TOP 5 Questions I Should Ask a web designer or developer?

[CapitolShine]

I want to redesign my website to work better with SEO and crawls. I need to make sure I hire a good designer/developer but I don't have a ton of money to spend. What are the top 5 questions I should ask a web designer/developer to ensure they are good designers and have successfully implemented SEO??...or at least a site that is crawled well and has some SEO built in.

[Joe_Nickdow]

Being a web designer I think that a lot of designers really don't know a lot about SEO. Keeping up in one incredibly fast moving industry is hard enough none the less keeping up with both SEO and Design. That being said, it isn't impossible. If you say Panda or Penguin and they have no idea what you're talking about, they don't keep up with the SEO industry.

On page SEO disregarding content (think of it as your sites skeleton)is important but from a strict design & development perspective there isn't _that_ much you can do. Of course the code should be clean, semantic, and make sense without overuse javascript or any of flash, but what really matters is how they'll structure the site and place content. It also can't hurt to ask what they'll do about mobile. I recommend responsive design but that does tend to get pricey because of the excess work involved.

(Semantic code would be proper use of heading tags (h1-h6), use of alt on images, proper meta descriptions and titles. Flash is bad, stay away. )

For example the basics I would ask are what content management system they recommend using and how will they structure the links along with what will they do about your current links.  You want them to make the link structure so that it makes sense (/contact-us) vs (page?2329422.html) and that if they are changing your current link structure they'll 301 them. You'll also probably want them to say they'll use caches and a CDN along with limiting images and the size of images to keep page load speed time down.

If a designer is component and uses a CMS such as Wordpress, and aslong as they have clean code, it isn't that hard to make the site really SEO friendly by installing a few plugins.  I have seen some badly coded sites that have weird redirection issues and are just plain badly coded so you still have to be careful.

It really depends on what you're expecting out of the designer. If you want them to just build you the site and you'll take care of the rest such as off page SEO, content, etc, most reputable designers/agencies will do. However if you want them to link build and write content for you that is totally different and they would require much more knowledge and skills and a ton of other questions I would ask. If I design and build a site for a client it is SEO friendly. My code is clean and semantic and I use best practices. However that is only part of SEO and it's up to them to do everything else required such as link building, testing, content, etc. So you can't go strictly on what rankings they have achieved in the past unless you are paying them to do all the other aspects of SEO as well.

I would look at their portfolio and see if you like the work they do. If you're going to do all the other aspects of SEO by yourself that is really all that matters because you will be responsible for link building, content, etc.  Still question them about the basics I mentioned above and see what they say but most good designers should know those basics.

But most importantly, educate yourself. If you look at SEOMoz's beginner SEO book, you'll be in a better spot to ask the designer questions and save yourself from being upset with your choice in the long run. There are so many variables that come into play that being educated and perhaps even getting an SEO audit or consultation beforehand would be very beneficial especially if you have good rankings and/or an established site.

Good luck.

[SunitaBiddu]

I agree with danford. A website developer needs no big details about post penguin strategy. You should speak to an SEO consultant, get proper site architecture and details (or fix your existing ones so you don't lose your ranks) and then instruct your website designer accordingly. You'd need to guide them with proper H and Image tags etc.

Now when you're getting a website makeover, you may consider important conversion aspects too. I believe these should be the questions you ask from a designer/developer

1- Is it good to switch your existing CMS? if yes, which one and why? If no, how can they help working with existing CMS. Ask if they can help you on SEO aspects related to development.

2- Do the create a wireframe first in order to take care of website conversion and NOT just cute looks and feel?

3- Inquire about site speed and loading.. It should load quick and unfiormly, not in pieces.

4- Ask about their process, time and cost estimates (prefer a cost breakdown and documentation if your site is big)

Of course these question should start with looking at their portfolio.

There should be different questions you should ask from an SEO company though.

Hope this helps.

[donford]

First off, as a developer.. you should note there is a difference between web developers and SEO experts.  I do understand a fair bit about SEO but personally wish we had an SEO guy here besides myself.

If you're looking for a developer just make sure he or she understand the basics of SEO as well as the job you need done, and leave SEO to the experts.

So with your exact question in mind, your main questions should be about the job that needs done, but your questions should also make sure that he understands your intent is on making seo optimized pages.

I would not limit my questions to five, I would make sure that the web developer is at the very least understanding of how search engines work. I don't know your level of knowledge, but if it is minimal then you may want to familiarize yourself with the SEO basics to tailor your questions around them. Understanding that the most important aspect if their job is the web development, but in such a way that it doesn't impede future SEO work.

So I would make sure he/she knows,

• How to create an appropriate title / description tag
• H1-H6 tags and how each influences a page.
• The Importance of Image Naming
• Understanding dynamic URLS and when to use canonical tags
• The importance of anchor text, and link title text

In summary don't expect your web developer to be an expert in SEO and don't expect your SEO guy to be an expert in web development. However, each should understand the fundamentals of each others jobs and your job as the person paying their wages is to understand how to make each other work together.

This was a very good question and I hope my answer helps.

[jlane9]

I think you should look for an SEO specialist or Internet Marketing company who also builds websites. This way you can be assured the website design team are building your website with Seo in mind from the beginning.

Some web design firms can be a great graphics or creative web company but no little about search engines and seo.

Questions to ask a website design company ?

1. What are the top meta tags you will use to help my site rank well ?

2. Are they going to build your site with HTML, or flash ?

3. Which CMS Are they going to install on your site and how will they optimize it ?

4. Do they have samples of clients sites that they have ranked well for ?

5. What built in seo systems do they use for building sites ?

Once you re design your site you want to consider off site seo, link building and traffic generation techniques to increase rankings and sales.

Also not directly related to seo and being crawled - if you are re-doing the site you may want to spend some time on CRO = conversion rate optimization to make sure you are getting the most return from the traffic and rankings you will recieve.

[Michael-Goode]

The above is great, however I believe external SEO isn't the case here (if I understood it right).

Since they will design and develop the website, be sure to ask what on-page optimization they will do for your website. They (if they are good) should be aware and experienced with optimizing the title tags, meta description, on-page content, and website navigational structure (which includes re-directs).

Best of luck!

[avassa]

I would ask a single question. What are the best practices that they follow after Penguin/Panda standards. Depending on the answer to this, you would know who deserves a chance to work with you.

Thanks,
Rajesh Dhawan

[acs111]

The best thing is to look at previous examples of their work and also check the rankings of the site for a specific keyword.

Ask them what their preferred CMS is and why?

What is your post penguin strategy? They should reply with something about fresh content

What was your biggest SEO blunder and what did you learn from it?

What is your best SEO win?

How long have you been in the industry?