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Great Website Design and Development is Worthless without Good Search Engine Optimization

February 27, 2012 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

Search Engine Optimization

In my previous blog post (Great Website Design is Worthless without Great Web Development), I discussed the merits of strong website development and how website design is really nothing without the web development component. This being said, you can have strong website design and development, yet the website still lacks in effectiveness. How can this be? Well, if the website isn’t found on the internet, then how can it monetize for a company?

The Key to Successful Website Design and Development is SEO

The missing third component is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as SEO is what gets a website targeted visitors who want to spend money. Yes, you can do Pay Per Click (PPC), but that is quite expensive and really an extension of SEO (not a substitute) when done correctly. SEO is the best money spent to bring in targeted traffic to a website, and all the website design and development in the world doesn’t do that. Now, design and development are very important as they relate to the visitor experience and closing sales, but without targeted traffic, it is simply stuck.   

SEO Should be an Integral Part of Website Design and Development

SEO should be part and parcel to website design and development. While a website is being designed and developed, it needs to have a well planned, tested and developed SEO strategy. The website needs to be optimized for both the search engines and for the visitor experience. SEO is very technical and transcends a number of areas. In fact, there are hundreds of SEO factors to address when designing and developing a website.

Onsite SEO First

The search engine optimization needs to First be done correctly on the website before any offsite SEO is done. With the onsite SEO done correctly, the website’s design and development can really do their job- they can help convert visitors as they a) find the website on the internet and b) navigate the website. Onsite SEO alone helps to bring targeted traffic to a website so it is a great investment. It also allows for a much better user experience, increasing conversions. Once the onsite SEO is done in congruence with the website’s design and development, then the website needs to indexed by the search engines and fresh content needs to be added consistently to keep the site indexed and getting rank.

Offsite SEO Second

With the onsite SEO fully implemented and the new or redone website live and indexed on the internet, it now time to execute an offsite SEO Strategy. Offsite SEO involves a lot of things, but basically it is getting offsite back links of anchor text keywords from other websites to the target website. Offsite SEO is long, hard, tedious work, and as a result, a lot of companies smartly opt for using the SEO Services of an SEO expert. Make sure the SEO consultant is using purely white hat strategies as poor web links that link back to your website can be more of a detriment than positive influence on your website’s rankings in the search engines.

Consider Search Engine Optimization Every Step of the Way…

So when you approach your next website design and development project, consider search engine optimization every step of the way. From the get-go to the end of the project…all the way through the life of the website. Otherwise, you may have a really pretty website that does absolutely nothing for you on the internet. Remember, a website must be found by targeted visitors using the correct keyword searches for a website to monetize successfully.

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