There was a time when generating traffic to a website was far easier than it is today. Much of this was due to the fact that Google had yet to work out its algorithms. As a result, many pages which were nothing more than a keyword cloud would rank in the first position of the first page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) because the crawlers would pick up those words repeatedly and rank them.
This is no longer the case because the mighty Google has refined its search algorithms and unless a website meets or exceeds their criteria, it will not be ranked highly. However, that isn’t everything you need to know when looking to generate sustainable traffic to your site. What is it that Google looks for now and what is it that will help visitors stay on your site long enough to capture the notice of Google? Here are three elements of web design guaranteed to generate sustainable traffic, primarily because Google loves them!
1. Strategy
Long before putting that web designer to work you need to develop a strategy. Some websites are still nothing more than a hodgepodge of ideas randomly inserted in no specific order. It is imperative that you work closely with your web developer and marketing pros to strategize where you are going. What is it you hope to accomplish? Are you looking to build a brand or do you already have a recognizable brand but have not yet introduced all your products and services? Not only will you need visuals, but you will need various forms of content to reach those goals. It all begins with putting together a strategy based on market analysis and experience.
2. Design
After you have a road map of your goals, it’s time to begin thinking about design. What kind of business do you run and what kind of theme or design would work best with the audience you are trying to attract? There are many ways to design a website, but not all designs work equally well from industry to industry. Therefore, a legal or medical website may be rich in content rather than images, whereas a retail site would need a plethora of product images representing the products they sell. This leads to the third, and perhaps most important element of all, the User Experience, often simply referred to as the UX.
3. User Experience
Google is big on ranking for the UX. This is why responsive websites are an absolute must. In addition, any way you can make it easy to navigate or understand your site’s content will be highly rewarded by visitors and Google alike. Take a moment to look at this infographic. Here you can clearly see a creative sitting in a chair with a wide range of avenues of expression he can explore in the digital realm. It’s a concise visual representation of how digital has transformed the creative process. Now think about all those lengthy articles you’ve read on the advances in digital creative landscapes and you’ll clearly see the difference in a moment’s time.
Putting this all together, if you want to continue ranking highly with the search engines and visitors to your site, it is important that you build a strategy based on your audience, build a design that appeals to them and, above all, make your site quick and easy to assess and navigate. If you can accomplish that, you’re guaranteed to have a site with sustainable traffic.
