When you have a website built, is SEO automatically included or do you have to ask your developer to add it?
Unfortunately, SEO is not always included.
There are two main groups of web designers when it comes to the SEO they do on the websites they build.
Group 1 is not familiar with SEO, and they just design websites and leave the client once the project is complete. No concern whether the website is picked up by Google, or if the business ever gets any leads from their website.
The second group think they know about SEO (they might have read 2 articles, or watched a 12min Youtube video), and they claim to include “basic SEO” in their website packages. This basic SEO consists of installing a plugin and pushing some buttons.
THIS IS NOT SEO. This is barely scratching the surface.
To perform SEO, two of the most important steps are keyword research and competitor analysis. Keep in mind that SEO is like a race. There are many taking part, but only a few can end up on the podium.
If you don’t train harder than the competitors, you can’t beat them.
SEO shouldn’t just be included as part of your website design project. SEO should determine the way you build your site. SEO will determine which pages to generate, what search keywords (queries) to target, what content to create to target those keywords and your site structure.
I have seen how powerful it can be for certain businesses, and it breaks my heart when inexperienced web designers claim to do SEO, and their clients end up believing that SEO does not work.
Do it right from the start, and Google will keep sending you visitors day in and day out.
P.S. I will give the second group of designers some credit, they are at least trying. But I am on a mission to educate readers like you about what SEO really is, and how it works.
P.P.S. If you worked with a web designer that included “basic SEO”, there is a quick way to check if they really know what they are talking about. Drop me an email or schedule a call if you want to know the 1 simple question to ask your website designer.
