Graphic Designing 101: Keep SEO in Mind While Designing
Graphic designing for website SEO is a priority, because graphic designing for the online experience is based in strategy more than aesthetics.
Technology is a huge part of our daily routine whether you’re conscious of that or not. Technology just like our mobile devices are allowing us to automate many aspects of our daily functions. For example; online e-commerce stores, virtual teachers, and e-books are part of such automation.
When we talk about online automation and design, we have to focus on eCommerce. The eCommerce sector is where graphic designing for user experience as well as technology itself plays the most important role.
Hence the role of the website designer is just as crucial.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the designer was more focused on designing an “attractive layout” only. It was the role of the marketing guy or SEO expert to implement on-page SEO tactics.
Today, corporations are demanding that a graphic designer should know about the basics of SEO. Furthermore, if your role is in designing and development, you must have the ability to structure the site in such a way that is compatible for SEO marketing.
These are The Top SEO Points to keep in mind for the graphic designing of a website:
1. Visitors are Top Priority
Yes, the layout should be attractive.
Your first priority is to please the reader not the robot, i.e., search engines. Robots read content and comprehend the result. Instead, this statistic increases your position for the availability of the general public.
On the other hand, mankind appreciates the right color combination, eye-catching banner, easy to read font-face, clear arrangement of information, and appropriately themed content. Graphic design is the foundation for what keeps the viewer on your page.
When you’re designing a landing page, you need to take care of one fundamental task —to satisfy the people’s expectations. A user whose expectations are fully met is the one that most likely converts. Help them convert by removing as much friction as possible.
The Design of Your Landing Page Must Achieve Different Aspects to Gain This Conversion
Your Landing Page Must:
• Attract visitors
• Educate your visitors
• And most importantly compel your visitors
Click Here to Learn How to Design a Landing Page That Generates Thumping Sales
2. Mobile-First Design for Google
Most of us need to spend more time without our phone in hand, but we live in an age where our kids are pretty much born with an iPhone in hand. Moreover, we don’t need to open up a computer, connect the internet, initiate the browser, and then visit a website for getting particular information. Such devices assist us in connecting with the outer world through instantly.
Furthermore, search engines such as Google have already started accounting for mobile user experience when determining a webpage’s search results page rank.
With more traffic being delivered to websites via mobile devices, implementing a mobile first strategy could prove hugely beneficial to both a growing and an established company alike.
A mobile-friendly platform is no longer a choice – it’s a top-priority and frankly a necessity. Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy which focuses on reaching out to a large audience on smartphone, tablet, iPhone and iPads.
3. Content & Readable Structure
The ultimate goal of search engine optimization is to bring visitors to a targeted page.
Let’s suppose a user does reach one of your web pages through organic search, what will be his next step?
The reader is going to quickly skim your content to get an idea of several things:
- What is the Topic?
- What are the highlights?
- What is the action?
Convincing someone to purchase a product or service isn’t always an easy task.
Because online interactions aren’t done in person, your reader may feel reluctant to make a purchase or contact you. This is where graphic designing to include certain elements in a sales page to instill greater trust in prospects and ultimately increase conversions comes into play.
In addition to above, keep in mind that it is necessary to use a content marketing strategy in order to determine the right content and the right voice to speak to your audience.
Just click the image below for a full dissection of how to go about designing a high converting landing page.
4. Internal Linking
Who knew the internal linking of all your website pages was such a necessary part of website design?
Don’t believe me? Check out this case study by Ninja Outreach on how they increased site traffic by 40% just by internal linking:
To increase PR, an important prerequisite is the availability of at least more than 50 articles on a website. So, you must interlink web pages with each other. This is known as internal link structure and helps in web page indexing and improves the ranking of websites.
Also, website visitors take more time on your site sifting through content to read and ultimately improves desired actions.
“Sometimes linking several internal pages are like the critical & problematic relative who always caused pain and can’t adjust, but you have to bear the time with them and make adjustments.” – Mr. Wesley Keith from AustralianMaster
In order to create lots of internal links, you have to have lots of internal pages. The first step to a killer internal linking strategy is to have a killer content marketing strategy. You can’t have one without the other.
5. The Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Regardless of your website’s niche, including relevant high quality images will almost certainly prove beneficial in boosting visitor engagement while encouraging higher search rankings. It only takes a few minutes to upload an image, making it well worth the time and effort.
WordStream suggests that we think of Google image search as an easy win for SEO optimization, stating that it’s often easier to drive qualified traffic than through regular search.
Here are some more stats that show just how important photos are to your content;
A study done by Social Bakers last year indicated that photos trump the market on Facebook, making up 93 percent of the social network’s most engaging posts!
Bright Local found that 60 percent of consumers are more willing to consider local search results that include images and another 23 percent are more likely to contact a business showcasing an image.
Research from Skyword found that if your content includes compelling images, you can average 94 percent more views than your boring counterparts.
Simply Measured found that there was not only a 46 percent increase in content engagement for brands, but an additional 65 percent increase in photo and video engagement.
According to Hubspot, 65 percent of users like emails that are mostly made up of images, while only 35 percent prefer their emails to be text heavy.
You might want to keep in mind that 65 percent of the population is made up of visual learners, so here are some points to consider when adding those images to your content:
- Your photos should be High quality and mobile ready.
- It should possess an eye-catching look.
- Colors & contrast would be matching with the theme.
- The image size must not be more than 50 KBs.
- The dimension will be ideally 600 pixels wide or more.
- It should be licensed-free, OR you have the rights to use it.
6. Favicon
It’s so small that many fail to remember it, but creating a favicon is of the utmost importance. The display of a spectacular logo of any organization consistently in the web browser search bar is a subtle but effective branding tool.
A “favicon” (short for “favorites icon”) is the 16×16 pixel image that appears next to a site name in the navigation bar of many browsers.
Favicons help to:
- Make your website look professional
- Have a site that’s easily recognizable
- Distinguish your site from competitors
- Build your company’s brand and awareness
Ultimately, it’s a small emblem that can have big implications.
Get the 17 BEST Favicon Generators Here!
Design for User Psychology
Being equipped with the psychological knowledge of how to deal with your customers and make them happy is the focus for all UX designers.
Design techniques, tools and implementation may change, but the psychology behind it remains the same.
UX design is no different, knowing your audience will allow you to provide maximum user satisfaction and launch your product into the big leagues.
Learn how to motivate your customer by graphic designing for psychology or the user here!
In Summary:
Design, SEO and your user all overlap when it come to your website. To this end the graphic designing of your website is an important job and one that is rooted in research, attention to detail and an understanding of the audience.
