I work in a website building company and what amazes me lately, is how many clients we get that want to optimize their websites.
Ok. Website Optimization is usually connected with search engine optimization. But I am not talking about this kind of optimization. I am talking about client requests to completely rewrite already established websites. This costs lots of money. Why does this happen?
It`s simple. People do not plan their websites enough. So please remember: planning is far cheaper than optimizing!
I can`t believe some sites I see today that want to rank high in search engines. And when they fail, they turn to website optimization. Wrong! A badly planned website cannot be optimized.
Reminder no. 2: plan your website rather than optimize.
Why is Website Planning so important?
In case you didn`t notice yet, Google is becoming smarter and smarter in finding out which pages provide valuable content and which don`t. So it is absolutely a waste of time if your plan is to trick Google. What you should do instead is CARE FOR YOUR VISITOR!
Your visitor is the one and only purpose of your website. So keep that in mind. Post-It on your monitor or whatever you need to do just don`t forget what is the purpose of your website.
What website planning is really about is just two things: satisfying needs of your visitor and satisfying Google and other search engines.
Satisfying your visitor
Whether you are planning a website from scratch or adding a post on your blog try to imagine you are the visitor and you are seeking for interesting information. Now – this might be hard at first, but once you master it you will feel great. So whenever in doubt – ask yourself what would your users like.
Satisfying Google and other Search Engines
There are some technical things you need to take care of when creating a website, but if you take a closer look, you will see it is very logical. Google wants to make all information on this planet searchable and empower anyone to find them in shortest amount of time.
How can this be possible? Hm. Think about it. What would you do if you were Google? You would need a set of good rules. And what ranking in Google is really about is following their rules. Read them, then reread them. They are called Webmaster Guidelines.
General what not to do`s:
- Do not make your navigation completely in flash or javascript. Google does not understand it. And what Google does not understand Google does not rank (high).
- Do not create a website only because you want to make money – sooner or later you will get bored and abandon your project.
- Do not put up a website that is not completed. It is better not to publish a site, than to publish a under construction page.
What to do`s:
- Satisfy your visitor – he is the purpose of your website and business!
- Satisfy Google and make him a friend of yours!
- Do things you love and you will become very succesful!
Good Luck with your site and remember: website planning is better than website optimization!