5 Reasons why SEO MUST be considered at the START of any website build

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There is one question that is often repeated when I am attending business networking events:

When should I consider using an SEO expert?

 

EVERY search engine optimisation person will tell you – AT THE VERY START of your website development process.

Why?

  1. Firstly, a Search Engine Optimisation consultant will look to see HOW people search for your business, product or service. Too often do I come across business owners who THINK they know how people search (and build their website that way) and don’t actually look and learn about how people search for their services. Other times it can be the web developers who look at other websites for ideas and inspiration and NOT at how people search, so if the websites they look at have the structure mentioned in point 3, guess what happens. 
  2. The SEO expert can now start the process of looking at what competition you are likely to face across ALL the different key phrases they have found. This can then set realistic expectations about how long it might take to get to the first page of Google (and the other search engines). They might also unearth some great niche areas with search traffic but less competition. What would be the point in trying to get to the first page of Google for “insurance” (unless you were working with a large organisation with a very old, high page ranked website), you would have a monumental task, as you would be up against some very well established websites with old domains, highly popular and with lots of links to them. Instead the SEO’er might be looking at breaking this down further, for example “insurance for lady drivers” or “farmers house insurance” etc.
  3. Next, the SEO person can then put the website structure together FROM A CLIENT PERSPECTIVE – after all, the website is being built for the client NOT the business (or at least most websites are built to attract new clients). This often means more DEPTH to your website. How often do you come across websites that have this next structure:
  • Home Page
  • Products (summary of all products client offers – often on one page, occassionally several pages)
  • Services (summary of all services client offers, again sometimes one page, sometimes several pages)
  • About Us (Or History)
  • Contact Us

For me this is almost pointless – unless you simply wanted a “web presence”, having everything lumped into this structure (and believe me there are 10,000’s of websites out there that appear to all “need” the same structure – at this point I am rolling my eyes!), is suicide from an SEO perspective. You might be lucky and get an odd couple of pages onto the first page – but what a MISSED OPPORTUNITY to get more detailed, relevant content seen by your potential clients.

4.  You can now start to plan all the individual pages, and how they can all fit within an easy navigation structure. The mega menu drop downs that we have seen appearing on a more regular basis, mean that people can navigate a huge website easier – see B&Q’s website as an example of a great navigation system for a massive site with thousands of pages. Don’t get trapped into thinking – “I sell lots of different office chairs” so I will just have an “office chairs” page. You need to go further than that and have a page for all the different TYPES of office chair you sell. Again, think about this from a customer perspective, if they are looking for an Ergonomic Office Chair, why would they want to see a generic office chair page? They want to see an Ergonomic Office Chair page – and if they do they are much more likely to engage with your website. Also having this structure in place can be beneficial to any pay per click campaigns you might want to run, and should result in a higher quality score if you use Google AdWords correctly.

5. You now have the structure of what could be a brilliantly optimised website. Having so many different phrases and pages, means that you have now increased your chances of getting first page listings on Google across a multitude of different search phrases that YOU WANT TO ATTRACT to your website. Some of these might appear very quickly, others might take longer, however Google will LOVE the fact that you have lots of relevant pages, that are more focused on each product or service, rather than a generic one page fits all approach. YES, I understand this means writing loads more content, YES I understand this means it will cost more than you originally wanted and YES I understand that sometimes it seems odd to be talking about two very closely related products or services, HOWEVER if people search in both ways (in enough volume to make it worthwhile having a page for each) then give them BOTH options. Let the client decide if it is what they are looking for, rather than trying to make the decision for them.

What you want to avoid is saying to an SEO expert “Hi, please can you optimise my website for me, it has just been finished by the web developer”. Why? Because it might upset you when they say “Okay, we need to start again……”

We are always on the look out for web developers and web designers we can work alongside. If you interested in our Search Engine Optimisation consultancy, or our Google Pay Pay Click management service, please contact me at sales@zaddle.co.uk.