This week I have been counseling a business owner on some SEO practices. We are redesigning his site, and while it is still in the design stages, it is a few shades better already to say the least. While discussing with him the implications of site design, consumer awareness, general marketing, and web marketing, I took note of the biggest confusions that he had. Here are the discussions I had with him on each of those issues, which I think may be of huge benefit to you guys out there.

1)      Design, design, design: The fact is that if you get to the top of Google and you cover the page for your niche, you will make money. Still, don’t forget that the end user is your actual consumer, and if your site is terrible looking or un-useful, you are killing yourself. Imagine what those top spots on Google could mean to you if your users actually enjoyed your website—you would be visible and awesome (a great combo). Invest some time and energy into the design of your site, and you will see a huge increase in revenue.

2)      SEO, SEO, SEO: Maybe this should have gone as number one. Heck, read it along as 1a, but no matter what, let it sink in. If you are investing time and/or money into a website, make an effort to appease the search engine gods. A recent statistic I read was that less that 10% of all websites put any work into search engine optimization—that means that with a little will power, you can beat the competition (at least on realistic keywords… it might take a lot of willpower for the harder ones)!

3)      Consumer focus: the business owner discussed above has an online franchise company, and he therefore has different facets to his websites. He has aspects of the site for consumers, some for potential franchisees, some for current franchisees, and some for advertisers. We are working to separate them so as to keep the content pertinent to the reader. If you are careful, it is possible to have a site designed for many users, with each of them seeing only the content they want and need.

4)      K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple-ish. Simple is good; clutter is bad. Most users read the top and bottom of a page. I have spent quite a bit of time in my career explaining to clients that it is great to have loads of content. After all, it’s good for SEO and for the user, but don’t just throw it all on one page, and don’t throw it on multiple pages without some serious planning, either. A lot of information can be a burden as well as a blessing.

5)      Abide by web standards. Check out the information from the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) at http://www.w3.org/. Live by the rules if you want users on different browsers to be able to access your content.

6)      On the same note as number 5, I must separate this point out, which I discuss with nearly every client. With the invention of WYSIWYG website design tools, many people who are creating websites probably shouldn’t. I don’t mean that with a tone which could stifle creativity, but make sure that the site is made for the end user, and don’t just trust your site designer. Check that it fits in a decently small browser window, make sure you don’t use crazy fonts, take advice from established and credible web designers, and you might just be able to do much of the work yourself. Again, though, don’t trust the WYSIWYG always really gives you “what you see.”

7)      Be social, but not too social: No matter what efforts you employ, don’t forget that you have a minion much stronger than yourself. If you have a decent size following, allow them to spread the word. Be careful with how you add social buttons to your web pages, however. Some “out of the box” buttons will leak out a lot of SEO juices by providing ungodly amounts of outbound link from your pages.

8)      Combine marketing efforts. There is no reason to stick to one marketing campaign or style. Cover more demographics and get a good return by analyzing multiple means. Often our marketing goals are to 1) manipulate interest and/or 2) enhance consumer awareness. Consumers are everywhere and not always reachable by one medium or another, so regard all marketing efforts as valuable if the ROI (return on investment) will be high.

There are loads more issues to discuss, but for now, take heed with these tidbits. I discuss these eight pointers approximately two to three times every day, so consider yourself a step above if you really implement them. In the future, I will discuss more tips.