Websites are a lot like cars, they require tune ups, regular maintenance, and help our traffic get from point A to point B. When you and your competitor’s website pull up along the starting line and race, what determines who takes the checkered flag? Websites are also a lot like cars in that they may seem fast and sleek on the outside, but then when they take off with the competition, those flashy cars may wind up in 11th place.
I notice a lot when analyzing the competition of our new clients that a competitors website that is in the 1st or 2nd position in Google search will windup being an older, out of date, poorly designed website. I am sure you are wondering how an old ugly website can manage to take the 1st spot in Google search against some new and flashy sites with all the bells and whistles. Well it might be a hunk of junk on the outside, old and rusted, but that thing has a V8 under the hood. SEO is the “engine” that powers our websites and without it you could be left stuck in the pits.
Advice From some Top SEO Mechanics:
Hire the Right Experts
If you want a website that delivers both an excellent look and great SEO rankings, you need to find a web design firm that understands the importance of both. After all, you wouldn’t go to a body shop to get your transmission replaced, right? So take the time to find an agency that specializes in the task at hand.
Too many developers take a purely design-driven approach to creating a new website, resulting in what is essentially a digital brochure. This is why 99% of new websites fail to achieve any meaningful, organic search engine visibility. Without proper SEO to glue the code, design, and content all together, that beautiful new digital brochure is headed straight for the search engine abyss.
To be clear, I’m not trying to say that design is not important; it is. If a car looks like a dud on the showroom floor, you can bet you won’t be seeing it out on the roads. The same goes for websites. To attract and entice customers, you need something that looks good and feels right for the consumer. But if you want to make the sale, you need the test drive to go well: the engine better be tuned and ready.
Start With the (Search) Engine
Of course, it’s understandable that business owners and developers alike tend to skip SEO and jump straight into the look and feel of a web design project. After all, that’s the fun part! And too many entrepreneurs know very little about SEO or where their website should fit in the overall marketing puzzle, so they leave it as an afterthought to be addressed later. I call this “falling into the design trap.”
As tempting as it may be to choose the web developer with the coolest designs and dive right into fonts, colors, and layout, smart entrepreneurs should take the opposite approach. In order to maximize your ROI on your new website, make SEO the core foundation of your project. When interviewing a new web design partner, don’t just focus on graphic design and website features. Instead, start by discussing SEO, marketing goals, and ROI at length.
Keep Reading SEJ article Here.
If you’re searching for a way to get to the top of search, or if your site is getting left in a cloud of your competitors dust, contact Advantage Internet Marketing to discuss our SEO approach. We understand the importance of both web design and SEO, we have a strategic individualized approach that allows us to find the perfect balance for your site and industry.