Marketing communications designed to build business
Does Your Web Site Need a SEO Redesign?
Written by Kerry O'Malley Wednesday, 24 February 2010 17:36
A new web site may look fantastic, but if the designer hasn't taken into account the principles of Search Engine Optimization (SEO,) it's not going to be effective. If you have an older web site, it may do the job of telling people about your company, but if the pages load slowly and the content hasn't been updated in years, it's ineffective as well. In either case, you definitely need to consider a redesign. Both web sites will receive a much lower volume of traffic than they COULD receive.
The newer site may get traffic for those looking specifically for that site, but anyone using a keyword search for your product or services won't find you. The older site with out of date content loses out because the search engines think the site is dormant or dead, due to the lack of fresh content. The only way to increase traffic to your web site (which translates to potential new business) is to build SEO into the web site. For a newer design, this can be done more simply, through a conversion process. For an older site, a complete redesign is probably in order. For most industrial companies who are not selling product through their web site, this is a relatively painless and affordable process that can really pay off in new business inquiries.
Here are some web site issues that should signal it's time for a redesign.
All Flash Design
Some search engines are beginning to read Flash elements; but a site that's ALL flash is likely to be invisible to search engines. Oh, they'll look GREAT; but the search engines won't rank them highly because the content is essentially unreadable. The only exception is if your site has such a high degree of links coming into the site that the search engines are picking you up through the links. This will typically be a huge corporation, so it's just easier to say to a small to mid size companies - minimal to no Flash!
Frames
Frames in your website make it difficult for search engines to index its pages. What's more, human visitors really struggle with frames, they're difficult to read and it's hard to get an impression of the site. Some browsers don't even support frames, meaning your site is entirely unreadable for those potential customers. This may not be something you know about your site; but a web developer can tell you quickly whether or not your site was designed with frames.
Splash Pages
Splash pages contain animation - visually impressive, but horrible from an SEO standpoint. Splash pages generally contain little or no text content, have no links, and are full of Flash and other software that the search engines still find difficult to access for a ranking. If someone finds your site that may say "wow!" but you'll be losing out on lots of potential customers.
Slow Loading Pages
A slow loading page puts off both human visitors and search engine crawlers. Human visitors may not have the patience to wait for the pages to load and search engines almost always rank the faster loading pages above the slower ones. If your site has slow loading pages, they need replacing.
Out of Date Content
Search engines will simply ignore this site as if it no longer exists. It may have been OK in the past to leave your content for months without updating it; but these days, it will soon slip off the radar without regularly updated content. What's more, nothing puts off a visitor more than out of date content.
If your site contains any of the above SEO problems, you need to implement a redesign; it's costing you potential income. For most industrial companies who are not selling product through their web site, this is a relatively painless and affordable process that can really pay off in new business inquiries!
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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
Hi, I'm Kerry O'Malley - the Industrial Marketing Muse (and your own personal Marketect, should you so choose!) I have over 27 years of experience developing marketing communications for engineered industrial products and services sold to industry. For the past 10 years, I've done that as a consultant through my company, Marketects.
I love the idea of advertising (and good writing) being catalysts that move people to action. I'm jazzed by the challenge of creating concepts for communications campaigns that work. I'm intrigued by the possibilities that exist on the Internet for the industrial marketer, and I'm always thinking about how to translate those opportunities to my clients. I've never practiced marketing in the retail, mass consumer arena, but I see a lot of that kind of marketing that inspires me and translates over well to the industrial world. I hope I can inspire YOU!
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