How your web design affects
your SEO rankings in 2024

User-centric web design becomes more important for your SEO with Google's Helpful Content Update

By Markus Backman

September 9th, 2024

You might not think about it that way too often, but the overall design of your website most definitely affects the SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Back in the days, betting hard on traditional SEO by using all the optimized keywords, meta tags, meta descriptions, internal linking, HTML structure, and so on was all it took for good SEO rankings. Traditional search engine optimization like that alone won't be enough anymore; your website should be holistically optimized for being helpful to the user, and this is where the web design aspect becomes more and more important.

Google's Helpful Content Update is changing in how SEO interprets your site, and especially how your web design in structured have become more important.

Web design affects your SEO ranking more than you can imagine, but how it does it is not as very straightforward as with traditional SEO where you keep optimizing keywords and so on. I like to think that, the correlation between design and SEO is eventually very tied to our social behavior, because based on the website design, we humans tend to behave in a certain way. Search engines can sort of smell this behavior, and slowly but surely, websites get a large portion of their SEO rankings based on how they are designed.

Google is becoming smarter

Since mid 2022, Google has slowly but surely rolled out the new "Helpful Content Update." It's an algorithm they keep developing, with the intention to simply emphasize websites that are genuinely helpful, bringing value to the user's online experience rather than giving credit to websites with irrelevant content, created purely to rank in the search engine.

You see, when we navigate the internet, we humans have only one intention, which is to receive some kind of value from our online activities. Some websites try to optimize their SEO in dishonest ways rather than serving the user with something helpful. However, days of clickbait and farming users on untruthful intentions are over.

In conclusion, the trend is that Google emphasizes that good SEO isn't just about content alone—it's also about how that content is presented and experienced by users. This is where web design becomes important; the underlying mechanisms it has on humans significantly affect your site in SEO, because if your web design is good, users tend to engage with your site more, leading to greater SEO rankings.

Take this into consideration

Let's discuss about things you need to consider for your website design and SEO to be the perfect match!

Keep your web design user-centric

When a website is carefully designed and enjoyable (user-centric), people tend to stay there longer and engage with it more, and Google love to reward this. This is something Google has become more interested in favoring recently.

As the Google Helpful Content update aims to reward content that provides real value to users, and discourage irrelevant content, it aligns well with the idea that good design enhances the user experience. If a site has an excellent user interface (UI), clear navigation, and well-structured content, users are more likely to stay on the site, engage with the content, and will probably find your content more helpful. This results in Google ranking that page better in SEO.

Content accessibility and usability

Google emphasizes that content should be easy to consume and tailored to meet the needs of users. If your design fails to make content accessible, whether because of poor readability, lack of mobile-friendliness, or cluttered layouts, users will struggle to find your content helpful, no matter how well it's optimized for SEO. This is something Google seems to penalize websites more and more with if failing in accessibility and usability design.

Design practices like using clean typography, optimizing for mobile, and ensuring fast page load speeds play a crucial role in making content accessible and enjoyable to interact with. This in turn, supports the goals of the Helpful Content update by ensuring users can easily find and consume content.

Avoid design manipulations

The goal of Google's Helpful Content update is to discourage websites that try to manipulate search engines with content that isn't truly valuable to users. This concept naturally extends to how your website is designed: tricking search engines with keyword stuffing or hidden elements in the design is no longer an effective long-term strategy.

For example, intrusive ads, pop-ups, or poorly designed elements that disrupt the user experience can hurt rankings because they don't prioritize user intent or satisfaction. Design that feels like it's focused more on outsmarting the system rather than helping users will most likely be negatively impacted.

Web design affects user metrics

Google looks more at behavior metrics now (such as time on page, bounce rates, and engagement levels). These are now more important signals for ranking well in SEO. This is why your web design should be carefully conducted, since it directly influences these behaviors, bad design can significantly lower these metrics, causing rankings to drop even if the content itself is good.

On the other hand, good design keeps users engaged, helping improve the site's overall SEO rankings. Design elements like easy navigation, clean layouts, fast loading times, and mobile optimization contribute to positive user experiences, which Google rewards.

At last

Web design plays a significant role in both user experience and search engine rankings. Poor design can negatively impact your SEO, pushing your site lower in search engine results and directly affecting your business’s performance. That's why it is crucial to prioritize SEO-focused web design from the start.

It's important to remeber that SEO has become very much based on our social behaviour, unlike the old days when you could manipulate search enginges. A carefully conducted web design leads to more engagement, which on the other hand lead to positive SEO rankings.

Find an agency that can help you with your SEO and web design strategy

If you're looking for an full-house agency that can cater for all your web design and search engine optimization needs, you can always reach out to Ikius. We're a team of Nordic designers, developers, and consultants dedicated to creating the best digital products and experiences for clients all over the world. Feel free to get in touch by filling the form below and learn more.