Articles & Tools

Last week we had a great Designer Q&A Workshop, where we talked about search engine optimization, e-commerce and social marketing, as well as some tips for building and expanding the business of graphic design firms and solo professionals. Thanks so much to Karl at Graphic Beans, Ziv at Vizualle, and the whole team at Orange Element for being a part of the call!

The full audio and recap is below. If you're interested in attending the next free teleseminar, sign up here and I'll let you know when we schedule the next call.

Search Engine Optimization (Start of MP3)

Question: How do I set a client's expectations for an SEO project?

• Search engine optimization isn't about a magic bullet or quick fix. It's one element of a strong marketing campaign, and when we do SEO, we work through a client's business model to find their most valuable customers and figure out the most cost-effective way to target them onilne.
• Remember: SEO isn't about "beating Google," it's about truly answering the questions that Google searchers are asking. That means building great content and positioning your content so it's easy to find.
• I divide SEO into three phases: development, analysis and outreach. The development phase is all about optimizing the code on your site -- making sure your pages are clean, clear and easily indexable, and making sure you have an XML site map and other tools in place so that Google can easily browse all your pages.
• In the analysis phase, we dig into the best keywords to target with your site. I recommend finding keywords that are popular, but not highly competitive -- you would avoid something general like "bookstores" or "restaurants", and instead go for something less competitive but still frequenty searched, such as "thai restaurants in dupont circle".
• The outreach phase is all about creating valuable content and sharing it on authoritative sites. Google measures value by how many sites link to you, and how valuable those sites are. So it makes sense to reach out to big sites (and create relevant, legitimate directory listings) to build your list of authoritative links.

Question: Should I worry about content management systems when it comes to SEO?

If you're working with ExpressionEngine, Wordpress or Drupal, there are plenty of offerings and lots of things you can do to ensure your site is optimized. Since the projects we work on generally don't rely purely on "themes", it's more about what your developer works best with and what makes the most sense for the other content requirements on your site. In my experience, a well-developed site on all of those platforms can be very SEO-friendly.

Question: What's a realistic time-frame in which my client will start seeing "results"?

If you just do a development project, you'll see that your site is more clearly and properly indexed the next time Google spiders it (within a few weeks). When you find some effective keywords and re-write key pages to optimize for those, you should start seeing some movement within a few months. The real traffic boost comes from the outreach phase, where you'll be simultaneously building authority from links on other web sites and getting direct traffic from those authority-building articles. The SEO results of that may take some time to kick in, but the traffic boost from links on high-value web sites will be immediate.

Question: Among my clients, who are the best prospects for an SEO campaign?

Everyone can benefit from a well-executed SEO project, but the types of clients who I think see the biggest value are those with a specific, high-value customer group. For example, if a graphic design firms knows that every major client they sign in a certain industry will generate $10,000 in revenue each year, it makes perfect business sense to spend money on an SEO campaign that could bring in 5 or 6 more clients like that in the next year. On the flip side, if you're not selling a product or service or your site isn't effectively turning your prospects into customers, you might want to step back and work on the business model before spending money on SEO.

E-Commerce (Starting at 34:40)

The biggest mistake in e-commerce development: trying to build your own Amazon.com. For most projects, the client doesn't need anything close to a full-fledged retail store. Building one unnecessarily -- and hosting it yourself -- introduces tons of unnecessary development costs and security liability for you and your client. Instead, try a third-party hosted solution like PayPal, 1ShoppingCart, E-Junkie, Volusion and Shopify. For all the details, check out my Designer's Guide to E-Commerce.

Social Marketing (Starting at 48:35)

The key to effective Twitter and Facebook outreach for small businesses: use social media to keep in touch with your current customers. Everyone has a parade of social icons on their site these days, but in my experience, they're rarely an effective way to bring in new customers who have never encountered your brand. Instead, social networks are an awesome way to keep your current customers engaged. Offer coupons, make advance event announcements, and give people real value from keeping in touch with you through these social services. Check out my in-depth article on getting a return on your social marketing investment.

Boosting Your Business (Starting at 54:15)

A few months back, I mentioned The Wealthy Freelancer as an awesome resource for solo professionals and small business owners looking to hone their business and bring in new customers. In this month's Q&A session, I recommended Book Yourself Solid, an awesome book (with lots of offshoot products) on defining your service, marketing your business and delivering true value to your clients.

Thanks so much for checking out the Q&A Workshop! If you enjoyed it, attend the next session or send me some questions of your own. Thanks for being a part of the Howard Development & Consulting community!

About the Author

Rob Howard is the web developer who speaks your language. As the founder of Howard Development & Consulting, he works exclusively with designers and creative firms to deliver top-notch HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Wordpress and ExpressionEngine content management system development. He's built sites for Harvard, MIT and the Holocaust Museum, and his start-ups have been praised in BusinessWeek, Entertainment Weekly and PC Magazine.