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As many SEO’s, out there know, trying to optimise existing sites can be a real pain, especially when the client is adamant that the design and layout of the pages remain untouched. Thankfully more and more people these days are including SEO experts in the earlier stages of the website development, process.
Ross Dunn is one of many SEO experts to comment on the massive benefits that can be gained from involving SEO advisors as well as designers and internal business process staff in the early stages of the creating of your site. Dunn’s article on involving an SEO in the design process explains many of the advantages that thinking ahead like this can give you. Scott Clark has also written a great piece about this, which I recommend you read.
All too often in the past, clients of web designers used to rush into getting a web presence, and consequently did not take the time and effort to go through a proper consultation process. Now clients see a web presence as less of a status symbol and more of a genuine opportunity, to open up a whole new sector and target for their market.
Getting the balance of SEO and design, into the structure of the site itself is difficult enough without having to chop and change it in future to meet various ranking and business requirements. This is why having all parties involved in creation of the site meet up at a number of times during its development make more sense than getting in a company to fiddle around with someone elses work (don’t forget some of us designers are proud of our work!).
Lets not forget that poor planning, means you may miss out business opportunities.
Websites have more use than just static advertising and e-commerce; you could use your website as a medium for resource sharing between remote branches/offices, databases, CRM, CMS among many other features. You really do need to make sure that your site specification is all in place before you start moving forward. Your designer and SEO can often help you with this as they know the capabilities of web technology, make sure you take their advice onboard. It doesn’t matter if this changes your plans at this stage, it will prevent problems arising from changing your specification midway through, or worse, after the site is finished and live.
Once you have got all the consultation and specifications sorted you can feel relaxed in the knowledge that once your site is finished it will have all the functions in place, a good SEO framework integrated within a design which you are happy with. The great thing about being prepared like this is that it was all done without having to run around between designer and SEO and you wont have to pay anything extra for corrective work that could have been avoided.
Your SEO is likely to be working with you and your site for a long time so just remember that it is best to keep a good working relationship with them by not making their lives difficult in the early stages of development!
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 am
Brilliant. I especially like the bit regarding “keeping a good relationship.” It really is a sellers’ market when it comes to experienced SEOs who can also manage projects. SEOs can mitigate this by setting expectations in advance and reporting diligently on results, however gradual.
March 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Thanks for the great advice.