Why Designers don't do it. Why website owners need it.

More and more website owners and web designers are beginning to understand the value of SEO. They know that SEO is one of the most, if not the most effective form of advertising on the internet. Surprisingly, I still come across web designers that still do not know what SEO is or who question the necessity of it. Some web designers know SEO is important. However, most do not offer it to their clients. Usually, this is because they don't want to pay someone to do it for their clients. More importantly...they don't care. They want to design your site and get out. They know you can greatly improve the value of your site by implementing an SEO friendly design into the build and save you money in the process.

The least they should do for you is create an SEO friendly site as this will affect your success far more than any graphic or layout ever will. They should design a site for you that allow spiders access to the content, not in frames or 100% Flash. It is the consumer who gets hurt in the end by designers who fail to consider the purpose of a site with an eye for aesthetics only. Once they learn about SEO and realize how un-SEO friendly their site is, it is too late. Now they have to pay for SEO and possible restructuring of the site, which could have been avoided. Many website owners who know of SEO try to get away with as little as possible.

Some people want tags optimized but refuse to optimize content. Why bother? Web designer often come to me asking for optimization on a site with less than 20 words or refuse to change the content. It's unreasonable to expect an SEO specialist to move mountains if his or her recommendations are not followed. It is safe to say that at least 80 percent of traffic comes from search engines. So why wouldn't you want your site optimized? How do you plan to advertise? Banners? PPC? Pop-ups? Come on. SEO is the most effective form of advertising. You can still use those other forms of advertising. But, the money invested will be less with proper optimization.

Large companies are starting to learn the value of SEO. However, designers are not pushing SEO. If Flash is what they want, that's fine. Use flash movies and banners inside HTML. You can still create an awesome look. The content should be HTML. Not only for search engines, but for the simple fact that it makes it so much easier to change the content and import RSS feeds. SEO has not reached its peek in the marketplace. People are still not using SEO to its fullest potential, but those who are reap the benefits everyday. Yes, SEO does cost money and yes, it can be expensive (especially if your Site is large). SEO is not a one and done procedure. Of course, you will need to maintain your SEO with updates when necessary. Still, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Search engines will bring in more traffic than any other form of advertising on the internet. So why are companies willing to pass it up? Is it because there is no guarantee of a top 10 ranking on Google for a brand new site? People who have unrealistic expectations are uneducated in regard to SEO. Those who are educated will know what they can reasonably expect with a competent SEO professional. It is up to the SEO specialist to meet those expectations. Once the initial SEO implementation is finished, maintaining and reporting will increase its effectiveness.