Should web designers care about SEO?

Last updated April 09, 2022

SEO or search engine optimization is really a loaded term that really means "how can we drive more leads or sales through search engines?"

It certainly revolves around constant marketing, but it definitely matters during the website design phase as well.

If your website was designed in such a way that it:

• inhibits blogging OR
• creating landing pages is difficult/non-existent OR
• hurting your chances of even being found in Google...

... those are big problems.

There's also the outdated notion of SEO being a "set it and forget it" kind of thing: put some "meta tags" in and we're done.

That's no longer the case anymore, either.

The role of the modern-day website developer/designer

Unfortunately, many people still believe design is only how a site looks and the aesthetics, which is unfortunate.

Can we define what a web designer really does?

For many "web development" companies, that means choosing a template or creating one from scratch, throwing in some content that the client created, and then they are done.

For other designers, like Ritter Knight, it really involves everything—the strategy, the funnel, graphic design and branding, copywriting, etc.

Design is really how something works, not how it looks.

Role designations are less meaningful today than solving actual business problems.

Who is doing the work is really less meaningful than is it getting done at all and is the site being setup for success?

Forget tactics—what's really the goal here?

Is the house ready to party?

The role of "web developers" and design companies is shifting more towards a marketing focus as well. Long are the days of you designing a website and 6 months later, you never hear from the website design company again.

When we design or rebuild websites, we also talk about the next step—driving traffic to it.

Oftentimes, when a client asks us to help them with lead generation, what we often find is the website is really what needs work first. In other words, we can't invite people over if the house isn't ready.

We're no longer just building the house (websites), we're helping our clients throw the party too (marketing).

Are you looking for just a vendor or a partner?

If it's the latter, let us know how we can help you.