Webneel.com just posted what they call 25 beautiful website design examples for your inspiration. But only four out of the 25 “beautiful websites” had enough content writing on the home page to be search engine optimized.  Clean white space, an uncluttered look and spare copy have always been the hallmarks of good design…and the bane of SEO.

Is it actually possible to get beauty and SEO copy writing to go with it? Yes…but the hallmarks have to change. For instance, a home page needs at least 250 words that include SEO copy writing  to get the search engines to take notice.  The photos also need to be tagged with the right keywords so the search engines can see them and the right Meta tags have to be in place to match the keywords.

If your company has three categories of business, it pays to divide up the copy on the home page into the three categories with the appropriate keywords.

I’m sure there’s more than one behind-the-times website design & development company that will blanch when they learn that adding content writing to their oh-so-clean designs is the only way to make the site useful to a business.

But, the handwriting is on the wall (as it were).  Beauty without SEO can be a very ugly business( if you’re trying to make a living with your website)ß since almost no one will ever see it.

Pitches - We often find it easier and more rewarding to do pitches with Online Public Relations.  We can often talk directly to the target writer, by passing editors and news rooms.

Speed - Getting a story often took months, today we can do it in a week from the pitch to the final publication of the story.

Value- With Online public relations, we can better leverage a story in both the social media space and for organic SEO.  When we get a story posted online we can create valuable links back to the client site.  These are gold not only in terms of visibility but also for search positioning.

Our online public relations world has changed but for the better.  We are able to do pr better, faster and cheaper for our clients with better results.

But there’s much more to hiring a website design and development agency than looking for good design, development, website copywriting and the like.  You have to look for a website design & development company that knows inbound marketing, search engine optimization and keyword analytics. Most web site design and development agencies will say they know how to do these things, but the reality is very few of these companies know how to do it right.

It pays to ask any web site design and development agency you’re considering to show you the inbound marketing efforts they use for their own company. They should be able to give you the list of keywords where they are ranked on the first two or three pages of Google, how they got there and how they plan to rise further. If they don’t have a clear strategy for their own website design and development agency, chances are pretty small they’ll be able to come up with a good one for your company.

ABC solar company moves into an area and starts advertising like crazy on the radio. They say their name over and over on the air.  But they only get a little more business. At the same time, another local solar company sees business increase by 30%.

How can this be?

Those interested in getting solar can’t remember the name. People have been trained to look for what they want on search engines so they turn to Google and type in “residential solar”, or “solar electricity”. Because ABC solar company didn’t search engine optimize their site, Google displays XYZ solar company on page one of Google in positions three and four.  ABC Solar Company is on page 11.  Or, as we like to call any thing after page two, the land of anonymity.

1. What is your page rank?

Page Rank is the ranked assigned by Google to every single page on the world wide web.  We have seen countless companies do business with a search company that has a page rank of 0 or 1.  Without a high page rank, they are not ranking for any key words or phrases themselves. If an SEO company has a rank of 0 how are they going to rank your own site?

2. What is your SEO Strategy

Every company should have an SEO strategy.  That SEO strategy should be based on sound metrics that drive back directly to your corporate strategy.  If an SEO company can’t show you their own SEO strategy and why they have chosen it, then it is time to move on.

3. What Is your linking Strategy?

Just recently Google announced that they will be shutting down link farms.  What are link Farms?  Link farms were invented so that companies could easily create links to other companies, simply for the purposes of increasing their seo.  Unfortunately, unscrupulous search firms use them all the time.   Customers only find out about them when they see their rankings plummet or if they use a link analysis tool like Jungle Torch which finds all the bad links before they hurt your ranking.

4. Who are your people?

Search requires thought, experience and also brute force.  If your search company has a “Few people” it is impossible for them to rank your site well.  At Kirk we often spend hundreds of hours in a month to bring a clients rank up quickly.

5.What about content?

SEO writing is crucial part of not only good SEO but good marketing.  We have seen allot of horrific writing both on and off page seo.  If you care about your company and your brand, it is important that you hire a company that has professional journalists or writers on staff.  Ask them for a sample of their portfolio.  If they have not written for a major publication, do you really want them writing for your company?

6. Do you have references?

A good SEO company should be able to provide you with a host of references that are in a variety of different industries.  The references should also be a mix of long and short term clients and be able to tell you exactly how the efforts of the search company boosted their profits.  If they can’t then find a search company that is focused on boosting your profits, not theirs.

How to suggest a site to the Open Directory

The Open Directory Project is a web directory of Internet resources. A web directory is something akin to a huge reference library. The directory is hierarchically arranged by subject – from broad to specific. The ODP is maintained by community editors who evaluate sites for inclusion in the directory. They are our experts, and all submissions are subject to editor evaluation.

Step One

Determine whether a site is appropriate for submission to the directory

• Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs.
• Do not submit URLs that contain only the same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in the directory.  Sites with overlapping and repetitive content are not helpful to users of the directory.  Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites.
• Do not disguise your submission and submit the same URL more than once.
  Example: http://www.dmoz.org and http://www.dmoz.org/index.html
• Do not submit any site with an address that redirects to another address.
• The Open Directory has a policy against the inclusion of sites with illegal content. Examples of illegal material include child pornography; libel; material that infringes any intellectual property right; and material that specifically advocates, solicits or abets illegal activity (such as fraud or violence).
• Do not submit sites “under construction.” Wait until a site is complete before submitting it. Sites that are incomplete, contain “Under Construction” notices, or contain broken graphics or links aren’t good candidates for the directory.
• Submit pornographic sites to the appropriate category under Adult.
• Submit non-English sites to the appropriate category under World.
• Don’t submit sites consisting largely of affiliate links.

Step Two

Do a quick search in the directory at dmoz.org (the home of the Open Directory) to be sure your site isn’t already listed. This saves everyone time.

Step Three

Identify the single best category for your site. The Open Directory has an enormous array of subjects to choose from. You should submit a site to the single most relevant category. Sites submitted to inappropriate or unrelated categories may be rejected or removed.

Note: Some categories do not have “suggest URL” or “update URL” links. These categories don’t accept submissions, so you should find a more specific category for your site.

Step Four

Once you’ve selected the best category for your site, go directly to that category on dmoz.org and then click “suggest URL.” Follow the instructions on the submission form carefully.  Descriptions of sites should describe the content of the site concisely and accurately.  They should not be promotional in nature. Submitting a promotional description rather than an objective, well written description may significantly delay your site from being listed or prevent your site from being listed at all. Auto-submission software is (and always has been) a violation of this procedure. Sites submitted automatically are flagged and deleted after the submission is accepted, without notification to you. Persistent automatic submission may force us to ban you from the dmoz site, so we can provide resources to real human beings.

Adding new content to your website on a regular basis

1. The search engines LOVE to crawl new pages. There is competition for every key word and phrase.  With so much competition, one of the only ways to differentiate sites is to give credit to those sites that are adding content on a daily basis. New content will be indexed and this can place you ahead of your competition.
2. Adding new content to your site on a regular basis keeps the search engine spider “interested” in your site.  Search engines like sites that add new content and so do your visitors. When search engines find a site that is continually adding new content, they tend to crawl it more boosting your rankings.
3. More pages mean more content is indexed. Perform any search on Google yahoo and bing and you will be hard pressed to find a site showing up well with just a handful of pages. Sites that are rich in content do well in search.
4. Content also promotes more inbound links which help your ranking. The more inbound links the higher you will be ranked against your competition.

Whoever is writing your content should completely understand SEO. When writing any content weather it be for a web page or a blog your writers should be including keywords. Don’t forget to teach them that the more times they use a specific keyword the better. It’s also a good idea to stress the importance of press releases to your writers. Putting together a release at least once a month will drastically help SEO. This release like any content should focus on specific keywords and use them as often as possible within a release.

As part of your SEO strategy you should have 5 or 10 keywords from your overall keyword list you’d like to focus on each month.  Focusing on these terms for a period of time longer than a month is fine, however this list of terms should always be shared with people throughout your company. This way they can be used on a daily basis in blogs, press releases, or whatever other content is being posted online.

Remember, the more people within your company who understand SEO the better. The first step to getting SEO deployed throughout your entire company is education.

1. You need to understand the technology and what drives rankings. Here at Kirk, we have helped invent technologies like Jungle Torch. Jungle Torch gives us unprecedented insight into what is happening on a site from a search perspective.

2. We have a process that works!. Our average client will see a 200% jump in qualified traffic in the first 6 months and an additional 100% 6 months after that.

3. We eat our own dog food. Do a search for Website Design and Development companies and Kirk is 1# or 2# at any given time. There are over 542 million web pages competing for this term.

4. We have the people. SEO is tough work and with out a large staff to do that work good SEO is impossible!

So, before your hire an SEO company, let them tell you what their SEO plan is and prove their worth.

The Dos:

1. Learn as much as you can about SEO. Your web design and development company is there to help you and offer expert advice when it comes to SEO. Like anything else the more you understand about SEO the more you will be able to help your SEO Company create the best ROI for your business. After all SEO has one of the highest ROI’s in marketing.
2. Set realistic goals that you are able to measure. Examples of these are increasing sales, generating more leads, increasing conversion rates, and improve brand awareness
3. Build a mobile strategy. It is worth taking the time to research how many of your visitors are using mobile devices to visit your site. Although all websites should be accessible via mobile devices it might make sense to build a separate mobile version of your website if you have a high number of visits from smart phones or tablets.
4. Content is key. One of the most time consuming aspects of web design and development is the process of getting content. All your content should not only explain what you do, but should be written with SEO in mind. To steam line this process and ensure you’re using content to improve SEO we suggest having a writer who specializes in SEO create your content.
5. Write with calls to action in mind. Remember that a call to action is an easy way for your customers to decide what they want to do next.
6. Ask yourself how often you will want to update your content. If you see yourself adding or changing content on a regular basis, which by the way is very good for SEO, than you might want to include a CMS system on your site. This would allow you to easily change and update content on your own.
7. Check out your competition! Visit the sites of a few of your competitors and write down the things you like and dislike about their sites. This will help your web design and development company create a site that works best for your business
8. Trust the experts! Your web design and development company knows best, it’s what they do.  We have found that when people enter the web development process with an open mind we are able to build a site that not only meets their expectations and goals but also exceeds them.
9. Ask Why! If you want your customers to do something specific on your site tell them why they should do it.  For instance is someone follows you on Facebook how will they benefit from it? If it’s daily updates on your products or access to discount it will always help to remind them why they want to sign up.

The Don’ts

1. DIY! Do it yourself websites often look outdated and shockingly like you built it yourself. Since your website is typically the first experience people have with your brand you want to create the best possible experience that conveys the most professional feeling.
2. Use flash.  A site built entirely in flash is not SEO friendly and can’t be viewed on most mobile devices. This means that not only can people not find your site but also a lot of people won’t be able to view it even if they do.
3. Use vague testimonials. Testimonials can build credibility especially if your customer can relate to them. Having a writer contact the individuals giving the testimonial will allow the writer to ask specific questions. This will enable them to put together a testimonial that is specific and easy for our customers to relate to
4. Make people think. Most people visiting your site know exactly what they want, it could be as specific as info on a product or as basic as wanting to learn what your company does. If a visitor can’t figure out what to do next within 3 seconds you need to rethink the ease of use of your website.
5. Expect Customers. We often see people who assume that driving traffic to a website involves nothing other than putting a site up. This is not the case and often times creating traffic on a new website takes along time, SEO or course can help to speed up the process and create new visitors.