How Website Design Mistakes Can Affect Your Website Ranking

Do you think of website design and search engine optimization (SEO) as two different things? Many do. After all, website design refers to how your site looks and feels, while SEO refers to getting more traffic, right? The reality is that there’s a lot less separation between these two concepts than you might think.

However, your website design can affect your website traffic. How? By providing a bad user experience.

Poor Web Design Leads to Bad User Experience and That Leads to Lower Ranking

There are certain factors that Google cares about and that these factors can hurt your site’s SEO ranking. In short, Google prioritizes user experience. A site that is poorly designed is confusing and difficult to navigate. This frustrates users and leads to a high bounce rate. Google doesn’t like directing users to pages that have high bounce rates. 

Its goal is to provide users with useful search results so that they’ll keep coming back. Therefore, sites that provide a positive user experience are favoured by Google. 

What does this mean? Google is notoriously secretive about the exact factors that affect a ranking. However, there are some details out there.

Perhaps the most helpful information comes from a recent leak of thousands of internal Google documents. Coming to light in May 2024, the leak provides some information straight from Google about how web pages are ranked in search. 





Here Are 6 Web Design Mistakes That Can Negatively Impact Your SEO

According to a review of the leaked Google documents by Search Engine Land, “You should invest in a well-designed site with intuitive architecture so you can optimize for NavBoost.” NavBoost is one of the“most important components of Google’s algorithm.”

Keep this in mind when designing your website and avoid these six key web design mistakes.

1) Don’t Compromise on User Experience for Your Website Look

If your website looks great, but it loads slowly, doesn’t have the information that visitors are looking for, is confusing, or is difficult to use, it won’t rank well. 

According to Google itself, “Google’s core ranking systems look to reward content that provides a good page experience.”

Speed is incredibly important for SEO. This refers to how quickly a page loads after clicking a search result. Websites with large images, animations, or auto-playing videos load slowly and this provides a bad experience for users. 

2) Core Web Vitals

Your website’s loading speed directly affects your SEO ranking. It’s part of a set of metrics that measure user experience called Core Web Vitals. Google uses Core Web Vitals as a key ranking factor.

Your website should not only load quickly, but it should also be responsive and provide visual stability. 

Visual stability refers to layout shifts that may occur as a site loads. For instance, if a large image loads later than the rest of the page and this suddenly shifts all the content down, that is an example of poor visual stability. Your website design should take this into account and load in a way that keeps the experience consistent. 

3) Avoid Pop-Ups, Intrusive Interstitials, and Dialogues

Dialogues, pop-ups, and other intrusive elements are generally considered negative factors by Google. Why? Because, they “obstruct users’ view of the content, usually for promotional purposes” and that creates a bad user experience. 

Again, the goal is to have a website that gives users the information they’re looking for quickly and easily. Having a large pop-up that takes over the entire screen “may frustrate [users] and erode their trust in your website” making them “unlikely to want to visit those websites again, including through search engines.”

The best way to provide key information or promotional prompts on a site is to do it in a way that is unintrusive. For instance, Google recommends using banners instead of full page interstitials.

4) Poor Navigational Experience

One of the key things we have learned from Google’s massive search documentation leak is that poor navigational experience can affect your website ranking. Again, it comes down to the bounce rate. If people end up on your site and they don’t know how to navigate it, they’ll leave quickly. 

Visitors will not stick around and try to figure out how to use your website. They’ll move on quickly and this hurts your search ranking. Having a clear navigation structure that is consistent throughout your site will help improve user experience and thus also boost your search ranking.

5) Not Thinking About Accessibility

The key idea that connects all of these Google ranking factors together is that your website should be easy to use so that visitors can find what they’re looking for.

This is why it’s so crucial that you do not ignore accessibility. 

Digital accessibility isn’t just something that’s nice to have or a perk for your website. It’s a critical part of website design that helps all visitors use your site regardless of disability or impairment. Not only is website accessibility an important search ranking factor but, in many areas, it’s the law.

What does this entail?

Among other aspects, an accessible website: 

• Can be navigated with just the keyboard
• Provides sufficient colour contrast to enhance the readability of text
• Includes alt text to detail graphical elements and how they relate to the page
• Uses proper headings to help screen readers understand the page’s hierarchy
• Has accessible PDFs that are created with accessibility in mind
• Provides captions or transcripts for video content

6) Too Much Content

Content is important for your website. Not only is it how most visitors find you, but it’s also what keeps them interested enough to spend time on your site so they can be converted into customers. However, too much content is a common mistake that drives users away and leads to poor user experience. 

What do we mean by too much content?

There’s no specific amount of content or number of words that is the perfect amount. Therefore, it’s important to think about user intent when you’re creating content. What is a user searching for when they end up on your page? Are they trying to get an answer to a question? Find a company that will provide them with the goods or services they need? Do they want to read a detailed article and get a lot of information? Think of what a visitor is looking for and then give it to them. 

If someone is looking for a quick answer or some details about a company, they don’t want to read thousands of words in a long, detailed article. The internet attention span is very short, often only a few seconds. If someone can’t immediately tell what your page is about and what you have to offer, they’ll leave. This means a high bounce rate and, as we’ve already mentioned, a high bounce rate is bad for your search ranking. 

Write the content that your users are looking for and, if you’re adding longer content, structure it so that it’s easy to scan. This will help users find the info they want and reduce your bounce rate. 

How Eggs Media Can Help

At Eggs Media, we have extensive experience in both search engine optimization and website design. We take a holistic approach to creating your site, ensuring that you provide the best possible experience to your visitors while also creating designs and content that will convert these visitors into customers so that you can meet your business goals.

If you need help improving your site design or your search ranking, we’re here for you. Please contact us today and discover how we can change your website for the better.