Apr 3, 2006
Some would say that SEO Web Design is a very difficult subject. This is only true where you have a complicated layout involved. Google friendly SEO web designs can be done with very simple layouts, quite effectively.Design has nothing to do with SEO, right?
Actually, no. SEO / online marketing / traffic building is all about the bottom line - that is, getting more people to your site so they can buy something, or contact you regarding your service. A professional design is critical in keeping the visitor on your site for more than a few seconds. A number 1 result means nothing to the bottom line if most of the visitors leave immediately because the web design looks shoddy or spammy.There are Web Designers, and Webmasters
Not the same thing sorry. The webmaster is concerned with the ongoing maintanance of the site, it's search positions and it's usability. The web designer is concerned with making the right impact and sending the brand message to the visitor, something many webmasters aren't competant at.If you don't have a web designer available, the best thing to do is to keep your web design simple. Simple, clean designs are totally accetable in modern websites, and these will usually look better than a badly finished complicated layout. If you aren't an expert in good design, then don't try to be. Keep the design clean and let your content do the talking.
Text, not images
Webmasters and SEO's do have skills that web designers don't, and it's important these concepts are conveyed to the designer. In the old days, a good website had lots of images, and pretty looking buttons / headings. Now, we use CSS to make our text content look great, and it can be done. Deciding whether to use text or image based navigation is a design decision, but actually more of a SEO web design decision. Images look good, but CSS styled text navigation is faster to download, more accessible to non-browser devices, easier to integrate into dynamic websites and also more visible to search engines.Content please
Make sure the design allows enough room for the content, and the content is the focus of the site (not just a small piece of lorem ipsum tucked away in the corner).Integrated
Web design does have an impact on SEO, so be sure to come up with a design that helps your SEO efforts.
