‘If you build it, they will come…’

This idea may have worked out for Kevin Coster’s character in the 80’s film ‘Field of Dreams’. In the film he builds a baseball field that attracts the ghosts of baseball legends, who turn up to play a spectral game one evening.

However, this advice doesn’t work with websites!

Just because you have a visually stunning website built using the latest tech doesn’t mean anyone will actually find it.

a website that is designed without considering SEO will be lost in the expanse of the internet

Like a beautiful home without an address, a website that is designed without considering SEO will be lost in the expanse of the internet.

Considering SEO during web design lays a strong foundation for future organic traffic growth. 

By following SEO best practices from the start, you improve your site’s ranking prospects. Retrofitting SEO after the new site is launched is often a tedious and costly process.

Considerations When Designing an SEO-friendly Website

When designing a new website, there are several SEO considerations to keep in mind. These will ensure that your site can be easily crawled and indexed by search engines, ranks well in search engine results, and provides a positive user experience.

All necessary ingredients for organic traffic growth.

Keyword Research & Page Optimisation

Keyword research is an important first step before building a new website. Without keyword research you will have no way of knowing what pages are required and how they should be linked together (website architecture) to ensure the site receives the right type of visitor – potential customers for your business.

Keyword research is akin to understanding your target market before launching a new product. Here’s why it’s integral to the web design process:

• Keyword research sheds light on what your customers are searching for, helping you tailor your website’s content and functionality to attract them
• Keywords are the building blocks for your content strategy. By incorporating relevant terms throughout your website, you ensure search engines can easily understand and index your content, making it more discoverable

Clean Code

Clean code is a critical aspect of web design and SEO. By writing clean, well-structured code, you ensure that search engine algorithms can easily crawl and index your website. 

Clean code also contributes to faster page load times, which is vital for a good user experience (UX) – an important ranking factor for search engines.

Unfortunately, some drag-and-drop website builders introduce excessive code that can slow down your website and negatively impact search engine rankings. A skilled web designer focused on SEO will ensure your site’s code is streamlined and efficient.

Mobile First Design

Mobile-first web design is critical for SEO in today’s world as mobile users are often the majority of website visitors. In fact over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. 

Search engines prioritise mobile versions for ranking, and mobile-first design ensures a seamless experience across devices.

Here’s why a mobile first approach is important for SEO:

• Google prioritises mobile versions for ranking.
• Mobile users expect a smooth experience.
• Mobile-first design encourages faster loading times. This benefits SEO.

Optimal Website Architecture for SEO

Website architecture is the blueprint of a website, determining how its pages are organized and linked together. 

It plays a crucial role in the overall SEO performance of a site. A well-structured website not only enhances search engine visibility but also improves user experience, leading to better engagement and conversions.

There are several key elements that contribute to an SEO-friendly website architecture:

1. Logical Hierarchy of Pages:
   Organizing pages into a clear and logical hierarchy is essential. This involves creating a structure that resembles an inverted pyramid, with the homepage at the top, followed by main categories, subcategories, and individual pages. This hierarchy helps search engines understand the relationship between different pages and their importance within the site.
2. Clear Navigation Paths:
   Navigation is a crucial aspect of website architecture. Users should be able to easily find the information they’re looking for without getting lost or frustrated. This involves creating intuitive navigation menus, breadcrumbs, and internal linking structures that guide users through the site smoothly.
3. Strategic Placement of Internal Links:
   Internal links are an essential part of website architecture as they help distribute link equity throughout the site. Placing internal links strategically can improve the visibility of important pages, enhance user engagement, and reduce bounce rates.
4. Flat Site Structure:
   A flat site structure is often recommended for SEO, as it ensures that all pages are within a few clicks of the homepage. This structure minimizes the number of levels in the website hierarchy, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index all pages efficiently.

It is vital that SEO is considered when designing a website’s architecture, because architecture has a direct impact on search engine visibility. 

Technical SEO

Technical SEO can be thought of as anything needed to help search engine crawlers find and index a website’s pages. Failing to address SEO during the web design process can lead to some serious issues with the website.

Here are some important technical SEO elements to think about during a web design project:

• Redirects. These are important if a website is being redesigned. Redirects are similar to a mail forwarding service when you move home. They tell search engines that a website has moved and enable visitors to be redirected to the new site.
• XML sitemap. This is a document search engines use. It provides a list of website pages to enable better finding and indexation of pages.
• Robots.txt. This is a small text file that is located in a website’s root directory. It tells search engine crawlers which parts of a website they can access and which parts are restricted.

How Does SEO Fit Into The Design Process?

Here is a 5 step plan for integrating SEO into the web design process. 

1. Customer Research
   It is important to understand who your ideal customer is before site design gets underway. As a business owner, you want your website to be an effective online sales channel. By undertaking customer research you ensure the design process is focused on creating a customer-centric website.
2. Keyword Research
   The information obtained about the customer feeds into the keyword research process. Keywords aligned with all stages of the buyer journey are listed providing guidance on how the site needs to be structured and what content is needed.
3. Website Architecture & Internal Linking
   The keyword research is used to inform the site architecture development. This results in a structure that’s aligned with the target customer and SEO best practices. 
4. Technical SEO
   If the project is a site update, a redirects list is created so that the old website redirects traffic to the new one. An XML sitemap and robots.txt file is created.
5. Pre Launch & Post Launch
   Once the website is ready to go live, a crawling tool is used to make sure there are no broken links and the old site can be redirected properly. After the site is launched, it is important that organic traffic and keyword rank are monitored closely so any potential issues are resolved in a timely manner.

Don’t Let SEO be an Afterthought

Like building a house without a solid foundation means you’ll need expensive renovations to make it liveable, ‘retrofitting’ SEO after a site launch can be extremely complex and costly.

Web design and SEO shouldn’t be regarded as separate functions. In reality they’re inextricably linked, both serving the overall goal of helping a website do what it’s meant to do – attract and convert the right traffic.

Web design and SEO shouldn’t be regarded as separate functions…they’re inextricably linked…helping a website do what it’s meant to do – attract and convert the right traffic.

Trying to ‘do’ SEO after a new website goes live often requires changes to the architecture to make it more SEO-friendly. This can cause traffic disruptions as pages and links are updated. Significant changes to a live site will lead to temporary dips in search rankings which impedes steady organic traffic growth.

And this all has negative consequences for any business wishing to acquire more opportunities and sales from search engines.

It is far easier to have SEO involved from the beginning of the design process!

The post Building a Strong Foundation: Web Design and SEO appeared first on Jeremy Hickman.

When designing a website, it’s easy to get lost in discussions about colors, fonts, and fancy animations. While visual appeal and functionality are certainly important, there’s a crucial factor that often doesn’t get the attention it deserves: buyer intent. 

Buyer intent describes how close a visitor is to making a purchase or taking a specific action—like filling out a contact form, signing up for a newsletter, or scheduling a consultation call.

Why does this matter so much? Because buyer intent shapes how visitors interact with your site. 

If your pages aren’t designed to match a user’s mindset and motivations, you risk losing them to a competitor whose website is more aligned with their needs. A website that effectively caters to different types of user intent can significantly boost engagement, conversion rates, and overall customer satisfaction.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the nuances of buyer intent, the types of content that address each stage of the buyer’s journey, and how to incorporate these insights into the design of every critical page on your website. 

By the end, you’ll have a comprehensive view of why buyer intent isn’t just another marketing buzzword—it’s a fundamental element of user experience (UX) that can define the success or failure of your online presence.

In this article:

• What is Buyer Intent?
• Buyer Intent and Content Type
• Buyer Intent and Webpage Design
• The Consequences of Not Considering Buyer Intent
• Closing Thoughts

What is Buyer Intent?

Buyer intent is essentially a measure of how ready someone is to take the next step in the purchasing process. Imagine two potential clients who arrive at your website:

• Client A is just beginning to learn about website design options. They might be asking basic questions such as “What is the difference between a CMS like WordPress and a website builder like Wix?” 
• Client B has done their research, knows exactly what kind of website they need, and is actively comparing different web designers or agencies to see who offers the best value.

In these two scenarios, each user’s primary goals and concerns are different. A single design or layout won’t work equally well for both. 

We categorise buyer intent into three main stages:

1. Informational Intent: People in this stage are in exploration mode. They’re not ready to purchase yet; instead, they want to learn about your field, understand best practices, and compare options. They’ll be looking for blog posts, explainer videos, how-to guides, and educational material.
2. Navigational Intent: Visitors know which brand, product, or service they want to explore and are seeking the quickest path to relevant content. This often translates into branded searches like “Shopify pricing,” “WordPress theme store,” or “[Your brand name] services.”
3. Transactional/Commercial Intent: These visitors are ready to engage in some type of transaction. They might want to fill out a quote form, schedule a call, or buy a product. At this point, they’re actively comparing prices, reading testimonials, and looking for the final push to convert.

Understanding these differences is crucial. If you offer a one-size-fits-all approach to your website—perhaps with a single page that tries to do everything—you risk missing the mark for every type of visitor.

Buyer Intent and Content Type

One of the most effective ways to accommodate various levels of buyer intent is to create and organise content that aligns with each stage of the purchasing journey. Let’s break it down.

1. Informational Intent

People with informational intent are looking for knowledge. They may not even know they need your product or service yet. They’re mostly concerned with solving a problem or gaining an understanding of a topic. 

For instance, a potential client might think, “What’s the best approach to building an online store?” or “What does a web designer actually do?”

Types of Content to Provide:

• Blog Posts: Detailed articles that address common user queries or industry-related topics. For example, “10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Designer.”
• Guides and eBooks: Deeper explorations of complex subjects, such as “The Ultimate Guide to E-commerce Website Design.”
• Videos or Webinars: Educational materials that break down industry concepts in an easy-to-digest format.
• Infographics: Visually appealing overviews of a process, timeline, or set of statistics.

The key here is educational value. The more value you provide at this stage, the more likely these informational users will remember your brand when they’re ready to move to the next stage.

2. Navigational Intent

Navigational-intent visitors already have a brand or website in mind. They might type your website’s name directly into Google or click on a link from another reputable source. At this stage, they want direct, streamlined access to specific information—perhaps your “Services” page, “About Us” page, or blog.

Types of Content to Provide:

• Clear Navigation Menu: Make sure your top-level navigation is simple, self-explanatory, and intuitive (e.g., “Home,” “Services,” “Portfolio,” “Contact”).
• Internal Linking: Ensure your blog posts and homepage contain relevant links to deeper pages on your site. If you mention your portfolio, link to it directly.
• Search Functionality: If your site has a lot of content, a search bar can help navigational users find what they need quickly.

3. Transactional/Commercial Intent

Your visitor is now ready to act. They’ve done their research, possibly evaluated other service providers, and want to see if you’re the right fit. The key is to reassure them that they’re making the best possible decision by choosing you.

Types of Content to Provide:

• Pricing Pages: Transparent, easy-to-understand pricing or at least guidelines on costs.
• Comparisons and Feature Lists: Show how your solutions differ from others in the market. This could be a comparison table or a list of service tiers.
• Testimonials and Case Studies: Social proof is critical at this stage. Showcase success stories and client testimonials that highlight real-world results.
• CTAs (Calls-to-Action): Prominent buttons or forms with text like “Get a Quote,” “Book a Consultation,” or “Start Your Project.”

By making content that specifically addresses these different stages, you guide each type of visitor through a natural journey, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Buyer Intent and Webpage Design

Now that we’ve covered the content side, let’s get practical about design. Incorporating buyer intent into your web design means each page or section has a specific purpose and is optimized accordingly. The goal is to avoid friction—any confusion or difficulty that might cause a visitor to bounce.

1. Homepage

The homepage is often the first impression, functioning like a lobby that helps direct visitors to where they need to go. 

For those with informational intent, provide easy access to blog posts or educational content. For those with navigational or transactional intent, make key links—like “Services” or “Contact”—highly visible.

Best Practices:

• Use a clear headline that summarizes what you do or offer.
• Incorporate brief calls-to-action for multiple segments (e.g., “Learn More” for informational users and “Get Started” for transactional users).
• Ensure the navigation bar is prominent and easy to read.
• Highlight unique selling points or your brand’s value proposition.

2. Service/Product Pages

Service or product pages aim squarely at transactional intent, though you can still cater to visitors who are somewhere between research and action. Provide detailed explanations, but keep it concise and scannable. Use bullets, short paragraphs, and clear headings.

Key Elements:

• Compelling Headlines and Subheadings: Immediately tell users what problem your service solves.
• Visual Aids: Photos, screenshots, or videos to showcase your offerings.
• Trust Indicators: Badges, client logos, awards, or certifications.
• Testimonials: Embed short quotes from previous clients explaining how your service helped them.
• Clear CTAs: Don’t bury your “Contact Us” or “Purchase” buttons.

3. Blog & Educational Content

Blog sections should cater to informational-intent visitors. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t also incorporate navigational or transactional elements.

Ideas to Implement:

• Category Organization: If you cover multiple topics, arrange them in easily searchable categories.
• Related Posts: Encourage binge reading by suggesting other articles that are relevant.
• Subtle CTAs: You can embed a CTA banner or text link within your posts, leading to relevant service pages.
• Content Upgrades: Offer a downloadable guide or checklist in exchange for an email address—great for building leads at the informational stage.

4. Contact & Quote Pages

These pages are where transactional intent really shines. Visitors who arrive here typically want to speak with you, get a quote, or start a project.

Crucial Elements:

• Short Forms: Only ask for the information you genuinely need—long forms can scare people away.
• Multiple Contact Methods: Some users prefer email, others prefer a phone call, and some might want live chat or even text messaging.
• Strong Validation Messages: If a user enters incorrect info, provide helpful guidance so they can correct it easily.
• Thank You Pages: After submitting a form, redirect them to a personalised thank you page with next steps or additional resources.

By tailoring each page to address a specific type of buyer intent, you create a seamless journey. This not only boosts conversions but also fosters trust and credibility.

The Consequences of Not Considering Buyer Intent

What happens if you ignore buyer intent altogether? Your website might still look great, but it could inadvertently push users away. Here are some common pitfalls:

1. High Bounce Rates: If a user with transactional intent lands on your website and can’t find clear pricing or a contact form, they’ll leave. Similarly, if someone in the informational phase can’t find resources or guidance, they’ll bounce, too.
2. Lost Sales Opportunities: Without strategic CTAs and well-structured pages, visitors who might have become customers slip through the cracks.
3. User Frustration and Confusion: Cluttered or confusing navigation can irritate visitors. When users don’t find what they expect, their trust in your brand diminishes.
4. Poor SEO Performance: Search engines like Google pay close attention to user signals. If your site has high bounce rates and short session durations, your rankings may drop over time. Moreover, Google’s algorithms are increasingly focused on matching search queries (and thus intent) with the most relevant pages.
5. Damaged Reputation: Word of mouth travels fast online. Negative experiences, even if it’s just from confusion or misalignment with buyer intent, can lead to poor brand perception.

In essence, ignoring buyer intent is like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. You might eventually force it in, but you’ll damage the peg—and the user experience—in the process.

Closing Thoughts

Buyer intent isn’t just a marketing buzzword—it’s a lens through which you can evaluate every piece of content, every design choice, and every navigational element on your website. 

Ignoring it can be costly, leading to lost conversions, higher bounce rates, and frustrated users who quickly move on to competitors. 

On the flip side, incorporating buyer intent at each step can streamline the user’s journey and make your website a powerful tool for turning casual visitors into satisfied customers.

For web design, this means going beyond the superficial aspects of aesthetics to consider what visitors genuinely need at each stage of their journey. It requires careful planning, user-centred thinking, and ongoing testing.

Remember, not every visitor is ready to purchase on day one. By offering the right mix of educational resources, easy-to-navigate pages, and compelling calls-to-action, you can cultivate relationships that lead to loyal clients and sustainable growth.

If you’re ready to design or overhaul a website with buyer intent at the forefront—and see real results, send me a message today. 

Together, we can create a seamless, user-centric experience that meets your visitors where they are and guides them toward becoming loyal customers.

The post Buyer Intent and Web Design appeared first on Jeremy Hickman.

What is Google Consent Mode?

Google Consent Mode (GCM) allows websites to measure conversions and collect certain data while respecting user consent choices, specifically regarding cookies. When a user consents to cookies, data collection functions as usual, covering analytics, advertising, and other Google tools. 

However, when a user declines cookies, GCM adjusts data collection, gathering only anonymous data that supports basic functionality.

One of the standout features of GCM is its ability to use data modelling to estimate lost conversions for users who did not consent to cookies. This approximation helps businesses maintain some insight into user behaviour even when direct data isn’t available. 

Why is Google Consent Mode v2 Important?

Businesses that fail to adopt GCM v2 by the March 2024 deadline lose access to valuable data on users from the UK and EEA across Google platforms, including Google Ads and Google Analytics.

This potential loss of data comes with the following implications:

• Limited Remarketing
  Without the necessary data, remarketing to new users in the UK and EEA becomes impossible.
• Reduced Conversion Accuracy
  Google’s algorithms lose the ability to track and predict conversions accurately, impacting overall campaign performance.
• Optimisation Challenges
  With restricted data access, optimising Google Ads campaigns effectively becomes difficult.

Key Changes in Google Consent Mode v2

When GCM v1 was first launched it let you tell if people had provided consent to store analytics and advertising cookies in their browser. To do this we could set values for two parameters:

• analytics_storage
• ad_storage

GCM v2 introduces two additional parameters, enhancing how data collection aligns with user consent:

• ad_user_data
  Governs whether personal data is shared with Google for advertising. If a user consents to advertising cookies, this parameter is set to “granted.”
• ad_personalization
  Controls the use of personal data for personalization activities, like remarketing. It’s set to “granted” when users agree to personalised advertising cookies.

These parameters offer a more nuanced approach to consent, allowing businesses to tailor data collection according to user preferences.

Implementation of Google Consent Mode v2

Implementing GCM v2 requires adjustments to a website’s cookie policy and consent settings:

• Update Your Cookie Banner
  Ensure the language aligns with Google’s privacy standards, reflecting the new options for consent.
• Revise Your Privacy Policy
  Clearly outline how user consent is collected and what happens to the data based on their choices.

If your business uses a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP), these updates may happen automatically. However, it’s a good idea to verify this with your CMP provider. For businesses without a Google-certified CMP, adding the ad_user_data and ad_personalization parameters through Google Tag Manager will be necessary.

Basic Consent Mode vs. Advanced Consent Mode

GCM v2 offers two implementation options that website owners should consider:

• Basic Consent Mode
  Implementing consent mode in its basic form ensures that Google tags remain inactive until a user interacts with the consent banner. This means no data is sent to Google before the user makes their choice. If consent is granted, the tags load and activate the consent mode APIs. If consent is denied, no data—including the user’s consent status—is transmitted to Google. The tags remain entirely blocked from firing. In such cases, Google Ads relies on a generalised conversion model to estimate performance.
• Advanced Consent Mode
  With the advanced version of consent mode, Google tags load immediately when a user visits your website or app. Upon loading, the tags initialize the consent mode API. Advanced implementation supports enhanced modelling by using advertiser-specific models rather than the general model applied in the basic version.

For most website owners, Advanced Consent Mode is recommended. Its ability to capture anonymous pings helps Google’s algorithms create more accurate estimates, leading to better optimisation of ads and a more complete understanding of user actions.

Closing Thoughts

Google Consent Mode v2 is a substantial upgrade, impacting how businesses handle user consent and data collection. Implementing GCM v2 not only ensures compliance with data privacy regulations but also mitigates negative impacts on marketing effectiveness. Although transitioning to GCM v2 may seem daunting, the benefits of compliance far outweigh the potential penalties and lost data.

The post Google Consent Mode v2: A Guide for Website Owners appeared first on Jeremy Hickman.

What is Schema markup?

Schema markup is a form of microdata. It is a semantic vocabulary of tags which are set out in full at schema.org.  You can add these schema tags to the HTML of your website.  Doing so will enhance the way that search engines see your content and represent it in search engine results pages (SERPs).  The Schema markup creates an enhanced description called a rich snippet which appears inline within search results.

Schema has been around since around 2011 and was created by a collaboration between Google, Bing, Yahoo and Yandex.  It was conceived as a way of helping search engines understand website content to provide more accurate search results.  This is especially helpful where the content within a webpage might otherwise be ambiguous.

How does Schema help to explain your website content?

The easiest way to explain this is with a practical example from schema.org.

Most webmasters are familiar with HTML tags on their pages. Usually, HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. For example, <h1>Avatar</h1> tells the browser to display the text string ‘Avatar’ in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means — ‘Avatar’ could refer to the hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture — and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.

Schema.org

You can now understand how these hidden tags can help the search engines understand the context of otherwise ambiguous text strings.

What does Schema markup look like?

The Schema tags can be added to existing HTML to explain the context of your content.  In the following example, we’re displaying the headline of a blog post along with its author:

<div>
    Mary Makes it Easy: The new ultimate stress-free cookbook
    Mary Berry
</div>

You can see how this may be ambiguous to search engines.  It’s not clear which text string is the title (name) of the book, and which is the author.  With Schema markup, we explain the context as follows:

<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Book">
    <span itemprop="name">
        Mary Makes it Easy: The new ultimate stress-free cookbook
    </span>
    <span itemprop="author">
        Mary Berry
    </span>
</div>

You can go further by adding customer reviews.  You could add the following Schema markup within your product page content:

<div itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/AggregateRating">
    <span itemprop="ratingValue">4</span>stars –
    <span itemprop="reviewCount">250</span>Reviews
</div>

Adding schema will enhance the rich snippet that is shown beneath the page title in SERPs.  This example shows the aggregate star rating, number of reviews, price and stock status:

Does Schema improve your search ranking?

There is no evidence that adding Schema markup will improve your search ranking.  What it will do is make your pages appear more impactful in SERPs, which in turn will help with click-through-rates, and a better user-experience generally.

Please note that adding Schema markup code doesn’t guarantee that Google will show your page with rich snippets like the example show above. Even if Schema markup is present, Google can sometimes choose to show your listing in a regular blue link format. We can supply Schema markup, but utlimately, Google will decide whether it wants to show rich snippets or not.

What should Schema be used for?

Schema can be used to mark up various pieces of content on your site, but is most often used to provide additional information about:

• Businesses and Organizations
• Creative work (such as Books)
• Events
• People
• Places
• Products

This list is certainly not exhaustive and you can see the full list of options available at Schema.org.  Each category has different properties that can be used to give further detail.  The earlier example of a book can include the title (‘name’), ‘author’, as well as even more detailed information such as ‘price’, or even ‘isbn’.  How many or few properties you use is up to you, and depends on how much detail you wish to provide to describe the item.

How to add Schema to your website

If you’re an experienced coder, you will find it relatively straightforward to add Schema markup directly to your page templates such as product pages, blog posts, and so on.

Some WordPress plugins such as Yoast SEO include built-in options to apply Scheme for you.

If you’re less experienced, why not try Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper Tool?  Using the tool you select your content type (article, event, etc), paste your URL and then click ‘Start Tagging’.  The tool will load your page and you can start tagging your content by selecting text and choosing the appropriate Schema tag for it (such as ‘name’, ‘author’ and so on).

When complete, click ‘Create HTML’ and you’ll be provided with your Schema ready to be added to your page either as JSON-LD (added to your page as a script) or as Microdata, as shown earlier in this article.

How make sure you have added Schema to your website correctly

There is plenty of really useful guidance at Schema.org.  There is information about the various Schema tags and how to apply them to your web pages.  Once you have done so, you can check your work by using the useful Google Structured Data Testing Tool.  Simply enter the URL to your page and the tool will check your Schema and report any errors, missing crucial items and may suggest other tags that you might want to add.

Conclusion

Hopefully, after reading this article, you will see the advantage of having Schema in place on your website.  It is easily overlooked but can help your website really stand out in SERPs.  A professional web design will find it straightforward to add Schema to your pages or templates, and should be doing this as already as a best practise.  Schema requires a little thought and effort, but is certainly worthwhile and nothing to be afraid of.

The post What is Schema markup and why is it important? appeared first on Jeremy Hickman.