Design vs SEO Its a hairy topic - but were diving right in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Design vs SEO

It’s a hairy topic - but we’re diving right in

www.agencyscaleup.com

About Me

I live and breathe SEO. I work with business owners. We make their online visibility skyrocket. They enjoy more leads, sales and profits. I walk away with a ridiculously big grin on my face. If you ask me, that’s magic right there.

Despina Gavoyannis Founder of SEO Meets Design

www.agencyscaleup.com

What We’ll Cover:

• Design vs SEO mindset
• Bust 3 myths around what “Good SEO” is
• Top 6 SEO mistakes designers make

(and how you can avoid them)

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But First ....

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What is SEO?

The internet’s (very literal) version of “Ask and you shall receive”

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It All Happens on Search Engines

ASK RECEIVE

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Design vs SEO Mindset

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Entirely Separate Disciplines

Design SEO

≠

Typical Approach by Designers & Developers

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SEO Approaches

SEO Lite

(Ticks the SEO boxes + keeps clients happy for a little while)

Competitive SEO

(Ranking at the top of search results and making $$$)

vs

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A Designer’s Journey

Branding SEO

(Sometimes)

Design

+UX + Dev

Website Plan

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A Searcher’s Journey

Branding SEO

(Mostly through Google)

Design

+UX + Nav

Site Structure

Search + Find Love the Brand Great Experience Land on Right Page

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New Mindset

Design Development User Experience SEO

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SEO Myth Busting

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“Do it because it’s good for SEO”

AKA the biggest myth designers buy into when they don’t understand what goes into SEO.

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“Good SEO”

Give Users What they Want Help Search Robots Choose You Quality Content SEO

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“Do this one thing and you’ll rank”

SEO success relies on how many factors work together between content, design, technical and user experience.

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“More keywords = better SEO”

Nowadays, more keywords tends to = spam so be careful with this one!

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6 Biggest SEO Mistakes Designers Make

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• Vague Titles e.g. “What We Do”, “Work”, “Learn” etc.
• Hidden navigation or non-standard format
• Navigation that doesn’t match a user’s thought process for

finding information

1.

Navigation

Avoid:

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www.mysite.com/about-main-keyword-and-locations/ www.mysite.com/contact-main-keyword-and-locations/ www.mysite.com/services/main-keyword-and-locations/

2.

URLs + Site Structure

Avoid This:

www.mysite.com/work/ www.mysite.com/discover/ www.mysite.com/learn/ www.mysite.com/what-we-do/

Also Avoid This:

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www.mysite.com/about/ www.mysite.com/contact/ www.mysite.com/services/main-keyword/ www.mysite.com/services/different-keyword/

• Each keyword to target one page only.
• There’s no need to hardcore optimise pages you don’t want ranking (i.e.

Contact) or branded pages (Home and About).

2.

URLs + Site Structure

Do this instead:

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• Relying on CSS and heading tags <h1>, <h2> etc for styling
• Adding multiple H1s to a page
• Adding excessive headings for things like sidebars and footers
• Having more headings than the paragraph content warrants
• It looks like spam to search engine robots

3.

Headings + CSS

Avoid:

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• Relying on image compression plugins
• Not optimising image file size and format
• Missing meta information including:

○ Meta titles ○ Meta descriptions ○ Alt text ○ Image meta data (EXIF data)

4.

Images + Meta Data

Avoid:

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• Relying on hidden content to make your designs nice
• Hiding content that appears above the fold
• Using too many tabs, accordions or toggles to hide all content
• Blending SEO content with backgrounds so only search engines see

them

• Content hidden in flash, javascript, iFrames or other code modules that

search engines can’t crawl.

5.

Hidden Content, Tabs + Toggles

Avoid:

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• Home + About pages should have a minimum of 350 words each
• Main pages for SEO should have at least 750 words though optimally,

~1000-1500

• Check competitor pages and match what they have.

6.

Content Length

Avoid minimalism:

• Wall of Death by Boredom Text
• Badly formatted content

Also Avoid:

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seomeetsdesign.com

Become an SEO Savvy Designer

For as little as $1

(normally $47)

SEO Meets Design

Design Friendly SEO Glossary Ultimate Guide to Website Platforms + SEO

+

Included in Boss Bundle

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• Includes 200+ SEO Ranking Factors and explains them in plain English
• Includes ratings for how important they each are for you as a designer!
• Does the hard work for you and balances both design and SEO
• It literally is the only guide that speaks your language and visualises core SEO

principles - oh yeah!

Become an SEO Savvy Designer

Designer Friendly SEO Glossary - ONLY $1

Grab your copy here → seomeetsdesign.com

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• Say goodbye to Wordpress vs Squarespace vs “Platform of your choice” rabbitholes
• Helps you choose the best website platform for each project
• Goes into detail about the best practices for SEO on each platform
• I’ve read all the “vs” guides on the internet for the top platforms so you don’t have to
• As always, in plain English + designer friendly

Become an SEO Savvy Designer

Ultimate Guide to Website Platforms + SEO

(part of the Boss Bundle)

Grab your copy here → DBDS Boss Bundle

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Reach Out!

Despina Gavoyannis despina@seomeetsdesign.com www.seomeetsdesign.com

Let’s Chat