Published on July 28, 2024 | Last Updated on February 6, 2026

Web Design (UX) vs SEO

While there are thousands of ways for a person or business to interact with potential clients, the question of how to do so has been a common question among every business owner at one point or another. Web designers, User Experience and User Interface (UX/UI) designers, Search Engine Optimization specialists (SEOs), can sometimes come head to head over the best ways to attract and convert potential clients. While there are many ways to potentially get in front of your perfect clients, choosing the right mix is important. Read on to learn about what you should consider when deciding between a web design focus and an SEO focused marketing strategy.

What Is Web Design?

Web Design refers to the process of planning, conceptualizing, and arranging content intended for the web. It encompasses a variety of disciplines and skills that work together to create an aesthetically pleasing, functional, and user-friendly website. Depending on your website and goals, web designers may use various styles to attract clients who come to your site.

What Is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and quality of organic (non-paid) traffic to a website. This can be done by optimizing various elements found on the site, including keywords, meta tags, and improving content quality, to help search engines understand and rank the site better. SEO typically requires both technical and content-related strategies to enhance a site’s relevance and authority in the eyes of search engines like Google.

How Are They Different?

Web designers and SEOs are similar from a quick glance, but there are some key differences that can sometimes lead to them butting heads. Below are a few examples:

• Focus: Web designers are concerned with how users interact with and experience a website. SEO, on the other hand, focuses on improving a site’s organic visibility in search engine results.
• Objective: The primary goal of web design is to ensure a positive user experience, which can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates. This can lead to using graphics and other elements that are coded onto the site. SEOs aim to increase organic traffic by making the site more accessible and relevant to search engines through specific content creation and optimization. SEOs typically want to use HTML versus web designers which may want to use Javascript and HTML.
• Scope: Web designing involves design elements such as layout, color schemes, and usability. SEO involves optimizing content, technical elements, and off-site elements.

Can Web Designers and SEOs Work Together?

There are many ways that web designers and SEOs can work together. First of which is to have open communication and some cross training to understand how the two are actually similar. In reality, web designers and SEOs should work together closely since they have the same goal of bringing customers to the site and converting them. A website that is beautifully designed but poorly optimized for search engines can still struggle a lot to attract visitors. While a website that is highly optimized but offers a poor user experience can drive visitors away, even if it ranks well. Collaboration between designers and SEOs ensures that the site is both user-friendly and search engine-friendly.

What Should You Prioritize?

Ultimately, choosing between SEO and web design is up to your other marketing strategies. SEO should be factored at each stage of a website’s lifecycle to ensure that the brand grows and adapts to changes in the organic landscape. Web design is important as well if you are looking to target or portray a certain brand identity. A good web designer and a good SEO will be able to understand a little about other areas of digital marketing and can provide ideas on which may be a higher priority.

Technically if you are using social media or paid ads to drive traffic to your site then theoretically you can get away without SEO as the main focus, but you will have issues with growth likely in the future and spend a lot more on ads to drive conversions. SEO is a long-game approach to website growth and can help create a structurally sound website. Plus SEO can lead to free conversions over the long-term which can definitely help close margins.

How To Balance SEO and Web Design

Balancing SEO and web design involves integrating both practices into your website strategy.

• Design with SEO in Mind: Ensure that your design choices, such as navigation and page layout, facilitate easy indexing by search engines. For example, a clear site structure and accessible menus help search engines crawl your site more effectively. It also allows for you to show search engines and users the top pages for your website.
• Optimize for Speed: Fast-loading pages are crucial for both web designers and SEOs. Optimize images, use caching, and implement other speed-enhancing techniques to ensure your site performs well. For larger sites, there are opportunities for brands to use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to help site speed. Although, site speed is a known ranking factor for Google so keep that in mind when building or optimizing your website.
• User-Centric SEO: When optimizing for search engines, keep user intent in mind. Create content that answers users’ questions and provides value, aligning with both SEO best practices and user needs. Analyzing competition for your industry and/or in your local area can also provide ideas about how to optimize your website.
• Responsive Design: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly, as this impacts both UX and SEO. Search engines favor responsive sites, and users expect a seamless experience across devices. Since Google uses a mobile-first indexing approach, it is important to keep mobile sites front of mind.

Final thoughts

Ultimately whichever marketing tactics you choose to implement first, each will have to play some role in your website’s creation and maintainance. Driving traffic to your site is typically a front of mind tactic for conversions so ensuring you have both a great experience on the site and the right keywords ranking on search engines is important. As an SEO myself, I am a bit biased. However, I have worked with many web designers and have cross-trained in what they do. Blending the two worlds together is important for every business, and looking at all your marketing efforts can help you determine which is a higher priority in your unique situation.