12 Web Design Mistakes That Ruin Your SEO

Web design mistakes are extremely common because most web designers often don’t think about SEO when creating a design.

Web design and SEO strategies have more to do with one another than you might suspect. Many people focus on the design of their website without realizing that it also affects their SEO.  

Here are 12 web design mistakes you need to avoid when designing your website so that it doesn’t ruin SEO: 

Mistake #1- Posting Low Quality Content

A website full of content may look more legitimate and trustworthy than one that is empty. If the content is of poor quality, however, the impression a user has of your website will change. Before you publish anything to your website, make sure it meets the following quality criteria: 

Quantity is not more important than quality. Quite the opposite. Although your website might look better with more content, taking the time to fully optimize content before publishing it is always worth the extra effort. Not doing so can cost you the success of your website and nullify the SEO efforts you put into growing it. 

Related: Learn Content Writing and Read The Complete Guide to Copywriting

Mistake #2- Ignoring Design Consistencies

Design inconsistencies can make it difficult for users to understand and explore your website. When users get frustrated with a site, they leave, which can increase the bounce rate of your website and ruin the progress you made in your SEO strategy. 

Take this very website as an example: 

The top of the page remains consistent throughout the website’s many pages, making it easy for users to navigate and read through its content. 

Even as you click a category and switch pages, the top of the page’s design offers a sense of consistency that assists the user. 

Design inconsistencies send the message that the site owner does not care enough to check for mistakes. It shows a lack of attention to detail that turns the user off to your website. 

Related: Read the ADA Compliance Checklist For Website Design

To avoid design inconsistencies, make sure every element and detail in your website is consistent throughout all the website pages before publishing it. 

Mistake #3- Leaving Your Website Unsecured

A missing SSL certificate is one of the first red flags users notice when entering a website. Your website may offer significant value to your audience, but if you do not provide them with a secure experience, your SEO efforts will go to waste. 

If your website is unsecured, the user might see a warning sign like this: 

This warning sign removes any sense of credibility and tells the user to be wary of your content. 

If your website is secured, however, it might look like this: 

Notice the lock icon before the URL that notifies the user that the website is secure. 

These might seem like minor details, but they can make the difference between a website that ranks high in search engines and one that doesn’t. 

What’s more, many browsers and antivirus software stop users from accessing websites without an SSL certificate. This means even fewer users will see your website. Protect your website and its users with an SSL certificate, and watch as your SEO efforts help your site bloom. 

Mistake #4- Having Little to No Text

Having lots of low-quality content hurts your SEO efforts, regardless of how full it makes your website look. The opposite is also true. Having too little text greatly affects your website’s SEO. 

Notice this example from a university website’s homepage. While the stylistic choice to have more images than text can definitely draw a user in, it won’t help the user in terms of information. 

Some users might find it difficult, and therefore frustrating, to use this website. This might cause them to leave the page. This will then increase the bounce rate and decrease the number of overall users.

A website like the example above can offer lots of valuable information. The lack of text, unfortunately, doesn’t provide it.

Having little to no content on your website not only makes your website look empty, but it also makes it difficult to build your SEO strategy. Text helps search engines to understand what your website is about, helping your rank higher within your niche. 

Mistake #5- Having Too Much Text

Website design is all about balance. If you fill up your website with text, it might help search engines understand what your website is about, but it won’t look attractive for the user. This is why having a wall of text in your website can actually hurt your SEO efforts.

Look at this example of a website with too much text. It might seem useful to have this much text at first. Upon closer inspection, we see that it’s much more of a hindrance to the SEO efforts the owner of the site might’ve made. 

It is always better to take the help of illustration services to convey text messages in the form of visually inspiring images.

Mistake #6- Not Making Your Website Mobile Friendly

Over 63% of global internet users are comprised of mobile devices. This number only increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that, more often than not, your website users are using a smartphone to view your content. 

Recent data also shows that 57% of users will not recommend a business with an unattractive mobile-website design. To avoid this, website owners need to ensure that their website is designed properly, SEO-friendly, and mobile-friendly. 

A mobile website that is not fully optimized will affect rankings, nullifying whatever progress you’ve made in your SEO efforts. Similarly, optimizing your website to have a user-friendly mobile version will help you rank higher than other sites that neglect their mobile users. 

Mistake #7- Having Your Website Load Slowly

You should avoid this serious web design mistake at all costs. Just as the mobile version of your website needs to be optimized, so does your overall website speed. Data shows that 57% of users do not expect to wait more than 2 seconds for a website to load. At the same time, search engines rank websites that load quickly higher than those that don’t. 

This goes for both desktop and mobile versions of a website, the more optimized, the higher the ranking, the higher the users. Make sure you are doing everything you can to have a high-speed running website. 

Mistake #8- Using Poor Quality Images

How many times I have seen webmasters commit the silliest web design mistake of using poor quality images. 94% of all website’s first impressions are design-related. If your website contains low-quality images, your website users will have the impression that your website is sketchy at best. This means higher bounce rates, a lower engagement. 

Your website should be full of images that are relevant to your brand and of the highest quality. If you want to make a good impression on the user, quality is key. Otherwise, your SEO efforts will reap little results. Make sure that, once a user finds your website, they see high-quality content that keeps them coming back for more. 

Mistake #9- Faulty Design Elements

In the process of building your website, you have the option to add a variety of design elements. These can vary, as it depends on the website builder you use and what they offer. For instance, Boxmode website builder offers an easy to use drag and drop interface to edit all your design elements. But no matter what they are, you should always make sure that all of your design elements work the way they should. 

Take the above example of a business website. The owner decided to include the social media feed on the website. This by itself is both a good design and SEO move. Unfortunately, the Facebook feed element does not show the feed completely, making it impossible to go through the feed in an effective manner. 

Design elements can be a great booster when used properly. However, you must always verify the usability of an element before you publish it on your website. This will help you avoid faulty design elements that interfere more than they assist. 

Mistake #10- Overusing Design Elements

As seen in the previous point, design elements are an important part of any website. It’s important that you use them intentionally and make sure they function properly before publishing them. 

At the same time, it’s also important you don’t overuse them. 

Take this website as an example. Not only is the design unattractive, but it’s also difficult to interact with. The site has no clear message beyond snippets of information that comes from images. Ignoring these mistakes, however, notice that the website is completely full of design elements. 

This is not just a design flaw that lowers the website’s usability, but it also slows down the loading time of the page. 

This affects SEO because the high loading time will cause the page to rank lower. The bounce rates will also increase because the design of the site is difficult to engage with. 

Mistake #11- Neglecting Social Media Buttons

Social media buttons are always a good SEO move. If you decide to leave them out for design purposes, you could be slowing down your website’s progress. Hence, you should not make this website design mistake. It might look good to have a minimalistic design with little to no buttons, but your social media buttons should always be present.  

Take this example from a company that focuses on website design for nonprofits. The top part of the homepage focuses on design, yet the bottom part (as shown in the image) makes sure to have easy-to-find social media buttons. 

Social media share buttons help websites because the easier it is to share content, the easier it will be for others to find it, which will lead to higher rankings. 

Mistake #12- Overusing Flash and Javascript

Flash and Javascript are programming languages that are notoriously difficult for search engines to understand. You may use the programming languages to make your website have a higher-quality look and feel. 

Unfortunately, search engines do not recognize the visual aspect of your website. This is a common web design mistake that most beginners make. Search engines like Google focus on the text and a website that is overrun with these programs is practically invisible to search engines. This in turn makes your website rank lower, since it appears to crawlers to have little to no content. 

Additionally, not all users have these programming language softwares of plugins installed on their computers and browsers. This means that (like in the picture above) many users might not even be able to see the content you displayed on your site. 

Hurdles like the one shown above turn off users to your site, making them leave with little chances of them returning. Evidently, these programming languages hurt your SEO efforts more than they assist your website design.

A Poorly Designed Website Can Affect Your SEO

This is not to say that SEO is more important than the design of your website. Data shows that a staggering 38% of users will stop interacting with your website if the design is unattractive. First impressions matter and the design of your website will determine whether a user stays or leaves. 

The important thing to remember is: web design and SEO must work together to create a seamless website that is easy to use and difficult to get away from. If you don’t take this into consideration, you may end up with a poorly designed website that turns off users and wastes your SEO efforts. 

There are many ways in which a poorly designed website can hurt your SEO. Depending on the design flaws it has, your website design might make it difficult for search engines to crawl and index. You might have a website that is beautifully designed, but if a search engine can’t crawl through it, not many people will see it. 

If your website has design flaws that make it difficult to use, you might turn off users to your site. This will increase your bounce rate and ranking, making your SEO efforts futile. Usability is key when designing a website. Consider the fact that 88% of users state they likely wouldn’t return to a website after a bad experience. Your website always needs to be at peak performance if you want it to succeed. 

The best way to ensure a high-ranking website that attracts users is to follow the best SEO and web design practices.

Conclusion

Website design and SEO go hand-in-hand. Whether you’re focusing on the design of your website or your SEO strategy, always remember that both elements need to work together. Don’t commit the above web design mistakes. This will help your website get the ranking it deserves without anything design elements getting in the way.