Why your web designer won't get your site to the top of Google

Web designers make all sorts of claims about SEO. You may have heard him/her claim to have...

Created an 'SEO friendly' website
Set you up for search engines
Added your keywords

The things described by these statements aren't SEO. SEO isn't something that ends when the site goes live.

SEO is an ongoing process that somebody has to do. If your web designer hasn't done the following...

Discovered specific search terms that people use when they want to find sites like yours
Analysed the competition for each term
Generated a short-list of the best search terms for your business (i.e. the one's you can compete for)
Altered the content of specific pages so they'll rank for a particular search term
Embarked on a campaign of link building and content generation designed to increase the value of the site in the eyes of Google

...then s/he hasn't done genuine SEO. And your site isn't getting to the top of Google for anything useful any time soon.

Put me to the test

I suggest you put my assertions to the test. Phone up your web designer and ask him/her how many contextual links s/he has created on your site? And how many on other (i.e. 3rd party) sites?

If you don't get an answer (or feel that you're being given the runaround), it's likely your web designer doesn't know about one of the most powerful tools in SEO content optimisation. I teach you about contextual links on The DIY SEO Seminar.

Now the question to ask yourself is this: If your web designer doesn't know about one of the most powerful tools in SEO, why should you believe anything else s/he says with respect to search engine optimisation?

The sad fact is, most web designers (and the copywriters they hire) think SEO is nothing more than cramming as many keywords as possible into a site's meta tags. Yet this frustrating habit on the part of web designers actually does more harm than good.

Graphic overload

Web designers with a strong design background can create deeper SEO problems for a site. If you happen to have fallen in love with the design (it's usually stunning after all), this can be difficult to fix.

It happens when a site's homepage is devoid of readable (by a search engine) text. Words that appear in images aren't readable by search engines, and sometimes there is nothing on the page for the search engine to see.

Site's created in Flash are similarly challenging for a search engine, because additional work is required to give each individual page its own keyword focus (essential to SEO). That means the client is forced to pay extra, and this news isn't necessarily recieved with good grace.

Either way, the result is a site that's unlikely to ever rank well in Google without professional help. If you're in this position, I suggest you contact me and ask for help.

What it's costing you

SEO is a fantastic way to get high quality visitors to your site. It can make you a lot of money. And if you do The DIY SEO Seminar it can save you a lot of money (because you do it yourself).

SEO is a process that has to be applied to your site over a period of time. And it has to be done by somebody who has been trained to do it.

That person can be you. It really can. And as soon as you complete the Seminar you'll immediately understand why your web designer is never going to get you to the top of Google for anything useful.