It is terrifying that still today many business people do not understand the importance of SEO in website design.
True, having a website that looks and feels truly amazing is a huge part of the build when exploring your options when needing a new website. The navigation around a site has to be fluid and totally seamless, allowing information or products to be located easily. It is so important that a new job role has been created and cleverly abbreviated to UX Designer. Meaning User Experience, it highlights the importance of having not only an attractive website, but one that is easy to navigate.
However, the role of a web designer with any job title is almost entirely pointless if there is little or no SEO (search engine optimisation) involved. Terrifyingly the majority of designers have very little understanding or knowledge of how to integrate this dark art into their site builds.
What is SEO then?
Search engine optimisation in a nutshell means to increase (optimise) the potential positioning/ranking of a website, organically (not paid/PPC) against competing sites on the internet. While the digital world has opened the doors to the world, giving us means to communicate with clients, customers, partners etc all over the world it gives the same access to everyone. This means that if you are in business your competitors have exactly the same opportunity to your potential market as you do. Therefore competing in the digital world the same as the old days on the high street.
I have spoken to many business owners that pride themselves on their expensive website, while insulting the competitors. However, they have contacted me because they cannot understand why the ‘ugly site’ seems to appear pages before them in Google. Business is slow, and they have heard that the competition is opening a new branch in the local area, which has them even more concerned. They are worried that the passing traffic that they so heavily relied on will also go elsewhere. Their bread and butter will no longer use them and the business will soon be no more.
They usually follow their concerns to tell me that they have tried pay-per click (PPC / AdWords) previously “but it was experience and didn’t really work for” them. Well, quite frankly it very often goes hand in hand that those designers that do not understand SEO generate such a poor ‘quality score’ site that PPC would be an expensive or almost pointless option.
How do I check my sites SEO?
This is easy… try to imagine the journey a potential customer/client would take when searching for your services. Using a browser (Edge, Firefox, Chrome etc) that you either do not normally use or never use, particularly if you have used it to search and visit your site before. If this is the case select the least used browser and delete all its history.
This then means that search engines such as Google won’t really know who to priorities, giving you an unbiased search. Once ready think about what someone would type to find your services. Clearly, they wouldn’t type your company name and location because they don’t know you yet. Then you will know who appears where exactly. The feeling of seeing a competitor before your own business is difficult to handle, because we all know they are significantly more likely to get the available business than you are.
If you are on page 1 or even maybe page two then this isn’t such a worry and a very easy fix. However, if you are page 3 then it is time to certainly look at sorting this. If your site appears on or after page 4 then to be honest your business stands no chance of competing and if you don’t do something soon then the life of the business is limited drastically.
The SERP’s (search engine page results) quick test quickly gives you a great idea of how you are competing in the digital world currently. The ‘organic’ (free) rankings are very fluid and do change regularly, however, you will see quite often that certain businesses that have had strong SEO in place for a while will always appear near the top. This isn’t just down to budget, that they have spent more than you or that they have been around longer than you. There are many things that cause this.
Elements of SEO
As mentioned before there are many elements of SEO that continuously contribute to SERP rankings. Including but not exclusive to this are:
- Keywords
- Site Title relevance
- First Paragraph relevance
- Content relevance
- Word count
- External links
- Internal links
- Site security (SSL)
- Image use
- Image names and alt text
- Site Traffic
- Responsive Capabilities
This is just touching the surface of what exactly goes into really optimising a website to perform well. However, it is an example of the many areas that need to be addressed when looking into SEO and improving your businesses digital capabilities.
What next?
I offer a free 1-hour consultation to all my selected clients. During which we explore its current positioning and performance. Then I will walk you through available quick and free steps that are available to make drastic changes to your sites performance.
We will then build you an action plan of things to work on over a 1 to 2 month period to continually grow the ranking of your site. Please note that some earlier (older) sites might not give you the flexibility of making such an impact. If there is not a budget in place for a new website build then I will show you exactly how to best maximise this without spending a penny. Just a little bit of TLC to your digital world and this will make a big difference.
In order to check availability of a free consultation please feel free to call me or click here to jump straight to the contact page.
Alternatively, to view my Facebook page and get in contact please click here.
Thank you for your time today and if there is anything that I have discussed that has brought further questions please get in touch of a casual chat and advice.
The Importance of SEO in Website Design | by Chris Maloney
Speak soon 🙂
