Should I Consider SEO Before Or After I Launch My Website?

A common question I get asked is: web design vs SEO, which comes first?

As a web designer and SEO specialist, I've optimized existing websites that have been created without SEO to start, and have also worked on websites with a focus on SEO strategy from the start.  

Ideally, it's best to lay a strong foundation for your website first by starting with SEO prior to designing your website. Read on to learn why you might want to invest in SEO first as a business owner before starting your website design efforts.

Why Do SEO Before Web Design?

Although SEO tends to be an afterthought in web design, investing in SEO efforts prior to redesigning your website can have great benefits. Here are some reasons to consider investing in SEO prior to a redesign:

Set A Foundation for Search Visibility

SEO helps ensure that your website is structured in a way that search engines can crawl, understand, and index it effectively. Without solid SEO foundations (like URL structure, meta tags, mobile optimization, etc.), a well-designed website may not rank well in search results. By planning your SEO strategy before building a website, you can better organize your content. This gives you a better chance to rank higher on search engine results pages faster than if you had built a website without SEO in mind.

Technical SEO Helps User Experience

SEO and web design work hand in hand to create a seamless user experience. An SEO-focused approach makes sure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. These are all important for better search rankings and overall user experience and design quality.

Content Strategy

SEO plays an important role in guiding the content creation for the site. Considering SEO in your web design efforts ensures that the right keywords are included and that the content is optimized for search engines from the start. With SEO strategy in mind, web design decisions can then be made to support important content in a visually engaging and user-friendly way.

SEO Takes Time

One important aspect to consider about SEO is that it takes time to see results and improvements in your rankings. Since SEO isn't something that magically happens overnight, it's always in your best interest to start the SEO process as early as possible to set your website up for success in the long run.

SEO tends to be an afterthought to web design

In an ideal world, it would be great to start with a SEO strategy before diving into web design. However, SEO tends to be something that many businesses consider down the line when they want to start building traffic to their website.

The good news is, starting SEO after launching your website isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's pretty common. Ultimately, investing in SEO efforts (whether it's before or after the launch) is better than not investing in SEO at all.

As a web designer and SEO specialist, I've worked with existing websites on their SEO efforts, and websites where I've incorporated SEO from the start. If you're looking to design your website with SEO strategy in mind, or if you're looking for a SEO strategist to work on your existing website, reach out about your project!