How to Come Up on Top in Google
AKA: Getting Found Online
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is what helps people find your website when they search in Google. It’s the difference between being buried on page 7 and showing up where your customers actually click. If you’re new to SEO terms, our Website Vocabulary SEO entry is a great place to start.
At Austin Web & Design, we’re not a full-time SEO agency, but we believe great SEO is a core part of great web design. Just like Ford isn’t a furniture company but still installs comfortable seats, we’re a web design company that builds strong, modern SEO into every site we create.
However, simply having solid on-site SEO doesn’t always guarantee you’ll outrank competitors—especially for high-value, competitive keywords. For those situations, you’ll often need an ongoing SEO campaign that includes content strategy, link-building, and continuous optimization. While we don’t manage long-term SEO campaigns, we’re happy to recommend trusted SEO partners once your website foundation is in place.
On-Site vs. Off-Site SEO
Google uses hundreds of signals to decide how to rank your website. These generally fall into two big categories:
- On-site SEO – Everything on your website: content, headings, internal links, page speed, mobile friendliness, URL structure, meta titles, and descriptions.
- Off-site SEO – Signals from outside your site: backlinks from other websites, brand mentions, social activity, online reviews, and overall authority.
When we build or redesign a website, we focus heavily on your on-site SEO foundation. That means clean code, smart structure, SEO-friendly URLs, fast-loading pages, mobile-responsive layouts, and keyword-aware setup. For clients wanting DIY SEO improvements after launch, we also recommend posts like 8 Important DIY Things You Can Do for Your SEO and SEO in 3 Easy Steps.
Related Blog Posts + SEO Resources
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Configuration
- The 8 Most Important DIY Things You Can Do for Your SEO
- SEO in 3 Easy Steps
- White Hat Style and the Danger of Following SEO Trends
On-Site SEO (Included with Every Website)
Every Austin Web & Design project includes on-site SEO best practices. We make sure your site is structured in a way that search engines can understand and people can actually use. That includes logical page hierarchy, internal linking, optimized headings, descriptive URLs, and easy-to-scan content layouts.
If you’d like help writing or refining the content itself, we can collaborate on copy that’s both user-friendly and SEO-aware as part of your custom website design project.
Speed Optimization
Google loves fast-loading websites—and so do your visitors. Page speed is now a key part of Google’s ranking systems and Core Web Vitals. Slow sites lead to higher bounce rates, fewer leads, and lower search visibility.
We build speed directly into your site by:
- Optimizing and properly sizing images
- Minimizing unnecessary scripts and styles
- Leveraging browser caching and server-side caching
- Using clean, lightweight themes and layouts
- Integrating a Content Delivery Network (CDN) when appropriate
If you’re interested in performance improvement for an existing site, our Website Maintenance Plan and Hourly Support can help tune up speed, caching, and hosting configuration.
Responsive, Mobile-First Design
Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means your site’s mobile experience is often the primary version used for ranking. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, it will struggle in search results—especially on phones.
Every site we build is fully responsive, meaning it adapts gracefully to phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. Buttons are tap-friendly, text is readable without zooming, and layouts are designed to work beautifully on smaller screens.
SSL Encryption & HTTPS
Google strongly prefers secure sites that use HTTPS. Visitors expect to see the little lock icon in their browser—and may leave quickly if they don’t. HTTPS protects data passed between your visitors and your website and is now considered a basic requirement for modern sites.
The good news is that most quality hosts now provide free SSL certificates through services like Let’s Encrypt. We help configure SSL, update your URLs to use https://, and fix common issues like mixed-content warnings. For DIY guidance, see our Setting Up HTTPS tutorial.
Smart Use of Keywords
Keywords are the phrases your ideal customers type into Google. When you choose clear, focused keywords and write content around them, we reinforce those signals in all the right technical places:
- Page titles and meta descriptions
- Headings (H1, H2, H3)
- Image ALT text and file names
- SEO-friendly URLs
- Internal links between related pages and blog posts
If you’re interested in improving your own content, check out our DIY posts, including SEO in 3 Easy Steps and 8 Important DIY Things You Can Do for Your SEO.
Beautifully Designed, “Sticky” Websites
Google pays attention to how visitors interact with your site. If people click your result and immediately bounce back to Google, that’s not a great signal. If they stay, explore multiple pages, and spend time engaging with your content, that tells Google your site is useful and relevant.
We design websites to be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and enjoyable to use. Clear content, intuitive layouts, strong calls to action, and thoughtful design all work together to keep visitors on your site longer—which is great for both conversions and SEO.
For Redesigns: URL Strategy & 301 Redirects
If you’re redesigning an existing website, suddenly changing or deleting URLs can hurt your SEO. Google doesn’t like to see useful pages disappear without a plan. That’s why we:
- Keep high-value URLs the same whenever possible
- Map old URLs to new ones with proper 301 redirects
- Preserve link equity from other sites that already link to you
- Help you avoid “Page Not Found” errors after launch
This careful approach helps maintain your existing rankings while giving you the benefits of a modern, better-performing website.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s where Google Analytics and Google Search Console come in. These free tools help you:
- See how many people visit your site and which pages they view
- Understand what keywords and queries are driving traffic
- Identify pages that need performance or SEO improvements
- Monitor search visibility, clicks, and technical issues
We connect your site to these tools so you can track performance and make informed decisions. If you’d rather not DIY, our maintenance and hourly support services can help you interpret the data and prioritize what to improve next.
If you’re ready for a website that looks great, loads fast, and is built with SEO in mind from day one, learn more about our custom WordPress website design services.