Does Your Website Designer Need to Know Anything About SEO?

Does Your Website Designer Need to Know Anything About SEO?
By Nadja Eberhardt

SEO companies like to claim that website designers really don’t know/need to know much about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Yet by trying to corner a market, clients are often missing out on the important link between the SEO and website design.

For sure there are of course plenty of website designers who know very little about SEO. But it should in practice be something every website designer knows enough about in order to design a website which is fundamentally search engine friendly – and something every client should ask their designer about before embarking on a website project.

But why not design a website first and then find an SEO company to do the rest? Because by using a website designer with some knowledge of SEO, you could save yourself lots of time, money and search engine failure!

To start with, a site should be optimised for a few chosen keywords. These should be chosen well before the designer has started building the site. For once these keywords have been identified, they need to feature in the website copy, headings, links etc, with under or overuse of these keywords both having potentially negative consequences on search engine results.

Choice of URL (internet address) is another important consideration. Many clients buy hosting and URL as part of a website design package. Poor choice of URL can mean that the client is potentially losing out on a key aspect of optimising their site (and one which will be hard to rectify once all the stationary and advertising has been printed with their chosen URL).

Further, a search engine friendly website layout and navigation should never be underestimated in an effective SEO campaign – again something which will be hard to rectify once the site has been set up. The structure of a website, breadcrumbs, navigation layout and integration of sitemaps are just some of the components which make up a SEO friendly website and are also an integral part of any website design.

Another key component of a website which hopes to perform well in search engines is the integration of a blog into the website and layout. Search engines love frequently updated content, and blogs are an ideal and very affordable way for clients to add new content to their site at short intervals.

And while many might feel overwhelmed by the though of starting their own inbound link building campaign, this doesn’t need to cost too much time – in effect, a slow but consistent link building campaign is by far the most effective approach. This is because search engines are highly suspicious of a sudden surge of inbound links to any one website and can heavily penalise this though dropping the site in rankings or even out of their index altogether. Therefore, with some guidance by an informed website designer, even this important aspect of SEO can be tackled relatively easily and effectively.

So when choosing your website designer, make sure you discuss SEO with them right from the start. Don’t leave it as as a last-minute consideration – it could save you lots of money and gain you lots of website traffic and business.

Nadja Eberhardt, London based website designer, graphic designer and SEO specialist

web design london

graphic designer london,

Search Engine Optimisation

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