Every day, some of the best search engine optimization firms on the planet answer questions from business owners about search engine optimization. Most of these discussions include explanations about "on-page" optimization and "off-page" optimization. SEO typically involves a line-by-line inspection of website content and its coding. Of course, off-page SEO will always involve some form of linking. In other words, the way the rest of the Internet relates back to your website. As of this writing, successful campaigns usually include direct and indirect back-linking, social media participation and citations from trusted websites.
Web design is still very much a "design driven" industry, and as such, design choices can often have a negative impact on SEO. This is because design is about the look and feel of a website, not the rank or position on the search engines. So we in the website design industry often find ourselves trying to simplify online marketing methods to prospective clients that have limited knowledge on the subject.
It takes 3 types of talent so build a search engine friendly website. The first is the designer. While SEO should always be the end goal, you need to have a great looking website that creates a positive impression and is easy to navigate. Second, you need an SEO-savvy web developer that can convert the digital artwork and convert them into clean, best practices website coding. Finally, you need a search engine expert to manage the entire process and to populate the website with content that is both optimized and presented in a way that will convert to sales or leads.
In practice, however, the designers still drive the entire process. When this happens, the company gets a great looking new site that is hacked together on the back-end. These sites almost never get search engine rank for competitive search terms. The client company then searches for Internet marketing assistance, but the new consultant starts at a disadvantage because they have to try to rank a site that is poorly structured and coded.
In many cases, companies need to re-develop websites (even brand new websites) in order to achieve search engine friendly coding. This puts Internet marketing professionals in a tough position. They have to explain to their prospective customers, in simple terms, why they may have to redevelop a new site. A leading Kansas City web design company uses the following analogies to explain the relationship between web development and SEO:
1. Professional Racing: This is a favorite SEO analogy and may be among the best out there. To do well at SEO, you need to have an optimized website that is well structured and has best practices "on page" optimization. Your site is the race car. No matter how fast your car is, it can't drive itself. You need a talented driver and a pit crew to compete. A great driver cannot win with a marginal car, and a weak driver cannot win with a the most advanced race car. This is a perfect analogy for web design - you need a great driver and a great car to win the race, just like you need a great website and a great SEO partner to conquer mount Google. Where this analogy falls short is that with Google and the other major search engines, the race never ends. You need an ongoing effort to always stay ahead of your competition.
2. The Home Builder: The web design process is similar to the design stage of construction. This is the time when the sketches and drawings can be easily be modified. Once the blueprints are approved and the concrete is set, it becomes very difficult to move a wall or change the floor plan. Website design and development is the same way. Designers can modify digital construction plans quickly. When the coding process starts, however, design changes are harder and more time consuming. In terms of SEO, the home construction is similar to the role of the builders and inspectors. In web design, the search engine optimization consultant should be managing the design and development stages so that the website has the best possible chances of ranking highly on the major search engines.
3. The Sharp Shooter: This analogy is simple and concise. A champion sharp shooter is powerless without a high caliber firearm, and the best gun on the planet cannot aim and fire itself. Just like the race car driver analogy, you need the equipment AND the talent to get the best results.
4. Landscapers: Landscaping may be one of the best web design analogies in terms of the amount of time and effort it takes to design, install and maintain a landscaping plan. After installation, a residential landscape needs periodic watering, pruning, pest control, mulching and fertilization. The regular maintenance aspect of landscaping parallels the ongoing effort that a website needs in order to grow into high natural search engine positions. The process takes time and consultants with digital green thumbs are usually able to provide their clients with much higher search engine visibility that the could have achieved on their own.
5. Fishermen: Although last on our list, the Fishing analogy is one of our favorites. Perhaps the most effective use would be further compare commercial fishermen to recreational fishermen. Think of recreational fishers in an area that are using luring methods such a strong smelling liquid chum to draw schools of fish into a body of water. Even though this method can draw a large number of fish, recreational fishermen typically use special lures and bait to catch fish one at a time. Recreational fishing is like very similar to traditional mass marketing via print, phone directories, television and radio. These forms of media are meant to mass market in an effort to catch a relatively low number of potential buyers. SEO, on the other hand, is more like commercial fishing. We design a great ship with a huge net. As other people create the mass media demand, we use our top ranking websites to catch large sums of buyers. Search engine optimization is all about leveraging your competitors' offline marketing dollars in a way that enables you to take market share from them online!
If you are an Internet marketing professional and run into trouble explaining SEO and web development to a prospective client, try using one of the above analogies or even creating a new one of your own.
Web design is still very much a "design driven" industry, and as such, design choices can often have a negative impact on SEO. This is because design is about the look and feel of a website, not the rank or position on the search engines. So we in the website design industry often find ourselves trying to simplify online marketing methods to prospective clients that have limited knowledge on the subject.
It takes 3 types of talent so build a search engine friendly website. The first is the designer. While SEO should always be the end goal, you need to have a great looking website that creates a positive impression and is easy to navigate. Second, you need an SEO-savvy web developer that can convert the digital artwork and convert them into clean, best practices website coding. Finally, you need a search engine expert to manage the entire process and to populate the website with content that is both optimized and presented in a way that will convert to sales or leads.
In practice, however, the designers still drive the entire process. When this happens, the company gets a great looking new site that is hacked together on the back-end. These sites almost never get search engine rank for competitive search terms. The client company then searches for Internet marketing assistance, but the new consultant starts at a disadvantage because they have to try to rank a site that is poorly structured and coded.
In many cases, companies need to re-develop websites (even brand new websites) in order to achieve search engine friendly coding. This puts Internet marketing professionals in a tough position. They have to explain to their prospective customers, in simple terms, why they may have to redevelop a new site. A leading Kansas City web design company uses the following analogies to explain the relationship between web development and SEO:
1. Professional Racing: This is a favorite SEO analogy and may be among the best out there. To do well at SEO, you need to have an optimized website that is well structured and has best practices "on page" optimization. Your site is the race car. No matter how fast your car is, it can't drive itself. You need a talented driver and a pit crew to compete. A great driver cannot win with a marginal car, and a weak driver cannot win with a the most advanced race car. This is a perfect analogy for web design - you need a great driver and a great car to win the race, just like you need a great website and a great SEO partner to conquer mount Google. Where this analogy falls short is that with Google and the other major search engines, the race never ends. You need an ongoing effort to always stay ahead of your competition.
2. The Home Builder: The web design process is similar to the design stage of construction. This is the time when the sketches and drawings can be easily be modified. Once the blueprints are approved and the concrete is set, it becomes very difficult to move a wall or change the floor plan. Website design and development is the same way. Designers can modify digital construction plans quickly. When the coding process starts, however, design changes are harder and more time consuming. In terms of SEO, the home construction is similar to the role of the builders and inspectors. In web design, the search engine optimization consultant should be managing the design and development stages so that the website has the best possible chances of ranking highly on the major search engines.
3. The Sharp Shooter: This analogy is simple and concise. A champion sharp shooter is powerless without a high caliber firearm, and the best gun on the planet cannot aim and fire itself. Just like the race car driver analogy, you need the equipment AND the talent to get the best results.
4. Landscapers: Landscaping may be one of the best web design analogies in terms of the amount of time and effort it takes to design, install and maintain a landscaping plan. After installation, a residential landscape needs periodic watering, pruning, pest control, mulching and fertilization. The regular maintenance aspect of landscaping parallels the ongoing effort that a website needs in order to grow into high natural search engine positions. The process takes time and consultants with digital green thumbs are usually able to provide their clients with much higher search engine visibility that the could have achieved on their own.
5. Fishermen: Although last on our list, the Fishing analogy is one of our favorites. Perhaps the most effective use would be further compare commercial fishermen to recreational fishermen. Think of recreational fishers in an area that are using luring methods such a strong smelling liquid chum to draw schools of fish into a body of water. Even though this method can draw a large number of fish, recreational fishermen typically use special lures and bait to catch fish one at a time. Recreational fishing is like very similar to traditional mass marketing via print, phone directories, television and radio. These forms of media are meant to mass market in an effort to catch a relatively low number of potential buyers. SEO, on the other hand, is more like commercial fishing. We design a great ship with a huge net. As other people create the mass media demand, we use our top ranking websites to catch large sums of buyers. Search engine optimization is all about leveraging your competitors' offline marketing dollars in a way that enables you to take market share from them online!
If you are an Internet marketing professional and run into trouble explaining SEO and web development to a prospective client, try using one of the above analogies or even creating a new one of your own.
About the Author:
About the author: Kansas City Web Design is an Internet marketing and web development company based in Overland Park, KS. For more information on the author, visit: Website-Design Kansas City
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