SEO and Website Design - Things to Consider When Purchasing a Website
SEO and Website Design – how the two work together:
At Stay Wild Digital Marketing we receive several phone calls each month from small business owners or people who are in the start up phase of their business. The conversation usually goes like this:
Them: I just need a simple one or two page website to get started – and – I need it to show up on search engines when people search for ___________ Salt Lake City. How much will that cost?
Me: The trouble is, to show up on Search Engines, a simple three page website won’t work. A website like that will NEVER show up on search engines. That just isn’t how search engines work. Search engines love lots of content, and the truth is, if you want to show up on search engines, you have to “out content” everyone else who wants that top spot.
Them: How much is that going to cost?
Me: We will need to do some research in your area to see what other people are already doing, and then outperform them. That will determine how much it will cost. But you should figure between $5,000 and $10,000.
Them: Let me call you back.
SEO in Websites is About Content
No matter what anyone tells you, SEO and Website design is about content. If you want to show up well on search engines you have to write a lot of words, and put them on a lot of web pages. That is the truth.
There are no shortcuts or “hacks” that work. And if they “seem to work” – trust us, they won’t work for long. Search engines are really good at catching people who try to game the system, and then either push their content way down in search engine results, or ban them from their search engine all together.
So when people ask us to build them a simple website that will drive business to their door, we tell them the truth: It’s never going to happen.
We can either build you a simple website that is inexpensive, but won’t rank well on search engine results.
OR
We can build you a website that will rank well on search engines and it costs what it costs.
But it will be one or the other – we can not do both. You simply are not going to build a simple website with just a few pages and still have it rank well on search engines. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
What if I Can't Afford Great Website Design?
We understand your challenge. We truly do. We have owned multiple small businesses ourselves and we understand that funds are always in short supply.
We suggest you either save up your money, or borrow the money, or build the website yourself rather than spending “what you have” and hoping your three page website will magically show up on search engines. Because it won’t.
You are better off to learn how to do SEO and Website Design yourself, then build it on Wix than to pay someone else to build a small website and hope to “grow it” from there.
Businesses need sales, and a lot of sales can come from search engines. But you have to get into those top few spots, or you don’t exist at all. Think about how you use Google: Do you scroll down to read through the search results at the bottom of the page?
Of course you don’t.
52% of people ONLY click the company who is #1.
85% of people only look at the top six spots.
As far as we are concerned, the minimum you MUST DO is get your website ranked in the top three spots, or you simply won’t get the business you need from search engines.
So either save up your money to SEO in Websites correctly, or spend the time and effort to learn how to do it yourself. Both of these are valid options.
What we don’t recommend is trying to get someone else to build a small website “just to get something going.” If you want to be a mechanic, you need proper tools. If you want to be a business owner who is successful, one of the proper tools you need is a good website with SEO done properly.
Get a good looking website – and pay the money to get the SEO done properly. That is what we suggest.
How Does SEO and Website Design Work Together
First SEO drives traffic to your website.
Second, once those people arrive at your website, you need your website design to convert those “lookers” into customers.
There are essentially TWO things you need your website to do:
One: you need SEO on your website so you show up on search engines when people are searching the internet for things you sell.
Two: once those people click on a link to your website, you need them to go from being “lookers” to “potential buyers.” by either asking for more information, filling out a contact form, or signing up for an email list of some kind so you can continue to market to them.
It doesn’t help for you to do great SEO, and start driving lots of qualified traffic to your website, and then when they get there, they get turned off by the look, feel, or the navigation your website designer set up, and hit the “back” button.
In fact, if too many people go to your website through the search engine Google, Google will notice that lots of people click the “back” button upon arriving at your website, and they will stop sending people to your website by pushing your site down in the search rankings.
So remember – you need two things: Get them to your site – Keep them from leaving.
What does this have to do with Website Design?
Whether people stay or leave your website is all about your website design. Your website should be modern in the way it looks, EASY to navigate, and present the information someone is searching for in a clear and concise manner.
Did you know that your existing customers won’t refer people to your website if it is bad? It’s true. A recent study found that over 70% of people said they would not refer their friends or business associates to a company with a bad website.
Think about it – don’t you find it frustrating when you visit a website and can’t find anything you are looking for, or the site is hard to navigate your way around? What do you do? You leave right? So does everybody else. You need a website that is designed well.
When You Get What You Want it Only Hurts Once
A friend of mine used to say to me when thinking about buying equipment, “when you get what you want, it only hurts once; when you write the check. But when you “almost” get what you want, it never stops hurting. It hurts every time you look at it, every time you use it, and eventually you end up spending the money to get the thing you wanted in the first place. Spend the money once and get what you know you want.” I have found this to be precisely true.
As a Utah Web Design Company, I can tell you that fully 75% of our business comes from people who have already spent a pile of money on their current website, and never got what they wanted. Or it looks the way they want, but it won’t show up on search engines. Now they are spending the money again to get it done properly.
They should have spent the money to get the best website they could have the first time, and paid for the full SEO package. But because they didn’t, now they have to spend money again. It is tempting to try and save some money when you are starting out – don’t do it. You’ll end up spending it all over again.
Summary - SEO and Website Design
#1: You are not going to get a simple three page website that ALSO shows up well on search engines and drives business to your door. It’s not going to happen.
#2: You need your website to do two things: One, bring people from search engines to your website, and Two, convert those “lookers” into customers.
#3: Saving a little money on the front end just ends up costing you more money later – and costs you business all along until you get the right thing.
#4: Without good SEO, nobody will ever see your website. Without a good looking well designed website, nobody will stay once they find your website on search engines.
#5: SEO is about content. You need lots of words on your website about what you do, how you do it, and everything there is to know about it if you want search engines to like and favor your website. That means lots of web pages, lots of words, and lots of writing content – which isn’t easy or cheap.
About The Authors
Utah Web Design Company – Utah SEO Company. Stay Wild Digital Marketing is a Utah Web Design Company based out of Salt Lake City. We are also a professional Utah SEO Company. Our clients rank highly on search engines. All of them. And if we couldn’t perform SEO and guarantee they rank well, we wouldn’t offer it as a service. There is nowhere to hide when offer SEO Service – the results are right out there in the open for everyone to see (or not see).
