Aviran's Place

[fiberoptics]

Good text content, consistent keyword usage, and great linking can be a winning combination for a website’s rank in search engines. However, can a well-optimized website also be well designed? Perhaps so.

Some sites succeed in this balance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) vs. good Web design, while others fall short. Heavy on the design side, for example, is the following Flash-only website for Eccentris. It is about as visually engaging as you can get, but has no optimization whatsoever: [url]http://www.eccentris.com/splash.htm[/url]. The lack of SEO may be perfectly acceptable for some businesses, depending on what their web marketing goals are, but for most, web traffic is just as high of a priority as the design.

At the other end of the spectrum, some link-heavy sites may have perfect optimization, but if SEO is the sole focus, the design may suffer, including its navigation, usability, and credibility. It does not matter how much traffic a site gets if the site is not designed well enough to serve its intended purpose. If the purpose is to sell products, for example, the design must inspire enough confidence in the visitor to buy; otherwise, the website has failed.

The former SEO consulting company, Traffic Power, designed many websites that were heavy on efforts of SEO, but light in their efforts of design, such as the following example: [url]http://www.dry-eye-doctor.com/[/url]. Such over-aggressively SEO-focused websites which have overlooked the design have inevitably failed. It should not be a surprise that Traffic Power is no longer in business- a quick Google search on their name will reveal plenty of gossip about their risqué SEO practices.

Some new website designs such as Timbercon’s [url]http://www.timbercon.com[/url] reflect the latest in strides to achieve a healthy balance between good SEO and good web design. On the technical SEO side, their site features plenty of keyword-based links from the homepage and appears to maintain its keyword consistency well on subsequent pages. Keywords are used within titles, meta tags, header tags (H1, H2, H3), and within newer tags like <strong> and <em>. Body text on the homepage also contains keywords, and keyword links within <a href> tags are sprinkled throughout the pages. The site also appears to use as much CSS as possible to shrink the code-to-text content ratio- this is strongly recommended for all webmasters.

On the design side, the Timbercon website appears to be visually interesting while bordering on being ‘too busy’ from the keyword content. A photo acts as the dominant element on each page in effort to break up the text and add something visually interesting that stands out the most. These elements attempt to embrace the “rule of thirds” design theory, with the element not dead-center in the middle, but slightly offset at the 1/3 of the page to be more pleasing to the eye. Designers should consider such design theories and principles when designing a new site.

Though the Timbercon homepage is chalk full of content, pockets of white space do exist. Such spaces allow the eyes to ‘breathe’ as a refreshing separation from the page elements. Strong use of color, such as the blue in this case, can make elements appear to ‘pop out’, while the use of a neutral color, like gray, reminds us of Timbercon’s professional and corporate nature.

The key to a successful balance is planning both design and SEO simultaneously- from the ground up. This means that all the keyword phrases should be researched, chosen and integrated into the design in its earliest drafts. If this is not done, a web designer may later be in a dilemma if keywords are to be added that are longer than the design allows, for instance. Such a last minute changes of keywords could also mean changes to the directory structure links across multiple pages, allowing an increased opportunity for error. The best practice is to start with the keywords upfront and try to minimize the changes that occur with those keywords as the web design progresses.

In the competitive marketplace of the Web, both the catching of traffic and the visual presentation of a website is important. Too much emphasis on one and not enough on the other can limit a website’s success, but a healthy blend of good SEO and good design will pave the path for success.


By Trent Mueller

About the Author:
Trent Mueller is a web marketing & SEO specialist and manages various websites, including [url]www.turbophoto.com[/url]. He is a Webmaster at Timbercon, Inc. [url]www.timbercon.com[/url] in Portland, Oregon, USA.

By Trent Mueller
© 2006
[url]http://www.timbercon.com/Fiber-Optic-Cables/[/url]

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[benjamina]

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