In the Web design industry, Web designers are a dime a dozen. From people who use Web page creation software to create mediocre pages to experts with degrees in design, it's easy to find a Web designer. What's not so easy is finding a designer who is right for your company, and knows how to design a site that will appeal to visitors AND attract search engine spiders at the same time. Hire a Web designer who is not familiar with SEO and you run the risk of damaging the rankings of your existing Web site or hurting your chances of having a new Web site get ranked at all. There are several ways that a Web designer with no SEO knowledge can damage your business.
Links - Linking is one of the most important strategies used in search engine optimization. In addition to making sure backlinks to your Web site are available, SEO experts know how to use anchor text and other techniques to boost your rankings. A designer without SEO knowledge will not know about these techniques and may not focus on building links when designing your site.
Meta Tags - While Meta tags are not the most important factor in getting ranked, they do have some impact on your rankings and how potential visitors see your pages. Meta tags are HTML tags that contain information about your site. The Meta keyword tag should include the main keywords for each page on your site. The Meta description tag should contain a short description about your site; this is what the search engines display when your site comes up in the rankings. Designers who do not have SEO knowledge may not use any meta tags, or they may fill the meta tags with generic keywords that do nothing to help get your site ranked.
Content - If your Web design firm also provides content, you need to be sure the content is optimized for search engines. Without SEO experience, your designer may not know how to select the best keywords or implement them in your pages.
