Questions to Ask Your Web Designer Regarding SEO

I had a friend call me the other day to ask me what they should ask the web designers they are meeting with that day about search engine optimization. She wanted to make sure the site was built correctly from the start so that they would not have to redo a bunch of stuff when it went live to make it SEO friendly.
So I am going to answer her question here, so that we can share it with others:

Questions I would ask:

I would preface these questions to the potential web designer by saying that you have done some SEO research, and that it is important that the site is built to the current SEO standards so that you do not have to redo the back-end after the site is finished. Tell them that while you do not expect them to be SEO experts, you do not want to have to pay someone to have to redo the work they have done. In this scenario I am assuming that the web designer would not be writing the site content.

1-When building the website, do you do anything to make certain the website is up to the latest standards regarding search engine optimization?

Depending on their answer, I would also ask some or all of these follow up questions:

2-Do you properly format the URLs, for example: www.domainname.com/keyword-keyword-keyword?
3-Do you integrate a sitemap that updates when changes to the site are made?
4-Do you make certain the meta-data is unique to each page and related to the content on each page?
5-Do make sure the H1 & H2 tags are formatted correctly?
6-Do you set our site up with Google Analytics and submit the sitemap?
7-Do you have examples of sites you have built recently where you built them to search engine standards?

8-If the site includes a CMS, does it enable me to:

• Add pages
• Format URLs
• Control Meta-data
• Control H1 & H2 Tags
• Add content
• Format and create internal links
  

If these options are not available, then you may end up spending a lot more money on their solution than what they are quoting you to get it up to snuff from a search engine perspective.

Good luck!

Hope this helps!

You can always contact Dan Stratford at 720-985-7945 for help with this process or ask questions through this blog.

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Is SEMPO important?

I received this question through Linked In today, and I thought I would share my answer/opinion as an FYI for anyone else:

Question:
"LinkedIn
XXXXXX has sent you a message.
Date: 10/10/2009
Subject: Sempo Certfication
Hi Dan,

I'm the Internet Mgr at XXXXXXX in Seattle, quick question...do you feel the Sempo Certification is beneficial? And lastly, are they known as "the cert. to have"?

Thanks...XXXXX"

My answer:
"From what I gather they are known as the Cert to have, and it is beneficial. It is a good foundation for some things. I just do not know how much it cost because LexisNexis paid for it for their entire field sales staff and the team of 8 consultants I was a part of.

Also, like any certification, many people that have it have no clue, and many people that do not have it know a lot more than what's taught in the foundation class. If you read the tutorials and then take the test you will learn some things and have a good foundation upon which to continue to build your Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing knowledge."

Anyway-that's just my opinion.

Article on The Yellow Pages-Idearc

This is an interesting blog on >Idearc.

I worked at HQ for Dex Media, and later RH Donnelly. I had some similar experiences.

I have a hard time trusting the Yellow Pages companies, but I do know a lot of good people that work for them. My books stayed on my front porch for months until my cleaning lady finally put them in my living room. Still trying to muster up the energy to move them to the recycle bin.

They have missed an opportunity to downsize and re-emerge as the leaders in online marketing, but they have and continue to be short sided, lazy and not very innovative.

Who suffers? The consumers and the small and medium sized business owners. Not to mention the legitimate Internet marketing firms that have to overcome trust issues the horrible experiences that businesses owners have had with the yellow pages industry and other sub-par programs.

They do have products and services that work, but transparency, integrity, loyalty and a true focus on the needs of their customers has been absent for years.

You are best off consulting a yellow pages consultant before spending a dime on the yellow pages.