Don't get a website designer who doesn't know SEO

Paying your money to a website designer who doesn't have a clue of what Search Engine Optimization is, is like buying jewelry only to hide it inside your closet. Unless of course if you know how to do it yourself.

People get excited by the idea of having a website for their business so they can tell their friends about it, have it printed in their name cards with the pipe dream that their business will jump start once prospective clients see their website.

The average small and medium scale business owner in the Philippines would probably spend as low as P7,000.00 to as much as P50,000.00 for a business website. And I'm sure you'll agree with me that for a start-up company, even P7,000.00 is not easy on the pocket. But that's probably the cheapest package you can get if you are to expect a decent website.


Although a website serves a number of purpose including product information, increasing credibility, easy access to company related information, I believe that the ultimate purpose of a business website is to increase sales by attracting more and more clients to see how good your products or services are. However, without your website being seen by potential clients, you just wasted the money you paid for the design and you'll continue to waste your money in paying for updates, hosting and domain renewal.

To many, SEO is unknown. Many even think that once you have a website, you'll automatically be listed in Search Engine Results Pages ( SERPs ). Well, let me tell you something about SEO-- Search Engine Optimization in layman's term is a technique to have your web pages indexed effectively by Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the keywords relevant to your product or service offering will appear in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and that they will rank high.

Sadly, many website owners fell victim to freelancers, web design students and part-timers who doesn't have any idea of what SEO is. Then after that much awaited website launching comes disappointment. The website seats there in the lurch,unseen by potential clients, contents buried under the dust of the fast-paced cyber activities, waiting for the next domain and hosting renewal. Then here comes your developer asking you if you want him to update the contents of your site. So, you bought a 24 karat ring only to be hidden in the closet, then hear comes your jeweler who sold it to you offering to shine the piece of gold you'll never get to use. Silly, isn't it?

Search Engine Optimization is definitely not for the novice web designer and may not even be for the experienced web developers. I honestly think that SEO or SEM is for experts who have studied the hundred of different factors that affects Search Engine results placement. Page Rank, Page Point Score, Meta Elements, Keyword Relevance and W3C standardization are just some of the many factors SEO experts analyze for a better ranking. Detailed explanation of these factors is beyond the scope of this article. Bottom line, if your website doesn't appear in Search Engine Results pages, chances are your developer doesn't know about SEO. My personal advice, look for developer who knows what SEO is and how to capitalize on SEO to gain a competitive edge on the information superhighway.

Owen V. Cruz

Former Telecom Engineer / Systems Developer - Smart Communications Inc.
Former Product Development Engineer - Wataniya Telecoms, Kuwait
Co-founder - IBRAINS Technologies Corp. - IT and Telecom Contracting Firm
Co-founder - iCONCEPT Marketing and Advertising, Inc. - Website Design Firm
Co-founder - Fast Tech Security Management, Inc. - Security Agency
Blog: http://www.lastdayofmylife.com