A website is technically defined as a collection of web pages connected with each other. But For any business, a website is its online portfolio. For a website designer, the website is just a collection of code that is given a color pattern to make it attractive. But, do you know that the design of your website matters a lot in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) along with SEO services? Yes, you heard it right. Your website design is a prominent factor in search engine ranking. So, below is the list of the top 14 web designing flaws degrading your SEO ranking.
14 Web Design Mistakes That Should be Avoided
1. Not Mobile Responsive
Google recently announced an update called Mobilegeddon which declared that from now onwards, Google will give priority to mobile-friendly sites.
If your website is not device friendly, then you must start editing your site to make it a mobile-friendly website.
2. Improper 404 Page
For a designer, once a site is live, there will not be any issues from their point of view. But, there are many cases when some of the web pages are deleted for some reason.
Those pages lead to 404 errors. From an SEO point of view, 404 errors put a negative impact on your website. So, check out all 404 errors using Google Webmaster Tools and either redirect them or remove them from search engines.
3. Excess use of Flash
Usually, to make an attractive website, Flash is used in excess amounts. Flash is used to make creative sites, but according to Google guidelines, excessive use of Flash on a site is harmful in terms of SEO rankings.
Use the flash wherever important, but don’t avoid content for it.
4. Annoying Pop-Ups
Pop-Ups are used as a Call to Action on countless websites. But, many popups become so annoying for the user that it deflects them and force them to close the site without even entering it.
This causes an increase in Bounce rate as well as degrades the user experience. It’s not advised to neglect popups completely, but they must be used whenever appropriate.
5. Neglecting Heading Tags
For a visitor, no variation can be observed in a website using heading tags and another one which is not use heading tags.
But for SEO, the use of these tags tells the search engine that the web page is emphasized on that topic. SEO acknowledges the use of Heading tags in the site and gives positive consideration to it. So, use H1 to H6 tags as per their requirement.
6. Lack of Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are what show the symmetric order of your navigation. It tells you the order of your current page. It supplements the user will user-friendly navigation.
But in its absence, a user finds it difficult to move back or any other location which seems annoying. If you are running an eCommerce website, then, you must add this trait to your website.
Related: Top 10 Web Design Companies in India: Rankings Based on Popularity and Performance
7. Absence of Internal Linking
The content is attractive and easy to read, but it remains incomplete until interlinking is not done.
Links to internal pages within a website make a link web of that site and SE considers the web as a positive signal.
So, where ever you find it appropriate, link your internal pages.
8. Poor website navigation
Have you ever visited a website where you get no way to skip to another page?
It becomes confusing when your users didn’t get to see all of your pages due to a lack of navigation. Smooth navigation will lead your customer instantly to any page where the customer wants to go. Also, proper navigation allows users directly what to do at a glance.
9. Slow page load speed
In a fast pacing life, people expect everything should be fast. And when it comes to a website, they expect the pages should be changed at the speed of light. Users can regularly zip via a digital platform and hammer away at emails, and zoom past a ton of generic headlines on the SERPs.
That indicates that whenever they took time to switch on your website and found your website taking unnecessary time. Then, until realize, that they’ll switch your website with others who provide the same information.
10. Large image media files
We know that images attract the attention of customers, and sometimes also help viewers to understand what you couldn’t make them with words. But have you ever realized that sometimes, it takes a lot of time to download the image on the site?
The reason behind downloading any images on your site is the large images and media files.
If this is the reason, then you can resize them or compress and re-upload them to your site.
11. Keyword stuffing and irrelevant content
Keyword stuffing and irrelevant content can harm your website’s SEO ranking. Google penalizes websites that use irrelevant content and excessive use of keywords. To avoid this mistake, use relevant keywords naturally in your content and focus on creating content that provides value to your users.
12. Texts in images
This is one of the common problems which is done by almost web – designers. The problem is once you include text directly into the image, you’ll miss out on the opportunity of using an H1, sub-headline, and necessary keywords all above the fold.
You always keep this in a note that visitors can read the text in images, but Google can’t.
13. Never-ending pages
Ever have you realized while you scroll to the bottom of a webpage and find new content loading?
That never-ending page on which you scroll endlessly can create a problem. Google bots can’t scroll. This denotes that you are not able to index more pages on your website.
For instance, your website has 100 pages. But the default setting shows your 10 posts of recent. Therefore, if Google drags your site, then they cannot make any such content after the top 10 posts.
14. Lack of unique and quality content
Having unique and high-quality content is crucial for your website’s SEO ranking. Duplicate content, thin content, and low-quality content can harm your website’s SEO ranking. To avoid this mistake, prioritize creating unique and high-quality content that provides value to your users.
If you are lacking any of the above-mentioned designing points, then hire a professional web designer and correct them as soon as possible and experience improvement in your website search engine ranking.
Image Source: Google
