Any business that wants to build a website needs to consider both site visitors and search engines. After all, what is the use of a beautiful website with an intuitive user journey if nobody can find it through Google? And why bother getting your site to rank number one on a search results page if it’s too confusing for anyone to make a conversion?
This is equally relevant for B2B and B2C companies – no matter what the purpose of your website is, you need it to be user-friendly and findable all at once. In this article, we will discuss the intersection of web development and SEO so that you can find that balance.
What is SEO-Focused Web Development?
SEO, which stands for “search engine optimization, refers to the process of tailoring your website so that it ranks highly on search engines. Did you know that sites on the first page of Google’s search results receive as much as 92% of clicks? In other words, if your website isn’t ranking highly for relevant search queries, it will be hard to get visitors.
Web development refers to the creation and design (both front-end and back-end) of a website and all of the pages within it. When you put those two concepts together, you get SEO-focused web development: the creation and design of a website that is optimized to rank highly on search engines.
Experienced web development firms, like Think Design, know how important SEO-focused web development is, and they will employ SEO best practices when building websites. From the client side of things, there are a whole host of benefits that come with considering SEO throughout your web development project.
4 Top Benefits of SEO in Web Development
#1: Boost Organic Traffic
While social media campaigns and pay-per-click ads are great ways to increase your website’s traffic, they can also be costly. That’s why it’s important to find ways to boost your organic website traffic. What is that? Well, organic traffic refers to any visitors that come to your website through search engines.
An organic website visit might look something like this: A user searches a query on Google and clicks on one of the top results after browsing through a few options. But here’s the thing: the first search result gets over 25% of clicks, the second gets 15%, and it keeps dropping from there. You can see why it’s so important that your site ranks highly.
#2: Attract Qualified Traffic
Not all web traffic is created equal. More visitors is always a good thing, but it doesn’t always equal more conversions. When someone is searching on Google, they’re typically looking to find out information about a specific query. And if your site can give them the exact answer they’re looking for, they are going to click on it.
Strong SEO takes searcher intent into consideration, meaning that the keywords you use will be targeted toward users who are searching for something specific and be aimed at meeting their needs. That positive experience with your site will keep your brand top-of-mind, and when that user is ready to make a purchase, they might just come back to you.
#3: Improve User Experience
We could say it a million times: user experience (UX) is everything. And now, it’s becoming even more important because Google’s algorithm is beginning to take it into consideration. Google continues to refine its criteria to prioritize UX-related metrics – so if your website is more user-friendly, it might just be able to rank higher.
Tailoring your website to improve SEO is essential to your business’ marketing strategy. Not only will it help your pages rank higher on Google’s results, but it will also ensure that users have a positive, easy-to-navigate experience once they’ve arrived.
#4: Maximize Your Marketing Budget
Remember the part about how organic traffic is free? That’s right, we’ll say it again: free! While it can take some time and expertise to implement a strong SEO strategy, once the momentum begins to build, you’ll be on a roll. When you develop your site with SEO in mind right off the bat, you’ll also save money on costly changes down the road.
And better yet, you might be able to save on pay-per-click ads and boosted social media posts when you have so much traffic coming in naturally. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s entirely within reach.
What Does SEO-Focused Web Development Optimize?
You understand the benefits – now, what does SEO-focused web development actually look like? Well, there are more than 200 factors in play when Google ranks a website. But here are a few of the key things that a competent SEO web development firm will account for:
- Sitemaps
- Mobile-friendly architecture
- Page speed
- Readability and accessibility
- Image file names
- Metadata
- Alt tags
- URL structure
- Indexable content
- Site navigation and menus
And that’s just the beginning! Developing your site with SEO and mind can be a big undertaking if you’re not experienced in the field. But it’s an important task to get right the first time. That’s why many businesses choose to outsource this type of work to the pros.
Choose NYC’s #1 Web Developer for Your Next Project
At Think Design, we’ve been working with businesses in many diverse sectors for over two decades. We’re web development professionals who have built innovative, secure, fast sites for Fortune 100 companies and beyond. And we understand the importance of SEO.
Don’t get left behind – keep your website up-to-date in today’s digital age by developing with SEO in mind. And do the job right the first time. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can partner together for success.