Why does good web design matter?
Introduction
In this article we are going to discuss
-Why good website design matters
-Bounce rates
-How Google’s algorithm rewards quality work
-Why its important to improve your companies onsite SEO
-Why a business should improve its time on site
-Why many Bristol businesses use Google Analytics to monitor bounce rates, time on site and also average number of pages visited
-What is Google Search Console?
-Why a business must couple good web design with high-quality and white hat SEO
-What organic SEO is, and why many businesses here in Bath, England and Bristol invest in organic and local SEO
-Why all work should be white hat
-Why the search engines, and AI technology like RankBrain only reward quality SEO
-Why whichever SEO expert, whether it be a large marketing agency or a freelancer, why the work must be quality
-Google’s algorithm
-Why you should invest in a quality website, don’t just purchase a cheap website
-We design WordPress websites
-We improve Bristol companies, and Bath companies organic SEO
Sometimes when a business requires help to improve their organic or local SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), they sometimes believe that regardless of the websites design, that SEO can be applied.
However this is kind of like entering a Formula One race, and turning up to the garage with a broken engine, its not going to win any races, neither is a business that has a poorly designed website.
Obviously you not going to enter the race with such a car, you need a high performance vehicle. This is where many businesses, here in the fabulous city of Bristol, come to us, because we are simply organic SEO experts, yet with that said, we also design WordPress websites, so we can also improve the design of your site also.
Now, when you’re investing in SEO, you can hire a local agency that can build high-quality back links and offer quality on-site SCO such as writing content marketing, but if the website is really poor, in terms of its design?
Well, then quite simply put your business might have a very high bounce rate.
What is a high bounce rate? And why on earth does it even matter?
Well, lets say you open a brand-new coffee shop in Clifton Bristol, you’ve forked out a ton of money on fixtures and fittings, you’ve sourced what you think is absolutely brilliant coffee, and you’ve hired staff that you think are the best around, yet when a customer enters the coffee shop, well they turn straight around, now this is a big problem, no?
Yes, course it is, you want to sell coffee at the rate of knots, with take-away orders, and people having a cup of coffee indoors, you don’t want them leaving on mass, what’s causing this you wonder, prices, the stop’s décor, the staff?
Well, as a business owner, you need to find a solution, and fast, otherwise you’ll obviously go out of business and fast.
Well, this is exactly the same concept in terms of having a ultra high bounce rate, and Google’s algorithms spotting that the bounce rate is very high, lets say instead you sell coffee online, now if the bounce rate is lets say over 90% bounce rate, well, there’s a problem, this means 90% of shoppers are leaving on the first page they visit, they are not browsing your range of coffee, they are leaving on the homepage.
So you see the problem?
You need to reduce your companies bounce rate, now it doesn’t matter if you run a small independent coffee shop in Clifton Bristol, or you are a truly massive PLC company in Bristol, that sell’s millions of pounds worth of products every week out of Bristol, what is important is this, how can your digital marketing agency, lower the bounce rate, increase organic traffic, increase sales, increase time on site, increase the number of pages a customer visits?
Why should my marketing agency focus on lowing bounce rates, increasing time on site, increasing number of pages, will Google’s algorithm spot all this SEO effort?
So for example, lets say that you sell, trainers, that’s to say you sell running trainers, what all SEO companies, should be aiming for is this:
– Implement high-quality SEO, through for example, building quality backlinks, writing quality content marketing, improving the onsite seo, through quality onsite SEO
– Decrease bounce rate
– Increase number of pages visited
– Increase average time on site, because obviously if someone is shopping for longer, your business here in Bristol, answers there query, and may well be more likely to purchase
– Yes, Google, and let’s say Bing, the major search engines, do reward quality work, quality white hat seo.
If you couple a very high bounce rate, with the fact that the average shopper is only spending say a few mere seconds on your company website, then it’s obvious that your online shop or company website is not doing very well, and sometimes this is not due to organic SEO.
For example, an agency in Bristol might have got your business onto the first page for many different keywords.
For example, let’s say that you run a plumbing business, they may have got your plumbing business onto the first page in Bristol for say local plumbers or emergency plumbers, yet if the website looks really dated does not offer much information about your business quite simply put yes, your business might be on the first page of Google but if it has a really high bounce rate then you might not be generating sales.
So, what’s the solution?
Well, the solution is simple, you simply need to invest in quality SEO, but this needs to be implemented onto a company website that has a good web design.
So it doesn’t matter if you sell men’s shoes online, you’re a solicitor or your hairdresser, the website design must be good, if you are to also improve the businesses SEO.
Design does matter
You might hear some SEO agencies saying that design does not matter, but it does.
Some agencies might just want to sign your business up to a 12 or 24 month SEO contract, therefore they do not want to incur any delays where you are going to a web design agency asking web design improvements.
However the more honest agencies, such as ours will say that you need to have a good quality company website if you are to improve the businesses SEO.
Your digital marketing agency should aim to lower your bounce rate
it’s all well and good hiring a local agency which adds content marketing, builds high quality back links and improves your business on site SEO, yet if every page on your company website has a skyhigh bounce rate then quite simply put there is a problem with your businesses website.
So what do we mean by sky high bounce rate, while quite simply put if your business has a high bounce rate it simply means that a lot of shoppers are landing on your company website but then leaving without visiting another page.
So for example let’s say that your business sells mountain bikes and electric bikes online.
And your digital marketing agency says that the electric bikes section of your website, as a bounce rate of 90%, this simply means that 90% of shoppers are leaving the website.
Now you may wish to hire a online marketing agency which improves your businesses SEO, but also aims to lower the bounce rate.
To give you another example of why it’s important to lower your businesses bounce rate you have to think of your business like it is a restaurant.
For example, let’s say that you open a restaurant in Bristol and within the first three months of the business being open, you see that over 80% of the customers that walk through the door, look at the menu, look at the restaurant and then walk straight outside the door.
That’s without making a purchase and without dining at the restaurant, so as the business owners you will want to know what’s the problem is, for example our prices too high, is the decor of the restaurant wrong, is it that the restaurants has tables to bunch together.
These are all questions which the restaurant owner will ask, as obviously if 80% of customers are turning around and walking out the door without making a purchase there is a serious problem.
And this is exactly the same mindset that you have to think about when a online business has a really high bounce rate.
That’s the say your business may have spent a fortune on organic SEO, or let’s say local SEO, but if the SEO report is saying that the website has a skyhigh bounce rate, then obviously you are losing a lot of shoppers which are not visiting another page and making a purchase.
For example, let’s say that your business sells running trainers, and you do not sell any trainers directly on your homepage, but your homepage has a bounce rate of 60%, this means that 60% of shoppers who land on your homepage are leaving straightaway, and obviously if you can get a shoppers to click on another page which sells trainers, you may increase the amount of running trainers that you sell.
Therefore a lot of SEO companies in Bath and Bristol now don’t just improve a businesses SEO, they also work with the business in order to lower its bounce rate.
Sometimes this means working with a web design agency, therefore the company might make recommendations to improve the design of the website.
Obviously, every company website is different, but let’s say that the agency recommends that the main menu is redesigned, or that the homepage is improved, so that it’s easier to find products.
For example, the company might say that the main menu needs to be redesigned, so that somebody can get to a product more easily.
For example, on the main menu currently your might’s have split products into too many categories.
Let’s say for example that you sell electrical goods, and one of your best-selling items might be fridge freezers, you might have on the homepage a drop-down menu which says freestanding fridge freezers, American fridge freezers, integrated fridge freezers, compact fridge freezers.
Now you may just wish to use the drop-down menu to say fridge freezers, so that when somebody clicks on fridge freezers the other presented with another page which illustrates what different fridge freezers look like so that a shopper can click the fridge freezer that they want.
It could be that because you sell so many electrical items that the main menu looks cluttered, and because the main menu looks cluttered with so many different products, this might mean that the bounce rate is very high.
So although you have hired agencies within Bath or perhaps an company within Bristol, and they have built really good quality back links, and delivered really good quality on site SEO, it still doesn’t mean anything if the bounce rate to the homepage is 90%.
So what the digital marketing agency has to do then is work out how they can lower the bounce rate to keep your shoppers on your company website for longer
This normally means making the process of a customer finding the products that they want easier.
For example, let’s say that you sell running trainers, you should allow your customers to easily sort the products, for example they may wish to sort by brand, whether the running trainers are in stock, by size, by colour and also by price.
A lot of company websites allow a customer to sort products easily, however if your website does not, then it’s entirely possible that this might increase your businesses bounce rate.
For example, when you work with an agency and they start to make recommendations, they may say that your web design company should allow products to be sorted by brand.
You may then find that when the products can start to be easily sorted by brand this might lower the bounce rate by say 10%, so sometimes an SEO agency will not just be improving your businesses organic SEO they will also be making recommendations for loan ring your companies bounce rate is well
You should aim to keep shoppers on your website for long as possible
If you were to ask an agency whether or not it’s important that a shopper spends a long time on your company website or not, a good company will say that it’s important that a shopper spends a long time on your website even if they do not purchase a product.
Why do we say this?
Well, a lot of leading digital marketing agencies believe that if a shopper spends a great deal of time on your website, then this means that the website is relevant for what they are looking for.
So, for example let’s say that somebody is looking for a bean to cup coffee machine, let’s say that the land on the first retailers website, and they spend just 10 seconds on the website before they leave
However, on the second website, the shopper that is looking for a bean to cup coffee machine spends over four minutes browsing all the various coffee machines and reading the coffee machines product descriptions.
Now it is thought that it would be obvious to say Google that the second retailer better answers the query when somebody is looking to purchase a bean to cup coffee machine.
Therefore, Google’s algorithm might detect that the first retailer, where the shopper only spends on average 10 seconds on that website is not all that relevant for bean to cup coffee machines, however Google’s algorithm will notice that the average shoppers spending over four minutes on the second retailer’s website.
Now obviously if a shopper is spending longer on a company’s website, the are more interested in the products that the retailer is offering, so that website is more relevant to the question that is asked and that is to find retailers that sell bean to cup coffee machines.
Therefore leading online marketing agencies believe that it’s also important to lower a businesses bounce rate, but to also keep shoppers on a company website for as long as possible.
This might be achieved through writing detailed product descriptions, for example, let’s say somebody is looking to purchase a coffee machine, and one business gives a very brief product description this might not answer the customers question, which means that they may leave the website, and increase the businesses bounce rate.
However, let’s say another business writes a very detailed product description about the coffee machine, and this answers all of the customers questions, they are likely to spend longer reading the product description, and may possibly purchase the item.
Make it easy
When working with your web design company, you should make sure that your company website is easy-to-use.
Now this might sound obvious, however so many businesses do not make their company website easy to use.
For example, sometimes it can be hard for a customer to find the product that they want, because the web designers have not designed the website so products can be sorted.
For example your business might sell washing machines for example, and your business might sell over 400 different washing machines.
Now you might allow the customer to sort the washing machines by price, that’s the say you might allow them to sort from the highest priced washing machine to the lowest priced washing machine, but you might not have allowed the customer that to that they want.
Now when a customer is shopping around on price, they may know exactly which washing machine they want, so if they have to sort through 400 different washing machines they might not bother, and this might increase your businesses bounce rate.
This is why you should work with your SEO company and your web design company to make sure that you make it easy for a customer to find the product that they want.
Content marketing
It’s important that when you have your website designed, that the website allows for content marketing to be added.
For example, you might have a website built, and it looks great, it looks impressive and a shows what your business can offer. That’s to say the website has been well designed, but unless you can add blog posts and content marketing then your marketing agency is going to struggle to improve the businesses organic SEO.
For example when your marketing agency adds content marketing it will normally also add meta titles, meta descriptions, internal links, anchor text, alt text, titles and obviously if this is done in a white hat way then this can help to improve your businesses SEO.
So, it’s important when you are having your website designed that the design allows for content marketing to be added.
Meta titles and meta descriptions
It’s important that the meta titles and the meta descriptions are well written, that’s the say they should be written in a white hat way.
For example let’s say that your business sells washing machines, and in the meta title and the meta description you mention a model washing machine, yet once the shopper clicks on the meta title, the are taken to a page which sells a different make washing machine.
Now obviously this is going to increase the businesses bounce rate, as somebody might be shopping for a certain brand of washing machine, when they click the meta title they see a different washing machine.
This is why when your website is being designed, you must make sure that the meta titles and meta descriptions are well written, in that the meta titles and the meta descriptions correspond with that page.
For example if you are selling a certain brand of washing machine and a certain model of washing machine include this in the meta title a meta description, and then afterwards make sure that when you are checking the meta title meta description that it matches the product that is sold on that page, because if it it does not then this can be one reason why a businesses bounce rate can sometimes increase.
Therefore you may wish to hire your Bristol SEO company to write the “meta titles” and the “meta descriptions” to make sure that these are written in a white hat way, and then to add these meta titles and meta descriptions to your company website.
If you own say a WordPress website then it is very easy to add new meta titles and new meta descriptions
Internal links
When you are having your website built, you might wish to use internal links. For example, let’s say that you sell products which are often purchased together.
For example, you might sell coffee machines, and often when somebody purchases a coffee machine the often purchase large bags of coffee beans as well.
Therefore you may wish to write a product description for your coffee machine, then further down the page you might wish to add a link, which links to the section of your website which sells coffee beans.
If the company that you hire adds internal links in a white hat way, then it is possible that a shopper might spend longer on your company website.
For example without the internal link they might have just purchased the coffee machine, they might not have click the link and then added also large bags of coffee beans to their basket.
Therefore by adding internal links and anchor text, this can help you to show to a shopper that you sell other products that they may also wish to purchase.
Anchor text
When you are having your new company website designed, you should ask your SEO agency to add anchor text in a white hat way.
For example the company might add a piece of content marketing which explains your bestselling Coffee machines.
You may then wish to add an internal link to each coffee machine, however the anchor text must be written in a white hat way.
That’s the say whichever SEO agencies in Bristol that you hire the must offer white hat SEO.
Make sure it’s white hat
the reason why the work must always be white hat, is because if the work is not white hat then your business could incur an algorithmic or a manual penalty.
Many businesses here in Bristol and also businesses that are based in Bath, England have incurred Google algorithmic or a manual penalty.
Now as a business owner in Bristol, England you might not know what algorithmic or a manual penalties mean, it basically means that if the SEO work is not good quality, that’s the say the work is not white hat then your business could incur an algorithmic or a manual penalty which means that your business could be removed from Google.
When a business in Bristol has incurred an algorithmic penalty, then this can mean that it can sometimes take the business a very long period of time in order to recover.
So for example, your business might have once been on the first page of Google, and let’s say that you run a bike shop in Bath.
So, your business might have once ranked on the first page of Google for “bike shops in Bath” and it may have ranked on the first page for “bike shops in the South-West of England”.
However, it is very common when a business incurs an Google algorithmic penalty for a business to drop down Google’s pages, so where your business might have once ranked on page 1, it may now rank on page 10 of Google.
Or sometimes if a business has incurred an algorithmic penalty, it might even be totally removed from Google- so this is why you should only invest in good quality SEO.
Fast
It’s important that your company website is fast, if it is not then your business might incur a high bounce rate.
So for example let’s say that your business sells men’s shoes, and somebody is on their way home from work on the train and they wish to purchase a pair of men’s shoes, if business number one is very slow, and somebody is likely to leave that company website because it is slow and therefore the business is likely to incur a very high bounce rate.
However if the business number two has a fast website, and that allows the person on the train to quickly purchase a pair of shoes, then that business is the business which is more likely to have a Low bounce rate, therefore your company website should be fast.
Good mobile design
It’s important that when you are having your businesses website designed, that you have a mobile version of your company website designed as well.
Responsive
Your company website should be responsive meaning that it should work on smartphones
AMP
Your business might want to have an “accelerated mobile page” (AMP) built, some businesses here in Bristol, England are having AMP website’s built.
Easy to purchase
You should make it easy for your customers to purchase a product, for example, the main menu should be very easy to use.
You may also wish to design your homepage so that your best-selling products are possibly mentioned on the homepage.
For example, if you are an electrical retailer and one of your best-selling products is fridge freezers, then you may wish to show fridge freezers on your homepage, so that with one click somebody can go to the section of your company website that sells fridge freezers.
Therefore you should aim to reduce your businesses bounce rate as far as possible, this is especially so on the homepage.
Also, your web designers and also your SEO companies, might undertake what is called “split testing”, to see when they redesign a part of your website if this helps to increase sales or not.
Sometimes “split testing” is also called “A/B testing”.
You may therefore wish to hire a digital marketing agency which can offer you web design and organic SEO as well.
The main menu is easy to use
The main menu should be easy to use
Easy to read font
It’s important that the font is easy to read, if the font on your company website is not easy to read then this may increase your businesses bounce rate.
Product descriptions
It’s important that you add detailed product descriptions onto your company website, that’s because if the customer cannot find an answer to a question that they might have about the product, then this might increase the businesses “bounce rate”.
Also the product descriptions should be unique, and not copy and pasted, if the product descriptions are copied then this can mean that the business incurs a penalty.
How our SEO company in Bath, England can help:
We run a company in Bristol and also in Bath, England. We therefore work with many businesses which are based in the city of Bristol, as well as Bath.
Our business can offer the following services:
• Local and organic SEO (White hat)
• White hat SEO
• Link building
• Content marketing
• WordPress web design
When you hire our digital marketing agency, we will be able to offer high-quality organic SEO. We work with a wide range of different businesses, ranging from online retailers, right through to working with local businesses in Bristol.
All of the SEO work that our business offers is always white hat, we will always offer top-quality SEO work.
We can also offer web design, we can design WordPress websites for businesses based in Bristol, and in Bath.