There are many components to SEO – engaging content, the presence of important keywords, backlinks, no 404 errors, etc. But what many SEO “gurus” overlook is that the design of a website plays an extremely important part of the SEO puzzle.
First, you have the obvious – if your website looks like it was designed in the 2000s (or still has your original design), then chances are your site is not getting the traffic it deserves. We’re a very visual species. If something is shiny and pretty, we tend to prefer that over the dull and boring any day.
But great design can get you so far. And sometimes, a web designer is more interested in how the website looks than how the SEO specialist can optimize it. For instance, the front page of every website is probably the most important page. This is what draws people in, gives everyone a quick summary of what your business is about and why a client should choose you over the competition. But in some cases, the front page is just a template and unless an SEO expert wrote the content, it can be difficult to optimize.
Unfortunately, the problem can be just the opposite. An SEO specialist is more interested in the content than the presentation. So instead of having a well-designed website page, you may end up with a page filled with text with maybe one or two photos on the page. Who wants to read all that text if there’s nothing visually appealing about it?
It’s a common dilemma – content vs. design? But what many don’t see to understand is without SEO-optimized content you’re not going to get very far on the search engines. And without a great visual presence, you’re not going to keep the visitor for very long on your site. You need to have SEO and design go hand-in-hand. Remember, it’s not a competition – it’s about giving your visitor the best experience so he/she can choose your company to fulfill a service or purchase a product.
Fortunately, at ENX2 Marketing, our web designer and SEO specialist work as a team to give you a fully optimized website with a great design that will get you the clients that you are looking for. Contact us today for a consultation.