1. Code

When choosing the code to render the key design components of your site, designers have a few possibilities. For good reason, the majority continue to use HTML and CSS. Flash websites may be visually appealing, but they are quite challenging to optimize, which makes it tough for them to get high search engine rankings. Your SEO will appreciate you for advising your designer to avoid using Flash.

2. Mobile-friendliness

Your website must be available to all mobile users who are using smartphones and other mobile devices to explore the Internet. As mobile friendliness is now a ranking criterion for Google, this will not only improve user experience but also increase your chances of ranking highly. Responsive design, which makes your site accessible on all devices and browsers, is the greatest solution to this problem. Additionally, if you have a separate mobile site, you run the risk of having redundant material, which is avoided with responsive design.

3. Readability

While the non-text components of your site may be the designers’ primary focus, it’s crucial that they select fonts and sizes that are simple for your visitors to read. Your designer should be aware to provide enough of space for content unless the body copy is being taken from an existing site (or has been pre-written) and is part of your design specifications. To rank highly, you’ll need to have a ton of relevant, optimized content, and your SEO will suffer if your design only works with a few words of text.

Images

You might believe that the only aspect of your website that can be optimized is the copy, but this is untrue. When adding photos to your website, your designers should keep a few best practices in mind as well.

4. File names and size

All of your photographs need to have meaningful file names. This will assist search engines in “seeing” your photographs and placing them inside context, even though it might take a bit more effort than simply giving them names like “IMG 0035.jpg.” Large, high-quality photos are undoubtedly pleasing to the eye, but your designer should make an effort to keep file sizes as little as possible. Large files can increase the time it takes for a website to load, which not only makes for a bad user experience but also raises your bounce rate—damaging your rankings.

5. Alt tags

Your photos ought to have optimized alt tags along with their file names. Users may read these descriptions when they hover their mouse pointer over an image, which helps search engines understand what is being depicted. Alt tags are crucial for accessibility since they assist users who are blind or have browsers that cannot view your files in understanding what is being displayed.

Site architecture

Depending on how involved you (or your SEO) are in the process, your designer’s influence over your site architecture will vary, but it has a significant impact on how well your site ranks. Here are some things to remember:

6. Navigation

You should keep navigation simple because it’s one of the key elements of a fantastic user experience. The more quickly users can locate what they need on your website, the more probable it is that they will convert. A user-friendly navigation system also reduces the likelihood that visitors will become lost on your website and depart, which can lower your bounce rate and boost your rankings.

7. URL structure

Every one of your pages has to have a URL that accurately conveys the information it contains. You can add a few pertinent keywords and should use hyphens, NOT underscores, to separate your words. It would be easier for site visitors to remember and search engines to understand your sites if your URLs contain descriptive words rather than just random numbers and letters.