Good website design for SEO is mostly decided before anyone opens a design tool. The pages you plan, how they’re structured and linked, and how fast they load decide how easy the site will be to rank. Get those right and design can do its job: making people trust you and pick up the phone.
I build sites this way because I’ve spent my career on both sides, building WordPress sites and doing the SEO for them, since 2013. Here’s what to get right before you build.
1. Plan pages around what people search for
The biggest SEO decision in a web design project is the sitemap: which pages exist. For a local business, that usually means:
- A page for each main service, not one “Services” page listing everything.
- A page for each main area you serve, if you work across several towns.
- An about page and a contact page that make it obvious you’re real and local.
- Answers to the questions customers ask, in a FAQ or guides, written in plain language.
Each page should do one job. A page that clearly covers one service in one place is easier for Google to match and easier for customers to act on.
2. Use short, descriptive URLs
Google recommends URLs that include words useful to people, like /services/roof-repair/, rather than random IDs, because parts of the URL can show in search results as breadcrumbs. It also suggests grouping similar pages in folders, which helps Google understand how often different sections change.
Decide the URL structure before building. Changing it later means redirects for every page.
3. Write a unique title and description for every page
Google says a good title is unique to the page, clear and concise, and accurately describes the content, and can include your business name and location. A good meta description is short, unique and covers the page’s most relevant points. Build your site so every page can have its own title and description, rather than one template for everything.
4. Keep important content in text
Text inside images, sliders and videos is harder for search engines to read. Google lists “making sure that important content is available in textual form” among the SEO fundamentals. Use real text for headings, services, prices and contact details, and give every meaningful image descriptive alt text that explains what it shows.
5. Build for speed on phones
Speed is a design decision. Heavy themes, autoplay video and big sliders slow sites down before anyone writes a line of content. Aim for Google’s Core Web Vitals targets: main content visible in 2.5 seconds or less, responses to taps in 200 milliseconds or less, and a layout that doesn’t jump as it loads. My guide on how to speed up a WordPress site covers the fixes if you’re already live.
6. Link pages together on purpose
Google uses links to find and understand pages. Link each service page to related services, area pages and guides, and make sure every important page can be reached from your menu or other pages without relying on search.
7. Plan redirects if you’re replacing a site
If a redesign changes URLs, map every old URL to its new one and set up permanent redirects. Google suggests redirecting duplicate or old URLs to the one that best represents the content. Skipping this is the most common way redesigns lose rankings.
What Google says not to worry about
Google’s SEO Starter Guide has a list of things it believes aren’t worth your focus. Useful when someone insists on them:
| Myth | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Meta keywords | Google Search doesn’t use the keywords meta tag |
| Keywords in the domain name | Hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs |
| A minimum or maximum word count | Length alone doesn’t matter for ranking |
| Perfect heading order | Doesn’t matter for Search, though it helps screen readers |
| E-E-A-T as a ranking factor | It isn’t one |
| Duplicate content “penalty” | Inefficient, but not something that causes a manual action |
And keyword stuffing, repeating the same words over and over, is against Google’s spam policies.
How I approach a build
My process is simple: discovery, where I look at your site, Google Business Profile and competitors; a plan, agreeing target searches, pages and a timeline at a fixed price; build and optimize, with SEO built into every page; then reporting tied to calls and leads. The point is that SEO isn’t bolted on after launch.
If the local side matters to you, pair the build with my local SEO guide for small businesses, and for AI search, see how to show up in Google AI Overviews.
If you’re planning a new site, that’s what my web design service is for.
