Leading Your Web Designer to SEO

Many SEO projects involve taking a site that has already been built and changing or adding optimization elements to help the site rank well in the search engines. For a site that has already been built, the web designer is usually not involved in the process.

However, there are two situations where the designer should be very much involved in the SEO process: when a new site is constructed, or when an old site is being redesigned.

When building a new site, the SEO consultant should be involved as the site concept is being developed. The perspective of the SEO consultant is much different from that of the design team and the site owner. The SEO understands that a balance of keyword phrases and well-written marketing copy is what helps the site attract traffic and convert visitors into buyers. The SEO can also provide advice on the best way to add new content. For example, a site that is about food will draw many visitors if it has a section that offers recipes, and a site about music will see many more visitors if it also offers MP3 music files.

More importantly, the SEO can provide advice on how to best construct the site. SEO consultants understand that sites which have 100% of the content in Flash, or which use frames will pose problems during the optimization process. The consultant will also understand how to overcome some of the SEO limitations that dynamic sites pose.

When the design team is aware and involved in the optimization process from the beginning, a site can be optimized “from the ground up” as it is being built, which will involve less time spent by the SEO consultant later. This can also provide a level of optimization that is often not practical after a site has already been constructed.

When keyword research is completed before the site construction has started, designers can use them when they create new pages and graphics files in order to derive the benefit of keyword-rich file names. e.g., Instead of using words like “logo” and “header,” the designer can choose keywords that are more descriptive. The SEO can also provide a basic Meta tag set which can be used for the site. By including the Meta tags in the site templates, the work of editing each page later can often be avoided.

What about redesigns?

The first and foremost role the SEO has when a site is being redesigned is to ensure that the web designer doesn't change all the page names when performing a site update. Otherwise, when the new site is launched, the traffic to the site may substantially drop off when people click on search engine listings that no longer exist.

To combat this phenomenon, the consultant will advise the designer to re-use the old page names as much as possible. If that's not possible, there are two ways to deal with this problem:

1)A custom 404-error page can be installed to inform the visitor that the page(s) no longer exist and present them with several options to continue into the site.
2)Redirection pages can be set up which use the old page name and an informative message for the visitor. The pages should offer one or more clickable links, and might include a timed-redirect that should be at least 30 seconds before taking the visitor to the page with the new name.

The second option is more desirable, since it allows the search engine to note the change, follow the link to the new page and add it to its index at some later point. And of course, if new pages are added, or the filenames have to change, it provides a chance to use filenames that can be optimized with keyword phrases.

Just as you are unlikely to turn an SEO consultant into a web designer, you can't turn a web designer into an SEO. However, SEO consultants and designers should work together to bring all of their skill sets to the table. The SEO needs to understand that graphic images can be very important in the visual appeal of a well-designed web site, just as the designer needs to understand the benefit of having a home page title that says more than just “Home.”

About the Author

Christian Nielsen is the owner of Nielsen Technical Services, which provides Internet consulting and SEO services, including the optimization of dynamic database-driven sites, and Blog optimization. The company maintains a policy of answering questions from clients and potential clients, even if they are just "tire kickers", and has a Blog that can be seen at NielsenTech.Blogger.com which deals with (mostly) search engine related-issues.

Related Information of Interest:

The Benefits of Submitting Articles for SEO
There are millions of businesses in the world. Similarly, there are millions of web sites being used to promote each and every one of them. Some get lucky enough and always appear number one in search engines. However, most get archived in the last places customers will ever look for in a search engine. Clearly, luck can not be everything when it comes to giving your business the attention it needs. Itï¿½s a good thing thereï¿½s always SEO. Search Engine Optimization is the only way to go if you want your ads and web sites to stand out in the internet. SEO compliant articles will inevitably hit the right keywords at all times. This procedure comes from the meticulous task of picking out most probable keywords people from all over the world use in search of corresponding services. Through hitting as many keywords as possible, a certain website raises its ranking in various search engines such as Yahoo and Google. With this higher ranking, customers gain more accessibility to the site. As we all know, it is indeed very rare for people to check out web sites in the latter pages of search results. That is why articles need to be optimized by inserting the words with most hits in terms of customersï¿½ random typing preference probabilities. Through search engine optimization, a web site will earn higher in the engines and remains there as long as it is kept properly maintained. SEO companies also see to it that their clients are always on top of the results page. As such, you are guaranteed continuing surveillance of your siteï¿½s ranking day in or day out. They also have keyword generators which can spare you from the laborious task of assessing which key words need to be hit and which ones are futile to include in the article. It also allows writers to hit the taste of the masses which access the internet. Companies can now focus writing attractively for the keywords which sell the best. Other services rendered by sites can now be dissolved if the web isnï¿½t showing an interest for it, therefore eliminating deadwood in the business. With this wonderful innovation in web writing, each article will surely be given ample attention in terms of engine optimization and accessibility. The purpose of advertising and syndication will be fulfilled, instead of stagnating in a dark and shady area with abysmally low ranking positions.

Sandra Adams writes search engine related articles.To get free articles to display on your own site, please visit www.articletrader.com

Unique Content Is Your Key To Success!
As you search around this article site looking for articles to add to your website, consider this: there are probably 10 people like yourself doing the same exact thing. Not only are they doing the same exact thing, but they are probably looking at, and taking the same articles you are considering to add to their site.

Wow. That’s going to do wonders for your hopes to have search engines pick up these new articles and rank your site high in the search engine result pages (S.E.R.P’s). Forgive my brevity, but I was being sarcastic!

Shared articles may be good for putting together quick sites and heavily promoting the same article content that everyone else is promoting, but who are we kidding? Wouldn’t you rather have fresh content NOT picked over by everyone else? Of course you would. Now why should you pay for it when you’re staring at a free article site filled with 100’s of articles that you can use at this exact moment?

Because you CAN buy originality and have original content rank higher than the same old retread articles found over and over again on sites like this! Not only would you have a unique page indexed on the internet and crawled by search engines (sometimes daily), but if you had the right content service at your beck and call, you could be provided with professionally written content reserved for trade publications and offline magazines! There are 1000’s of professional writers out there on the Internet which are willing and able to write your next piece of web content.

Ok, so to go over the key points:
• Copied articles used over and over again- not so good since the search engines may pick up someone else’s copy of the same exact article. Cost effective since it’s free! You get what you pay for.
• Fresh, unique articles- very good usage since it gives the search engines something new to eat up! You get what you pay for.
• Do your research. Find a writer who is professional and understands your subject!

If you are wondering what the real world power of unique, keyword optimized website articles can do for you to drive traffic, just shoot me an email at articleauthors.net and ask me how well this article did for me.