01 · 15

Does Your Web Developer Have Secrets?

If I was to ask you right now, "Are you certain that your site is optimized for high visibility in search engines?", what would your answer be? Or, what if I was to ask, "What position are you showing up in the major search engines for your targeted search term?" or "Does each of your pages have targeted TITLE and META tags?" If you answered "No" or "I don't know" to any of these questions, you are among the some 60% of web site owners who are missing out on valuable traffic because their site/sites are not optimized for search engines. Has your web developer optimized your site for your targeted search terms? Have they made sure that your website is visible in Google and the other major search engines? More than likely, you do not know the answers to any of these questions, simply because they haven't told you. ASK THEM TODAY! "But what is search engine optimization (SEO is what  I will call it from now on)?" you may ask. Well simply stated, SEO is the technique to attain higher ranking in the search engines by changing "behind-the-scenes" code on your website to produce higher search engine compatibility. In my personal experience with other web developers, being a developer myself, they do keep a lot of secrets. Not me of course, or I wouldn't be writing this article. One of the secrets being, listen closely, they don't really know what it takes for a website to be search engine capatible. Another is that they like to build expensive, flashy websites and convince their clients that an attractive website never uses alot of text. WRONG! So your web developer may have included targeted TITLE and META keywords and phrases in the HTML code of your website. They may have even mentioned to you that these are very important references for search engine ranking relevancy. I have met many web developers who claimed that that is all it took to optimize a website for search engines. Boy are they wrong! But did you know that each page of your website needs to have specific targeted TITLE and META tags? Did you know that optimizing you META tags on a page is only a fraction of the job? Did you know that search engines need to find your target keywords and phrases within the text of the body to be able to find a relevant match to search queries? Did you know that they also need to be able to find those phrases in the links that navigate your site? This is true! If you want the search engines to rank your site highly for certain words for phrases that you would suspect your possible visitors would type in, each page would MUST be created with those particular keywords and phrases in mind! Lets see an example. For instance, you are an Amarillo Candy Shop, you should have logical search phrases such as, "candy shops", "Amarillo candy shops", "candy" and even have targeted search terms like, "sweet tooth", "Amarillo sweets", etc integrated into your TITLE and META tags, as well as the visible text within the page. Even better, build a page for each individual product or servce that you offer. That way, if a person types these search phrases in a search, you are more likely to receive a higher ranking in the search engines. Can you honestly say that your web developer built your site with that in mind? So why wasn't your site optimized when it was built, you may ask? Depending on how developed your site and how it was developed, you will find many reasons to this question. Many developers believe that it is the marketer's job to make sure that the site is optimized for search engines. Many don't bother checking to see if your site is found in major search engines, assuming that you or your marketing department is responsible for this task. Or perhaps it wasn't discussed in the original development budget. Not many web design firms know how or have time to optimize a site successfully, no matter what they tell you. They might feel it is outside their core business, or they might believe it is not part of the "design process". Consequently, your site can be launched for many months without the search engines having any idea it exists. Some web development firms don't include even the most basic META tags in your site code when building it. Or those that do include META tags without close consultation with you, resulting in the wrong search terms used and poor performance. This is quite typical! Remember that search engine optimization requires both client interaction and constant monitoring to be successful.

The bottom line

If your developer can't show you substantial search engine traffic they've achieved for other clients, chances are they won't be able to optimize your site properly. SEO specialists have sprung up to fill the need for these services. Many SEO's will work either directly with you or with your web site developer to ensure your site gets the exposure it deserves in the most popular search engines and directories. My suggestion is to pay a little more for a specialist with a good track record and reap the rewards.
Remember, search engine users generally only explore the first 10 or 20 search results. If you site isn't in the top 20, you won't be found, it's as simple as that. Always include search engine optimization into your marketing budget or your site could be as effective as a billboard at the end of a dead end street.
~ Kyle Reddoch