A top-rated SEO agency in Dallas recommends that before a website is ever built it should be analyzed for potential SEO opportunities. Keyword analysis, target audience research, goals of website visibility, and even what colors appeal to potential customers should all be included in the fabric of the initial web design in order to strengthen the potential of search engine domination.
If you are in a competitive business, you are going to need all of the help you can get to reach the top of the search engines without having to pay for ads. The best way to get out in front is to start your SEO from the beginning of the process and push it further and further as you go forward.
To Put SEO in Perspective
There are a lot of people and agencies out there that think they understand how search engines work. In all reality, the best any of us can do is collect the data that we have and use it to come up with theories about how search engines choose which websites rank where.
In a recent podcast that a head of Google participated in, it was clear that artificial intelligence is going to be the deciding factor for all of the search results in the up-and-coming near future. In fact, AI makes a lot of those choices right now.
If you think about this, it’s not hard to imagine how difficult it will be to rank if everything is judged by an ethereal robot before it even has a chance to register in the mind of a human.
In any event, Google speaks of algorithms and policies that are going to be the enforcers of the laws of the search engine world. Make sense? Probably not.
However, the one thing to keep in mind is that artificial intelligence has not perfected its ability to read minds as of yet. You can’t merely think up what you want and have the search engine provide answers to your thoughts.
What this means is that somewhere along the journey the content of your website is going to have to mention your keywords in order for Google or any other search engine to produce search results for that keyword.
Yes, there is the content quality checker embedded in the new algorithm that can determine whether or not your content is geared for SEO or if it is natural, useful, content.
Keep in mind that it takes a skilled design team to combine looks with content and make it work for the search engines. If your website is geared for SEO results from the gate, it has a much better chance of gaining visibility sooner than later.
Keyword Research and Target Audience
The best thing a company can do for its website is to research all possible keywords and keyword variations before they ever build one piece of content on the site. If this is not done, somebody will have to come back in and make big changes.
Some of the key factors to keep in mind when analyzing keywords and striving for top-level visibility are:
- Business name
- Website domain name
- Titles of pages
- URLs of pages
- Images
- Language on the site
When the company researches the best keywords base on these important factors:
- Relevance
- Search volume
- Competition
- Difficulty
They can start building relevant content on the site that is geared toward pillar keywords. The reason why research and determination are so important is that you can choose the best keywords in the world but if they are not relevant to your site and the goals of the business they are not going to be worth anything.
If you are a company that sells shoes for children but you are geared for workboots for men all of your efforts for search engine visibility will be wasted because people looking for men’s work boots are not looking for children’s shoes.
The target audience between men’s work boots and children’s shoes will be much different. Where the work boot seekers will be attracted to content that is relevant to tough work and strong masculinity, children’s shoe seekers will be more attracted to things that would appeal to children such as cartoon characters or puppets.
Generally speaking…people are people and they all have their own needs. However, if you discover and learn your target audience while you are researching your keywords you can come up with a way to use particular keywords in a way that appeals to your target audience. In this way, you are not only strengthening your SEO tactics but also learning how to connect with your target audience.
On-Page SEO
While there may be some people that disagree with this, until it is proven wrong it is best practice to include your pillar keywords in the content of your pages. How else will search engines know what your pages are about?
- Titles
- Headings
- Paragraphs
- Bulleted lists
- Image alt tags
As the website is being built the designer will have the ability to weave the search engine optimization practices into the very foundation of the site. While it is best to not overdo keywords, it is a mistake to avoid them completely.
The titles of the pages should always have either a direct keyword or a variant of that keyword so that search engines can get a good idea of what the page is talking about and offering in terms of information for users.
The headings in the content of the pages should include some keywords as well. If you structure the pages of your site to be optimized for specific pillar keywords you will have a better chance of winning the higher result spots.
The paragraphs in the content should talk about the pillar keywords that the page is offering to its users. The designer can be pretty creative when it comes to content creation and add text that will complement the pillar keywords as well as engage the reader.
Bulleted lists are great for search engine visibility. It shows search engines that there is a structure to the content of the website that allows users to easily find and use the information without having to read big chunks of text.
Although it is a controversial topic using keywords in the alt descriptions of images is a good way to help with search engine visibility, however, since these alt descriptions are for people with disabilities it is best if the image is of a particular keyword and helps to describe the content that is in the text of the page.
SEO With Integrity
The search engines are equipped with rules and guidelines that all SEO experts should adhere to. What happens is that a couple of million websites out there try to beat the system and trick the search engines into favoring them. When there are millions of sites out there that are trying to beat the system the search engines have to step up their game in order to reduce spam websites and other eyesores that sprout out around the internet.
As search engines have to scramble to create programs to reduce spam and bring higher-quality search results for users these search engines crush the freedom of regular businesses that merely want to rank for their keywords. As these changes continue to roll out, it is harder to gain visibility for common, general websites that do not have any professional assistance.
This is why it is so important to blend the initial design of every site with an SEO perspective. The goal is to provide relevant, useful, content for the users that seek it while keeping in mind that if we aren’t practicing respectable SEO tactics, we are putting ourselves and other websites at risk.