SEO, copywriting, and design are three aspects of web development that go hand in hand. More importantly, they’re all critical for helping people find your website, understand what you do, and take action. In auditing and writing copy for over 100 websites, I’ve found that all three need to be strong to make a great website — so my recommendations for optimizing conversions often factor in all three.
Why? It’s one thing to have a beautiful site that your prospects love; it’s something else to have a site that search engines and their bots love, which is what enables you to reach a wider audience.
With that in mind, I’m sharing tips and advice to help you understand how to optimize your website design and copy for SEO performance.
Table of Contents
- What is SEO web design?
- Why is SEO important for web design and development?
- Web Design Elements to Optimize for SEO
What is SEO web design?
Before we go any further, I want to be sure we’re on the same page about what SEO web design really means. In a nutshell, it’s about creating and organizing websites using methods that increase visibility on search engines such as Google and Bing, among others.
While keyword optimization remains a critical aspect of SEO strategy, a more holistic approach that integrates SEO principles into design and development, as well as copywriting, ensures that your website is user-friendly, conversion-focused, and optimized for higher ranking on search engines.
At a high level, know that you’ll need to consider a blend of written, visual, and technical elements that include:
- Site structure and navigation.
- Mobile-friendliness.
- Page load speed.
- Copy and content optimization.
- User experience (UX).
I’ll explore these elements and more in a few moments, explaining how they relate to SEO web development and offering tips to optimize each. But first, let’s clarify why SEO optimization is mandatory for anyone who wants to stand out in the online business world.
Why is SEO important for web design and development?
First, I always say that every business is an online business. While it’s been true for a long time, most businesses started realizing it during the pandemic when the entire world shifted online.
Not convinced?
Even if you run a brick-and-mortar business, prospective clients probably Google you before deciding to contact you. Your website lends you legitimacy, authority, and credibility. And while personal recommendations go further than just about anything else, if someone is on the fence, seeing that you’re legit can tip the needle in your direction.
Of course, conversion-focused design and copy go deeper than simple credibility. However, if they’re searching for you, one thing is clear — they have to find you.
And that’s where SEO website development comes in. By optimizing your website for search engines, you’ll enjoy several benefits, which include the following.
Higher Visibility and Traffic
In addition to people finding you by your name or company name, they can start to find you by searching for what you do. Sure, they can probably find you directly by searching for Acme Hair Salon or whatever your business name is. But when you’re optimized for SEO, they can also start to find you by searching for “hair stylist near me” or “hair stylist in [town name].
Brand Credibility and Trust
As I mentioned, having a website lends you a great deal of credibility. Being one of the first listings on Google, thanks to SEO optimization, gives you a boost. And, if your site looks great and builds trust right away, your prospective clients are more likely to reach out as soon as they feel comfortable working with you.
Higher Conversion Rates
When people are actively searching for you or what you do, there’s a good chance that they’re ready to buy or at least further along the customer journey. Coupled with an SEO strategy that targets different levels of user intent, your conversion rate is likely to rise. HubSpot’s content marketing software can really help you hone in on this.
Cost-Effective Marketing
If your website isn’t designed with SEO or conversion in mind, search engines may have a tough time finding content that your audience is looking for, which means you get pushed down in the rankings. And since you’re virtually swimming upstream, you’ll get less bang for your buck with your PPC campaign ad spend—not to mention that when people do click, if your landing page is not optimized for conversion, they may click away.
More than once, I’ve partnered with SEO web designers and ad specialists to rewrite website copy for an optimization project. I also know lots of ad agencies that have launched web design divisions to ensure they can help their clients get results. SEO-informed web design is simply that important.
Alternatively, if you’re bootstrapping your SEO web development project, you can use a drag-and-drop website builder like HubSpot’s to shorten your timeline and get results faster.
Web Design Elements to Optimize for SEO
All that sounds great, but if you’re wondering how to start using SEO for website development, I’ve got your back. Here are some specific elements you can focus on to ensure your site looks great and rises to the top of search results.
1. Site Structure and Navigation
When you organize your content into a clear, logical hierarchy with a well-defined structure of categories, subcategories, and pages, search engines have an easier time finding what your audience is looking for. From a technical SEO standpoint, breadcrumb navigation can help people and bots find what they need.
Pro tip: Before I start a new website copywriting project, I first work with my go-to SEO researcher to identify key terms and what will help us stand out. Then I sit down to outline the planned page structure, menus, and content for each page.
2. URL Structure
Long, cumbersome URLs are a pain for everyone to use — human and bot alike. The more descriptive and keyword-rich, the better. And you’ll be primed for optimal success, if you choose a structure that works for the rest of the site.
Need an example? Here’s what not to do:
yoursite.com/how-to-write-really-great-copy-for-your-website-so-humans-and-search-engines-love-it
The above URL includes all the “little” words. And even though it might be something people actually search for, there’s a lot of noise for Google, Bing, and other search engines to dig through.
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On the other hand, when you keep it short, sweet, and focused, it helps your site win.
yoursite.com/great-SEO-copywriting-tips
This option is descriptive and makes it easy to understand what the page is about.
Similarly, I’d recommend using /about instead of /about-us and /contact instead of /contact-us to keep things clean and focused.
Pro tip: When I’m writing copy for a site, whether individual web pages or blog content, I identify the slug, or what comes after the slash, so whoever is in charge of implementation has a guide to follow. (I also include the meta content here so it’s a matter of copy and paste.)
3. Mobile Optimization
According to StatCounter, globally, over 60% of searches are mobile. Some industries and businesses, that’s much higher. Anecdotally, my B2C clients have more mobile website visitors than my B2B clients.
Regardless, responsive design, where your site works well on a variety of screen sizes and devices, is an absolute must! If your audience cannot use your site on their mobile devices, all your other SEO efforts will be for naught.
Pro tip: Test your site on a variety of devices. You may need different touch elements for mobile use — buttons, menus, CTAs, and more to make sure that your audience can use your site from their mobile devices. In fact, after you look at your Google Analytics, I’d encourage you to consider building your site for mobile FIRST and then adapting it to desktop second.
4. Page Load Speed
You can get a sense of whether or not your site is loading fast, just by using your site. Then you can get numbers to back up your gut check by using a page speed test tool. GTmetrix is one of my favorites (because it’s SO user-friendly).
So, what do you do if your pages load slowly? GTmetrix can give you detailed reports, so you know what you need to fix. Here are a few common culprits:
- Large images.
- Too many HTTP requests.
- Redirects.
- Caching issues.
While a lot of these require technical know-how, an easy fix can often involve compressing larger images.
Pro tip: This quickly gets me out of my comfort zone, but I start looking at the image file sizes on slow pages and see what I can do to adapt them. Then, candidly, I bring in my team of experts to help.
5. Content Optimization
My favorite content SEO strategy is focusing on what I find interesting and the questions I see in the wild. Then, I find keywords that work for those and naturally incorporate them in titles, headers, meta descriptions, and key areas of the content.
Website copy can be considerably different from blog posts. So, let’s look at a few best practices.
Make all of your headlines and content hierarchical.
Your title is H1, all of your section headlines should be H2, and any nested subheadings should be H3, H4, etc., as needed. It would look like the following.
Incorporate your keywords.
You can use a tool like Yoast or HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Software to identify how to improve. At a high level, your main keyword (or a version of it) should appear in the title, intro paragraph, at least one header, and once every 200 words or so. You’ll also want some ancillary keywords.
Pro tip: When I’m getting ready to optimize content, I look at my analytics to see what pages are performing well, and which have fallen down in the rankings. Those that aren’t performing as well, I focus on shoring up, maybe with additional content, and certainly to make sure all of the content is still relevant and up-to-date.
6. Meta Tags
What are meta tags? They’re sections of text that appear as a search snippet. Your task here is to make sure each page on your site has different meta descriptions that are both descriptive and enticing, while incorporating keywords. And since you’ve only got 160 characters, give or take, you’ve got to be concise.
Pro tip: My advice is to use a spreadsheet to track the URL, target keywords, and meta description. Then, you can focus on making them all different and maintain a quick reference if needed.
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7. Internal Linking
One of the saddest things in website talk is when an incredible blog post is an orphan, with no incoming links from any other page on your site.
Why? People are more likely to find something if you tell them it’s there.
When you use internal linking, your audience can find more content that can help them either get the information they need or know that you’re the best possible choice. Better yet, it helps search engines, too.
Pro tip: I’ve found the best click-through rates happen when people know exactly what it is. To make this work for you, instead of using “click here” as anchor text when you’re guiding someone to an article about tracking their rank, consider a contextual mention with text about “the best rank trackers” to help people and bots make the choice.
8. User Experience (UX)
I’ve talked a bit about why UX is so important — if your site is a pain to use, people will move on quickly. So instead of waxing on about it, let’s focus on some do’s and don’ts.
Pro tip: This list has a LOT to keep in mind. My advice is to focus on KISS — keep it simple sweetheart.
9. Technical SEO
I’m the first to admit that technical SEO can be a beast. And the good news is you don’t have to tame it alone. You can use HubSpot’s suite of SEO Tools to break it down into bite-sized, achievable pieces. Using your own software? This guide on Google’s Search Essentials can help you harness SEO to your advantage.
So, what are some of the things technical SEO covers?
- XML Sitemaps to help search engines index your pages.
- Robots.txt files to control which parts of your site search engines can crawl.
- SSL Certificates to secure your site and improve trustworthiness.
Pro tip: If you’re looking for any support with Google SEO, you can go directly to the source in Search Central. Their resources walk you through just about any fix you need.
10. Accessibility
Accessibility isn’t talked about enough, in my opinion. However, it’s one of the most important things to focus on as your site grows. In fact, it’s not a feature; it’s the law. Here are some areas to consider:
- Provide text alternatives for non-text content (commonly referred to as “alt text”).
- Make sure all links and form inputs have descriptive text.
- Add “skip to content” links, which is helpful for people using keyboards and screen readers.
- Make your site accessible for keyboard navigation.
- Aim for fonts 16px or larger.
- Make sure accessibility features translate to mobile versions of your site.
Pro tip: Accessibility isn’t an area to skimp on and shouldn’t be an afterthought. You can start by going through all of your images to make sure they’re descriptive, and then use our web accessibility guide to make sure you’re on the right track.
11. Overall Performance
Look, overall performance isn’t really an element, and I get that. But by keeping an eye on how your site is doing, you can stay on top of any problem areas and make significant improvements in how trustworthy Google and other search engines see your site.
There are several great options to try. Two of my favorites are:
HubSpot’s Website Grader
Just plug in your URL and email, and you’ll get a simple report with easy-to-follow recommendations.
After I plugged my report in, I got a simple “This site is good!” with a score of 82, followed by simple recommendations. Unsurprisingly, I learned my site could be stronger on mobile. And while that’s a priority, especially since it plays a significant role in trustworthiness, 83% of my users are on desktop, so I haven’t put as much effort into it.
Best for: People who want a high-level understanding of how they’re doing.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
While much of Ahrefs requires payment, they have a sweet suite of tools available only to people who verify website ownership through Search Console. Their regular reports help me stay on top of any broken links or other issues that come up, while also tracking SEO and organic traffic performance.
While not nearly as simple or user-friendly, these reports go into page-by-page detail so you can fix what’s wrong.
Best for: People who want to take a hands-on approach and go into specifics.
What You Need to Know About SEO Website Development
Optimizing your website for SEO may seem as simple as following a checklist like I’ve provided here. However, in my experience, it’s not quite as straightforward as checking off a series of boxes. Because it involves creativity, there’s considerably more nuance.
So what should you do? Focus on your audience first. Pay attention to what they want and need (and their feedback), and integrate that with these best practices I’ve shared here so your site is beautiful, functional, and SEO-friendly.
The bottom line? Know that this isn’t a one-and-done project. As your website grows and evolves, your SEO strategy should, too.
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- And More!
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