Don’t Be Fooled by Self-Proclaimed SEO Experts, Quick Tips to Sort the “Talkers” from the “Walkers”
Oct 26
In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote: To be or not to be, that is the question. Today many businesses are asking themselves “to optimize or not to optimize” their websites for search engines. While it may seem obvious to some that they NEED to have search engine visibility for their important keywords, others mull over their decision thinking SEO is not imperative. Put simply, if people don’t find you on Google, you don’t exist, it’s that simple. The other question web designers ask is whether SEO should be built into or built on to their website as an afterthought.
Simply put, if you’re looking to undergo a website redesign it should be built-in to the development process and not added on as an afterthought. Unfortunately, many web agencies and web professionals don’t know the ins/outs of effective SEO resulting in omitting it from the project and/or doing it incorrectly. For most, it’s the latter. Either way it’s inexcusable, simply for the fact that SEO is one of the most effective marketing channels that exists. Think of it as having a billboard that is visible to many and well lit. After all, is there any point in designing a beautiful website (billboard) and placing it down an abandoned road that has not been traveled in many years, is not lit for nightly viewing, and/or has the wrong information? Of course not! With that in mind, there are specific things one can look at to see if the SEO for a site is solid or bogus. Don’t be fooled by web agencies or freelancers that “talk the talk” but can’t “walk the walk”.
To help you distinguish the “talkers” from the “walkers”, look out for these simple things:
- Title tags – do they have unique title tags on each of their own web pages?
- Keywords – Are they keyword stuffing? Do they have more than 3-4 keywords listed in their meta keywords? (To view, right click on their website, select “view source”, and look for <meta name=”keywords” content=” in the first few lines of code.) While none of the major engines use this tag for ranking purposes, a clear sign of amateurish SEO is the abuse of the tag.
- Too much content on one page. If a site has tons of valuable content on different subjects, do they try and cram it all on one page, or have unique pages targeting a multitude of keywords?
- A website built entirely in flash, or text embedded in images. This renders a website invisible to search engines
Of course, sorting through the professionals and the self-proclaimed professionals is more complex; however, those very simple things will get you started.
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Reef Light Interactive, a DC Web Design agency, specializes in web design, development, and search engine optimization. By researching and analyzing relevant keywords, implementing appropriate tags and link building strategies, and much more, Reef Light Interactive has created custom online campaigns that achieves maximum results for small business and Fortune 500, alike. Feel free to reach out to learn more about our SEO services at info@reeflightinteractive.com
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