What does a web designer do?

Many people, including those in digital marketing, find the concept of web design incredibly daunting. This is because when they think of web design they immediately picture endless passages of code that reads “<link rel=”stylesheet”” etc. etc. forever and ever in all its possible variations.

Whilst this is a huge part of web design, designers do a whole lot more than insert random pieces of code into a website’s backend. They are also largely responsible for the planning and creation of the website’s actual layout, and this plays a huge part in a business’s SEO performance.

Let’s find out exactly what web designers do and how it affects SEO.

Web designers create your website

What makes a web designer so valuable is their ability to incorporate both creative and technical design aspects when making a website. A designer has to consider how a website can be easily navigated whilst also making it visually appealing and in line with a company’s theme.

A designer has to consider a company’s brand, its themes, colours, text etc. when designing a website. They then go to work on designing a website that is both suitable for the company and appealing to users, using the following coding languages.

The languages of web design

Web designers use three different languages when creating websites: HTML, CSS and Javascript. They do the following:

. HTML: HTML is a group of “markup” tags that contribute to the website’s overall structure. It lays out images, links, paragraphs, footers, headers and everything else. HTML is used by search engine trawlers to index a company’s website, so it plays a vital role in a site’s SEO performance.
. CSS: “Cascading style sheets” is essentially utilised to accentuate HTML by controlling elements like text colours, sizing structure, background themes and more. CSS also makes it simple to change styles across numerous pages, making it a valuable tool in the designer’s repertoire.
. Javascript: Javascript essentially takes care of all the complex website elements. This includes everything that isn’t static on a webpage: moving images, interactive maps, video jukeboxes etc.

How does web design affect SEO?

Web design probably has the most important impact on user experience, as the user wants to see a visually appealing, highly functional website, one where they can easily access exactly what it is they came to the site for in the first place.

Search engines like Google take user experience very seriously when deciding what websites rank highly in search results. Therefore, if a website has been poorly designed by a subpar designer, there is a good chance site users will quickly leave the site.

The result? A negative response from search engine “trawlers” – bots used to analyse a site’s SEO efficiency.

Need help designing your website?

Light Forest and its team of expert web designers have the skills required to make your website a true digital champion. Feel free to call us or send an enquiry form via our contact page and we will happily discuss our web design service and how it can make your site highly visible to potential customers.