Tom Shivers
Web site designers know that keeping the client happy is the most important thing; however, this approach often backfires when one of the client"(tm)s goals is to gain top search engine rankings. Good SEO web site design delivers a beautiful and functional website, a pleasant experience for those who use it, and a search engine-friendly design. But what happens when a web designer has a client who wants esthetics or navigation that takes away from the site"(tm)s ability to gain top search engine rankings? Do web developers go along with their client"(tm)s wishes at the expense of search engine rankings, or do they politely guide the client toward achieving all of their goals?
The biggest difference between web designers and SEO professionals is what motivates them: creativity versus strategic thinking. A web designer is ultimately motivated by making a website look good to the client, thus satisfying them visually. An SEO professional is ultimately motivated to gain top search engine rankings for competitive keywords, thus gaining visibility. More business owners are now waking up to the fact that web designers are more artists than online marketers. So it is vital to have the SEO professional and web designer work together cooperatively on web site design.
"We do search engine optimization, too." Often, a web site design company does a few aspects of search engine optimization but does not really do what it takes to gain top rankings. Companies can get roped in on this claim because a firm does a great job at web site design or because the client has "one-stop shop" syndrome, and so assumes a design firm is equally skilled at SEO.
Most web developers do not consider the implications of search engine optimization during the design phase. For example, to gain top rankings for competitive keywords requires outranking hundreds or even thousands of other websites that have already been optimized for that keyword. Simply updating the meta tags will rank the site at the bottom of the "optimized" heap and will require ongoing work to gain a top ranking.
The client wants to keep costs down, so the web developer compromises the SEO to stay within budget. The client needs to know from his advisors (designers and SEO professional) what is and is not practical, so he can reassess the budget and design based on information supplied by an SEO expert. Because budget is important, developers often shortcut past this advisory checkpoint "" at the expense of gaining top rankings for the client"(tm)s site.
It"(tm)s important to find a good web developer who will listen to your requests, and who also will advise you on the best way to implement the design and SEO. He needs to talk realistically with you if the amount of work involved is not within your budget. Too often, web developers simply implement a client"(tm)s wishes without addressing the limitations and problems that come with that solution. Ethical and knowledgeable web developers can explain why you want the opinion of an SEO professional.
There are a number of issues that web designers might not handle correctly when top search engine rankings are important, including:
Search engine-friendly design Obviously, you want visitors to have a good experience on your site. But you also want search engine spiders to find all the pages and content that will rank your site for a particular keyword. If your site isn"(tm)t spider-friendly, it will never be top ranked. Here are some of the search engine-friendly web design issues we deal with regularly:
Navigation structure Search engines don"(tm)t notice if your site has creative navigation, but do notice if the navigation is cluttered. Depending on how many pages your site contains, tightly focused content organized by topic can pay off with higher search engine rankings. Design navigation to optimize themes and internal linking.
Website redesign etiquette After a redesign, there are usually old pages that are no longer used and might have been removed from the web server, but which are still listed in the search engines. Don"(tm)t miss out on search engine traffic because your web developer didn"(tm)t redirect those old URLs to the new ones. There are various protocols, depending on the web server, to handle URL redirects and maintain search engine rankings. A custom error page is also useful for visitors who click on a broken link or an address that is no longer available.
Copywriting and duplicate content issues If your web page contains the same wording as another page on the Internet, it could be filtered by the search engines because it is considered duplicate content. Search engines use a filter to remove duplicate content pages and spam from the results they provide. Unfortunately, many good web developers"(tm) work has fallen victim to the duplicate content filter. These developers unknowingly do a disservice to their clients when there are things they could do to avoid their pages"(tm) being filtered out of the results. Common causes of duplicate content include:
Without question, original content is the best content for websites. Always use a quality copywriter to make your web writing unique and compelling for your particular audience.
Conclusion Resist the temptation of the one-stop shopping experience. If you give in, you will likely be sacrificing one or more of your goals for the convenience. When the business owner forges a cooperative relationship between the web site designer and SEO professional, everyone wins. This means thinking through the SEO issues at the beginning of the web site design plan.
Would you prefer to have the site that looks good and keeps the customers happy or the one that also gets 40 e-mail requests and new customers every day? This is reality for businesses that will not settle for anything less than experts in SEO and web site development.
About the Author:
Tom Shivers is a search engine optimization professional and President of Capture Commerce, Inc., which he founded in 2000 to help businesses leverage the Internet for growth and profit. Capture Commerce specializes in search engine marketing and conversion rate marketing, and currently serves clients across several industries including travel, automotive, industrial, education, and the arts. Learn more at http://www.capturecommerce.com/.
