Digital White Papers

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY 38 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER SEO and Web Design Best Practices by Walter D. McCorkle of Bradley, and Igor Ilyinsky of Firmwise SEO and Web Design Best Practices When tackling the concept of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), one must inherently consider web design (e.g., How will search engines be impacted by design changes?). And, conversely, in web design, foregoing any thought of how your design affects SEO is counterproductive (lest you're willing to sacrifice great rankings). But while the two disciplines require entirely different skillsets, web design and SEO can live to support one another in your digital strategy. I have drawn upon my experience, conversations, and digital marketing "travels" to provide recommendations and foresight on how these two disciplines intersect. In my quest to bridge the gap between the two, I relied on the experience of Igor Ilyinsky for commentary and feedback. What is SEO and how is it changing? Many individuals think of SEO as, "How can I write this piece of content to place my page at the top of search engine results?" There is some validity in this question, and using keywords and keyword placement on the page is one – albeit very small – aspect of optimizing content for search engines. But even keyword tactics can be a so science. Part of what will help facilitate the optimization of that page is how those keywords are structured within it. Placing keywords in titles, headlines or early in first paragraph can positively influence the content's placement in search results. However, the invaluable piece of the puzzle is the Content Management System (CMS) that is building the structure of the website code and how that code is read by, and displayed for, web crawlers. The foundation of SEO relies on the proper use and hierarchy of title tags, headings, paragraphs and other coding snippets that create page layouts. This foundation starts with a good CMS tool.

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