How Website Design Impacts SEO (and What Your Designer Should Be Doing for You)

You’ve probably heard that SEO matters if you want your website to show up on Google. But what no one tells you is that SEO isn’t just about keywords—it’s also about design.

If your site looks like it was built in 2009, loads slower than molasses, or feels like a maze instead of a map, Google (and your dream clients) are going to bounce.

Let’s break down how website design impacts SEO—and what your designer should be doing to help.

Part 1: How Website Design Impacts SEO

Design isn’t just about how things look. It’s about how they function. And every design choice—fonts, structure, layout—can either help or hurt your visibility in search.

Here’s how:

1. Load Time

If your website takes too long to load, visitors leave. And Google notices. Compressed images, efficient code, and choosing a platform that loads quickly all play a role in your ranking.

2. Accessibility

SEO and accessibility go hand-in-hand. Google rewards sites that are easy to navigate, readable, and usable for everyone—including those with visual or physical impairments.

3. Heading Hierarchy

Using headings correctly (H1, H2, H3…) helps both your visitors and search engines understand the structure of your content. Think of it like an outline—Google reads it that way.

4. Platform Choice

Some website platforms just aren’t built with SEO in mind. If your site is on an all-in-one software that can’t be crawled or customized, it’s going to hurt your ranking. (Spoiler: SimplePractice might manage your clients well, but it’s not designed to help you get found.)

5. User Experience (UX)

Your site should guide visitors where they need to go without friction. Clear navigation, readable fonts, and strong calls-to-action all tell Google, “Hey, people like being here.”

6. User Journey

Search engines prioritize sites that offer a good experience. That means the journey from homepage to booking should be clear, logical, and fast. Think mini-golf, not escape room.

Part 2: What Your Website Designer Should Be Doing for SEO

Here’s the hard truth: most website designers aren’t thinking about SEO. They’re focused on colors, fonts, and making everything look “clean”—which is important! But if the backend isn’t optimized, you’re left with a beautiful website that no one ever sees.

Most designers stop at surface-level updates like:

• Making sure the site looks good on desktop

• Picking a modern font and layout

• Adding your copy and images

• Making the site “mobile-friendly”

• Publishing the website and calling it done

Some might plug in a few keywords you give them or fill out a basic SEO title and description—but without a strategy, it’s a guess at best. And they usually leave all the tech stuff (like redirects or image compression) up to you.

This leads to websites that look nice, but don’t function like marketing tools. If your site isn’t getting traffic, ranking for anything, or converting visitors into clients, design alone isn’t the problem—it’s the lack of SEO strategy built into the design.

What I Include in Every Website Project:

When I design a website—especially for health and wellness pros—SEO isn’t an afterthought. It’s baked in from the very first phase. Here’s what you get in my process that most designers skip:

• Basic keyword research based on your industry, services, and location

• SEO titles and meta descriptions written to attract both search engines and real people

• Testing all links and buttons across your site to make sure there are no broken connections

• Setting up 301 redirects from old or outdated URLs to preserve your traffic and ranking

• Renaming image files with keywords so they show up in search and reinforce your content

• Optimizing image sizes and file formats (hello faster load times and happy users!)

• Using a proper heading structure (H1 → H2 → H3…) to organize content and support SEO

• Creating an accessible color palette that meets contrast requirements and supports readability

• Adding alt text to every image for screen readers and image search visibility

• Setting up a blog (and formatting it correctly) so you’re ready to start publishing helpful content

• Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console or walking you through how to do it

• Building internal links between pages and posts to improve navigation and page authority

• Creating clean, SEO-friendly URLs (no random numbers or slashes—just clear, helpful structure)

• Optimizing mobile layout and performance so your site looks and works great on every device

Part 3: What Happens When You Do It Right

Real talk: You can have a beautiful site and great SEO. You don’t have to choose.

Here’s what that’s looked like for my clients:

Happy Hollow Resort

After a full rebrand and website redesign, Happy Hollow Resort saw major growth in organic visibility and user engagement. They’re now ranking in the top 3 for 38 keywords (up from 16), with a 28% increase in website traffic and a 19% improvement in click-through rate year-over-year. Nearly half of their website visits now come from organic search—proof that great design and SEO go hand in hand.

• Top 3 ranking for 38 keywords (up from 16)

• Website traffic up 28% YoY

• Average search position improved from 50.2 to 24

• 46.6% of visits now come from organic search

• Click-through rate up 19%

Copy by B

This website refresh combined streamlined design with a strong SEO foundation. Since the redesign, Copy by B has added 23 new ranking keywords and increased their organic search traffic by 13%, helping more of their ideal clients find and trust their work.

• Ranking for 23 more keywords since redesign

• Traffic from search up 13%

MAE Aesthetics

After working together to redesign and optimize her website, MAE Aesthetics saw a 120% month-over-month increase in search impressions and is now ranking for 44 keywords. This big boost in local search visibility is helping her business get found by potential clients who are ready to book.

• Search impressions up 120% month-over-month

• 44 keywords ranking in local search (hello visibility!)

Dr. Ashley Family Chiropractic

With a strategic site structure and focused local SEO, Dr. Ashley’s new website is now ranking in the top 3 for 20 local keywords and 40 keywords total. In just 30 days, the site saw over 1,100 pageviews, and more than a quarter of all traffic is now coming directly from search.

• Ranking in the top 3 for 20 local keywords

• 1,172 pageviews in 30 days

• 26.6% of traffic from organic search

These aren’t unicorn outcomes. They’re the result of pairing good design with intentional SEO strategy.

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Your Website Should Work as Hard as You Do

You deserve a website that:

• Shows up in search

• Converts visitors into clients

• Reflects the heart of your practice

• And makes you feel confident sending people there

If your current site isn’t doing all that, let’s fix it. My one-week website design process is built for wellness pros like you who want clarity, results, and support—without spending 6 months buried in revisions.