Seo And Website Redesign, Brief overview of why SEO is so important to your website redesign. Options

[clickmagnet]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here, and I know there is a SEO forum, but this post is aimed at everyone who creates websites and the graphics therein. I have been doing SEO for almost 11 years now and I have some questions I hope you could help me answer.

1) How much consideration do you give to implementing SEO from the beginning?

2) If you do decide to implement SEO into your website redesign, do you work with a SEO person or do you do it on your own?

3) What are your biggest obstacles regarding implementing SEO?

4) Do you think about SEO with regards to choosing a CMS?

Thanks for your time. I look forward to reading you.

[Leandrew_20]

1) How much consideration do you give to implementing SEO from the beginning?

I give it a lot of consideration because you will begin to be crawled and essentially graded on what the search engines find. However if you publish but don't market you don't need to worry since the search engines wont find you that quickly and you wont need to be perfect.

2) If you do decide to implement SEO into your website redesign, do you work with a SEO person or do you do it on your own?

If you know the internet fairly well I say do it on your own. There are so many free websites that give you more then ample amount of information to SEO your site.

3) What are your biggest obstacles regarding implementing SEO?

Patience and Time my friend I am a very active person and I like to move but when it comes to SEO work you have to sit downa nd just dedicate yourself to it for at least a few hours if no all day depending on your site and it content

4) Do you think about SEO with regards to choosing a CMS?

To me its kinda of a quick fix to doing things which usually last only quickly but then again I am old fashion.

[sanity]

Welcome clickmagnet

1) How much consideration do you give to implementing SEO from the beginning?

It's a huge part of the equation. We build search engine friendly websites from the ground up.

2) If you do decide to implement SEO into your website redesign, do you work with a SEO person or do you do it on your own?

We do it ourselves but have worked on projects with other SEO's as well.

3) What are your biggest obstacles regarding implementing SEO?

Like Leandrew_20 said the main one is explaining to a client that results take time. But spending time educating your client should alleviate this.

4) Do you think about SEO with regards to choosing a CMS?

Definitely. If it's not search friendly we won't use it.

[Angela Charles]

Ditto to Sanity.

But, for most businesses that operate a web site, there is very little understanding that good SEO is woven so tightly into the content, site structure and coding that it is a seamless process when incorporated at the start of a website redesign.

We've been educating folks for 10 years on this, but we're still optimizing sites that businesses have had other designers build.

[sanity]

So true Angela. These days the optimisation is a mandatory part of the process which makes it easier. We have had enquiries where the prospect wanted to drop the optimisation because their budget didn't stretch but we don't do it. It's too vital.

[dazzlindonna]

1) How much consideration do you give to implementing SEO from the beginning?

That's like asking how much consideration I give to using food to cook a meal. I can't cook without food anymore than I can create a site without SEO. It's ingrained in me.

2) If you do decide to implement SEO into your website redesign, do you work with a SEO person or do you do it on your own?

Me, myself, and I.

3) What are your biggest obstacles regarding implementing SEO?

Creating buzz-worthy content (i.e. link-worthy)

4) Do you think about SEO with regards to choosing a CMS?

Absolutely. It used to be difficult to find a CMS that had options for creating search-friendly urls and code, but those days are gone. If it isn't search-friendly, it doesn't get a second look from me.

This post has been edited by dazzlindonna: Apr 2 2008, 10:28 PM

[RisaBB]

Hi,

I agree with everyone here.

SEO is an integral part of web design. Without it, no one will see the beautiful website that I designed. So many clients have no clue about SEO. When I get a new client and they only want web design services, I give a disclaimer - they need SEO to rank high in the SE's. If they don't integrate it into their website design, they have to understand that they may not attain high rankings.

I just got a new client who was bashing her shopping cart program. She blamed her cart for not having any rankings in the SE's. I explained to her that she's using a cart that I've heard good things about, so there was nothing wrong with the cart. I pointed out that the keywords that she wanted to be found for were nowhere to be found on her site.

I gave her the analogy that it's like blaming the landlord for no customers to a store.

Clients who hire a web designer without SEO experience (unless they're also hiring an SEO) are not serious or just not informed about what it takes to be found in the SE's.

Risa

[bwelford]

I agree entirely with what the others have said. The important thing to realize is that most people don't find your website themselves. They rely on what you might think of as blind dogs to find websites that might be of interest. Those blind dogs can detect the text content of any web page but they can't look at it as a human would do. So you must know how to put enough into each of those web pages so that those blind dogs will tell their 'masters' that they've found something of interest.

When you do it well, those 'blind dogs' (search engine robots) will bring probably more than 80% of the visitors who find your website. It really is important to have an attractive website for those robots.

[EGOL]

I like these questions....

1) How much consideration do you give to implementing SEO from the beginning?

An SEO study answers the "GO" or "NO GO" decision for the entire project. The SEO study will determine if there is valuable traffic for the topic area of your site and the competition level that will be required to attain rankings. If you have an army of 500 the SEO study will tell you that you are up against 500,000 or 50. One of those would be foolish to attack.

2) If you do decide to implement SEO into your website redesign, do you work with a SEO person or do you do it on your own?

I consider myself an SEO, not a designer. However, when looking for a deisgner it is of jugular importance to have someone who understands SEO. You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. If the designer does not understand SEO - and understand it very well - then in my opinion you better find someone else.

3) What are your biggest obstacles regarding implementing SEO?

Donna hit the nail on the head... CONTENT. We do not trade links, we do not buy links, we do not syndicate articles or send out press releases in the hope of getting links. All links then must be derived from the strength of the content on the site.

A lot of my friends who are SEOs would shoot me for this.... but... compared to content creation, SEO is a five minute job. Kickass SEO on halfass content is the recipe for failure.

4) Do you think about SEO with regards to choosing a CMS?

lol... Did you hear any cussing today?? That was me helping someone with a CMS that they brag to be "Search Engine Friendly".

I have a wordpress blog that was customized to perform well... but the rest of the pages on my site are all either built the old fashioned way or are created by a program running a database through a hand-coded tempate.

[SEOigloo]

Good questions!

I'll simply second what is already being said so well, above.

SEO is the spine and heart of any good website.

Either hire a pro to help you or get learning...that's what we all did here.

The toughest thing about SEO happens when clients insist on doing things incorrectly despite your impassioned counsel - you know they are wasting their money and missing the opportunities the Internet offers by being fixated on ego rather than performance.

Definitely work with an SEO-based CMS!

Miriam

[root123]

The purpose of a website is fulfilled when it starts receiving visitors through the web....

But the entire web traffic is controled by search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN.... and many

So we need SEO to channalize the inflow of traffic to our sites......

[clickmagnet]

Thanks everyone for making me feel so welcome and for answering my questions. You guys ROCK!!!

Leandrew_20 - Yes, I've noticed that too. My favorite question is, "If you start implementing SEO today, we should see results tomorrow?" *falling down laughing*

sanity - love your name. Thanks for the welcome and the feedback.

Angela - agreed. I'm especially shocked at Fortune 500 companies. I expect more from them in the way of SEO knowledge. On the other hand, I love being employed.

dazzlindonna - agreed. Content is king. Now it's just a matter of qualifying for clients that it has to be a: relevant and b: original.

RisaBB - Great analogy for your client! *making mental note to use that in the future* lol

bwelford - blind dogs?? Wow, have never heard that analogy before, but it's a good one, too.

EGOL - thanks. I was apprehensive about posting them because I'm new to this forum.
lol, yes, I heard you cussing, it was while I was muttering under my breath at the same thing!!

SEOigloo - may I call you Miriam? SEO spine and heart...I like it...may I quote you? lol

root123 - actually, for me, the website isn't fulfilled until it starts making money.

[astleswitch]

Wow..that's pretty useful info. Thanks to you all Ma'ams.

[Joshua Sciarrino]

SEO is a five minute job

I'm willing to get shot with you to EGOL.

I totally agree with your statement in context.

A lot of my friends who are SEOs would shoot me for this.... but... compared to content creation, SEO is a five minute job. Kickass SEO on halfass content is the recipe for failure.

Viral Content and Linkbait, is the difficult part of SEO; unless your some sly genius who can create this stuff without any research. More power to anyone who can do that.

**Welcome ClickMagnet. You joined the right place to learn about SEO.

This post has been edited by Flying Monkeys: Jun 25 2008, 09:16 AM