Designing for Search Engines

We have done a multitude of different presentations at events, universities and the like. But, we have not done a webinar. Ironic right? So, we would like to present our first ever webinar designed for creatives at agencies.

The webinar is about Design and Search Engine Optimization, two things that you don’t hear much about together.

Proper Search Engine Optimization is not just about programming, its starts with the creative. Learn how your agency can be designing new projects to be properly read by Google, Yahoo, and the other major search engines. You will also see real world examples of how designing a site properly can make a huge impact on your rankings.

Here is a list of some of things you will learn from attending this webinar:

• Valid XHTML/CSS and what it means to you
• Web safe fonts and alternatives
• How to properly use Flash
• Top mistakes made in the Creative Process

Want to attend? The webinar is on July 15th at 2PM EDT. It’s free and you can register here: www1.gotomeeting.com/register/291566936

Designing for SEO

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you are considering a new website or redesign of your current site? Most likely, an image of the site’s design is etched into your brain. You have ideas of what it will look like, how visitors will interact with your brand, and how you will be able to increase your sales or leads through the site. That’s great, and designers will be grateful that you know what you want, but be prepared to give a little if you want to achieve the highest level of traffic and results.

Any designer worth his salt will consider how effectively the design will be able to be Search Engine Optimized. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the likelihood that search engines, like Google, and those using search engines will be able to find your website when searching for targeted keywords. Let’s call it marketing for your website. After all, your website IS meant to be part of your marketing strategy. It’s no good to have the most glorious website in the industry if no one is able to find it through search engines. And unless you are an industry leader or you do not care about organic results, you NEED people to find your website through search engines.

As an example, Flash animation is a great way to add some “pizzazz” to your site, but at what expense? Yes, Flash can still be used in a SEO friendly manner and Google will index it if programmed correctly. But a site programmed completely in Flash is going to be more difficult to increase the rank of than a site that has HTML content for search engines to find. Your site will look great and you will receive compliments from the 3 people a month that are able to find it. Is that really what you want? Again, if everyone knows you, feel free to Flash it up, they’re coming anyway. But, if you are begging to be found, use Flash in moderation.

So before you start your next web project, make sure you ask the developer how they intend to take your message to the masses. The internet has enabled marketers to advertise their goods and services in more targeted ways than ever before. You do not really need to search for new customers. Build it right and they will come. Build it wrong, and you’ll be awfully lonely playing with all those neat Flash features.

Oh and by the way, the photo really has no relevance to this post, I just thought it looked cool.