If you own a business in today’s world, your website is critical. Even if your business is physical in nature with a store or location, your website is your home base. It tells customers what you have to offer, and where you are, and it helps you build rapport. It also gives you visibility among those who consult the internet before making a purchasing decision.
To get a high-performing and effective website, professional web development is often a good idea. Read on to learn more about the role of web development in improving website performance and SEO.
What is Web Development?
Web development encompasses many different things, all related to the look, performance, and efficacy of your website. Professional web developers will help you with things such as:
- The general look and feel of your website – themes, styles, colour palettes, etc.
- You want customers to find information easily and navigate your website in a way that makes sense.
- Especially in our modern, mobile world, you want your website to look just as good on mobile devices as it does when browsing on a computer. Many websites struggle with this and it can make all the difference – a professional will ensure your website transitions seamlessly.
- Fast loading. Nothing is more frustrating to a potential customer than a website taking more than a few seconds to load. Those browsing the web expect near-instant results and if your website is making them wait, they may abandon it altogether.
Overall, you want your website to provide a fast, positive, and effective user experience. This plays a huge role in the process of a customer deciding where to spend their money. You could have exactly what they’re looking for, but they won’t use your business if they don’t even know you’re there!
Web Development and SEO
Another huge factor in the success of your website and your business is your SEO. Search engine optimization is key because good SEO rankings mean your website gets in front of more customers. Really good SEO also means that the customers who stumble upon your website from a Google search are more likely to already be looking for what you’re offering.
There are many facets to a good SEO strategy, and many of them are tied to your website.
On-Page SEO
As the name suggests, on-page SEO is everything you do with your website’s pages to increase SEO:
- Keyword usage. You want to use relevant keywords throughout your content so that Google knows how to rank your pages. You also need to find a balance between using enough keywords and not using too many.
- Content structure. Headings, small and readable paragraphs, lists, etc. Articles, blog posts, and any longer content should be scannable and easy to navigate.
- Internal links. By placing links throughout your content that lead to other pages on your own website, you’ll keep people on your site longer.
- Image SEO. Even your images play a role! By using alt text you can incorporate more keywords by labeling each image with an accurate description.
- Long, complicated, and confusing URLs tend to rank lower as it’s harder for search engines to understand what the page is. Web developers will know exactly how to trim URLs and incorporate keywords that match the content.
On-page SEO can take a surprising amount of work to perfect. Professional web developers know exactly how many keywords to use, what your content should look like, and how to pull it all together for optimal SEO. It’s something you can do yourself, but without professional expertise, it may take longer to get rankings and there’ll be lots of trial and error.
Website Speed
As previously mentioned, website speed is huge. Slow loading times will lose you many customers, so you want your website operating at maximum speed. Many factors go into how fast a page loads, from the quality of your images to the coding itself.
Web developers know all about this and they’ll know how to keep your website lean, organized, and fast from the beginning. It’s much easier to set up a fast website, to begin with than try to fix a site that’s slow and clunky.
When your website is fast, customers are happier to stick around and see what you have to say. It also goes a long way in achieving higher SEO rankings, as Google and other search engines know customers prefer fast websites. When you’re faster, you’ll rank higher for that alone.
Security
For all the good the internet has done for us, you have to be so careful when it comes to privacy and security. Security is incredibly important to search engines, as they know customers value it as well.
There are a few requirements for a completely secure website, and your web developer will be able to ensure all of them are in place:
- Keeping software up to date promptly at all times. This ensures you have all the latest security measures and patches in place.
- Most websites utilize a secure sockets layer (SSL), It’s very common practice so you should ensure you have this as well.
- Monitor comments for spam and nefarious or suspicious links.
- Regularly scan for malware that could be compromising users and damaging SEO.
You don’t want to mess around when it comes to security, especially if you’re facilitating conversation and/or purchases on your website. The best way to ensure maximum security is to leave it to the professionals.
Trust a Professional Web Developer for Better SEO
If you’re starting a business or trying to grow an existing one, you should know the importance of a high-performing, high-ranking website. There are so many elements to a clean, organized website and a strong SEO strategy. It’s possible to handle it all yourself, but it’ll be a slow process if you have no experience.
Our professionals have created many strong and successful websites for plenty of happy customers. When you trust our web design, you’ll have an effective, sales-ready website up and running in no time. With regular maintenance and our professional expertise, you can start seeing higher rankings very quickly as well!
Contact us today to get all your questions answered and to set up a consultation.
