Beautiful websites deserve to be found. But when SEO is treated as a post-launch afterthought rather than a core design principle, even the best sites vanish into the depths of Google's rankings. The good news? Modern tools like Framer handle the technical complexity of including SEO in web design, so you can focus on creating websites that both look amazing and get discovered.

1. Start With Mobile-First Design

Here’s a reality check: Over 55% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. And, critically for SEO, Google now uses mobile-first indexing, which means your site’s mobile version determines your search rankings. Without mobile optimization, you’re losing visibility and visitors.

Mobile-first design starts with responsive layouts that adapt to any screen size. This means giving touch elements plenty of space, keeping navigation simple, and ensuring pages load in under three seconds. Text needs to be readable too: Keep body text at least 16px to stay legible on smaller screens.

Framer makes mobile-first design simple with its Stack system and breakpoint controls. Instead of creating separate mobile and desktop versions, you can build one layout that works everywhere. Framer’s hierarchical approach means that the desktop version of your site acts as the parent container, so changes flow down to tablet and mobile sizes, while keeping your design consistent. Need to fine-tune the mobile experience? Device-specific breakpoints let you adjust spacing and layout without affecting how your site looks on desktop.

Tip: Convert frames to stacks in Framer’s Layout menu, use ”fill” for container widths rather than fixed sizes, and set heights to ”fit content.” For mobile views, change your stack direction to "vertical" and add about 24px of padding for comfortable spacing.

2. Perfect Your Site Architecture and Navigation

Site architecture isn’t the most glamorous (or visible) aspect of web design, but it’s critical for performance. For example, over 95% of websites struggle with redirect problems, costing them visitors and search rankings. The fix is straightforward: Create a logical hierarchy where users can reach any content within three to four clicks from your homepage.

This means using clear, descriptive categories and adding breadcrumb navigation, so users always know where they are. URLs should follow the same organized structure, using meaningful keywords instead of random numbers. When done right, this strategic architecture helps both search engines and visitors find what they need.

Framer makes site architecture simple. It automatically creates and updates your sitemap.xml file, helping search engines crawl and index your content efficiently. Framer’s URL management tools make it easy to build logical hierarchies and add breadcrumb navigation. You can customize URLs in site settings for better SEO, while the built-in redirect system protects your search rankings during site changes.

Tip: Use Framer’s Site Settings menu to manage URLs and keep your site structure clean. Through the Redirects panel, you can prioritize redirect rules by dragging them into order, and use wildcards to match multiple URLs at once.

3. Use Proper Content Hierarchy

Nearly 60% of websites are missing H1 tags, while over half confuse search engines by having multiple H1s on the same page. These might seem like small mistakes, but they can damage your site’s SEO performance and visibility.

Content hierarchy is your site’s invisible framework, making content easy to read and find. HTML heading tags (H1 through H6) guide readers and search engines through your site. Each page should have one H1 tag with your main keyword, followed by organized subheadings that break content into scannable sections. This structure, along with strategic white space, doesn't just help readers, it helps search engines understand and rank your content.

Framer handles content hierarchy automatically through its text styling system. It adds the right semantic tags (H1-H6, p, or span) to your text styles, creating proper HTML structure without extra work. Want to adjust these tags? Just open the Accessibility panel for quick customization.

Tip: Take a moment to check Framer’s automatically-assigned heading tags in the Accessibility panel to ensure they match your intended structure. (A quick review can avoid SEO issues later.)

4. Speed Up Your Site’s Performance

Speed starts at the top. Your above-the-fold content sets the tone for performance, so keep it lean and impactful. Include just your main heading and key message with clear calls-to-action that work across all devices.

Beyond that first view, focus on the basics: Optimize images with the right formats and compression, reduce HTTP requests, enable browser caching, and keep server response times low. Use lazy loading for images and videos to speed up initial page loads. Keep an eye on Core Web Vitals through Google’s PageSpeed Insights to catch and fix speed issues quickly. Remember: Faster sites rank better and keep users around longer.

Framer handles performance automatically, starting with its visual editor which produces clean, optimized code without the usual builder bloat. 

• It converts images to AVIF format (making them about 20% smaller) and resizes them intelligently for different devices. 

• Fonts load faster through WOFF2 conversion and smart subsetting, keeping text crisp without the slowdown. 

• Videos lazy-load by default, and you can use external hosting when you need extra performance.

Tip: For images, use AVIF as much as possible (though WebP is a better lossless format wherever you need higher quality). For the best font performance, use web fonts between Light and Bold weights, and stick to Google Fonts when you can.

5. Nail the Technical SEO Basics

The web is massive, with over 400 billion documents in Google’s index (and growing daily.) Standing out means actively helping search engines find and understand your site, while avoiding technical roadblocks that could hide your content.

Good technical SEO makes your site search-engine friendly. This means optimizing meta titles and descriptions, using schema markup to clarify your content’s meaning, and setting proper canonical tags. Keep your XML sitemap updated so search engines can find and index your content efficiently and use robots.txt to guide crawlers away from unnecessary pages.

Framer simplifies technical SEO with its built-in tools. You can manage meta titles and descriptions and add JSON-LD structured data through a simple interface. Framer automatically maintains your sitemap.xml and connects with Google Search Console, so you can quickly spot and fix any technical issues.

Tip: Check Google Search Console regularly to catch indexing problems early. Many fixes are simple, like making sure “show this page in search engines” is checked in your page settings. For redirect issues, review your rules in Framer’s site settings, and for duplicate content, either make the content unique or use canonical tags to point to the main version.

6. Optimize Images and Videos

Beyond the effects of loading times, images and videos can make or break your site’s performance. Start with the basics: 

• Include descriptive alt text for all core images (not decorative.) 

• Optimize image sizes and formats, while keeping quality intact using web-friendly formats like WebP for better compression. 

• For videos, add transcripts and schema markup to help search engines understand your content.

Framer takes care of image optimization for you. It automatically converts uploads to efficient formats like AVIF and WebP and offers multiple resolution options. Choose “Auto” mode to balance quality and performance or “Lossless” when you need perfect image quality. For videos, Framer enables lazy loading and adds poster images for faster initial loads. It even optimizes SVGs and integrates smoothly with YouTube and Vimeo for external video hosting—especially helpful to boost performance on media-heavy sites.

Tip: Keep your workflow simple by uploading images normally and leaving the ”Fill” → ”Image” → ”Resolution” setting on Auto. When adding videos, always set a poster image and maintain an updated Video component through “Assets” → “Components” → “Framer.”

7. Make Your Site Accessible

Even the most basic accessibility feature—alt attributes that help search engines and screen readers understand images—is missing from 80% of websites. And that’s just the beginning. True accessibility means thinking beyond alt text: You need high-contrast color schemes, text that’s readable at any size, and keyboard navigation that works, relying on proper element ordering. Don’t forget proper ARIA labels to help screen readers guide users through your site.

Framer turns accessibility from an afterthought into a natural part of design. It handles many features automatically, like assigning semantic tags to text styles, while giving you full control through its accessibility panel. Framer also supports reduced motion settings for users who prefer less animation.

Tip: Review each element in Framer’s accessibility panel, and add ARIA labels, adjust tab orders, and fine-tune semantic tags, as needed. For structured content, use appropriate frame tags like Article, Header, Footer, and Nav.

Supercharge Your Site With SEO-Driven Web Design

Great design isn’t enough if your site can’t be found. By developing a comprehensive SEO strategy and building best practices into your design process from the start, you create sites that both look amazing and drive real results. And with tools like Framer handling the technical details automatically, you don’t have to choose between stunning design and search performance.

Ready to build a website that ranks as well as it looks? Try Framer’s SEO features by signing up for a free account, or checking out our resource library for expert tips on creating search-friendly sites that stand out.