Tip: good web design and good SEO go hand in hand - use the synergies!" } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "Are SEO and web design contradictory?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type": "Answer", "text": "Ok, sometimes you have to compromise - but really, I only know of a few cases where web design and SEO didn't really get along. Flash websites were such a case many years ago: they were very nice to look at, but unfortunately almost useless for SEO. Today, you can actually present everything properly on the one hand, but you can also design it in such a way that it is well indexed by search engines. The old fairy tale that you have to reduce the design of your website if you want good SEO - you can forget it. As hard as it is to believe: If something doesn't seem to be working, either the SEO person or the designer doesn't know their stuff.

Tip: SEO and web design don't contradict each other, you usually don't have to compromise." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "Do usability, web design and SEO contradict each other?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type" : "Answer", "text" : "If you want to be in one of the top spots in Google today, your website needs to be easy to use. SEO and good usability are not contradictory. With web design, this is possible. If the new website looks great but is not easy to use, ranking in Google may be an issue.

So my advice is this:

There is no right or wrong design, but there is one for usability. Usability should always be the trump card in web design and should win out when in doubt. I have often been involved in meetings regarding web design (for example during a relaunch). When different tastes clash, it becomes difficult to argue. Should the basic design be blue or red? Should a slider be used? The facts help here. While blue is serious (and many serious businesses use blue, such as management consulting firms), it also suppresses the appetite and is not beneficial for selling food. So it depends on what you want to convey with your website. Sliders have a practical use in some cases (for example, in newspaper image galleries), but they are not suitable for visual enhancement of a website and are a disaster if (as is unfortunately so often the case) important information is hidden on the homepage. Here are some facts about sliders." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "Can my web designer do my SEO?", "acceptedAnswer" : { " @type" : "Answer", "text" : "Of course I can. As an SEO, I can also handle your website design, I can even paint the living room - but the question is, how? Best to ask my wife, who wasn't particularly happy (with the living room). It's always best to have the task in question done by someone who does almost nothing else all day. In fact, web designers today are much more skilled at SEO than they used to be. Nevertheless, especially on large projects, you usually have one agency for website design and implementation and another for online marketing/SEO. Many agencies can do both at the same time. But most are usually a little better at one or the other.

Tip: Let a professional do what they do best." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "Is there a special web design for SEO?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type" : "Answer", "text" : "No. A professional website has a professional web design and also a professional SEO. But it's not like you need a specific design to be successful on Google." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "What should I look for in SEO in my web design?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type" : "Answer", "text" : "Whew, that's a lot of stuff. You can read about this in detail in my book Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, but I'll quickly talk about the main issues:

Your website must be easy to read for the Googlebot and not hide elements unintentionally. Your website should be well structured thematically. The menu should be user-friendly and self-explanatory. Does your website load quickly? This is an important point in terms of SEO. But not the most important! Your website should be easy to use on mobile devices. Responsive Web Design is now the standard. Your source code must be clean: a good header structure, meaningful alt texts and URLs, as well as the necessary metadata (titles, descriptions, canonicals, hreflang, etc.) must be well implemented. And many, many more.

As mentioned in the previous question, web designers have many of these points in their sights, but not all." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "How to approach a new project in terms of web design and SEO?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type": "Answer", "text": "Normally, as an SEO agency, we are quite reserved and only take a look at the first design (in Photoshop or similar). Depending on the requirements and the level of knowledge of the web design agency, we then draw up a catalog of requirements and hand it over to the agency. We really get to work as soon as we get a connection to the development environment and are allowed to crawl in. In this case, we can check the website directly before (!) it goes live. This is important for new websites, but even more so for re-launches. Then our suggestions for improvement are implemented and we check the website again. Then, SEO usually checks one last time directly after it goes live to make sure everything has gone live from the development environment." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "How important is the content management system or store for web design and SEO?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type": "Answer", "text": "I hear this question very often now. Basically, the choice of CMS or store system is irrelevant to SEO, you can do everything right. That's the diplomatic answer.

My personal, non-diplomatic opinion is this:

For pure content websites, you should use WordPress. It is the most widely used system with the most customizable features. You get a lot of functionality through plugins, which are really sophisticated and cost little. Because of its widespread use, most good agencies now work with WordPress. Of course, there are other systems and also good agencies that work with other systems - but so far, no one has been able to give me a logical reason why you should prefer another system. With store systems, it has always been the case that a certain system is the best for a few years, and then it is replaced at some point. Again, the more widespread the system, the easier it is to find a good web design agency for the store. Shopware, Magento or WooCommerce would be my top choices for now.

Whatever you decide, keep your system up to date! Not only for security reasons (of course, there are some), but also because moving your system gets more and more complex the longer you wait. There are no more extensions, new features are no longer implemented and at some point you won't find a good agency. It's kind of the same as looking for someone to maintain your server that runs on Windows 95." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "Can I do a good SEO with a Wix kit (or any other kit)?", "acceptedAnswer" : { " @type": "Answer", "text": "Sure, you can!" Many website building kits are "correct" in terms of basic SEO criteria, you want to do it yourself and you don't have the money or time for a website designer. The big drawback to building kits is simply the lack of customization. If the way your images are integrated is not good for SEO, you can change it in your own system. In a modular system, you can write to support, but they won't change it until they do the same for all the other modular clients. Again, my advice would be to learn WordPress. It's not much more difficult than a build kit, much more flexible, and costs nothing (except hosting). If your business grows, WordPress can easily grow with it. Lately, I've met a lot of entrepreneurs who have outgrown their old kit - moving is a bit of a challenge." } },{ " @type" : "Question", "name" : "Which is more important: web design or SEO?", "acceptedAnswer" : {" @type": "Answer", "text": "Since you are here on Seokratie.de : Of course, SEO is more important! Joking aside. You only ask yourself this question when you, your web designer or your SEO have different opinions. My advice here - as already mentioned above - is to stick to the facts. Either get facts that support your opinion, or let the facts convince you. If the web designer and the SEO disagree, ask them both to back up their views with facts.

Example:

There are several ways to make a website mobile.

Through a mobile sub-domain for smartphones and a standalone desktop version of a website. Or through a single version whose layout adapts to both mobile and desktop.

If the web designer now prefers variant 1, you can send them this link describing their variant and pointing to the big red box. It says, "Google recommends not using separate URLs when creating a website, as they are difficult to implement and manage. You may want to consider responsive web design instead." Of course, there are (few) cases where variant 1 makes sense anyway, but you can prove it too.

The bottom line is this: both are equally important, you can't have one without the other." } }] }
Web design and SEO absolutely must work together for your website to be successful. Unfortunately, there are many pitfalls and sometimes misunderstandings. That's why today I'm going to present you the 10 most important questions and corresponding answers on the topic of "web design and SEO".

How important is web design for search engines?

Previously, SEO was about using the right keywords and building strong links. Site design was important for users, but not really for getting good rankings. To be honest, I know some SEOs who deliberately built rather ugly websites because users tended to click more on the ads on them - which generated more revenue than on a nice website. The CTR on Google Adsense, for example, is traditionally a bit higher on unprofessional-looking websites. Today, however, it's impossible to go far without good design. It's not about making your website look as customized and fancy as possible. It has to be easy to use and give users what they need. As we are all human, we tend to hit the "back" button faster on unprofessional looking websites than on those where we think we are in the right place. As an SEO agency, we regularly re-launch websites - we find every time that better design usually leads to better rankings.

Tip: Good web design and good SEO go hand in hand - use the synergies!

Are SEO and web design contradictory?

Okay, sometimes you have to compromise, but really, I only know of a few cases where web design and SEO didn't really get along. Flash websites were such a case many years ago: they were very nice to look at, but unfortunately almost useless for SEO. Today, you can actually present everything properly on the one hand, but you can also design it in such a way that it is well indexed by search engines. The old fairy tale that you have to reduce the design of your website if you want good SEO - you can forget it. As hard as it is to believe: If something doesn't seem to be working, either the SEO person or the designer doesn't know their stuff.

Tip: SEO and web design don't contradict each other, you usually don't need to compromise.

Are usability / usability, web design and SEO contradictory?

If you want to rank in the top positions of Google today, your website must be easy to use. SEO and good usability are not contradictory. With web design, this can happen. If the new website looks great but is not easy to use, ranking in Google may be an issue.

So my advice is this:

There is no right or wrong design, but there is one for usability. Usability should always be the trump card in web design and should win out when in doubt. I've often been involved in meetings about web design (for example during a relaunch). When different tastes clash, it becomes difficult to argue. Should the basic design be blue or red? Should a slider be used? The facts help here. If blue is serious (and many serious companies use blue, like management consulting firms), itcuts the appetite at the same time and is not advantageous for selling food. So it depends on what you want to convey with your website. Sliders have a practical use in some cases (e.g. in newspaper image galleries), but they are not suitable for the visual enhancement of a website and are a disaster if (as is unfortunately so often the case) important information is hidden on the homepage. Here are some facts about sliders.

Can my web designer do my SEO?

Of course you can. I can handle your web design as an SEO, I can even paint the living room - but the question is: how? Best to ask my wife, who wasn't particularly happy (with the living room). It's always best to have the task in question done by someone who does almost nothing else all day. In fact, web designers today are much more skilled at SEO than they used to be. Nevertheless, especially on large projects, you usually have one agency for website design and implementation and another for online marketing/SEO. Many agencies can do both at the same time. But most are usually a little better at one or the other.

Tip: Let a professional do what they do best.

The Seocracy blog in 2008. We have had many redesigns, on average the blog has a new design every 2 years.

Is there a special web design for SEO?

No. A professional website has a professional web design and professional SEO. But you don't need a specific design to succeed on Google.

What should I look for in my web design in terms of SEO?

Whew, that's a lot of stuff. You can read about them in detail in my book Thesearch engine optimization for dummiesbut I will quickly list the main problems:

• Your website should be easy to read for the Googlebot and should not hide any elements unintentionally.
• Your website should be well structured thematically. The menu should be user-friendly and self-explanatory.
• Does your website load quickly? This is an important point in terms of SEO. But not the most important!
• Your website must be easy to use on mobile devices. Responsive Web Design is now the standard.
• Your source code should be clean: a good header structure, meaningful alt texts and URLs, as well as the necessary metadata (titles, descriptions, canonicals, hreflang, etc.) should be well implemented.
• And many, many others.

As mentioned in the previous question, web designers have many of these points in mind, but not all.

How to approach a new project in terms of web design and SEO?

Normally, as an SEO agency, we are quite reserved and only take a look at the first design (in Photoshop or similar). Depending on the requirements and the level of knowledge of the web design agency, we then draw up a catalog of requirements and hand it over to the agency. We really get to work as soon as we get a connection to the development environment and are allowed to crawl in. In this case, we can check the website directly before (!) it goes live. This is important for new websites, but even more so for re-launches. Then our suggestions for improvement are implemented and we check the website again. Then, the SEO manager checks one last time, directly after going online, that everything has been uploaded from the development environment.

How important is the content management system or store for web design and SEO?

I hear this question very often now. Basically, the choice of CMS or store system is irrelevant to SEO, you can do everything right. That's the diplomatic answer.

My personal, non-diplomatic opinion is this:

For pure content websites, you must use WordPress. This is the most widely used system, with the most customizable features. You get a lot of functionality through plugins, which are really sophisticated and cost little. Because of its widespread use, most good agencies now work with WordPress. Of course, there are other systems and also good agencies that work with other systems - but so far, nobody has been able to give me a logical reason why you should prefer another system.

With store systems, it has always happened that a certain system was the best for a few years and then it was replaced at some point. Again, the more widespread the system, the easier it is to find a good web design agency for the store. Shopware, Magento or WooCommerce would be my first choice for the moment.

Whatever you decide, keep your system up to date! Not only for security reasons (of course, there are some), but also because moving your system becomes more and more complex the longer you wait. There are no more extensions, new features are no longer implemented and at some point you won't find a good agency. It's pretty much the same as if you were looking for someone to maintain your Windows 95 server.

Can I do a good SEO with a Wix building kit (or any other building kit)?

Of course you can! Many website building kits are "correct" in terms of basic SEO criteria, you want to do it yourself and you don't have the money or time for a website designer. The big drawback to building kits is simply the lack of customization. If the way your images are integrated is not good for SEO, you can change it in your own system. In a modular system, you can write to support, but they won't change it until they do the same for all the other modular clients. Again, my advice would be to learn WordPress. It's not much more difficult than a build kit, much more flexible, and costs nothing (except hosting). If your business grows, WordPress can easily grow with it. Recently, I've met many entrepreneurs who have outgrown their old modular system - moving is a bit of a challenge.

What is more important: web design or SEO?

Since you are here on Seokratie.de : Of course, SEO is more important! Joking aside. You only ask this question when you, your web designer or your SEO have different opinions. My advice here - as already mentioned above - is to stick to the facts. Either get facts that support your opinion, or let the facts convince you. If the web designer and the SEO disagree, ask them both to back up their views with facts.

Example:

There are several ways to make a website mobile.

• Through a mobile sub-domain for smartphones and a standalone desktop version of a website.
• Or through a single version with a layout that adapts to both mobile and desktop.

If the web designer now prefers variant 1, you can send this link describing his variant and pointing out the big red box. It is indicated that "Google recommends not using separate URLs when creating a website, as they are difficult to implement and manage. You may want to consider the responsive web design instead." Of course, there are (few) cases where variant 1 makes sense anyway, but you can also prove it.

In short, both are equally important, one cannot be achieved without the other.

So I hope I've answered some important questions about web design and SEO. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to write them in the comments field!