Website Design vs. Development
There are any number of businesses that create websites as part of, or as the core of their business. We here at Advanced Web Solutions realize this and take very the development of a website very seriously since a company’s website is often the very foundation of its online presence. This is exactly the reason we consider ourselves website developers, not website designers.
SEO Friendly Website Design/Development:
From our perspective and experience in helping clients through various SEO (Search Engine Optimization) programs, most ‘web guys’ love making a website as graphically pleasing as possible. We aren’t saying that this is a negative thing. Not at all. We want to create websites that businesses are truly proud of just as much as traditional website designers. An eye-pleasing site can help keep a user’s attention and provides a virtual image of an organization and can help project a strong message/feeling of confidence.
Several years ago, the company I worked for spent more than $20,000 on a new, absolutely beautiful website. In our team meeting to announce the launch of our new look, the person in charge finished her presentation by saying, “Now all we need to have people see it.”
That always stuck with me and now that I’ve had several years experience in the SEO industry, that scenario comes back to mind quite often because I see this very thing occurring time and time again – businesses worrying about how pretty their site is, not if prospective users of their specific product/service can actually FIND them.
Search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc., have elaborate algorithms to determine what order to give search results in response to a specific query. In order for the search engines to best determine the ranking of each webpage, they rely upon those who build/manage websites, to provide enough of the right information to help assess this. Or in short, optimizing the information – hence the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
One of the 3 primary elements of Search Engine Optimization is proper website architecture. This is a key element in a complete SEO program and if done properly, is a crucial piece in correctly building a website; because the higher you are able to rank within search engine results, the more likely someone is to find you and bring their business your way.
- 5 of 10 searchers ONLY look at page one of their search
- 75% of those ONLY look at the TOP 3 results
- you lose 50% of searchers every page deeper in the search
So essentially designers, by nature, are concerned with good looking websites; while developers first and foremost are concerned with building a website that actually works for your business while doing this with an eye towards a pleasing experience once a user has found your site.
If you want to discuss how incorporating SEO principles into your new or redesigned website, whether you’re in the Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge area or not, please feel free to email us or call Mark directly at 519-590-7725.
