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Online marketing companies often struggle to describe Search Engine Optimization to prospective customers. Typical conversations include a discussion on "on-page" search engine optimization and "off-page" SEO. The process should always include a detailed analysis of a website's HTML code. Off-page SEO encompasses the ways in which the Internet relates back to a website, usually via back-links which are website links that point back to a site. Although the major search engines are constantly updating their ranking algorithms, back-linking, social media exposures and references from quality websites have always been heavily weighted by the search engines.
To this day, the web design industry is still almost exclusively "design driven", and as such, the design process can often have unintended consequences on search engine optimization. This is because design is about the look and feel of a website, not the rank or position of it on the search engines. So we in the web development industry often find ourselves trying to simplify search engine optimization to business owners with limited knowledge on the subject.
It takes 3 types of talent so build a search engine friendly website. The first is the designer. While SEO should always be the end goal, you need to have a great looking website that creates a positive impression and is easy to navigate. Second, you need an SEO-savvy web developer that can convert the digital artwork and convert them into clean, best practices website coding. Finally, you need a search engine expert to manage the entire process and to populate the website with content that is both optimized and presented in a way that will convert to sales or leads.
In practice, however, the designers still drive the entire process. When this happens, the company gets a great looking new site that is hacked together on the back-end. These sites almost never get search engine rank for competitive search terms. The client company then searches for Internet marketing assistance, but the new consultant starts at a disadvantage because they have to try to rank a site that is poorly structured and coded.
In many cases, companies need to re-develop websites (even brand new websites) in order to achieve search engine friendly coding. This puts Internet marketing professionals in a tough position. They have to explain to their prospective customers, in simple terms, why they may have to redevelop a new site. A leading Kansas City web design company uses the following analogies to explain the relationship between web development and SEO:
1. Professional Racing: This is a favorite SEO analogy and may be among the best out there. To do well at SEO, you need to have an optimized website that is well structured and has best practices "on page" optimization. Your site is the race car. No matter how fast your car is, it can't drive itself. You need a talented driver and a pit crew to compete. A great driver cannot win with a marginal car, and a weak driver cannot win with a the most advanced race car. This is a perfect analogy for web design - you need a great driver and a great car to win the race, just like you need a great website and a great SEO partner to conquer mount Google. Where this analogy falls short is that with Google and the other major search engines, the race never ends. You need an ongoing effort to always stay ahead of your competition.
2. The Home Builder: The web design process is similar to the design stage of construction. This is the time when the sketches and drawings can be easily be modified. Once the blueprints are approved and the concrete is set, it becomes very difficult to move a wall or change the floor plan. Website design and development is the same way. Designers can modify digital construction plans quickly. When the coding process starts, however, design changes are harder and more time consuming. In terms of SEO, the home construction is similar to the role of the builders and inspectors. In web design, the search engine optimization consultant should be managing the design and development stages so that the website has the best possible chances of ranking highly on the major search engines.
3. Sharp Shooters: Similar to race car driving, this analogy pairs the best equipment with the best operator to achieve the best results. A firearm cannot aim and fire itself and a sharp shooter needs a world class weapon to achieve the highest accuracy.
4. Landscaping: The landscaping analogy is a great one for SEO in particular, because it plays into the nature of it as an ongoing strategy. Just like search engine optimization, you need a landscape design plan and a lot of upfront effort to prepare, grade and prep for planting. In most cases, a newly landscaped property will not have the same aesthetic value as a property that has a properly maintained, mature landscape. SEO is the same - we work hard in the initial months, and most often this effort does not produce organic ranking results for weeks or months later. Further, just like landscaping, it takes ongoing effort to improve results.
5. Fishermen: Although last on our list, the Fishing analogy is one of our favorites. Perhaps the most effective use would be further compare commercial fishermen to recreational fishermen. Think of recreational fishers in an area that are using luring methods such a strong smelling liquid chum to draw schools of fish into a body of water. Even though this method can draw a large number of fish, recreational fishermen typically use special lures and bait to catch fish one at a time. Recreational fishing is like very similar to traditional mass marketing via print, phone directories, television and radio. These forms of media are meant to mass market in an effort to catch a relatively low number of potential buyers. SEO, on the other hand, is more like commercial fishing. We design a great ship with a huge net. As other people create the mass media demand, we use our top ranking websites to catch large sums of buyers. Search engine optimization is all about leveraging your competitors' offline marketing dollars in a way that enables you to take market share from them online!
Next time you get stuck trying to explain the relationship between online marketing and web development, try using one of these analogies.
To this day, the web design industry is still almost exclusively "design driven", and as such, the design process can often have unintended consequences on search engine optimization. This is because design is about the look and feel of a website, not the rank or position of it on the search engines. So we in the web development industry often find ourselves trying to simplify search engine optimization to business owners with limited knowledge on the subject.
It takes 3 types of talent so build a search engine friendly website. The first is the designer. While SEO should always be the end goal, you need to have a great looking website that creates a positive impression and is easy to navigate. Second, you need an SEO-savvy web developer that can convert the digital artwork and convert them into clean, best practices website coding. Finally, you need a search engine expert to manage the entire process and to populate the website with content that is both optimized and presented in a way that will convert to sales or leads.
In practice, however, the designers still drive the entire process. When this happens, the company gets a great looking new site that is hacked together on the back-end. These sites almost never get search engine rank for competitive search terms. The client company then searches for Internet marketing assistance, but the new consultant starts at a disadvantage because they have to try to rank a site that is poorly structured and coded.
In many cases, companies need to re-develop websites (even brand new websites) in order to achieve search engine friendly coding. This puts Internet marketing professionals in a tough position. They have to explain to their prospective customers, in simple terms, why they may have to redevelop a new site. A leading Kansas City web design company uses the following analogies to explain the relationship between web development and SEO:
1. Professional Racing: This is a favorite SEO analogy and may be among the best out there. To do well at SEO, you need to have an optimized website that is well structured and has best practices "on page" optimization. Your site is the race car. No matter how fast your car is, it can't drive itself. You need a talented driver and a pit crew to compete. A great driver cannot win with a marginal car, and a weak driver cannot win with a the most advanced race car. This is a perfect analogy for web design - you need a great driver and a great car to win the race, just like you need a great website and a great SEO partner to conquer mount Google. Where this analogy falls short is that with Google and the other major search engines, the race never ends. You need an ongoing effort to always stay ahead of your competition.
2. The Home Builder: The web design process is similar to the design stage of construction. This is the time when the sketches and drawings can be easily be modified. Once the blueprints are approved and the concrete is set, it becomes very difficult to move a wall or change the floor plan. Website design and development is the same way. Designers can modify digital construction plans quickly. When the coding process starts, however, design changes are harder and more time consuming. In terms of SEO, the home construction is similar to the role of the builders and inspectors. In web design, the search engine optimization consultant should be managing the design and development stages so that the website has the best possible chances of ranking highly on the major search engines.
3. Sharp Shooters: Similar to race car driving, this analogy pairs the best equipment with the best operator to achieve the best results. A firearm cannot aim and fire itself and a sharp shooter needs a world class weapon to achieve the highest accuracy.
4. Landscaping: The landscaping analogy is a great one for SEO in particular, because it plays into the nature of it as an ongoing strategy. Just like search engine optimization, you need a landscape design plan and a lot of upfront effort to prepare, grade and prep for planting. In most cases, a newly landscaped property will not have the same aesthetic value as a property that has a properly maintained, mature landscape. SEO is the same - we work hard in the initial months, and most often this effort does not produce organic ranking results for weeks or months later. Further, just like landscaping, it takes ongoing effort to improve results.
5. Fishermen: Although last on our list, the Fishing analogy is one of our favorites. Perhaps the most effective use would be further compare commercial fishermen to recreational fishermen. Think of recreational fishers in an area that are using luring methods such a strong smelling liquid chum to draw schools of fish into a body of water. Even though this method can draw a large number of fish, recreational fishermen typically use special lures and bait to catch fish one at a time. Recreational fishing is like very similar to traditional mass marketing via print, phone directories, television and radio. These forms of media are meant to mass market in an effort to catch a relatively low number of potential buyers. SEO, on the other hand, is more like commercial fishing. We design a great ship with a huge net. As other people create the mass media demand, we use our top ranking websites to catch large sums of buyers. Search engine optimization is all about leveraging your competitors' offline marketing dollars in a way that enables you to take market share from them online!
Next time you get stuck trying to explain the relationship between online marketing and web development, try using one of these analogies.
About the Author:
About the author: Kansas City Web Design is an Internet marketing and web development company based in Overland Park, KS. For more information on the author, visit: www.Kansas-City-Website-Design.com
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