportunity to impact customers with your own images or figures. For example, thinking of someone who is looking for a double van with a red cab, and if among the products offered by the company that owns the website there are double vans with a red cab, the page should have specific photos of these products with names such as «Van -double-cabin-red.jpg », with the hyphens as spaces and without accents. The idea is to make it easier for the search engine to find that result .
In the code you should put something like <img src = http: //example.com/foto.jpg alt = IMAGE NAME />. Anything that is put in “alt” should accurately describe the image and include the keywords of the content, if possible.
3. Inappropriate or poor use of headings
When bots or “spiders” from search engines like Google enter your page, they crawl all the content starting with the headings (H1, H2, H3 tags …), which determine the importance of the keywords included. So the structure you give to the contents of your page will also be very determining when it comes to positioning yourself for a search intention.
In general, it is preferable not to put more than one H1 header and section the contents into H2 and H3 headers . This will facilitate the tracking of the information by the search engine, in addition to improving the SEO positioning of the web.
4. Heavy videos and pictures and slow loading speed
Page loading speed is another aspect considered by search engines. If it is too slow, you will be penalized. And, for users, that a page takes four or five seconds to load is something inexcusable that will cause them to end up choosing another site to view its contents.
When including content on your page, file formats such as images or videos should be improved . For this, there are different programs that reduce the size of the images without reducing their quality. Once you have created the page, you also have the plugins that can be used to achieve this, although it would be additional work.
As a tip, avoid using “Flash” type content, as these tend to load slower. If you want to upload a video, it is best to send it to a platform like YouTube and put the link on your page. You can also make the heaviest content load asynchronously, which means that the lighter ones will eventually load before the heavier ones.
5. Bad mobile experience
The advent of smartphones has radically changed the landscape of visits to web sites. According to figures from Google, currently more than 60% of the searches carried out by this engine are made from a mobile phone . This is approximately 28 billion more visits than those made from desktop computers. For this reason, since 2018 Google has implemented a new search preferences index called Mobile First .
Mobile First is in charge of ranking search results, giving preference to pages that have a better experience for mobile phone or tablet users. This even applies to the desktop version. Therefore, it must be taken into account if the web is optimized for mobile devices and if the content loading is fluid and fast. It should also be verified that the resources are easily readable for Google robots.
Finally, and above all the above, the time of permanence of users on the pages will be the most decisive thing to classify a website within the first search results, something with which a good web design and SEO is directly connected. Are you already thinking about making changes to your site? That means that you have understood what we have explained to you.
