Amazingly in a survey of web designers, 24% of them didn’t even know what SEO was and 10% didn’t think SEO was a indispensable part of the website creation process. This kind of shocked me, because if Search Engine Optimisation isn’t part of your web design process, then how do you know if your web site will be seen on the world wide web.
I am not advocating that all companies have need of the services of a Search Engine Optimization Company. Some of the big blue chip companies expend millions on advertising every year in order to imprint their brand name into your subconscious. Thus they in all probability don’t need a lot of intense SEO activity. Clearly not to get their company name known to the general public or the target group they are aiming for. Type Dell for example in Google and the first FOUR sites that materialize are Dell websites. The beliefconjecture is that you already know “Dell” as a household name. That isn’t so for a lot of small businesses.
For the hundreds of thousands of small to medium size businesses, even a modest advertising budget is a extravagance they just can’t find the money for. So instead, you invest in working with a good Web Design Company or a Freelance Web Designer. That’s a good place to begin you believe. Clearly over 90% of enterprises think the same way as you, so don’t get too hung up about alternatives just yet. Web Designers in the main live, breathe and talk code. The construction of a website, is capturing what you the business owner share with the Web Designers, and they transform that information into web pages which reflect the goods or services you want promote. Just like any other company, Web Design companies will try to bring into play the latest technology to make your web site “State of the Art” And again I have no specific objections to someone paying good money for what will in all probability be a great looking site.
Nevertheless a great looking site is kind of pointless if nobody is looking at it. You can lavish money on the latest Flash Menus, such as those ones which fade in and out. Looks hip on your homepage, but Google can’t see them. If you embed a link to another page here, it won’t be followed. To a Web Designer this isn’t a piece of bad design per se, but the effects are huge for Search Engine Placement. Other common practices are –
Utilising the same title text <title> on every page. To the Search Engine Companies like Google this looks like the content of every page is the same and so the uniqueness of your website is low and so your ranking falls.
Utilising “Click Here” or “Learn More” as the linking text. This is great if you would like to be ranked for “Click Here” or “ Learn More”. Better to bring into play the actual topic keyword, which is more useful for the clients and the Search Engine Companies.
So if Web Designers are a bit too inward facing and technology driven, how do you publicise your great looking, super charged website? My advice is to add a reputable Search Engine Optimization Company into the process. If the Website is already designed, it is still not too late, as a review and redesign could improve your Search Engine Placement and increase sales dramatically. As well as reassessing a list of good practices which are particularly aimed at the text used on the web pages, such as “Key Words” and the coding behind the pages, a good Search Engine Optimization Company will work together with online publishers and blogs. Online Marketing is a major optimization process and requires the creation of many articles to publicise your market sector, your business and specific keywords that you bring into play in your website. Search Engines attach importance to reliable and truthful articles about you and your business. They reward that information by steadily increasing the Search Engine Placement you enjoy. As I showed this is not an instant process, and as such, it is not something a web designer wants to devote a lot of their time to. Online Marketing is a entirely different skill set from web design. Typically the breadth of business, financial and life experience amassed to turn out numerous articles on a wide range of businesses, fits a more mature person who has been exposed to several different situations and has seen all sorts of market and financial situations. A good Search Engine Optimization Company will supply you with a long term partnership, and alter your web site and your Online Marketing as your company changes, or as the outside world goes through various technical, political and financial cycles.
So just remember Search Engine Placement is as important, if not more important than a super duper web page. Set some of your Web Design budget aside for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). You will definitely not regret it!!