How Your Website Design and User Experience Compliment SEO Efforts in 2019 and Beyond

For local businesses in 2019, it’s basically essential that you have a modern website that your customers can use to find information about you or contact you.

For businesses like real estate agencies and property management companies, who sell a service instead of a product, it’s just as important that your potential clients can find you online, and that they find your website design both informative and user-friendly.

A lot of people don’t know that by having a website that provides a really great experience for the viewer, you will also be helping your SEO and Google rankings. In recent Google algorithm updates, they have placed a major emphasis on ranking websites higher if people enjoy them and spend more time on them.

They measure this by the average time people spend on your site, the average amount of people who hit the back button, and how much pages people visit on average.

So, what are some of the most important aspects of having a great website user experience?

Site Speed

When someone clicks on your site in the Google Search page, the last thing they want to do is sit and wait several seconds for things to load up. If people have to sit and wait, they are likely going to hit the back button instead. This is going to send a lot of bad signals to Google that your website is not providing a good experience, and you can expect to see your rankings drop.

Modern Design

Maybe your website loads up fast, but if someone lands on your home page and it looks like it’s from 2002, good luck keeping them on your website, and say goodbye to them becoming a client. Modern website designs are easy on the eyes, flow smoothly, and make good use of icons, videos, info-graphics, and great color contrast. Boxy and clunky designs are things that should have gone away a long time ago.

Useful and Relevant Content

Ok, so your site speed is optimized, and the design on your site is top-of-the-line. But, what if the content on your site doesn’t connect with people browsing? They will either be bored or uninterested and go find another site with the info they need. Make sure that you see your website through the eyes of your customer, and build your website content around the questions that they need help with! Answer their questions and give them awesome info, and they will be much more likely to become a client.

So for today, these are the most important aspects of website design and user experience that are not only going to make people love your site, but they will improve your SEO user metrics, and could likely give you a ranking boost on search engines!