Web design: At 212 Creative, LLC we pride ourselves in our ability to design and develop beautiful, contemporary websites. We also have an excellent SEO track record, and have helped many companies get their phone ringing off the hook.
Only in the last year have we had something unusual begin to happen to us. A large influx of new clients contacted us. The unusual part was that they all wanted the same thing: an updated website and an ongoing SEO campaign, both at the same time. This has happened so many times in the last 12 months that we really stood up and took notice. For the reasons outlined in this article, and the great success we have helped our clients experience, we think that building or updating a website at the same time that a vigorous SEO campaign is implemented, may be the secret sauce for attracting a steady flow of organic traffic to your website.
Synergy
The definition of synergy is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There is some synergistic effect that happens when the website and SEO are built together. There seems to be strength in attacking this problem from several angles simultaneously. Exactly why, we’re not totally sure, but it may have to do with some of these next points.
It’s Better for the Client
When there is a marriage of web design and a vigorous SEO campaign at the same time, the user experience is enhanced. A website that is designed to be visually appealing, while at the same time optimized for search engines will naturally attract more visitors.
Effective web design ensures that the site is easy to navigate, visually engaging, and accessible on various devices. When these elements of web design are combined with SEO best practices, such as fast load times, mobile optimization, and keywords, the result is a seamless user experience. This can keep visitors on the website longer but also could have the added bonus of reducing bounce rates. Bounce rates are the percentage of visitors that leave a website with out doing anything, like clicking on a link or filling out a form. A lower bounce rate signals search engines that the website provides value to visitors, which can improve search rankings.
Faster Time to Market
We just launched a new website for a client. I emailed her the week after launch to check in and see if all was well. She wrote back that she loved the website, but it doesn’t come up when she is doing a Google Search. This is a very common misunderstanding. It takes a while for the world to find your website…unless you start doing SEO right away.
We think that starting an SEO campaign during the web design phase can significantly reduce the time it takes for a new website to gain traction. Traditional approaches often see businesses waiting until the site is live before optimizing it for search engines, which can delay visibility and organic traffic growth. By integrating SEO from the beginning, businesses can ensure that their site is built with search engines in mind, using optimized content, meta tags, and keywords strategically throughout the development process. This proactive approach means that as soon as the website goes live, it is already primed for search engine indexing, leading to quicker and more effective results.
Cost Efficiency
When we were building our house 30 years ago, I found out that if we wanted changes to the layout, it was way easier, and less expensive, to make the changes on the plan, before we started putting drywall up. In the same way, implementing SEO best practices during the initial design phase is often less expensive than retrofitting an existing website. Doing strategies like keyword optimization and Title Tags on web pages is much easier when initially writing, rather than going to existing pages and trying to make keywords fit in organically.
When SEO considerations are integrated from the start, it avoids the need for costly redesigns or adjustments later on. This can include everything from ensuring the site architecture is crawlable by search engines to incorporating targeted keywords into the content and design. For example, using the keywords strategically within headers, titles, and body text can enhance relevance and improve search rankings without additional costs down the line.
Better Alignment with Business Goals
Business owners want a website to get business. Period. Just having a website, even if it is a beautifully designed website, just isn’t enough. To better meet the goal of getting more clients, it just makes sense to create a website and SEO campaign combined together. Quite frankly, websites that are both well-designed and SEO-optimized stand a better chance of outranking competitors in search engine results. This dual approach ensures that a website not only attracts visitors but also keeps them engaged and converts them into customers.
web design + SEO = Long-term Success
Finally, the combination of web design and SEO sets the stage for long-term success. While it may seem to be an impossible task financially to build a website built and SEO started at the same time, our experience is that it pays off in the long run. We have so many clients who have a website for years, and only after the phone calls slow down do they consider financing a rigorous SEO campaign. As a reminder, SEO results do not happen overnight. It often takes months to build backlinks and do all of the things need for a successful SEO campaign. I think of all of the paying clients that were missed when the website was sitting on the internet, not attracting attention. It seems like the funds generated from all of those missed clients would easily have paid for the extra cost of web design and SEO simultaneously.C
Conclusion
Incorporating SEO into the web design process is a strategic move that offers numerous benefits. From enhancing user experience and reducing time to market to achieving cost efficiency and aligning with business goals, the synergy between web design and SEO is undeniable. By starting an SEO campaign simultaneously with web design, businesses can create a powerful, optimized online presence that attracts, engages, and converts visitors, setting the stage for long-term success.
If you are looking to start an ongoing SEO campaign with experienced experts, check us out at 212creative.com. If you are looking to build or update your website into a contemporary, stylish website that is easy to navigate and use, give 212 Creative, LLC a call. If you are looking to do both at the same time, stop reading now and call us! Let’s begin. (586) 210-5125.
