5 SEO Tips for Avoiding Costly Redesigning

SEO companies serve as website consultants and provide recommendations to better optimize websites, improving web presence and search engine rankings. In many cases, the changes suggested by your SEO expert could or should have been initially implemented by a web developer. This article discusses important (and commonly missed) SEO elements that should always be taken into consideration the first time around.

Web Design in Philadelphia: Philadelphia SEO and Web Developers

Many web developers and designers aren’t familiar with SEO and in some cases create sites that may look appealing, but down the road have to be “fixed” by a SEO company to actually rank competitively and appear in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

Before launching your new (or redesigned) website, here are a few very crucial tips from a successful SEO company, to take into account. Whether you’re designing your website by yourself, using a template, or hiring another web development firm for the project, consider the following and avoid paying for a SEO-related website overhaul later. Stick to these tips and you’ll have a search engine friendly site from the start.

1. Web design in Philadelphia should start with keyword research. If your company is planning on marketing your website to customers or search engines, you’ll need to perform some initial keyword research (identifying which keywords you’d like to rank for) before the start of the website building process. Keyword research (initial keyword research, as it’s an ongoing process) should be completed beforehand.
2. Use a keyword based URL structure. This is very important for SEO purposes—use a static structure URL as dynamic URLs do cause problems when not handled correctly and will prove to be a huge headache for your Philadelphia SEO company in the future. No dynamic URLs are necessary—set your site up with static URL and rewrites. Specifically, a site with URLs that resemble the following can cause Google to index different URL variations, and possibly result in duplicate content issues. Your URL structure should feature one product per page—and they are appropriately descriptive and meaningful to your audience with keywords.
3. Effectively use redirects. Google regularly penalizes websites for duplicate content issues, and if you don’t make good use of redirects you may find yourself losing rankings or never achieving prominence in the SERPS. When a website loads without the “www” in the URL, an automatic duplicate of your website is related. Not only does this waste link value (as people will link to both versions), it can cause duplicate content issues. It’s a good idea to decide on the URL version you ‘d like to use and then have your web developer use 301 redirects to prevent problems.
4. Speaking of duplicate content, ensure that all product URLs and the URLs of every product and service are unique. Even if visitors can find the same products or services different ways on your website, every item should have its own unique URL.
5. Make some space for content. You’ll need your web developer to include enough room for text on the web page—this is for search engines to read. Some good designers do get caught up in the look and feel of a website and don’t allot enough room for content. Philadelphia SEO company can tell you that you’ll need between 300-500 words on a web page (words of optimized content) for the page to rank competitively.

There are many other factors to consider when redesigning or developing a new website. Contact a Philadelphia SEO company to learn more about launching (or re-launching) a website that’s in great SEO shape. An internet marketing company specializing in both SEO and web design is your best bet for a truly SEO friendly website.