When Is a Good Time To Start SEO For New And Redesigned Website?

When it comes to new website design or redesign, I receive lot of common responses from clients about website SEO.

The one that stood out was:

“Let us first get the new website in place, and then we’ll think about SEO”

It’s like saying – “Let me make the building first , then furnish it from inside. After that I’ll do structural and interior design changes to accommodate requirement of residents“.

This got me thinking about how many other marketing decision makers were unaware that SEO depends a lot on website structure implementation.

So when is a good time for you to start new website SEO?
Short answer is that start search engine optimization along with website designing.

The Intersection of Website Design and SEO

Search engines like Google, Bing, etc are programmed to think like how shoppers decide in real life situation.

As shoppers, we rate our shopping experience based on parameters like:

  • We don’t like to shop in a store where it is difficult to navigate. We prefer to find the section with products we are looking for easily.
  • We won’t like to spend time in a retail outlet where shoppers go in and come out in no time. It could be because of poor quality products or perhaps it sells products which no one finds useful.
  • Our shopping experience is bad in a shop which is not clean or is so repulsive that we want to leave right away.
  • We get bewildered if the shop of our interest moves to a new address and leaves no sign behind which tells us where is the new location?

Similarly, search engines rate and rank your website based on their evaluation of some parameters (actually more than 200).

This is because when you type some keyword in Google search to find something, you are expecting Google to “recommend” quality websites. And search engines recommend based on ranking they assign to each website.

Some parameters which search engines consider for ranking are very similar to how we think as shoppers, like:

  • Are website visitors coming to your website? And if they there is website traffic, then are these users spending enough time on site or not? By the way, content is the main reason why people visit website and a good content strategy helps in engaging them on website.
  • How easy is it to navigate on your site? Are search engines themselves able to discover content?
  • When website owners change the web page link, are search engines able to identify the new link?
  • Is the technology used on website search engine friendly?

These aspects and many more are related to website structure and information architecture and best time to consider them is at the time of website design and not after the website is ready. When done later, then there is rework and cost involved.

But even if you have finished your new website and are ready to start search engine optimization, it’s never too late. As the Chinese proverb goes “Best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. Second best time is now.”



By Supriya Sachdeva, Digital Communication Strategist at OH! Design Studio, Mumbai.

Curious whether SEO can help generate more business for your organization and what it would take to get started? Connect with OH! Digital- the online marketing cell of OH! Design Studio. Drop us a line, we’ll get in touch with you.

Take a look at some key elements of our approach to website search engine optimization.

Lastly, if this post helped you to make better business decisions related to digital marketing, please feel free to share it. And OH! You can always say hello at @SachdevaSupriya.

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