In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Boostability is featured as one of the Top Web Designers in Salt Lake City. Check out their profile here.
Clients who lack an understanding of SEO may see search engine optimization as something entirely separate from web design. They may believe that, by adding it at a later date, they can speed up the web design process to get their site up and running sooner. It’s up to you to convince them that SEO doesn’t work like that. The following arguments will help you build your case.
Greater Control Over SEO
By taking SEO into account when building a website, you optimize it from the start. Then, there’s no need to go back and change things later — from small elements to the entire site architecture.
1. Keyword Infusion
Of course, you could run keyword research at a later date and go back and add all the terms into the copy of your website. The problem is that it will be much more difficult to make the keywords fit — and part of SEO is making sure that keywords seem natural. If search engines notice that your website has stuffed keywords or poor-quality content, your ranking will drop.
2. Web Analytics
In addition to implementing design best practices, you need to monitor your site to see what’s working. You can also gain insights into who makes up your target audience, see how users are interacting with your site, and remarket to leads. The best way to gain all this information is to use web analytics.
Setting up your site for web analytics requires adding a large amount of code. Although you will need to add more code as you go along (as you think of more things to track), you can at least add basic code when you are building pages.
Take Advantage of the Latest SEO Trends
SEO is always changing. This means you need to be constantly adapting your strategy, including web design. Starting a site from scratch puts you at an advantage over your competitors, as you can take new trends into account early on.
1. Accessibility
One relatively recent trend is to ensure that content is accessible. Beyond fitting to any device, it should be accessible for a wide range of users. A prime example of this is making content work for a screen reader. You’ll save time by creating content that is accessible from the start instead of going back and adapting everything.
2. Future Changes
In addition to designing for current SEO trends, you need to plan for future changes. You can design for this by setting up your site in a way that makes it easier to update whenever necessary.
Importance of a Website with SEO
Some business owners think that SEO is too big of an investment and that they would be better off creating their website without it. Others even go a step further — believing that they can grow without a website entirely. There are two main reasons why this is just plain wrong.
1. Without an SEO Website, You Won’t Be Found
You need a website that appears on the search engine results pages (SERPs) if users are going to find you and become aware of your brand. Even current customers want to be able to find you online — to learn about your new offerings, promotions, and news.
2. You’ll Increase Conversions
It doesn’t matter if all of your sales are in store; a website can still contribute to increased conversions. Through your website, you’ll be able to show users why they have a problem, why they need a solution like your own, and why your offering is the best option. If you have a particularly long sales funnel, you’ll need a website to nurture leads, whether through regular blog content, premium content downloads, or email newsletter signups.
Improve UX at the Same Time
SEO and UX go hand in hand. By designing your site for both at once, you ensure that you create the optimal experience for users and check all the boxes when it comes to search engine criteria. There are a few different elements of SEO that encompass UX.
1. Website Speed
Close to half of all consumers expect a webpage to load in no more than 2 seconds. A better method than speeding up your website later is to never add elements that slow it down in the first place. If you fail to focus on site speed in the design phase and then notice that some pages are slow loading, you’ll need to go through your entire website to find where the problems lie.
Remember, Google now lists site speed as a major factor in ranking.
2. Multiple Locations
If your business has more than one location, it is important to think about how users from different locations will interact with your site. In the case you want to create location-specific pages, you’ll need to have a strategy in place to avoid duplicate content. If users speak multiple languages, you’ll need to decide if you want to have the option to change the language on site or create multiple domains.
Web design and SEO may be separate parts of a marketing strategy, but the two rely on each other. If you have clients who are skeptical about launching a new SEO strategy along with new web design, you have plenty of options to demonstrate just why it is necessary.