Does
Design Matter When Marketing Your Website To Search
Engines?
By:
Chris Behan - President, Socius Marketing, Inc.
Posted: 12-27-07
Absolutely!
Beyond properly optimized
web content, the design and link structure of
your website is one of the most important aspects
of your website, and also can be the most difficult
to get right. Designing sites with only Flash, frames,
or graphics will almost ensure the site never ranks
well. I know, some programmers will say they know
how to optimize sites using these techniques, and
in some cases it is possible to have the content on
these site read by search engines, but they are forgetting
one major factor. Your site has to compete
with millions of other sites.
Think
about it for a minute. When was the last time you
were conducting a search, and you came across a natural
search engine listing for a site that was coded using
strictly Flash, frames, etc.? It doesn’t happen
very often. It’s because these sites,
while sometimes read, don’t compete in search
engines.
If
there are thousands of sites offering the same products
and services as your company, and they do everything
right from content to design, then those are the sites
that are going to rank well in search engines. I liken
it to professional athletes. They don’t just
do one thing really well, they do everything well.
They all can run, hit, catch, throw, etc. really well.
This
does not mean you have to have an ugly website for
it to perform in search engines. Rather,
you can have a site that balances your company’s
image and brand with optimization. The sites we create
at Socius look fantastic, are easy to navigate, and
perform well in search engines.
Here
are some basic questions to ask yourself before designing
your new website:
- What
is the purpose of the site? Is it simply an online
brochure, or do you want it to be part of a complete
marketing program that generates online sales or
leads for your sales department?
-
Does the site need to maintain a brand that you
have created offline?
-
Do people search for your company’s products
and services online, and if so, what keywords or
phrases do they use to find you? (Socius will happily
give you a free report that gives you this information.)
-
If you are planning on using a shopping cart, what
programming
language will the site be coded in (i.e. html, php,
asp, etc.)? This is an important decision, since
it directly affects your choices when implementing
a shopping cart.
-
And finally, who are you going to make responsible
for designing and marketing your site? This may
sound like a funny question, but the point we are
trying to convey is that your site should not be
just a technical issue or a just marketing issue.
We have seen on many occasions where the marketing
department had a highly graphical website, but no
one will ever find the website through a search
engine. On the other hand, we have also seen cases
where programmers coded the site in a way that was
easy to maintain, but impossible for search engines
to rank. There is a happy medium!
In
closing…Your site has to do everything
really well to rank in search engines and that is
where Socius comes in. In very fundamental terms,
Socius Marketing makes your site better than your
competitors. Better content, better design, better
link structure, better information, and so on. The
better your site, the higher it will rank, meaning
the more sales and sales leads you will receive.
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