Having an online presence doesn’t guarantee you lots of business. While most people focus on different marketing tactics to remain on top of search engine results, your marketing strategy isn’t the only factor when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Did you know that the design and development aspect of the website also plays a factor? Here are tips that, when implemented, help your website succeed in search engine rankings.

Keep the design simple.

Don’t be tempted by flashy design (or Adobe Flash itself); you need to keep the design of the website as simple as possible. Flash is outdated and search engines don’t rank websites with this plug-in very well. The websites take longer to load and can be confusing for visitors. While including images and even videos can keep visitors on your page for longer, you want your website to be easy to navigate for everyone.

The design should be responsive.

As technology has become mobile, so should your website. A responsive website is one that adapts to different screens. More and more people access the web from their tablets and smartphones so your website should easily be accessible with them. With a responsive web design, your site will automatically resize to fit the screen of the user’s device. This includes resizing of all buttons and menus so the visitor can easily navigate the website.

Integrate social media.

Having an online presence doesn’t just stop at a website – social media presence is just as important. The more platforms you’re on, the larger your potential customer base will be.  Remember that you want to concentrate on your target demographic, so find out which platform this population segment likes to use.

One way to get more visitors on your social media pages is to integrate your social media pages into your website. This means having social media icons that link to your pages. Search engines like social media and provide websites with links to them a higher ranking. 

Ensure your web pages load fast.

Search engines – along with visitors – like a website that loads fast. You want to make sure that the language and programming, if any, behind the pages are basic and don’t include things that need time to load. A good way to check how fast your web pages load is to use the PageSpeed Tool by Google. The tool not only tells you the speed but also provides tips on how you can improve it.

With these four tips, you are now better equipped to design a website. However, designing a website may not be as easy as it seems, even with so many different content management systems that do most the work for you. If you are in the cannabis business and looking for web design for dispensaries, then you need to go to designers that are familiar with working with such a business. They have the expertise and can guide you to effectively design a website that will yield a lot of customers.