When people go online, they want to find information. What exactly this information is varies depending on what they need at the given moment. Therefore, if you want your brand to be noticed by your target audience, it should have a strong online presence. Today’s users tend to first do research on services or products they need before making a purchase. Therefore, if your company still doesn’t have a website, it’s definitely time to get one. Then once you do, with a few simple tricks you can easily move it up the ranks to the first search results page.
This might sound tricky to you if your company doesn’t deal with website creation. But, we are living in the age of information technologies, and there are many reliable and experienced website design companies in San Francisco who would be more than willing to build a site for you. Moreover, some companies do far more than just create and launch a website. In fact, they undertake a complex set of work on it as well to provide you an overall advantage in your niche. One of the things you want to definitely take care of before launching your site is search incorporating engine optimization (SEO).
At the same time, with markets growing rapidly every day, brands constantly face new contenders. Brand visibility becomes a top priority to keep businesses afloat. And visibility focuses on how potential customers perceive you and your company. This is why many CEOs begin investing in web design and SEO, in order to boost their company’s exposure. However, many are left wondering whether to use both or just one. Further, many are unsure which one suits their product or service best. We are here to dash these illusions, and prove that the perfect balance is using both – as SEO and web design complement one another. You’ll see that strategically utilizing each one is essential to customer returns and sales increase.
Identifying the Divide
It all begins with the user’s, or – your potential customer’s experience. Before you even begin planning how to present your brand online and which of the strategies you will use, you need to know your users. The user is a core factor that ultimately dictates all the potential problems and solutions you will come across. This is because people are visual beings, first and foremost. Those first few seconds on your website are crucial, so depending on how long they stay, where they click and where they look will give you an insight into what you’re doing wrong and where exactly to improve.
Time spent on your website dictates conversion rates, referrals, return on investment, and even how much word of mouth advertising between users themselves is happening. This is why web design and SEO are meant to work together – one will dominate, the other will fall back, and sometimes, they’ll be in balance. In the next several points, we’ll show you which situation calls for one of the three solutions.
Setting Priorities Straight
Next, you want to be clear on what your priorities are. Yes, we discuss brand visibility here, but it drips into all other important aspects of your business – returns on investment, testing for a new market, or even expansion. Set some time aside to define your goals for the company clearly. Discuss with your team how to get the goal and message across. Focus on determining your KPIs for those goals. Knowing your KPI will make it much easier to decide whether you need stronger design or better content.
For instance:
- To increase the number of referrals, you’ll have to look into your link building and content quality – this means SEO should be considered;
- To raise the average session time on your website, you’ll have to make the pages more user-friendly and easier to navigate which ultimately falls on design.
Knowing What’s Best for Your Products or Services
Another point we’d like to cover is the product or services your business offers. SEO and web design are merely the pathways between the two fundamental key points – the user and your product. The product itself plays a large role in balancing out the use of these two strategies. For example:
If you specialize in retail, you’ll want to focus more on images, and a sleek design. Keep the SEO part oriented towards brief, creative descriptions and customer reviews instead of lengthy, blog-like entries that do nothing but sidetrack the user’s attention.
Businesses that offer accounting services however should expand using what retailers avoid – a blog for customers, with emphasis on informative texts and practical advice. The design is best when sleek and simple as well, but more emphasis should be put on business-like layouts and fonts that exude professionalism and hold a certain gravitational pull.
Closing Thoughts
Today, web designers and design agencies have access to more options and technology than they did before, even just a few years ago. Web design has become so advanced that you can’t take your eyes off some websites. But, when your site is being created, you have to make sure that your target audience is always the main focus throughout the design process. This is crucial for developing SEO rankings upon launch. Depending on your audience’s needs and wants, your site’s content will have to contain specific keywords that will serve as a lighthouse for users when they look for your services or products on the web.
Quality web design is advantageous not just for businesses, but for consumers and search engines, too. While you get to represent your brand properly, your potential clients get to know you, and search engines have content to process. This symbiosis creates perhaps the best business development environment available today, and SEO is one of its most crucial aspects.