what you must know about SEO
before you hire a website design firm or redesign your website...

SEO DESIGN
How does Search Engine Optimized Design affect your website?

Search engine optimized, or SEO design is an approach to search engine optimization that you hear little about. It does, however, play a very important role in the search engine visibility of your website.  When the site is optimized from the planning, architecture, content organization and GUI (graphical user interface) design, not only does the website perform better in search engine rankings, but when combined with website usability visitors are more likely to click and convert themselves to customers (and that is the bottom line after all!) 

Most businesses discover how search engine "un friendly" their website is long after they've invested budget, time and resources only to be disappointed when the site fails to reach target audiences and achieve desired results. 

What is SEO Design?
Search engine design is the deliberate use of website interface design and page construction to help search engines  to "see" your site in order to index you and produce your website as a valid top ranking result by keyword searches performed by your audience.

If you are like most businesses out there, you confidently assume that your website team, website designer or vendor is designing your website for search engine friendliness. Unfortunately for most businesses with website, their website design is not search engine friendly.

In fact, SEO is most often an after-thought elevated by the client or business...but rarely a consideration for the website designer, developer, agency or in-house teams. In fact, we have worked with our clients vendors, which include world class agencies, award winning design firms and top-notch development groups that admit (behind closed doors) that SEO Design is simply not part of their process.

Chances are you aren't investing money time and resources into a website for it's own sake. You are most likely going to expect ROI from your website. Because Search Engine Optimization is such a vital part of the marketing mix today, it makes sense for you to integrate SEO DESIGN best practices and proven methods before the site map is even created.

5 tips for effective SEO - search engine design:

1. Never fall in love with a website design that is invisible to search engines.
If your web site is not search engine friendly, it's like building a store in a remote area with no street numer, address, directions or signage...your customers have no way to find their way to your "store". The same is true on the internet. With so many millions of websites, and more launching every day, your website will never be found by new customers if it is not search engine optimized. SEO begins with search engine design which should support your brand, but also promote visibility on Google and other search engines, usability and conversion to support your business goals.

2. Resist the temptation to rely on flash or java on your home page.
Although attractive, few websites overcome the search engine optimization weakness of these interactive treatments. Sure, Google may be recognizing this content, but without strategic SEO of the flash movie and java components, it really won't see or index these critical design elements. We've talked about this in previous articles, but the bottom line is that unless you already have ample traffic coming to your website and don't need to be search engine visible, leave the flashing to the marquee players like Victoria's Secret, ESPN, and Nike. Not to mention, usability standards show that some people prefer to bypass flash and control their own website experience, so consider textual navigation a vital part of search engine friendly design.

3. Text is the SEO designer's best friend.
Text is a vital component of a search engine optimized website. When the text on your website is carefully and deliberately managed to support your search engine strategy, based on the keywords that will put you in front of your target audinces, you are actively supporting your website in meeting your audiences online. Because every search engine has different "rules" which do change without notice, text has become a vital part of search engine optimization.

4. Let website design perpetuate your brand. In SEO, brand does not stand alone.
Be sure to extend your brand experience to your website.  But, also consider your website to be the virtual extension of your business...the 24/7 receptionist, sales person, customer service representative, etc. with logo, color pallete, content, calls to action. Search engine friendly design will not only optimize these components but use them strategically to promote clicks to critical content areas that will further promote search engine performance.

5. Embrace the interactive nature of search engines and the internet.
As simple as this may sound, it is surprising to see how many businesses mistakenly view their website as a way to duplicate their brochure, catalog or offline marketing. The Internet provides unique opportunities to empower your audiences to manage their own experience on your website, qualify themselves as prospects, deliver vital statistics of what website visitors are doing online. This data is invaluable in managing the long-term performance of your website so you can continue to improve conversion of website visitors to customers.

We find that many website designers, web firms and developers don't fully understand the importance of search engine design. (they will secretly admit it to us when we are asked by their client's to evaluate and optimize the website they created for the client).

The bottom line for SEO:
How you leverage the search engine properties of your website will directly impact the performance of your website on the Internet. SEO design allows you to leverage the internet as a medium that will impact your bottom line.  Website performance is increasingly dependent upon search engine visibility, so do everything you can to improve your website's performance on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines.

If you are preparing to design or redesign your website, you may want to consider purchasing a custom 
Search Engine Website Design Planner .
(click here to view search engine design planner details)

Not sure if your website is search engine friendly?
Want help developing requirements for the search engine optimization of your website design?
Contact us today, you'll wish you did it months ago!



NEW!!!  ----- Search Engine Optimized Website Design Process -----
It breaks our heart to see the disappointment in our client's eyes AFTER they've invested thousands of dollars (or more) in a new website design only to find out that the designer's version of "optimized" is a far stretch from what the search engines consider optimized. 

The truth is that most website designers really do't understand search engine optimization and how to integrate it into your website so that your website behaves as an interactive marketing tool that the search engines can find and present to your audience upon keyword search on Google or other search engines.

Our goal is to empower you to get the best possible outcome from your website designer, so, we've developed a 15 point outline from which you can use to guide your designer to create a website that will be search engine friendly.

What we do: We will evaluate your existing website against best practices and basic foundational search engine optimization criteria. We identify weaknesses and areas of opportunity to improve search engine friendliness so your site has a better chance of being crawled and seen by the search engines.

What you get: We will provide you with a 15 point outline that you can easily integrate into your RFP, provide to your designer before they begin the design process. If your website is already live and you just don't think you're getting the perfomance you need to get a return from your investment, we can help.

Optimizing your website design is one of the easiest, most cost-effective and efficient ways to insure you are getting the best possible value from the investment you make in your website.

SEO Design & Optimization Services
Why invite Karner Blue Marketing to assist you with SEO Design?

We are recognized experts in the field. With over 14 years of experience in website strategy, design, creative direction, development, usability, marketing and conversion experience. We assist our clients by consulting them to ask the right questions, implement best practices and proven methods, regardless of who is designing or building the website. Contact us to learn more about SEO Design Consulting & Search Engine Optimization Services!