When getting involved in
Pittsburgh web design, there are an overwhelming number of factors to consider. With so much to consider, it is hard to keep everything straight. Unfortunately, good web design can’t be organized by a top ten list, because it is more like a triangle. There are three points that have to be in balanced with each other, or the website will suffer. The three points that need to be kept in balance are website architecture / design, visual appearance, and search engine visibility. Balancing these factors is tricky, but it can be done.
The connection between web design and visual design is a relationship with a lot of give and take. Developing a website that is easy to navigate and enjoyable to look at can be quite a balancing act. An over emphasis on visuals can make it impossible to navigate the site. Menus and navigation links need to be easily visible, and intelligently located. On the other hand, an over emphasis on design can make the users feel like they’re reading a spreadsheet. This is an area where outside eyes are extremely valuable. While working on balancing site design and visual design it is a great idea to get someone outside of the project to look at the site and see their reactions. If these test subjects think the site is difficult to navigate or an eyesore, then chances are that other users will think the same.
Working between web design and SEO (search engine optimization) is fairly simple because it is all about following certain rules. The biggest issue between web design and SEO is that, for optimum results, they need to be paired from the beginning. If certain problems are built into the website architecture, it can make SEO much more difficult. Making sure that any redirects are done correctly, and having keywords built into the URL name can go a long way to helping SERP rankings. On the SEO side, there is very little SEO can do to ruin a site’s architecture. This is largely because anything that ruins the sites architecture hurts SERP rankings.
Finally there is the relationship between visual design and SEO is a relationship of creative solutions. This is because certain tools which greatly aid visual design are extremely harmful to the SEO. The biggest example of this is Flash. Flash can add animations and flair to a site, but search engines cannot garner any information from Flash. Because of this, all-Flash intro pages are black holes in the eyes of search engines. There are solutions though. The simplest way to work SEO with Flash is to make sure there isn’t any links or content that should be crawled in the Flash. Additionally, the SEO community is always keeping an eye out for SEO friendly substitutes to Flash.
Being able to balance the give and take between these three factors is the key to designing a successful website.
Chatboard (0)