SEO Web Design (2025): Build a Website That Ranks and Converts

If your site can’t be discovered, load fast, and work flawlessly on mobile, you’re leaving rankings and revenue on the table. This 2025 guide shows how to design an SEO‑friendly website without sacrificing aesthetics, with clear thresholds (aim for LCP < 2.5s, INP < 200ms, CLS < 0.1) and step‑by‑step checklists. Use it to brief your team, pick a platform, and ship with confidence.

What Is SEO Web Design?

SEO web design is the practice of planning, structuring, and building a website so search engines can efficiently crawl, understand, and rank it—and users can quickly find and act on content. It blends information architecture, technical SEO, performance, accessibility, and on‑page UX into a single design system. The goal is compounding organic traffic and conversions, not just pretty pages, so every template and component must support discovery and intent. Validate success with Search Console impressions/CTR and conversion trends over time.

How SEO Shapes Design Decisions

Great web design for SEO starts with structure, speed, and signals baked into your templates—not bolted on at the end. Layout choices, media strategy, and navigation directly affect crawl paths, Core Web Vitals, and snippet eligibility in SERPs. Decide early where content lives, which components carry links, and how assets load to avoid rework later. As you prototype, test rendered HTML and CWV on key templates to confirm the approach scales.

Site Architecture & Navigation Patterns (silos, hubs, breadcrumbs, mega menus)

Your site architecture is how search engines and users discover depth and relationships. For most SMBs, topic hubs with supporting articles (hub-and-spoke) beat rigid silos because they’re easier to expand and internally link as coverage grows. Ecom and large catalogs benefit from hubs + filtered lists, with SEO landing pages for high‑demand combos (e.g., “men’s waterproof hiking boots”) that warrant indexing. Re‑crawl after each IA change to confirm click depth and link equity flow.

Use shallow, logical paths: /category/subcategory/product, /services/service-name, /blog/topic/post.
Add breadcrumbs that mirror hierarchy and mark them up with Breadcrumb schema.
Mega menus should expose primary categories only; avoid linking to every long‑tail filter from nav to reduce crawl waste.
Validate with a crawl (Screaming Frog) to ensure all key templates are reachable within 3–4 clicks.

Internal Linking From Day One

Internal links distribute PageRank and clarify topical relevance. Plan anchor placement in headers, footers, sidebars, and in‑content blocks so every page has at least 2–3 contextual links in and out. Build topic clusters: hubs link to spokes and spokes cross‑link laterally with descriptive anchors (“hiking boot care guide,” not “click here”) to reinforce relationships. Revisit anchors quarterly to align with emerging queries and intent shifts.

Bake “Related articles,” “Popular categories,” and “Next steps” components into templates.
On product/service pages, link to FAQs, comparison pages, and learning content.
Quarterly, export top pages by impressions in Search Console and add internal links to underperformers.
Validate with GSC’s Links report and a crawl to catch orphaned pages.

Content Modeling and Heading Hierarchy

Clear content models make pages scannable and snippet‑friendly. Each page gets one H1 that states the primary topic, H2s for sections, and short paragraphs or bullets under each to improve readability. Designers should define reusable content blocks (intro, benefits, specs, FAQs) and ensure they map to semantic HTML so bots understand structure. Check outlines in DevTools and adjust components if headings are misused for styling.

Keep H1s 45–65 characters; front‑load primary keywords naturally.
Use FAQ blocks with FAQPage schema for common questions.
Example pattern:
H1: “Waterproof Hiking Boots: Buyer’s Guide”
H2s: “How to Choose,” “Top Picks,” “Sizing,” “Care”
Validate with the HTML outline in DevTools and ensure headings aren’t used for styling alone.

Technical Foundations to Design For

Search engines reward sites that are crawlable, fast, and consistent across devices. Treat these as non‑negotiables in your design system and acceptance criteria so SEO quality ships with every release. Bake validation steps into CI and prelaunch QA to catch regressions before they hit production.

Crawlability & Indexability (robots, noindex, canonicals, sitemaps, JS rendering)

Govern what gets crawled and indexed so equity concentrates on valuable URLs. Let Google crawl pages you intend to noindex; don’t block with robots.txt if you need meta robots to be seen in the rendered HTML. Use self‑referential canonicals on unique pages, and canonical faceted/filtered URLs back to the base category unless the facet is a curated SEO page. Confirm directives render server‑side and appear in the crawled HTML Google sees.

robots.txt (allow core, disallow traps—not sensitive content):

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /*?sort=
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Meta robots for thin/duplicate facets:

Validate in Search Console: URL Inspection → View crawled page (HTML + screenshot); compare live test if JS is involved.
Ship XML sitemaps per type (pages, products, blog, videos) and keep them under 50k URLs each.

Core Web Vitals 2025: Targets and Fast Fixes (LCP, INP, CLS)

Core Web Vitals are ranking signals and major UX drivers. Current “Good” thresholds:

LCP: ≤ 2.5 s (75th percentile)
INP: ≤ 200 ms (replaced FID)
CLS: ≤ 0.1

Fast fixes that affect design:

Make the hero image the LCP and don’t lazy‑load it; add fetchpriority="high".
Preload LCP image and critical fonts; limit fonts to 1–2 families, 2–3 weights.
Reserve space for images, embeds, and consent banners to prevent CLS.
Defer non‑critical JS and use CSS for animations.

Example LCP preload:

Validate with PageSpeed Insights and the CrUX report; monitor user‑side metrics with a RUM script (web-vitals).

Performance Budgets and Asset Strategy

Performance budgets keep design disciplined. Set page‑type budgets in discovery and enforce in CI so scope creep doesn’t erode CWV. Tie budgets to mobile payload at TTI and document trade‑offs (e.g., one variable font instead of three families). Track deltas in PRs and fail builds that exceed budgets.

Suggested mobile budgets (initial HTML + CSS + JS + images at TTI):
Marketing page: < 150 KB JS, < 150 KB CSS, < 800 KB images
Blog post: < 80 KB JS, < 120 KB CSS, < 600 KB images
Product page: < 200 KB JS, < 150 KB CSS, < 900 KB images
Fonts: Use system fonts or a single variable font; preload WOFF2; font-display: swap.
Resource hints:

Prefer AVIF/WebP; serve responsive sizes (sizes + srcset); compress hero < 200 KB.

Track budgets in Lighthouse CI/WebPageTest. Fail builds that exceed budgets.

Mobile-First Responsive Patterns That Preserve SEO

Mobile is the canonical experience for rankings and users. Keep content and links parity between desktop and mobile; don’t hide critical copy, CTAs, or internal links behind tabs that aren’t indexable or discoverable. Maintain DOM order that matches visual order to support accessibility and snippet extraction. Validate parity with rendered HTML snapshots at common breakpoints.

Maintain DOM order to match visual order; avoid moving key content below the fold with heavy heroes.
Ensure tap targets ≥ 44px and readable line length (45–75 chars).
Test with GSC’s Mobile Usability and PSI; compare rendered HTML across breakpoints.

On-Page Elements That Move Rankings

On-page choices determine how your pages appear and earn clicks in SERPs. Design components should expose fields for titles, descriptions, headings, and structured data rather than hard‑coding content. Align title/H1, schema, and body copy so relevance signals are consistent. Review live SERPs to refine snippets for higher CTR.

Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Snippet Control

Titles influence rankings and CTR; meta descriptions influence CTR. Keep titles descriptive and unique; include brand only when useful or for branded queries. Align the H1 with the title to reinforce topic focus and avoid duplicate titles across templates that target different intents. Re‑check truncation and rewrites after publishing.

Titles: 50–60 chars, primary term up front, e.g., “SEO Web Design Services for SMBs | Brand.”
Descriptions: 140–160 chars; lead with value and a verb.
Use one H1 per page and ensure it aligns with the title; avoid duplicating titles across templates.
Validate with Search Console (HTML improvements) and check SERP truncation.

URL Structure and Slugs

Clean, human‑readable URLs help users and crawlers. Use lowercase, hyphens, and short slugs with the primary term so the path communicates intent. Avoid dates in blog slugs unless needed, and keep parameters for filters only to limit indexable URL sprawl. Before launch, test redirects at scale to prevent chains and loops.

Pattern: /services/seo-web-design/, /blog/seo-friendly-navigation/.
Avoid dates in blog slugs unless needed; keep parameters for filters only.
During migrations, keep slugs stable; map 301 redirects from every old URL to the closest new equivalent.
Validate with a redirect crawl before launch.

Image SEO: Filenames, Alt Text, Placement, and Formats

Images can carry relevance and speed penalties if mishandled. Use descriptive filenames and concise, helpful alt text that reflects the image rather than stuffing keywords. Place the primary image above the fold as LCP and serve AVIF/WebP with responsive sizes to cut payload. Audit with Lighthouse and accessibility tools to confirm sizing and alt coverage.

Filenames: waterproof-hiking-boot.avif, not IMG_1234.avif.
Alt text: “Men’s waterproof hiking boot on trail,” not keyword stuffing.
Place the primary image above the fold as LCP; prefer AVIF/WebP with responsive sizes.
Validate with Lighthouse’s “Properly size images” and check alt coverage with an a11y audit.

Video SEO in Your Design System

Videos boost engagement but can hurt LCP if they block rendering. Use a static poster, lazy‑load the player, and mark up with VideoObject to earn rich snippets. Don’t lazy‑load a hero poster that should be LCP; preload it instead and provide transcripts/captions for accessibility and long‑tail intent. Re‑measure LCP and interaction after adding video.

Do not lazy‑load a hero poster that should be LCP; preload the poster instead.
Provide transcripts/captions; host where you control schema (self host or use a platform that supports schema).
Example schema:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "SEO Web Design Basics",
  "thumbnailUrl": ["https://example.com/thumb.jpg"],
  "uploadDate": "2025-03-01",
  "description": "How to design a site that ranks and converts.",
  "contentUrl": "https://example.com/video.mp4",
  "embedUrl": "https://example.com/embed/seo-web-design"
}
</script>

Validate with Rich Results Test and watch LCP in PSI after adding video.

Structured Data for Designers: Win Rich Results

Structured data clarifies your content and unlocks rich results. Implement via JSON‑LD, keep it consistent with on‑page content, and validate in staging before shipping to production. Prioritize the minimal set that matches your templates to avoid contradictions and spam signals. Monitor Search Console Enhancements for coverage and errors.

Essential Schemas by Site Type (Organization, Breadcrumb, Article, Product, FAQ, LocalBusiness)

Pick the minimal set that matches your content:

Organization/LocalBusiness: Sitewide identity, NAP, sameAs.
Breadcrumb: Reflects IA on all interior pages.
Article/BlogPosting: For editorial content with author/date.
Product + Offer + AggregateRating: For ecommerce PDPs.
FAQPage: For genuine FAQs (don’t spam); supports rich results.
ItemList: For category/collection pages to describe a list.

Implementation Tips and Validation Workflow

Ship schema as JSON‑LD from templates, not tag managers where possible. Keep data authoritative and avoid contradictions between schema and visible content to protect trust. Put global identity once, then template‑specific entities where they belong, and include author entities with bios on editorial pages. Validate pre‑ and post‑launch and fix warnings promptly.

Put Organization/LocalBusiness schema in the global header; others at the template level.
Include author entities on articles with links to bio pages.
Validation steps: 1) Run code through Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator. 2) Deploy to staging; test rendered HTML (not just view source). 3) After launch, monitor Search Console → Enhancements for errors/warnings.

Example Organization:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "Organization",
 "name": "Example Co",
 "url": "https://example.com",
 "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png",
 "sameAs": ["https://www.linkedin.com/company/example"]
}
</script>

Accessibility, Trust, and E-E-A-T Built Into Design

Accessible, trustworthy sites retain users and earn better engagement signals. WCAG 2.2 practices also improve crawlability and comprehension, making it easier for bots and assistive tech to parse hierarchy. Build credibility into templates with clear authorship, policies, and reviews so users feel confident taking action. Track a11y scores and engagement metrics together to spot friction.

WCAG 2.2 Essentials That Help SEO (semantics, focus states, color contrast, ARIA)

Semantics tell both assistive tech and bots what’s important. Use proper landmarks, visible focus, and sufficient contrast to keep content legible and navigable on all devices. Apply ARIA only to enhance meaning, not replace native elements, and label form fields clearly to reduce abandonment. Re‑audit after component changes to prevent regressions.

Use header/nav/main/footer/aside; avoid div soup for key content.
Minimum contrast 4.5:1 for body text; ensure focus states on all interactive elements.
Use ARIA only to enhance semantics, not replace them; label form fields clearly.
Validate with Axe or Lighthouse Accessibility; aim for 90+ scores.

Author Pages, Editorial Policy, Reviews, and Trust Elements

E‑E‑A‑T signals should live in your templates. Add author bios with credentials, an editorial policy, review widgets with moderation, and trust badges where relevant to reduce hesitation. Surface last‑updated dates and references on articles to show freshness and sourcing. Ensure these pages are indexable and linked to strengthen entity understanding.

Article template: author bio, last‑updated, references/sources.
Service/product pages: genuine reviews/ratings, UGC guidelines, warranty/returns.
Sitewide: About, Contact (with physical address if applicable), privacy/terms.
Validate that author pages are indexable and linked from article bylines.

Consent Banners and CLS: Avoiding UX/SEO Reflows

Consent UIs often cause layout shifts. Reserve space and load them in a non‑blocking way so CLS stays ≤ 0.1 at the 75th percentile. Use CSS transitions rather than injecting elements above content after load. Re‑test CLS before and after deploying consent updates.

Allocate fixed height for the banner; avoid injecting above content after load.
Use CSS transitions instead of layout changes.
Delay non‑essential tags until consent is given; measure CLS before/after.
Validate in PSI’s diagnostics: “Avoid large layout shifts.”

Choose Your Platform/Stack: A Practical SEO Comparison

Platform choice affects crawl control, speed, and maintainability. Match your use case to strengths and constraints so SEO requirements are achievable without constant workarounds. Factor in URL control, rendering mode, and third‑party app overhead alongside team skills and budget. Pilot on a representative template to confirm CWV and indexing behavior.

WordPress vs Shopify vs Webflow vs Headless: Pros, Cons, and When to Use

WordPress
Pros: Extremely flexible, strong blogging, full control over URLs/meta, wide plugin ecosystem.
Cons: Plugin bloat/security risk if unmanaged, tuning required for speed.
Use when: Content‑heavy sites, local service businesses, publishers.
Shopify
Pros: Best‑in‑class ecommerce/checkout, CDN by default, solid PDP/PLP patterns.
Cons: URL constraints (e.g., /products/), limited control over some technical SEO, app bloat.
Use when: DTC stores prioritizing commerce velocity over custom IA.
Webflow
Pros: Designer‑friendly, clean HTML/CSS, CMS for marketing sites, fast hosting.
Cons: Ecommerce limitations, gated advanced SEO features, can ship heavy JS if over‑animated.
Use when: Marketing sites/landing systems that need speed + design control.
Headless (e.g., Next.js + CMS)
Pros: Performance at scale, granular control, omnichannel, composable stack.
Cons: Higher cost/complexity, SEO risks if client‑side rendered.
Use when: Large catalogs, multi‑region, or custom experience needs.

JS Frameworks (Next/Nuxt) and Rendering Options (SSR/ISR/CSR)

Rendering determines indexability and speed. Prefer SSG/ISR for content that can cache, SSR for dynamic pages, and avoid CSR‑only for primary content to ensure bots see meaningful HTML. Confirm that canonical/meta tags render server‑side and that hydration doesn’t block interaction above the fold. Use real crawls and live tests, not just local dev, to verify.

Checks:
View Page Source vs Rendered HTML; key content must be in the rendered DOM.
GSC URL Inspection → Test live URL → View crawled page and screenshot.
Block JS in DevTools to ensure essential content still appears when needed.
Hydration tips:
Split bundles, lazy‑load non‑critical components, avoid rendering carousels above the fold.
Ensure canonical/meta tags render server‑side.

Local and Ecommerce Considerations

Local and ecommerce sites have unique IA, schema, and crawl challenges. Design patterns must support NAP consistency, scalable filters, and index management for large catalogs. Build reusable modules for locations, reviews, and product facets to streamline rollout. Confirm coverage with sitemaps and Search Console segment reports.

Local SEO Web Design (NAP, Location Pages, Map Embeds, LocalBusiness Schema)

Consistency and local proof drive map and local pack visibility. Show NAP in the header/footer and match Google Business Profile exactly to avoid entity confusion. Create unique location pages with services, local photos, hours, reviews, and an embedded map (defer loading) to satisfy user intent. Add LocalBusiness schema and link to GBP to strengthen associations.

Show NAP in the header/footer; match Google Business Profile exactly.
Create unique location pages with services, local photos, hours, reviews, and embedded map (defer loading).
Use LocalBusiness schema with geo coordinates and sameAs to GBP.
Add a “Service Areas” hub with internal links; ensure location pages are in the sitemap.

Ecommerce IA and Faceted Navigation Without SEO Nightmares

Filters can explode URL counts and waste crawl budget. Curate indexable combinations and control the rest with canonicals and meta robots so equity consolidates on valuable pages. Keep “view all” only if it loads fast and supports CWV targets, and enrich category pages with ItemList schema. Reassess indexed facets based on search demand data quarterly.

Create static, optimized landing pages for high‑demand facets (e.g., /boots/waterproof/).
For generic param URLs (?color=red&size=10), use:
meta robots noindex, follow
canonical to the base category or the curated landing page
Keep “view all” only if it loads fast; use ItemList schema on category pages.
Don’t block parameters in robots.txt if you rely on meta noindex; let bots see the directive.

Redesigns and Migrations: Keep Your Rankings

Most SEO losses happen during migrations, not algorithm updates. Treat them like a release, with content parity, redirects, and rollback options documented in advance. Define acceptance criteria for CWV, rendering, and indexing so no regressions slip through. Monitor daily for 2–3 weeks post‑launch and adjust quickly.

Redirect Mapping, Content Parity, Prelaunch QA, and Rollback Plans

Inventory and map: 1) Crawl current site to export all indexable URLs and top organic pages (GSC + analytics). 2) Create a one‑to‑one 301 redirect map to the closest new URL; avoid chains.
Content parity: 3) Preserve titles/H1s/copy where possible; keep internal links and schema. 4) Maintain image filenames/alt when feasible; update sitemaps.
Prelaunch QA: 5) Block staging from indexing; run Lighthouse and CWV checks on templates. 6) Test redirects in bulk; verify canonicals, hreflang (if used), and robots.
Rollback: 7) Snapshot DNS/hosting and have a revert plan; monitor 404s and rankings daily for 2–3 weeks.
Acceptance criteria: 0 redirect chains, < 1% 404 rate, CWV parity or better vs old site.

Measurement Plan and Ongoing Optimization

What gets measured gets improved. Set up GA4, Search Console, and CWV monitoring on day one so you can attribute wins and catch regressions. Group content by template to see which designs drive engagement and conversions, then iterate with SEO‑safe tests. Use CrUX and RUM to validate real‑user experience, not just lab scores.

GA4 + Search Console Setup, CWV Monitoring, and A/B Testing (SEO-Safe)

GA4:
Track conversions (form submits, checkouts), site search, and scroll depth.
Create content groupings by template (blog, service, category, product).
Search Console:
Verify domain property, submit sitemaps, monitor Coverage, Enhancements, and CWV reports.
CWV:
Watch CrUX data monthly; add RUM (web‑vitals JS) to measure LCP/INP/CLS in the field.
A/B testing guardrails:
Avoid cloaking; server‑side or prerendered variants only.
Keep canonical consistent; don’t split indexable URLs across variants.
Limit internal link structure changes during tests.
Example impact: Compressing a 900 KB hero to a 180 KB AVIF and preloading reduced LCP from 3.4s → 2.1s and lifted organic CVR by 18% in 30 days.

SEO Web Design Checklist (Downloadable)

Move from theory to action with this concise, phased SEO design checklist. Use it as acceptance criteria in your tickets and PRs to keep teams aligned. (Download the Google Sheet version to customize.)

Planning, Build, Prelaunch, and Post-Launch Tasks

Planning 1) Define IA and URL patterns; decide hub pages and indexable facet landers. 2) Set performance budgets per template; choose fonts/assets strategy. 3) Specify schema per template (Org/LocalBusiness, Breadcrumb, Article, Product, FAQ). 4) Document component placements for internal links (nav, breadcrumbs, in‑content). 5) Write acceptance criteria for CWV (LCP/INP/CLS thresholds).
Build 6) Implement semantic HTML and heading hierarchy; ensure mobile content parity. 7) Add canonicals, robots directives, sitemaps; ensure SSR/SSG for primary content. 8) Optimize media (AVIF/WebP, responsive images, hero preload, font-display: swap). 9) Implement schema JSON‑LD; wire author bios and trust elements. 10) Integrate analytics (GA4), GSC HTML verification, and RUM.
Prelaunch 11) Crawl old site; complete 301 redirect map; test for chains/loops. 12) Run Lighthouse/PageSpeed on key templates; fix CWV regressions. 13) Validate schema, canonicals, hreflang (if used), robots, and no accidental noindex. 14) Generate and submit staging sitemaps for spot checks (blocked from indexing). 15) QA JS rendering with GSC Live Test; compare rendered HTML to design intent.
Post‑Launch (Day 1–30) 16) Submit sitemaps; fetch key pages; watch Coverage and CWV in GSC. 17) Monitor 404s/redirects; patch gaps; compare organic traffic vs control period. 18) Add internal links to pages with impressions but low CTR; refine titles/meta. 19) Ship deferred optimizations (code split, third‑party script trims). 20) Schedule quarterly audits for IA, links, and schema freshness.

FAQs

Does web design affect SEO? Yes—IA, internal links, speed, and mobile UX are ranking and engagement drivers. Design choices change crawl paths and Core Web Vitals, which impact discoverability and conversions.
What does an SEO web design performance budget look like, and how do I set one? Define per‑template caps for JS/CSS/image weight (e.g., < 150 KB JS, < 150 KB CSS, < 800 KB images on mobile). Use Lighthouse CI/WebPageTest to enforce and fail builds that exceed budgets.
How should I structure faceted navigation to avoid index bloat? Create static landing pages for high‑intent facet combos, canonical parameter URLs to the base or landing page, and apply meta noindex,follow on generic param pages. Don’t block parameters in robots.txt if you need noindex seen.
Which schema matters most by site type?
Local service: LocalBusiness, Organization, Breadcrumb, FAQ (where genuine).
Publisher: Organization, Article/BlogPosting, Breadcrumb, Author entities.
Ecommerce: Product, Offer, AggregateRating, Breadcrumb, ItemList on categories.
How do I prevent lazy‑loading from harming LCP and hero discoverability? Don’t lazy‑load the LCP image/poster; preload it and set fetchpriority="high". Lazy‑load below‑the‑fold media only.
What is realistic SEO web design cost and timeline for SMBs?
Starter marketing site (5–10 pages): $3k–$8k, 3–6 weeks.
SMB site (15–40 pages): $8k–$25k, 6–12 weeks.
Ecommerce (50–500 SKUs): $15k–$60k+, 8–16 weeks.
Headless/custom: $40k–$200k+, 12–24 weeks. Drivers: scope, content/migration complexity, ecommerce features, performance targets, multi‑language, integrations.
How do I integrate SEO requirements into Figma or specs? Annotate components with fields (title/H1, meta, schema), link slots (breadcrumbs, related), and CWV budgets. Add acceptance criteria per template and a “SEO checklist” page in the file.
What checks confirm JS‑rendered content is crawlable? Use GSC URL Inspection → Test live URL → View crawled HTML and screenshot; ensure primary content and links render server‑side or within a few seconds. Compare View Source vs Rendered HTML.
How should I handle pagination and canonicals on large categories? Use self‑referential canonicals on each page (not to page 1), provide clear next/prev links for UX, and ensure unique titles/descriptions. Consider “view all” only if performant; use ItemList schema.
When is headless better for SEO than a traditional CMS? When you need performance at scale, custom experiences, or multi‑region/language with complex integrations—and you can commit to SSR/SSG discipline and a larger budget/ops maturity.
How do I plan a zero‑loss SEO migration? Inventory top URLs/queries, map 301s one‑to‑one, preserve content and internal links, QA CWV and rendering, and monitor 404s and rankings daily. Keep a rollback plan and measure against baseline for 30 days.
Which hosting/CDN choices most influence CWV and crawl efficiency? Use global CDNs with edge caching (HTTP/2/3), image/CDN optimization, and server‑side rendering close to users. Fast TTFB (< 200 ms at edge) improves LCP and overall crawl response.

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Design decisions are SEO decisions—build your system around crawlability, speed, structure, and trust to win durable rankings. Start by setting performance budgets, mapping IA, and wiring schema into templates, then ship with the migration and QA checklist above. Want a head start? Copy the SEO web design checklist and adapt it to your stack, then schedule a 30‑minute audit to validate your plan with Lighthouse, Search Console, and CrUX.