Converting PSD to Wordpress has become quite common these days. More and more people are opting for it nowadays. When you design a website, you also have to take care of search engine optimization. However, website designers often do not fancy the term SEO as it hinders their creative aptitude and also limits their artistic freedom. But, in no way it means compromising on the design for the sake implementing SEO. Designers can always collaborate with SEO professionals to find a way out without having to compromise on any design element.
PSD and WordPress
PSD is the most widely used tool from the Adobe Photoshop stable. It is extensively used by graphic and web designers. It’s a huge software tool that helps you design, edit and customize different parts of an image, and save them in different formats. PSD is like a static image that springs to life when transferred to Wordpress.
In today’s technology driven, internet dominated world, a good website is the most important tool at the hands of business owners. The purpose of a business website is to drive traffic and generate revenue. However, if the website fails to deliver the desired result, people tend to invest more in SEO and end up over doing it. SEO is inescapable, you can’t succeed without it, but in your quest to drive more traffic to your site if you over emphasize on it, your website design might have to be compromised. Designers would be constrained to come up with the right layout and design.
Some common mistakes committed by the designers and the SEO professionals, and how to avoid them are discussed below.
Navigation
Ease of navigation, or the lack of it, directly affects the performance of a website and its bounce rates. Poor navigation, where visitors are not able to reach where they want to, can alienate the users as they get lost on the website. Designers must pay particular attention to the navigation system and make it as simple as possible so that the visitors can easily understand and use them. If the visitors get confused while navigating, they might leave the site and move on to some other site.
Splash Pages
Beautifully designed splash pages can significantly enhance the appearance of the website and make it more attractive. However, flash, java applets and other non-textual content are not good for SEO. Search engines do not recognize them, and therefore, don’t contribute towards ranking. While converting PSD to Wordpress, it is better to use texts in the body parts rather than splashes. If required, use them intermittently, and not at prominent locations.
Use of Images Instead of Important Elements
To make a website more SEO friendly, liberal use of images which complement the blog post or the website is necessary. But, if you go on adding images without any supporting text, it may not serve the purpose and your SEO strategy might fail. Instead, if you use keyword based headings and title, search engines would be able to track the real subject on which content is based. For images, optimize the image URL together with the keyword.
Absence of Breadcrumbs:
A breadcrumb or a breadcrumb trail is an important ingredient of the navigation structure. It’s a graphical control element that is often used to aid navigation in the user interface and web pages and it helps users keep track of their location on the website. It is very important from SEO perspective as it allows transparent navigation and helps search engines read the text links. Developers sometimes overlook this aspect and fail to incorporate it in the design, and it adversely affects the flow of traffic and the user experience.
Lack of H1 Tag and Meta Description
From the SEO point of view, H1 tag is very important, particularly on the home page. It gives search engines a clear idea about the topic of the content. Proper use of H1 tags and Meta description helps you improve your ranking. Sometimes, because of lack of adequate space on the webpages, designers do not include them, and that has a bearing on the SEO. Ensure that you hire Wordpress expert who are aware of this critical aspect of web designing.
Pop-Ups
Visitors like websites that have the least distractions or disruptions, and pop-ups do exactly that. Visitors don’t like such distractions and even the search engines look at it negatively. Pop-ups have some purpose to serve on a website, but if it covers the content or obstructs the design, it is not good for user experience. Also, it would appear even worse on mobile devices and negatively impact user experience and affect the SEO. When you are redesigning your website or converting PSD to Wordpress, it is critical that you carry over your existing SEO to the new site, or else you might lose your ranking and the number of visitors.
