 May The Force (of SEO) Be With YouPublished Date: 2008-07-10 15:03:48 WorkOnInternet.com
So, with that enthusiasm, I thought I'd share some reasons why and how SEO can help the website designers out there who are looking to help their clients! It's Not Personal - It's Just Business That famous line from The Godfather movie says it all. Business websites are meant to bring in business, otherwise, what's the point? So, when an SEO webmaster discusses changes to the website design, it's not personal, it's just business. How can a web designer use SEO to help with their business website designs? It's all in the planning. At the beginning of the website design project, the designer lays out the foundation, the architecture of what the website layout will look like. Instead of the usual "about us" and "services" pages, what if the designer knew exactly what the target audience was looking for? Incorporating these keyword phrases into the names of the site pages is a way to help boost those pages for those keyword phrases. In addition to just naming the pages, having the list of keyword phrases in hand, the site owner and the web designer could then work together on adding the most appropriate pages to the website. Here's an example: Let's say the designer is working on a divorce attorney's website from Cleveland, Ohio. Some of the keyword phrases associated with this could be: Cleveland Divorce Attorney Cleveland Divorce Lawyers Cleveland Family Law Attorneys Cleveland Law Firm Ohio Divorce Laws Divorce Laws In Ohio Filing For Divorce In Ohio Ohio No Fault Divorce Information Divorce Support Groups in Cleveland Ohio Cleveland Ohio Divorce Lawyer Ohio Divorce Forms Dissolution of Marriage In Ohio The list of course, goes on and on. But the idea here is that NOW the site designer AND the site owner have actual "phrases" that their target audience is searching for. By creating a page of information for each of these phrases, the site owner can attract the audience that is typing in these phrases. Of course, the pages must be optimized as well but the first step is to create the pages, and that is the job of the web designer. Do all these pages have to be on the website as soon as it's launched? No. The designer can add additional pages throughout the years. This is actually better for the website because one of the factors that Google takes into account when ranking websites is the frequency of updates on the website. So, if new information is added to the website weekly, monthly, etc. that's much better than putting all the information at the beginning and then doing nothing to the site. Frankly My Dear, I Don't Give A Damn Knowing what pages on your website viewers are "giving a damn about" or "not" is important. After all, what if you create a page about "Ohio Divorce Forms" and only 2% of viewers each month visit that page and of that 2%, only 1% actually take action on that page? That should tell you that SOMETHING needs to be changed on that page. Maybe the information needs to be made more clear. Maybe there needs to be more call to actions or larger call to action buttons. Maybe the links to that page aren't working. Maybe the keyword phrase for that page isn't typed in very often, maybe we need a new phrase? Maybe the graphics are taking too long to download? You'll never know the answers to any of these questions (and so many other questions) without information from the website logs. The process of SEO is not just "fixing" the website so the search engines can read them, it's also the process of "reviewing" the website monthly to see what's working, what's not working and what needs to be fixed. Web designers can be an integral part of this process. Here's Looking At You Kid I bet you didn't know that the Google Analytics reports also show you a "site overlay" of each page of the website? What is "site overlay" and why should you care? I'll tell you. The "site overlay" is basically a visual of a website page and the links on that page. The "site overlay" gives you a count of how many visitors clicked on each particular link.
So, in this example above, the site owner and the web designer can both see which links the viewers are finding the most attractive. It seems that the "Analytics widget" tab on the navigation bar isn't getting many links, why is that? Is the phrase "Analytics widget" not descriptive enough?
You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat The benefits of integrating SEO into business website designs is a win-win situation for the web designer, the website owner and the website visitors Not only will the designer create a beautiful and functional website for both the owners and the visitors, BUT that website will also generate traffic and business for the site owner which in turn will generate business for the web designer. So, if you're a web designer and you haven't yet ventured into SEO or integrating SEO into your websites, what are you waiting for? Provide your clients with the BEST possible websites by giving them the opportunity to improve their businesses through their websites. Believe me, they'll thank you again and again! If you have any questions about SEO marketing, contact me at Eckweb Designs today.
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