Author: Sophie Davies

  • Why AI Search Is Accidentally Making SEO Cool Again

    Why AI Search Is Accidentally Making SEO Cool Again

    AI search SEO is having a weird moment. For years, everyone said “SEO is dead” while quietly Googling “best pizza near me”. Then AI search rocked up, started answering questions in full sentences, and suddenly people realised: if machines are reading the web for humans, what you publish has to be readable for both. Congratulations, SEO – you are undead.

    Designers and developers planning AI search SEO strategy at a modern workspace

    Why AI search SEO is bouncing back

    Traditional search used to be about matching keywords. AI search is about understanding intent, context and structure. Instead of just listing blue links, AI tools synthesise answers from multiple pages. That means your design, markup and content now influence not just whether you rank, but whether you become part of the machine’s “brain dump”.

    For designers and developers, this is huge. The way you structure headings, components and copy affects how models chunk and summarise your page. Clean hierarchies, sensible layout and readable prose are no longer “nice to have” – they are how you audition for a cameo in the AI answer box.

    What AI search actually reads on your site

    Under the hood, AI search engines are greedy for structure. They love:

    • Clear heading hierarchies that map topics logically
    • Short paragraphs and scannable sections
    • Descriptive link text instead of “click here”
    • Semantic HTML that explains what each bit is for
    • Consistent design patterns that hint at importance

    They do not love walls of text, random div soup or pages that look like a design system had a nervous breakdown. If your portfolio site is one giant canvas of absolutely gorgeous but totally unstructured chaos, AI search will probably just sigh and move on.

    Designing for AI search SEO without ruining your layout

    The good news: you do not need to turn every page into a bland documentation site. You just need to bake structure into your creativity. Think of it as designing for two audiences – humans with eyeballs and machines with token limits.

    A few practical tweaks:

    • Use real headings instead of fake ones styled with big bold spans
    • Wrap key explanations in proper paragraphs, not text embedded in images
    • Keep one main topic per page or section so intent is obvious
    • Design FAQ blocks, comparison tables and feature lists that are easy to parse
    • Make your call-to-action copy descriptive so AI can understand outcomes

    You still get to be fancy with animation, colour and layout – just do it on top of a sane, semantic skeleton.

    What developers should change in their builds

    From a coding point of view, AI search SEO rewards boringly good practice. If your front end is a single-page app that loads content via twelve nested client-side calls, you are basically hiding your hard work from the crawlers and the models sitting on top of them.

    Helpful adjustments include:

    • Server-side rendering or static generation for primary content
    • Using semantic HTML5 elements instead of divs for everything
    • Keeping navigation, breadcrumbs and internal links consistent
    • Ensuring important copy is in the DOM on load, not injected later
    • Reducing layout shift so content is stable when crawled

    Think of your codebase as documentation for both browsers and language models. The clearer it is, the easier it is to be quoted.

    Content patterns that play nicely with AI answers

    AI search loves patterns it can recognise and reuse. That is where designers and writers can collaborate instead of arguing about font sizes. Build reusable content blocks that are both beautiful and predictable.

    Useful patterns include:

    • Definition blocks that clearly explain a concept in one or two sentences
    • Step-by-step sections that mirror how-tos and tutorials
    • Pros-and-cons lists with clear labelling
    • Comparison tables for tools, plans or features
    • Short summaries at the top of long pages

    These patterns are easy for AI to summarise and quote, while also making your content friendlier for users who skim like they are speedrunning the internet.

    Future proofing your design work for AI search

    The main shift is mindset. Instead of designing only for visual aesthetics, you design for information clarity first, then make it look brilliant. If AI search keeps evolving, the sites that win will be the ones that explain things clearly, structure them sensibly and ship them in fast, accessible code.

    Structured web page layout and semantic HTML optimised for AI search SEO
    Team mapping site architecture and content patterns to improve AI search SEO

    AI search SEO FAQs

    How does AI search change traditional SEO?

    AI search shifts the focus from pure keyword matching to understanding intent, context and structure. Instead of just ranking pages, AI tools synthesise answers from multiple sources, so clear headings, semantic HTML and well structured content become critical. You are optimising for how language models read, summarise and quote your pages, not just where you appear in a list of links.

    What should designers do differently for AI search SEO?

    Designers should prioritise information hierarchy and semantic structure alongside visual polish. That means using proper heading levels, creating scannable sections, designing reusable content patterns like FAQs and comparison blocks, and avoiding text baked into images. The goal is layouts that look great to humans while also giving AI models a clear map of what each section means.

    What coding practices help with AI search visibility?

    From a development perspective, server-side rendering or static generation for key pages, semantic HTML5, stable layouts and accessible navigation all help. Ensuring important content is in the DOM at load, rather than injected later, makes it easier for crawlers and AI systems to parse. Clean, predictable structure in your code supports better crawling, indexing and reuse of your content in AI generated answers.

  • From Blank Page To Launch: The Real Website Design Process

    From Blank Page To Launch: The Real Website Design Process

    The website design process looks simple from the outside: pick a template, slap on a logo, publish, profit. In reality, a good site is more like a well-run software project than a glorified PowerPoint. Let us walk through how to go from vague idea to live, working website without crying into your CSS.

    Team mapping out a website design process with wireframes and laptops in a modern studio

    What is a modern website design process?

    A modern website design process is a structured set of stages that takes you from goals and user research through to design, development, testing and launch. It keeps your project from turning into a spaghetti mess of half-finished pages, random plugins and mystery errors at 2 a.m.

    Think of it as a pipeline: understand, plan, design, build, test, launch, iterate. Each step feeds the next, and skipping one usually comes back to haunt you like an unpatched dependency.

    Stage 1: Discovery and defining the brief

    Before you even open Figma, you need to know what the site is actually for. This is the most underrated part of the website design process and the bit that saves the most pain later.

    • Goals: Are you trying to get leads, sell products, build a community, or just prove you exist?
    • Users: Who are they, what do they need, and what device will they probably be using when they land on your site?
    • Success metrics: Email sign ups, form submissions, time on page, reduced support tickets – pick a few that actually matter.

    Out of this you should have a short, clear brief: what the site must do, what it should look like vibe-wise, and what is absolutely non-negotiable.

    Stage 2: Information architecture and wireframes

    Now you know what you are building, you need to decide how it all fits together. This is where you build the skeleton before worrying about the pretty skin.

    • Sitemap: List your core pages and how they connect. If your sitemap looks like a dungeon crawler map, simplify.
    • User flows: Map how a user moves from entry point to goal – for example, from a blog post to a contact form.
    • Wireframes: Rough layouts of pages using boxes and placeholder text. No colours, no fonts, no pixel perfection, just structure.

    Wireframes are where you fix layout problems while it is still cheap and fast, instead of after your developer has lovingly hand-crafted the wrong thing.

    Stage 3: Visual design and components

    With wireframes approved, you can finally unleash your inner design goblin. This stage turns grey boxes into something that looks like an actual brand, not a government PDF.

    • Design system: Colours, typography, spacing, buttons, forms and reusable components.
    • Accessibility: Colour contrast, focus states, readable font sizes and logical heading structure.
    • Responsive layouts: Designing for mobile, tablet and desktop, not just a 1440px artboard you stare at all day.

    By the end, you should have a clickable prototype or at least a clear set of screens that developers can actually interpret without telepathy.

    Stage 4: Development and content integration

    This is where your design leaves the comfy world of pixels and enters the slightly more chaotic world of code. The website design process now becomes very real.

    • Front end: Turning designs into HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with a focus on performance and accessibility.
    • Back end: Setting up the CMS, databases, integrations and any custom functionality.
    • Content: Real copy, images and media get added. Lorem ipsum is banned at this point.

    If you are not coding it yourself, this is usually when you work with developers or website designers who can translate your beautiful Figma dreams into something that loads in under three seconds.

    Stage 5: Testing, optimisation and launch

    Never ship a site you have only seen on your own laptop. The final stage of the website design process is to try your very best to break it before your users do.

    Designer refining a responsive layout as part of the website design process on a laptop screen
    Developers checking a new build on different devices during the website design process

    Website design process FAQs

    How long does a typical website design process take?

    For a small to medium site, the website design process usually takes anywhere from four to eight weeks, depending on how fast decisions are made and how prepared your content is. Larger, more complex builds with custom features, integrations or multiple stakeholders can easily stretch to several months. The biggest time sink is rarely the coding itself but feedback loops and waiting on content, so having copy, images and a clear decision maker lined up speeds everything up.

    Do I really need wireframes before designing the site?

    Yes, wireframes are worth the time. They let you focus on structure, hierarchy and user flows before getting distracted by colours and fonts. Skipping wireframes in the website design process often leads to endless layout changes later, which is slower and more expensive once development has started. Even low fidelity sketches or simple digital wireframes are enough to catch navigation issues and content gaps early.

    When should I start thinking about content in the website design process?

    Start thinking about content right after the discovery stage, not at the end. Content drives layout, not the other way around. During the website design process, you should be drafting key messages, headlines and calls to action while wireframes are being created. By the time you reach development, most of your core content should be written, reviewed and ready to drop in, so you are not launching with placeholder text or rushed copy.