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At TAMSO, we recognise that design is only the beginning. In the evolving digital landscape, ensuring your website is easily discoverable is critical. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a critical component of this visibility, and web design choices significantly influence a site’s search engine rankings. Good design practices can enhance your site’s visibility, driving more organic traffic and increasing the chance for more conversions which leads to more customers and more revenue. This article will explore the three core components of a strong SEO strategy and provide insights into improving digital business performance.
To optimise site performance, there are three different themes to consider - Technical Setup, Business Content, and Linking.
Here is a list of technical considerations that impact SEO. Fortunately for TAMSO clients, we ensure that all our sites are optimised for SEO performance through comprehensive technical setup.
Responsive Design
Responsive design ensures your website looks and functions appropriately on all devices, particularly mobile. With the increasing use of mobile devices for internet browsing, search engines prioritise mobile-friendly sites. A responsive design adjusts the layout and content based on the screen size, providing a seamless user experience across devices.
Page Speed
Page load speed is a crucial factor in both user experience and SEO. Slow-loading pages frustrate users and lead to higher bounce rates, negatively affecting search rankings. Optimising images, minimising code, and leveraging browser caching are effective ways to enhance page load speed.
Site Architecture
Logical site architecture helps search engines crawl and index your website more efficiently. A well-structured site with organised navigation menus ensures that all pages are accessible and easily interpreted by search engines.
URL Structure
Descriptive URLs improve both user experience and SEO. URLs that include relevant keywords and are easy to read provide better context to search engines about the page content. For example, URLs like “acme.com/about-us” instead of “acme.com/page1?id=678”, enhance both SEO and user understanding of the page content.
Content Layout
Well-structured content with appropriate use of heads (H1, H2, H3) improves readability and help search engines understand the content hierarchy. Clear and concise content with relevant keywords further boosts SEO. Pages utilising H1 for the main title and H2 for subheadings provide clearer structure, making it easier for search engines to index and rank the content.
Here is a list of content considerations that impact SEO. Fortunately, at TAMSO, we guide our clients through best practices for content creation to optimise SEO performance.
Quality Content
Creating high-quality, relevant content is crucial for attracting both users and search engines. Regularly updating your site with informative, keyword-rich articles enhances SEO and keeps your audience engaged.
Keyword Usage
Strategic placement of keywords in content, headers, and metadata is essential for SEO. Using keywords naturally within your content ensures it is relevant and easily discoverable by search engines. An example would be an online store that integrates long-tail keywords in product descriptions, improving its visibility for specific search queries.
Metadata
Crafting compelling title tags and meta descriptions improves click-through rates from search results. Including targeted keywords in metadata help search engines understand the content’s relevance. Search engines use these two code elements to display their images. They display the meta-title as the search listing’s title while the meta-description provides content for the blurb.
Image File Names and ALT Tags
Search engines cannot see images on web pages; they only recognize image file names and tags. If an image contains an important keyword, it will be invisible to the search engine unless the keyword is included in the file name. Additionally, use ALT tags to describe the image. These tags help visually impaired visitors and act as relevancy signals for search engines.
Our first two sections, technical setup and content setup, focus on increasing relevance. Links, however, are responsible for popularity.
Internal Linking
Internal linking improves site navigation and distributes page authority across your website. Linking related content helps search engines understand the relationship between pages, boosting overall SEO. An example of this would be sites that link related articles within each post, enhancing user engagement and improving SEO.
External Linking
External linking to high-quality, relevant sites can boost your site’s credibility and provide additional value to users, signalling trustworthiness to search engines. Plus, it provides good user experience, by positioning your content as a valuable resource.
Backlinks (Inbound Linking)
Every time another website mentions and points its readers to your content, you gain a backlink to your site. Backlinks from other reputable websites, are one of the strongest ranking factors in SEO. They act as endorsements of your content’s quality, increasing your site’s authority and improving its search engine banking.
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