How SEO Website Design at the Development Stage Can Save You Thousands of Dollars

SEO
Partnership
May 12, 2025
11 mins
seo website design
Content

Imagine launching a beautifully designed website for your new business, only to find that after six months that it brings any organic traffic. You’ve already spent thousands on design and development, and now you have to restructure your site, rewrite your content, and fix technical errors just to start growing the search rankings.

Unfortunately, this is a common and costly mistake. Businesses that don’t integrate SEO at the earliest stage of website development often have to pay for the same work twice. At Promodo, we’ve helped many clients correct these missteps, and in many cases, the cost of SEO improvement is huge!

The solution is simple: combine SEO and UI/UX strategy at the website development stage. This approach doesn’t just save money, it also builds a strong foundation for the long-term growth of your business.

What Is SEO in Website Development?

SEO in website development means designing and building a site that is search engine-friendly from the ground up. It considers both technical and content-related requirements that influence organic ranking in the future.

"Conducting an SEO audit during the website development stage significantly simplifies future promotion, as it ensures that all technical requirements and the logic for creating essential landing pages are taken into account from the start."

Vladislav Trishkin, Team Lead at the SEO Department  

Key components of web design SEO:

web design seo

You need to remember that SEO website development doesn’t mean incorporating stuffing keywords into a designed and developed website; it’s about using search data when structuring, designing, and building a new website. 

A well-optimized site begins with a collaborative effort between SEO experts, UX/UI designers, and developers.

Why SEO Website Design Should Start Before UI/UX

Many companies start with a visual-first approach. The homepage comes first, followed by page mock-ups, and then the SEO team is brought in once everything is built. This is backwards.

When SEO leads, we can:

  • Map out a user journey based on search intent
  • Define page types and URLs around keyword clusters
  • Ensure content is prioritized to align with business goals

With this foundation, UI/UX design becomes more than just aesthetics—it becomes a seamless layer over a strategically developed structure. 

❗Promodo’s SEO and UX/I teams collaborate to make sure website design and SEO support each other from the first brainstorm to the final mockup of your website.

How to Design SEO-Friendly Website: Step-by-Step SEO & UX/UI Integration During Website Development

At Promodo, we follow a phased approach that combines SEO and UI/UX from the earliest stages of website creation. Our SEO experts have provided a list of SEO processes that you need to consider at the website development stage.

SEO optimization at the development stage


Here’s how we recommend structuring your development workflow to ensure the site is search engine optimized, user-friendly, and ready to perform from day one.

1. Website Design with SEO Keyword Research

Before any wireframe or layout is created, we start with a comprehensive keyword research. We form a structured list of keywords that reflect your audience’s search behavior. This research defines:

  • Primary and secondary keyword clusters
  • Commercial and informational intents
  • Seasonal and niche-specific trends

This stage ensures that every website page has a purpose rooted in real user demand.

2. Hierarchical Website Structure

With keyword data in hand, we craft an intuitive site hierarchy that aligns with both SEO best practices and UX logic:

  • Group related topics into categories and subcategories
  • Prioritize high-value landing pages
  • Avoid orphan pages and excessive click depth

This stage is where SEO and UX truly begin to merge, ensuring that users and search engines can both navigate the site effortlessly.

In fact, in our recent collaboration with Ariamo Fashion Group, we had to completely restructure their website after launch—a necessary change driven by in-depth keyword clustering and search intent analysis that should have been addressed during initial development. Read more in our case study.

seo case study

3. SEO-Friendly URL Structures

A clean, keyword-relevant, and logically nested URL structure reinforces the site’s architecture and supports internal linking:

  • Use readable, hyphenated slugs (e.g., /products/dresses) 
  • Reflect site hierarchy in URL paths
  • Avoid dynamic parameters unless necessary

This contributes to crawlability, user comprehension, and improved CTR in search snippets.

4. Internal Linking for Navigation and Ranking Power

Using the site hierarchy as a base, we define internal linking strategies that guide users through content and pass SEO authority:

  • Connect related pages through contextual links
  • Ensure primary pages are linked from top-level navigation
  • Use anchor text aligned with the keyword strategy

This boosts both user experience and the crawl budget efficiency.

5. Incorporate Tags and Filters Without SEO Trade-Offs

Regarding website development SEO, logical navigation, filters, and tags are essential for eCommerce and content-rich sites. However, if not implemented properly, they can lead to duplicate content and crawl issues. Our approach includes:

  • Canonical tags for filtered pages
    Controlled indexation via robots.txt and meta tags
  • Unique content on high-value filtered pages

Our UX designers work closely with SEO specialists to balance usability with search performance.

6. Mobile Optimization from the Ground Up

With mobile-first indexing now standard, performance on small screens is non-negotiable. From the wireframe stage, we:

  • Design responsive layouts that adapt to all devices
  • Ensure interactive elements are touch-friendly
  • Optimize font sizes, button spacing, and image scaling

These considerations directly impact usability and Core Web Vitals scores.

7. Website Speed Prioritization 

Slow sites not only frustrate users but also lose rankings. We make speed a design priority by:

  • Avoiding heavy third-party scripts in early mockups
  • Using lazy loading for images and videos
  • Minimizing animations that block rendering

Before launch, we test performance on staging environments using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse.

8. Test SEO Signals in Design Prototypes

Using static prototypes and dev environments, we verify:

  • HTML semantic structure (headers, lists, tags)
  • Schema markup and structured data presence
  • Meta tags implementation strategy
  • Crawlability of menus and dynamic content

This technical QA prevents expensive fixes after the site is built.

9. Align SEO and UX Content During Page Design

Content isn’t just inserted into designs—it drives them. Using, the web design SEO approach, our team:

  • Maps content blocks to keyword intent
  • Aligns visual hierarchy with content hierarchy (H1 to H4)
  • Ensures copy supports both conversion and discoverability

Every CTA, heading, and paragraph is shaped by insights from search behavior and UX patterns.

In our case study, read how Promodo’s UX/UI team created the design for the new fintech product Scatter. With its easy-to-use and intuitive web design, we demonstrated that spending cryptocurrencies can seamlessly integrate into daily routines.

UX/UI case study

By integrating SEO into every design and development step—not just at the end—you reduce rework, prevent expensive corrections, and build a scalable site from day one. At Promodo, this process is at the core of delivering high-performance websites.

We also work with a network of proven development partners who understand how to implement these recommendations with precision—ensuring your vision becomes a powerful, optimized reality.

Execution Matters: Website Development That Supports SEO and UX

Even the best strategy falls flat without proper execution. That’s why Promodo doesn’t just stop at strategy and design. We collaborate with a wide network of reliable development partners to bring SEO-optimized website designs to life.

Whether you need a simple lead-generation website or a complex eCommerce platform, we’ll connect you with trusted development teams who specialize in implementing our detailed SEO and UX/UI recommendations. While SEO strategy remains entirely on our side, our partner developers ensure flawless technical execution based on our briefs. Our partnership department works with a wide network of reliable teams experienced in bringing our SEO-friendly solutions to life.

Developer Description
Web Systems Solutions An eCommerce development company with expertise in building and customizing online stores on Shopify, OpenCart, and WordPress. The team delivers flexible, user-friendly solutions tailored to your business needs, ensuring smooth performance, responsive design, and easy integration with marketing and sales tools.
Red Chameleon Laravel-certified development agency specializing in the creation and support of custom eCommerce solutions. With deep technical expertise and a focus on scalability, the team delivers tailored platforms that align with business goals, ensuring high performance, security, and seamless integration with marketing and SEO requirements.

Want to become Promodo's partner?
Feel free to contact us!

Common Mistakes When Creating a Website

Even experienced businesses fall into common traps during website creation, most of which stem from neglecting SEO until it’s too late. Here are some of the most frequent issues we encounter:

  1. Designing without keyword research

Without understanding what your audience is searching for, your content and page layout may miss the mark entirely.

  1. Ignoring SEO during sitemap planning

Skipping SEO input at this stage can lead to disorganized content, poor internal linking, and deep-clicked pages that go unnoticed by Google.

  1. Overloading pages with JavaScript and visuals

While animations and high-quality visuals look good, they can slow down load times and make content difficult to crawl.

  1. Unoptimized mobile experiences

A desktop-first design may fail to meet Google’s mobile usability standards, hurting rankings and user satisfaction.

  1. Using dynamic URLs or non-descriptive slugs

URLs like /product?id=456 offer no SEO value and confuse both users and search engines.

  1. Lack of structured data and metadata

Sites often go live without title tags, meta descriptions, or schema markup, missing crucial ranking signals.

  1. Leaving SEO for the 'finishing touches'

Treating SEO as a post-launch fix instead of an integral part of the build often results in costly rework and missed traffic opportunities.

Summing up

In the race to build a digital presence, too many businesses make a considerable mistake by ignoring SEO website design at the development stage. The result? Rebuilding, reworking, and repaying for what could have been done right from day one.

best seo company

By investing in SEO-optimized website development, you save thousands on future fixes and ensure faster growth. At Promodo, we offer a full-service approach: SEO, UX/UI, and access to trusted developers who can bring your site to life—the right way.

Want to save money and launch a site that drives results from day one?
Contact our SEO team!

Written by
Olesia Holovko

Team Lead of Content for promodo.com

Content marketing manager at Promodo with 7+ years of writing.

When creating valuable business content, I always seek fresh data, interesting facts, the expertise of professionals, and meaningful insights to bring relevant ideas to the audience. I believe that good content can enrich the experience of marketers, empower business owners to make data-driven decisions, and enhance companies in growth.

Written by
Vladislav Trishkin

SEO Team Lead at Promodo

Vladyslav has been working as SEO Specialist for over 5 years.His portfolio of projects includes: Ukr.net, Sinoptik, Concert.ua, etc.

He is a fan of Ahrefs, enjoys reading Google's Assessor's Guide, and is always ready to have a discussion about SEO.His main specialization is promoting content and media projects, and he has numerous successful case studies.

Beneficial link on Vladyslav's expertise:

1. https://www.youtube.com/live/2hGEmklt7ZM?feature=share

2. https://www.education.ua/trainings/trainers/20215/

3. https://wordfactory.ua/4-stati-ot-wordfactory-o-faktore-avtorstva-dlya-ranzhirovaniya-ymyl-sajtax/

Published:
May 12, 2025
Updated:
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