Why Your Website Design Needs To Start With SEO

All of our website design packages include an SEO element as part of our marketing package. You may have heard the logic that your website needs to be functional as well as appealing – but the reason we start the web design process with SEO goes even further than that.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website’s organic visibility on search engines. This often boils down to the hierarchy and content on your website’s pages. Having better website content means you’ll (usually) rank better on Google.

But the main reason we work on SEO before even starting the web design process is because the SEO process is a perfect opportunity to align your website with business goals.

The importance of SEO lies in the fact that you need to nail your business goals before typing a single word on your website. Every single phrase is carefully crafted to fulfill a specific business goal. This exercise means that the finished website isn’t just a pretty page – it’s a potent marketing tool.

Here’s how SEO helps you identify and align your business goals:

Linking Goals to Audience and Conversions.

Before the keyword identification process begins, we identify the primary goals that your business wants to fulfill. Is your primary goal to sell clothes online? Or, is it to generate RFP requests through your website form?

To achieve my (Goal), I need my (Audience) to (Convert) on (Target Page) - your conversion statement Click To Tweet

Once your goals are identified, we identify the primary audience that you’re catering to. If you want to sell clothes online, who are you trying to reach? Teens? Mothers? Businessmen?

When we identify who your audience consists of, and we what want them to do, we can identify the conversion action that you want your website to fulfill.

You want to ask yourself the “conversion” question on each and every page on your website. What is the purpose of this page? Does it contribute to my primary goal? In what way?

Identifying Keywords

When it comes to new customers, verbiage matters. Sure, you may know that your clothes are “haute couture pieces” but what if your target audience prefers to use the search term “custom clothing” on Google?

Sometimes, industry jargon doesn’t translate well to search volume. On the other hand, broad keywords can be very poor at bringing in targeted traffic. So, how do you identify keywords?

We identify ideal keywords with the following criteria:

• Keyword Relevance
• Keyword Search Volume
• Keyword Competition

With these criterion in mind, we generate a list of words and phrases that you’ll actually want to use on your website. These are power words that help you achieve business goals and are the foundation for your content.

Creating Functional Content

Using SEO tactics, we’ve generated a list of criteria that is required for new website content. We haven’t even reached the branding phase of the project, yet!

Once we identify your business goals, and target keywords that will help your website achieve those business goals, we begin to craft your content.

Research leads to keywords. Keywords lead to content. Content leads to sales. The Force is strong with this website! Click To Tweet

Content is King.

Quality content is the backbone of any marketing campaign, and is the lifeblood of your website. Content marketing and web design go hand-in-hand, as your website needs to look good while accommodating your marketing message. Not the other way around!

We believe that quality is of utmost importance, and that taking shortcuts will only hurt even more in the long run. This is also the reason why all of our websites are custom-coded, since templates often result in unnecessary baggage and poor coding.

When you have quality, targeted content and a custom-coded website – that’s where you’ll have an excellent website worthy of your brand. If you’re interested in creating such a website, contact our marketing agency on Robson in downtown Vancouver! We always have chocolate 🙂