Is the Website Designer Responsible for Search Engine Optimization?

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I just finished reading the article titled; Effective Search Engine Optimization for Web Designers, and it inspired me to write about the responsibility of a website designer in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Is the web designer responsible for a client’s SEO?

I was thinking this because SEO is about content. It’s about the copywriting and context of your website in relation to your company, products and services. How can the website designer be responsible for the content of the website? Or, can he?

Shouldn’t the website designer be concentrating more on how to visually communicate the client’s company, products or services more effectively?

What is the website designer’s responsibility in SEO?

Education

A website designer needs to educate the client about effective SEO. Not so much telling how you can position the client but how SEO works – though Malaysia clients only think of Google’s page #1. Educate the client about the basics from keywords to internal linking or more, if they insist.

User Experience (UX)

If you’re wondering how UX helps in SEO, I believe it’s because a great website user experience means you’re communicating your message across very effectively. So effectively, you’d most likely have repeat traffic and visitors because your website consistently delivers the best experience. In short, visitors understand what you’re telling them. :)

Semantic Markup

Website design, done. Doesn’t make a visitor think, done. Time to develop the website semantically according to healthy practices. Such as; proper heading levels, correct list types, alternative image text, link titles and more. If you’re a website designer, I don’t have to tell you why this is done. If you’re not a website designer, buy a copy of Designing with Web Standards (3rd Edition).

And, there you have it.

In my humble opinion, those are the tasks a web designer should be responsible for when it came to SEO. Unless the website designer held a copywriter’s position or had a hidden talent to craft effective SEO content, I’d reserve my decision to write copy for my client.

But, do you think a website designer is responsible for SEO?

5 thoughts on “Is the Website Designer Responsible for Search Engine Optimization?”

  1. As long as you follow semantic markup, it should cover up for minor SEO for the website and of course accessibility also plays a major part in SEO. Try view your site in browser dedicated for visually handicapped users because it’ll be exactly how search engines’ spider will crawl your webpages. If the web designer is talented enough to do that, your client will probably spend less with SEO (as in getting dedicated SEO consultant company).

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