You are the marketing manager for your company and tasked with rebuilding your company’s website; however, you have no online marketing experience and have no idea what to look for or who to hire to build your website. Perfect, this article is for you and will help the inexperienced internet marketer better understand SEO services and the questions to ask when hiring a website design company.
Many first and second generation websites are more than a decade old, designed with little to no thought about website optimization, in terms of both search engine optimization and user engagement optimization. So what? What is web optimization and why is it needed?
What good is a website if it cannot be found in the search engines? What good is a website if the user experience is poor and visitors leave the website immediately? In some cases, not having a website is probably better than having a website design that is so poor as to leave visitors with a negative view of your organization.
SEO web design is the process of designing a website that is visually appealing and simple to use as well as developed with search engine optimization best practices.
Fall is the perfect time for organizations to review and evaluate their online marketing strategy and the impression of the website design and experience. If your website is less than stellar, your company is at a competitive disadvantage. As a marketing manager, one of the most direct ways to improve your company’s brand reputation and potential for success is to ensure your organization’s website is visually impressive , intuitive and interesting to visit. Now is the time to make plans for a better website next year.
What to Look for When Redesigning a Website
Depending upon the industry and level of competition, a website redesign can be fairly straightforward or fairly complex for those organizations offering many products or services. Here is a list of several important considerations when vetting a digital marketing agency (I suggest going with a marketing agency, rather than a small website design firm/person, because of the broader scope and resources available with an agency.):
1. Establish a baseline – research your competitors. A practical starting point when deciding what your redesigned website should look like and how it should function, is to take a look at your competition and how their website is designed. Do your homework ahead of time and discuss with management those websites that are liked and those that are not. This will become a great starting point toward understanding what is desired as well as what to avoid.
2. When researching your competitors, try to understand why some competitors rank well and why others cannot be found in the first page or two of results. While the inexperienced marketing manager may not know what to look for, visually evaluating your competitor’s websites will begin your journey into better understanding what terms are used, where they are positioned and how the website’s menu and navigation are laid out.
INSIDE TIP: When you find a website you like, take a look at the bottom of the page to see if credit has been provided to the website design firm. You may wish to contact this design agency, who can provide valuable insight and an idea of cost.
3. Contact at least three internet marketing agencies to...
Read full article: SEO Web Design vs. Traditional Website Development
All websites are not created alike. Find out why some websites rank better than others and how you can ensure your website does not suffer poor rankings in the search engines.
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