SEO Web Design is in my opinion the art of balancing search engine optimization and effective design in order to produce truly valuable websites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is basically a set of rules one follows when developing a website. Rules that when followed properly produce optimal conditions for a website to be found on a search engine results page under the desired search queries.

Web Design requires a broad skill set that crosses over into several technical areas. On the one hand web design requires skills in markup languages such as HTML and CSS. Skills in developmental languages such as PHP, ASP, PERL and JavaScript can be necessary as well. On the other hand web design also, quite obviously, demands skills in traditional design and knowledge of design theory such as color coordination, principals of effective layout, content organization, fonts, and website usability. Other realms of mention would also be accessibility (for the deaf and blind) and mobil display.

My guess would be that out of the bazillion web pages on the internet very few (by percentage) address all of the above aspects effectively.

Many people making websites tend to have an area of expertise in either web design or SEO. Great looking sites that don’t show up in the search engines and crappy looking sites that rank well. I come from the school of make a good looking site and let the client worry about the search engines.

I used to have a “real job” but the company I worked for went belly up. It was a small company which grew REALLY fast then died, a fairly common scenario in this industry. Fortunately I was able to keep in touch with many of our clients after the fall, many of whom had previously relied on me to keep their sites updated. Even though I was able to continue to earn a living as a freelance web designer and web master I saw many of these websites and companies die in a similar manner and it made me realize that something important was missing. TRAFFIC. Without traffic it really doesn’t matter how good a website looks because no one is going to see it. This frustrated me to no end and was the catalyst to my search for how to get it.

Who needs SEO Web Design

I am by no means an SEO expert or a guru but I have definitely picked up a few things along the way. I didn’t go to design school either, however I have built over 300 websites from the ground up for clients that span a very wide range of internet needs and from what I have experienced, most people either just don’t care or they don’t make the connection of how important SEO really is to their business.

There is a meticulous focus on design, “move that one pixel to the left”, “change that color from 246-57-102 to 247-56-102″. After the site is all pretty and tweaking is complete the site is posted and the press releases are sent. Meanwhile the page title, description and keyword meta tags are BLANK (I do this a lot in order to remind myself to ask the client about it later). Recently I tried doing some research myself and when the client got the invoice and saw that I spent an hour doing keyword research they threatened to not pay for it… “the site is about hedge funds, just put that in the title and the keywords thingy, and for the description just put something like expertly managed hedge funds”. ouch…

Bumps on the Road to Effective SEO Web Design

After overhearing a conversation or reading some related article many people discover the concept of keywords and SEO. Then without further research they go about filling in the page title, description, and keyword meta tags. I have seen this hundreds of times; the title is either the URL or the name of the company, the description is a nicely thought out, concise two or three sentences that describe the product or service, and the keywords are precise. Then they proceed to put these on every page, the same exact title, description and keywords on every page. Sometimes they will put a dash in the title and complete the URL such as companyname-about, companyname-contact, etc… Plus the keywords they choose have no relation to what people are actually searching for at the search engines. This is not the best way to go about SEO.

The keywords research tools available to non-programmers today are 1000% better than what was available even three years ago. Still, no one can deny what an immense ocean of words the internet is, so to think that your site will be found because you put one specific word in the keywords meta tag is fairly ridiculous.

No matter how pretty a site design is, you’ve got to work the right keywords or no one will ever see it.

A keyword is what someone types into the box when they are at a search engine such as Google.

SEO is for “robots”, programs (not people) that look at your pages and determine what they are about. They record the content then process it through huge algorithms that determine where it will show up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

First Steps to Effective SEO Web Design

Use the free Adwords Keyword Tool (Google It) to search for the words that are getting good amounts of monthly search traffic.

• Find your sites main keyword.
• Find relevant, supporting, keywords to your business and location
• Place page keywords in page title, the description and keywords meta tags, the page header, and at least twice in the page content.

SEO no no’s

• Don’t dilute the relevant keywords by putting non-relevant keywords into the page title, description, and keywords meta tags.
• Don’t use the same meta description and page title on every page.
• Don’t stuff keywords into the content for the sake of repatition, this could actually do damage to your search engine ranking.

On-Site and Off-Site Optimization

On-site SEO will optimize your site to be indexed under the correct search terms.

Off-site SEO is what will beat up your competition and move your site to page one on Google for your main if not all you targeted keywords.

Focus on the on-site SEO first. Here are the rules……

• Focus on one keyword per page. Toss in supporting, related keywords.
• Use the keyword in the HTML page title tag.
• Use the keyword in the page header. Using the <h1> or <h2> tag is best practice but not really necessary.
• Use the keyword in the file name… keyword.html
• Put the keyword in the content of the page. No need to mention a keyword more than once as was once believed.

That’s all there really is to it.

The big pay off is in off-site SEO and link building.

SEO web design may seem like two separate diciplines however in my humble opinion you really can’t have one without the other.

Tags: css, design, html, keywords, PHP, search engine optimization, web designer, web master

Web design involves more than creating compelling graphics and user interfaces. Skilled web designers will not only create a nice looking website they will also know how to employ the tactics that make your website visible. Website visibility is dependent on several factors not the least of which is search engine rank; that is, where the site appears when it’s targeted keywords are searched. Continue reading »

Tags: back links, backlinks, inbound links, Internet Marketing, internet SEO, internet traffic generation, link building, seo, text links, website traffic building

There is no doubt in my mind that article submission is a great way to increase traffic to a website. A lot of people say that article submission is a long and tedious venture however, it has been proven over and over again to work like a charm when done properly. Continue reading »

Tags: article marketing, article submission, article submission service, content writing, ezine marketing, Internet Marketing, marketing, site promotion

I have a business that picks up in the summer then dwindles down in the winter, not sure why because weather has absolutely nothing to do with the work. I’m in front of a computer all day. Anyways I’ve been to the school of the Griz and am a member of the Keyword Academy now so, like any idiot with a little knowledge, I think I know what I’m doing. (keyword = think). Continue reading »

Tags: affiliate marketing, content writing, domain names, Internet Marketing, keywords, make money online, marketing, niche, niche market, niche marketing, niches, website

The word niche is derived from a French term nichier (to nest) or from the Italian nicchio (seashell).

According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, and in regards to internet marketing, a niche is

“A situation or activity specially suited to a person’s interests, abilities, or nature.” and “A special area of demand for a product or service.”

Finding a niche is easy for some and difficult for others. Mozart found his niche fairly early in life while on the other hand I know some people who are in their forties and still haven’t found their niche, then again, I suppose sitting on the couch and watching sports could be considered a niche. However, in the realm of internet marketing, niche has a different meaning altogether. Continue reading »

Tags: affiliate marketing, CPC, Internet Marketing, make money online, monetization, niche, niches, website

George Russell passed away peacefully at age 86 on Monday, July 27, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. His wife and son were at his side. Continue reading »

Tags: george russell, jazz, lydian chromatic concept

Stumpworld got to do a little web design for the Stones too. I don’t think the below artwork even made it to a live web site but, it was cool to work for them. We got excellent seats at a Foxwoods show in 2000.

Tags: rolling stones, Web Design

Now this site was a dooosey.  It was a web design project for Joe Perry, one of Aerosmith‘s guitarist, and his new record company.  I had a beautiful site design and Joe or someone said “it should be a big amp”, Yeah, then Joe should jump out and explode into cosmic bliss chunks that give orgasims to everyone within 10 feet of the computer.

This site was online with one page for about 4 years then it disappeared. The domain is still there but no site to speak of.

Tags: joe perry, roman records, Web Design

Just after 9/11, Stumpworld went belly up. The John Brown’s Body website design project saved my butt in more ways than one. Continue reading »

Tags: jbb, john brown's body, Website Design

I remember doing site design for Medeski, Martin & Wood just after Stumpworld moved out of our house and into an actual office building.

These guys were just becoming popular and the Lizard Lounge was the place to see them in Boston.

Tags: MMW