An article by Simon Townley

A great web designer can make your site look and feel fantastic. But how is this design going to affect the ranking you achieve in the search engines? It could have a massive impact -- and a detrimental one at that. Some web designers seem to have a blatant disregard for search engine optimisation (SEO). So here are a few things to consider – and to tell your web designer.

Content IS king
Generally speaking, designers hate text. Many of them really, really despise it. They think it’s a joke: something that spoils their design. But people don’t buy because of a pretty design. It’s the words that persuade them, that give the information needed to make a buying decision. It’s also the words that influence the search engines. If you don’t have enough content on your site to look serious, then you’ll be ranked down by Google and others. You need plenty of text, from 100 to 1,000 words per page. Try having some sections that have lots of content. Is that expensive? No, of course it isn’t. There’s lots of content out there that’s free. You can often use articles on your website for free providing you link to the writer. You need, of course, articles that are relevant to your business. If you’re selling garden machinery, this article is not really relevant but there may be others that are. And if necessary, you could either write articles yourself or get a professional writer to do it for you. It’s actually the cheapest way to get a high ranking with search engines. The copy of your site also needs to make extensive use of keywords. Optimising the copy for search engines is an art in itself (and subject for a separate article). But you need to check that your designers understand the importance of keywords, as they are vital to search engine optimisation. They are simply the words people would use when searching for your site. So, if you’re an accountant, your keywords might be: “accountant, accountancy, accountancy services” and so on. Basically, if you search for “accountant”, Google finds sites that use the word accountant a lot – in relevant context. That means in real sentences, not just in lists.

Give the images relevant names and alt tags
I know of websites where a lot of money has been spent, the copy carefully crafted, the hosting is top notch. There are lots of tasteful and relevant photos and pictures too. But no one has given the images relevant names and alt tags. The alt tags are the words that appear if you roll your mouse over the picture. It’s good form to have alt tags on pictures because it enhances usability. But it’s also vital for search engine optimisation. Google, for example, reads the names of images and the alt tags and the results will influence the page ranking. It’s an easy thing to miss, on the assumption that no one sees or reads the names and tags associates with images. But Google reads them, so calling all your pictures image1, image2 and so on is a wasted opportunity. The names and alt tags need to be relevant to your field and contain keywords.

Get your words in the right order
There is evidence that Google gives a higher ranking if your keywords come at the start of a line or sentence. So “Accountancy service from Bill Baxter” is better than “Bill Baxter’s accountancy services.” This applies not just to the body copy, but also to headlines, page titles, image names and alt tags. So it’s something your designers may need to know.

Meta tags versus real content
Meta tags are not as important as they used to be. They are a list of keywords that tells the search engine what your site is about, put in the heading of the html code, and not actually visible to a visitor.

But the use of meta tags has been much abused by people wanting to drive traffic, any traffic, to their site (for example, spammers and pornographers). So, Google and the other search engines now appear to place less importance on meta tags, and look more at the real content on your site. That means the text, the copy. You still need a list of meta tags containing keywords. But how long should the list be? It’s tempting to create a huge list and cover all the bases. There’s some evidence, however, that less is more when it comes to meta tags. By having a long list, you are diluting the impact of your really important keywords. How many you should have depends on the nature of your business, but try to keep it short and focused. And relevant.

No flash, no splash
Splash pages damage your search engine rankings because there is no relevant content on them. They annoy many visitors too, as they have to click through them. Flash content is all well and good, but Google can’t read it. So if your most important marketing message is in flash, it won’t be seen by the search engines. On the other hand, you could exploit this, by putting pieces of copy that contain no keywords in as flash or as an image (not readable text). Remember, however, that by doing this you are reducing the amount of content on the site. And the search engines love relevant content.

Don’t use frames
Don’t worry if this means nothing to you, just tell them this and don’t take no for an answer. Frames are one way of laying out a web page. A bad way. There are better alternatives, such as tables. The problem with frames is simple: Google can’t read what’s in them. Disaster. Google sees no text on your site. You’ll rank next to nowhere, no matter how much money you spend.

Don’t try to fool Google
It’s tempting to try to fool Google but it rarely works. Indeed, you run the risk of being blacklisted all together. One common trick is to put words in white onto a white background, so that Google will read them, but a visitor won’t see them. That way, they won’t spoil the design. Google can spot this (it reads the html). Don’t do it.

Your web designer should be willing to take these factors on board, even if they weren’t aware of them before. Everything is a balance of course. You may not need search engine traffic. I’ve written the copy for a mobile phone service launch where SEO was irrelevant – as all the traffic was driven through a huge internet retailing presence, massive in-store marketing and one of the world’s most extensive CRM capabilities. But if you need to drive people to your site through the search engines, you need to optimise your site. Content is the key. But for it to work, the design also has to be right. That might mean sacrifices on the design front, but in business terms, it’s worth it.

UK copywriter and journalist Simon Townley can be contacted through http://www.simontownley.co.uk. You are welcome to re-use this article on your website providing you don’t change it, you include my byline and you link to my website.