Why We Should Begin SEO Before the Web Designing

If you are considering an overhaul of your current website or you’re creating a brand new website, you need to consider SEO early on and plan for SEO well before the design process even begins. Great SEO is only available when it is an integral part of early stages of the web design and development.

We don’t even start the graphical portion of the web design process until we’ve gone through a complete keyword discovery and mapping phrase. We hold it until we know what keywords and phrases we will target and what the sitemap will look like. That way you’re designing around core SEO fundamentals and optimizing the user experience all in one. This allows us to build good SEO from the ground up and not backtracking and trying to fill holes within sitemap or website architecture.

Steps for Optimal SEO in Web Design

• Review initial list of possible keywords

• Compile list of expanded keyword options via:

  • Existing website review

  • Planned sitemap changes and/or content updates

  • Competitor website(s) review

  • Google Analytics data

  • Google Search Console (formally Google Webmaster Tools) data

  • Google autosuggest

  • Google Adwords campaigns

  • Historical keyword reports

• Review expanded keyword list for further Google suggestions and monthly search volumes

• Reduce Google output for irrelevant terms

• Review first round of keyword list for relevance scoring

• Reduce list of all possible keywords based on relevance input

• Match applicable keywords to planned content

• Identify keywords for new content creation

• Develop list of targeted “long tail” keywords and phrases to be used for blog posts

• Optimize page content for SEO, which can include changes to the following:

  • Page name

  • URL

  • H1 header

  • H2-H6 subheaders

  • Text on page

  • Image file names

  • Image alt text

  • Hyperlinks

  • Link alt text

  • Use of bullets and readability

• Create and add page specific meta titles and descriptions

• Build internal links to support destination pages

• Create 301 redirects for any URL changes

• Prepare XML siteamp file

• Submit XML sitemaps to Google and Bing