Content Managed SEO Web Design - An Absolute Must!

Over the years the search engines have gradually fine-tuned their algorithms. If you're looking to get a website designed you need to ask yourself these 2 simple questions:

What is the purpose of the website?
How will people find the website?

If the purpose of your website is to attract customers and your primary means of doing so is through the search engines then you will search engine optimisation, equally or more than you need web design services. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an essential component of any website that wants to attract customers through the search engines.

Many specialist seo companies have sprouted up in the past 5 years that now offer web design and vice versa for web design companies. Usually though, the seo companies can barely design a website and the web design companies just think seo is about making backlinks.

If you need a website that you want to be successful in the search engines you must be able to ask the right questions of your web design company or else go to a full service design agency that you can trust to get it right.

If you hire a solo designer, they may say they know everything about seo web design but there is a huge amount that needs to be taken into consideration. If you're looking to get a competitive website built that is more than 5 pages you will be much better off going to a web design agency.
Content Management & SEO

If you want your website to grow you will need it to be built with a Content Management System (CMS). There are many out there such as Joomla, WordPress, Drupal or for ecommerce web design Magento.

In the beginning content management systems were not so seo friendly but in the past few years they have come on leaps and bounds. The software platforms now include 'plug-ins' for 'extensions' which enable developers to create custom URLs, meta descriptions and page titles.

The 'on-page' seo factors are of course incredibly important but equally as important are the 'back-end' structural factors of seo. What I mean by this is the professionalism and 'cleanliness' of the coding plus the overall content to code ratio.
Search Engines Love:

Lots of unique content
Carefully optimised web pages
Good clean code

Designer's love being creative and seeing their creations brought to life by the developers. However, overuse of design intensive concepts can and will lower a websites seo performance. There needs to be a balance struck between what you want visitors to see on your website and having a website visitors will be able to find.
Things to Consider:

Make sure your content management system uses CSS so your website will be indexed more efficiently.
Choose a CMS that allows you to create your own seo friendly urls. CMS that use static url's should be a thing of the past so beware.
Ensure the CMS has the ability to alter the primary on-page factors:- page title, keywords & meta-description.

Summary

If you're looking for a web company that will take care of your seo, make sure you ask questions centred around the above points. Ask the web design company to show you examples of high-ranking websites they have already designed and optimised.

You'll need a long term strategy that will involve regular reporting, content creation and link building if you're website is to have any chance of success in the search engines.