By now pretty much everyone knows I'm shopping around for a website.
No I haven't even come up with a name yet, but all in good time.
For now I'm researching the do it yourself options vs. hiring someone to build a site for me.
One thing I notice is some companies talk about SEO alot and I know this is important and I even think I understand why this is important, but what I can't figure out is if I should expect my designer to make SEO a part of the website or if it's something I have to pay for or hire out for?

Is SEO something that comes standard with a site these days, like anti-lock brakes on a car?
I'd love to know what I should expect if and when I hire someone to create a website for me.
Every company seems to offer a different set of services - what IS standard, if anything?

I would say that YES, SEO *should* be part of the deal - if you're paying someone to create a website for you it should come standard. That doesn't mean your developer has to be an SEO guru, but they should have a good understanding of how search engines read and interact with websites.

There are certain site-based things a web builder will do for your site while they are building it that can help increase your search rankings for keywords relative to the industry including (but certainly not limited to) - image alt tags - (placing a bit of text 'behind' an image so that search engines have something to read - they can't 'see' your images so that is essentially wasted space in terms of SEO,
description and keyword meta tags - these are arguably less important these days, but are still worth doing corectly,
well-written page title tags - preferrably *different* for each page and relative to that page's content/message (this is a science in and of itself and is something a good developer can help you with),
good navigation - (again, this is really about *users* but is also helpful for search engine spiders trying to index all of your pages, no sense in making it hard for either one to get around your site ),
and of course your content - the more original and fresh it is the better - being able to easily update your page content can be important so consider how you will manage this once the site is complete (will you need to pay the developer to make changes, can you update on your own, will you have a content management system to allow for this? etc.)

Some developers offer content editing or will even write your content for you - though I always ask a client to write their own content, however it may turn out, it's so important that the 'voice' of the website be genuine, unique, and truly reflect the business/person/product being displayed - and then edit for/with them toward better SEO, but *first* for user comprehension/getting the message across in the best way possible.
The most important aspect of your site should always be user-end, a search engine may index your site higher if you've got great keywords, etc. but they're not going to hire you

Keeping the user in mind first and foremost and *then* layering in SEO aspects will ultimately be better for your business all the way around.

For a detailed article on all of the above and then some click here.

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Wow.. This one I'll leave to Tess, she is the guru here But I hope you decide which route will work best for you!!

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I always have a headache thinking about SEO........LOL!!!

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I do understand! There's a ton of info out there (like there is on *every* subject..) and someone's always trying to sell you something.

The links I listed above are a great start and of course if you stay tuned to this section you can learn quite a lot over time.

Investing a bit of time in learning just a few simple SEO tricks can help boost your site over time, and it's really great knowledge to have, especially if you're running your own site/blog.

One thing I'd suggest doing is search for some keywords 'virtual administration', 'virtual assistance', 'virtual assistant' and take a look at the top five sites for each return. What do you notice these sites have in common?
Let me know what you come up with - if you feel like doing a little homework and I'll have Hamid post further about this so you can apply the same tricks to your own site.

Of course, it takes more than just tweaking a site every now and then to maintain a top spot - and there are off-site things you can do (like linkbuilding) regularly and consistently to move your site up in the rankings.

I totally believe in the notion that whatever gives you the biggest headache is the thing most worth learning!

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Hrrm...OK. As I understand it there are things I should expect to come along with a website and there are things I can do myself as well.
I read through that article and I think I have a better idea now of what SEO is. Who knows what I thought before!

I'm leaning more toward having someone build for me. I'd rather defer to an expert and I haven't seen any DIY sites that blew me away or were so impressive I thought I really wanted to go that route. But still shopping options.

Thank you so much for all the information!
I'll check out those Google keywords and "do a bit of homework"

I would expect that any site builder would include SEO in their work, but if you are signing a contract, it's always good to spell out every expectation.

Originally Posted by Tess

I totally believe in the notion that whatever gives you the biggest headache is the thing most worth learning!

Best advice ever! So true! If I'm not knocking my head against the wall at least once a week I know I'm not gaining any ground in the gray matter department. LOL!

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Eyreka

Wow that is soooo true! Website design must be the thing for me to learn because it is making my head hurt trying to figure it out and put together a website that is informational without being overloaded

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The best software to use for a website today is content management. Wordpress is easy, fun and effective for websites. And most importantly Google loves Wordpress and your website can get indexed quickly.

I know this is an old thread but the information here is still great. I just have to add that maybe you "Tess & Hamid" need to write a book. Just a thought

Originally Posted by Tess

I would say that YES, SEO *should* be part of the deal - if you're paying someone to create a website for you it should come standard. That doesn't mean your developer has to be an SEO guru, but they should have a good understanding of how search engines read and interact with websites. There are certain site-based things a web builder will do for your site while they are building it that can help increase your search rankings for keywords relative to the industry including (but certainly not limited to) - image alt tags - (placing a bit of text 'behind' an image so that search engines have something to read - they can't 'see' your images so that is essentially wasted space in terms of SEO, description and keyword meta tags - these are arguably less important these days, but are still worth doing corectly, well-written page title tags - preferrably *different* for each page and relative to that page's content/message (this is a science in and of itself and is something a good developer can help you with), good navigation - (again, this is really about *users* but is also helpful for search engine spiders trying to index all of your pages, no sense in making it hard for either one to get around your site ), and of course your content - the more original and fresh it is the better - being able to easily update your page content can be important so consider how you will manage this once the site is complete (will you need to pay the developer to make changes, can you update on your own, will you have a content management system to allow for this? etc.) Some developers offer content editing or will even write your content for you - though I always ask a client to write their own content, however it may turn out, it's so important that the 'voice' of the website be genuine, unique, and truly reflect the business/person/product being displayed - and then edit for/with them toward better SEO, but *first* for user comprehension/getting the message across in the best way possible. The most important aspect of your site should always be user-end, a search engine may index your site higher if you've got great keywords, etc. but they're not going to hire you Keeping the user in mind first and foremost and *then* layering in SEO aspects will ultimately be better for your business all the way around. For a detailed article on all of the above and then some click here.

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SEO comes as a standard with the website designing. If you are going to hire someone for designing your site, he/she should atleast do the basic SEO for you, not the ones like image alt texts etc. like Tess told. I completely with the comments of Tess.

Thanks.

Some web designers do include SEO as a part of their overall package others do not. I would first ask if this is included and if it is, I would ask for some examples from other SEO work the designer has done.

Specifically I would ask what are the site URLs and what were the keywords that they optimized for each of the pages? From there you can do your own research by testing each of those keywords in Google and check the returned sites to see if their client is in the top 10.

Often time web site programmers are not very good at SEO and designers are not very good at programming. These skills now are very specialized so you may want to hire a separate person just for SEO.

Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by WebGuruSteve

Specifically I would ask what are the site URLs and what were the keywords that they optimized for each of the pages? From there you can do your own research by testing each of those keywords in Google and check the returned sites to see if their client is in the top 10.

I have to disagree with you on this one - as someone who operates in the field I NEVER divulge keywords to anyone other than my client - and when I do my client is advised to consider them as proprietary information and not to share them with anyone. Many of the keywords and phrases that are optimized for are very subtle and are come by after much research and analysis, to give those away would be to sell my client short on quite a lot of their investment.

I use stats/traffic reports, Google Analytics screenshots, etc. as examples of the effectiveness of my work.

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I wish I had read this BEFORE I decided on my website. Thank you for all the information.