SEO is better in custom websites

SEO is better in custom websites. Web developers who build websites from scratch have the technical knowledge to make sure it's optimized for search engines. SEO is the process of increasing a web page’s search rankings to increase online visibility. The code needs to be structured properly for the search engines to read the content in order to find you. That’s why so many companies invest in a website with Search Engine Optimization.

What are Meta Tags, and their purpose?

Meta tags are located in the HEAD section of the HTML code. They inform web crawlers about the web page and are primarily used by search engines to help web crawlers more easily index your pages. Creating meta tags on your page will increase the chances of coming up in a search result.

KEYWORD meta tags are no longer used by search engines. At one time they were an important tag on your website. They were used so that search engine crawlers could match to the same words, which rank your website higher in the search index. However, today Google and any major search engine no longer pay attention to the Keyword tag because it led to a lot of people spamming the meta tag area.

The search engines now focus on the TITLE and DESCRIPTION meta tags in determining a web page’s authority, along with the content of the web page. The name and description entered into these tags is what appears in the search engines, and they are the first thing a user will see on the search result, so these meta tags should be well written, and within the character length limits (50–60 characters for the Meta Title, and 155–160 characters for the Meta Description). Anything longer than that will be cut off with three dots '...'  

As an example, here is the search result for Sunset Fire Designs):

The Title meta tag is indexed by the big three engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing), and though it is average importance in terms of SEO, it is of high importance with respect to attracting users. For this reason, your website Title should grab attention and create enough curiosity to evoke the user to click on your link, and the Description meta tag should contain well-written information on what your website is about.

I take great care in designing and coding websites that are search engine friendly and optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with indexable content that performs better in search engine listings.

This is a great article to read for a better understanding of SEO: "The Beginner's Guide to SEO".

Related blog:

•     Is SEO enough to compete with big brands?

Is SEO enough to compete with big brands?

Established businesses rank higher in internet search results because it signifies that a business is stable and reliable. Big brand names also rank higher because they have huge budgets to invest in marketing and advertising tools such as Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook advertising, etc., which keeps them at the top of search engine result listings. 

This means that companies that bid the most money on premium Adword keywords will appear on page-1 of search results. Sadly, the amount of money you can afford to bid on keywords determines whether you appear on the first page of search results or the hundredth page. It's horribly unfair to small businesses. 

I’m not going to mislead you by promising that just because you have a website means people are going to discover it overnight. If your website doesn’t come up within the first ten pages of search results, then people normally don’t browse past the tenth page and therefore won’t find you unless you have very few competitors in the same niche, or you already have a large customer base.

But according to Forbes article... Small Businesses Can Compete With Big Brands On SEO.

If you don’t have a big budget for search engine marketing, then should you still invest in a website? ABSOLUTELY! Your website is your number one marketing asset. It gives you credibility. In fact, nearly 50% of people indicate a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business, and 30% won’t consider a business without a website. In other words, not having a website makes potential customers trust you less.

The bottom line is, in order to compete with big companies, you’ll just need to work harder to market your website yourself via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, news articles, and publications to entice people to visit your website. The more people that visit your website (aka website traffic), the higher it will rank in the search engines because its algorithms will deem your website as popular and relevant.

This is a great article to read for a better understanding of SEO: "The Beginner's Guide to SEO".

Related blog:

• SEO is better in custom-coded websites

MYTH: Custom Websites Cost More

You probably already know about the free Do-It-Yourself (DIY) website builders, such as WIX and many others. And there are just as many DIY companies that offer cheap templates to build your own website, such as Squarespace.

It's true that you can build a website yourself for free, or for very little cost using a free or cheap template. How can templates be offered for free? If you look at the source code of any DIY template, you’ll see hundreds of URL links that are added for mandatory advertising which cover the costs of providing you free services. This means visitors to your website will have unwanted advertisements imposed on them. Have you ever visited a website looking for (example) a camera, and then shortly afterwards ads for cameras start following you all over the internet?

As stated in my Blog, "Custom websites vs. Templates", the popularity of DIY templates attributes to the surge of non-tech types with no design skills seeking easy money and claiming to be experts on web design – individuals who don’t know HTML and have never written a line of code. They can get a free or cheap DIY template, upload photos, and copy/paste text into the template - so simple that a 10-year old could do it (no joke). But the worse thing is, many of these scammers are charging the same price as a custom website designed by trained professionals. DON'T GET RIPPED OFF!

Custom websites can cost a big chunk of money for companies requiring a large e-commerce website with a back-end database to store a ton of product and customer information. In this case, they would be better off hiring a big web development company that staffs a team of web developers to code such a robust website in a timely manner. Overhead costs for office space and personnel are calculated into the cost of developing the website, so naturally it would cost more.

But for small businesses or individuals who don’t require a mega website, a custom coded website designed by a professional freelance web designer is much more cost effective than hiring a team of web developers since there are no overhead costs. Your website will be completely tailored to your business needs with an attractive design, optimized for SEO, and with much better quality and security. And there are no overhead costs.


Related blogs:

• Custom websites vs. templates
• Hacking Hazards of DIY Templates
• SEO is better in custom-coded websites