CSS, Design, Findability, Google, Money, SEO, Usability.

ignore-this-by-reeuwijk.jpg

Ignore this by Reeuwijk. The main message of many designers’ websites.

Are you a graphic, industrial or web designer? Do you want your website to look good? Do you ignore, hate or forget SEO and usability? Well, I can help.

Designers often do not implement the simplest website tweaks and do not employ the easiest marketing methods that can drastically improve your performance in Google and bring you more clients.

Here are the 10 simplest website tweaks for designers, 2 of them actually off site.

  1. Change your page title from your name or portfolio to what/where/who or in other words [offer city - name], example: “Graphic Design Atlanta – John Doe”, use descriptive titles for each page
  2. Use CSS or image replacement like sIFR, Flir and typeface.js for navigation, headlines and links instead of pure Flash or images
  3. Rename your navigation links from works, portfolio etc. to web design, print design, logo design etc. Use your name instead of about me
  4. Do not display solely one image per page, nobody clicks 10 times. Make lists of 10 images per page and create a page for each image. Forget thumbs, clients who can’t afford broadband probably can’t afford design too.
  5. Display your content right away, don’t make me think or click (no “enter” pages, navigation only homepages), every links costs you visitors
  6. Display contact information right away and every page, a form is best, a phone number, email and IM at least
  7. Display your name and/or URL on your images so that when they get redistributed the still advertise for you, best example Glennz
  8. Join a community like Behance to share your work and to to spread the word
  9. Submit your well designed site to CSS galleries (or mixed ones if you’re into Flash)
  10. Start a blog and link out to all your friends and people you admire for their work

Stop ignoring SEO and usability both of which are two sides of the same coin. Design is not about fancy graphics it’s about findable and usable interfaces.

You want more of this? Check out my posts on URL design, CSS SEO tricks and findability crimes this post is a follow up to.

Related posts:

  1. The 10 Worst Findability Crimes Committed by Web Designers & Developers
  2. Top 10 Firefox Extensions for Search, Website Optimization and SEO I Use
  3. Image SEO for Photographers and Other Visual Artists
  4. Website Review Hochwald IT Blog
  5. Top 7 CSS Tricks for Better SEO

December, 2008 | You can follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback.

This thing has 22 Comments

  1. Mokokoma Mokhonoana (1 comments.)
    Posted December 12, 2008 at 5:49 pm | Permalink

    Good advice, this should come in handy. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Franklin Bishop (4 comments.)
    Posted December 12, 2008 at 5:52 pm | Permalink

    It is always a good idea to display your content right away like you said. You can’t depend on the fact that they will click and go to another page. Internet users want to click the least possible times. Great thoughts!

  3. Robert Taylor (1 comments.)
    Posted December 12, 2008 at 8:23 pm | Permalink

    I would add, use descriptions for all your portfolio pieces including technology, client name and geographic qualifiers, etc. IE: E-commerce web site using Platform Here for Client Name Here an Industry Here in Geographic Location here.

  4. Cospar Feryyt (1 comments.)
    Posted December 12, 2008 at 11:52 pm | Permalink

    Really nice tips. BTW don’t you think image replacement technology is harmful for sites?

  5. libor (1 comments.)
    Posted December 13, 2008 at 12:52 am | Permalink

    I agree with point 1, 3, 5, 7,8 and 10.

  6. Karan @ Auto life House (1 comments.)
    Posted December 15, 2008 at 11:33 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the post. I needed it. I am not a desginer but i can direct my designer for a better site of mine.

  7. Thomas Eilander (8 comments.)
    Posted December 16, 2008 at 7:04 pm | Permalink

    About point 10: could you explain that a bit more? Is it for the hope tat they will link back to you also?

  8. onreact (641 comments.)
    Posted December 16, 2008 at 8:34 pm | Permalink

    Robert: Thanks, make sense.

    Cospar: The above mentioned image replacements are all Google and SEO friendly. Google itself recommends sIFR. The only drawback might be accessibility.

    Thomas: Yes, indeed. This is one of the reasons. People you link to will remember you, some of them will become your community so in the end you get more than just links.
    Also Google loves so called “hub” sites that link out plenty instead of stingy unnatural PageRank “sculpters” afraid of “leaking PR”.

  9. Amber Weinberg (1 comments.)
    Posted December 17, 2008 at 12:25 am | Permalink

    Great tips, I’ll tweet it @amberweinberg :D

  10. Tetsuo (1 comments.)
    Posted December 26, 2008 at 3:59 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the info about Facelift Image Replacement (FLIR) for Wordpress. This plugin is great and now is on my top recommended.

  11. Jay (1 comments.)
    Posted December 31, 2008 at 11:45 am | Permalink

    I don’t know, my website is kind of ugly and it still converts like crazy!

  12. Mike (1 comments.)
    Posted January 9, 2009 at 4:02 pm | Permalink

    Hey, you are teaching seo to web designers:O. Its our work dear, let them do their work:P. Lol,anyways good article. Showing your work on the home page is the most import thing. One can use small images,flash or slideshow to show his work on homepage, and give direct links to their client sites.

  13. Mr Wholesale Dropship (1 comments.)
    Posted January 17, 2009 at 2:30 pm | Permalink

    Do not display solely one image per page, nobody clicks 10 times. Make lists of 10 images per page and create a page for each image. Forget thumbs, clients who can’t afford broadband probably can’t afford design too.

  14. Jag (1 comments.)
    Posted January 30, 2009 at 1:50 pm | Permalink

    Good points and if all these are adopted then the person should be an SEO designer or a pro :)

    Quote [Stop ignoring SEO and usability both of which are two sides of the same coin] Your are true :)

  15. Allen (7 comments.)
    Posted February 16, 2009 at 12:52 am | Permalink

    What about design of a web site ?
    Ya the simple design of a web site. Is that still a factor ?

    Allen

  16. dodonnell of Clue Design (1 comments.)
    Posted February 24, 2009 at 8:06 am | Permalink

    Some great tips, I would add points 8, and 10 which are basically about becoming more social and accessible online- sign up for twitter and facebook, comment on other peoples blogs and in related forums etc.

  17. Bradley (2 comments.)
    Posted March 19, 2009 at 2:24 am | Permalink

    Thank you for sharing your use of the technique!
    I’m not an expert in SEO, but such a website as yours help to progress in informatics.
    They say that small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.Thank you for giving us such opportunities!

  18. Jamiel Sharief
    Posted April 8, 2009 at 1:41 pm | Permalink

    I stumbled upon this website by accident. There are some really good tips which can be used for other industries.

  19. Keith D (3 comments.)
    Posted May 4, 2009 at 10:59 pm | Permalink

    Need all the help I can get.

    This looks great… thanks for sharing.

    Keith D

  20. Henry Gilbert (15 comments.)
    Posted June 17, 2009 at 12:40 pm | Permalink

    2. WHY use sIFR ?

    Just use Flash, optimise it with a reduced/embedded fonttype. This way it will be something like 2Kb !

    Example: http://www.guitar-teaching.co.uk

    4. Bad bad advice.

    Never assume anything.
    A rich client could still be on a slow connection for various reasons: remote area, pacific island, satellite problems, mobile device (iPhone) but a slow operator.

    Never assume anything. Think Accessibility

    6. I disagree about the form part.
    Having a form on every single page will add too much noise. It decreases usability. Have a form, no doubt, but not on all pages. (Unless it’s a blog or blog-like site)

  21. Rob Cubbon (1 comments.)
    Posted July 16, 2009 at 3:18 pm | Permalink

    Good post. I have a designer’s site and I’ve already had done most of the stuff you recommend. Only I haven’t submitted it to CSS galleries – it doesn’t look that good. On the tenth point, once you’ve created the blog, keep on writing quality content with your keywords naturally within the titles and sub-titles of posts and in alt image tags, etc.

  22. Swarup (1 comments.)
    Posted May 7, 2010 at 8:04 am | Permalink

    I am more agreed with the last line from the post “Design is not about fancy graphics it’s about findable and usable interfaces”. One should have his concepts cleared while designing website.

This thing has 2 Trackbacks

  1. 蚂蚁的美味书签 » Blog Archive » links for 2008-12-13
    Posted December 13, 2008 at 5:04 pm | Permalink

    [...] SEO 2.0 | The 10 Simplest Website Tweaks for Designers to Get More Clients (tags: seo) [...]

  2. 45 resources to help you get started as a freelancer | Sam Bowler, graphic and web design
    Posted January 12, 2009 at 8:40 pm | Permalink

    [...] The 10 simplest website tweaks for designers to get more clients – SEO Blog [...]

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