A business website plays an important role in advancing business ideals, i.e. building credibility with contacts, marketing products and services, ensuring the business maintains a unique online identity and more importantly, boosting conversions and profits. If you are a graphic designer, it is highly advisable to have a professional website to help you connect with potential customers. According to SEO tools and utilities website Webconfs, the qualities of a good website include:

• Right domain name and hosting provider
• Pick on a focus niche in your industry
• Visually appealing design outlook
• Easily accessible contact information
• Compelling portfolio and testimonial page
• List of services offered alongside the rates
• Easy navigation to User-Experience (UX)

Using SEO to attract graphic design clients

When developing a website, the initial focus is usually trained on things like user experience and device accessibility. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an integral component of web design and development, which should never be overlooked. According to Webfx, here are 6 strategies to improve SEO and attract customers to your graphic design business:

• Append a blog – adding an interactive blog to your website will give clients the impetus to increase and enhance the quality of your content. Clients can also use the platform to ask questions and discuss issues within and outside your industry. It is important to know that search engines love and encourage the use of unique, fresh content. Adding fresh content on a regular basis can also help you attract the much desired, natural search engine traffic.

• Let every page be unique – websites with relevant content often rank higher in search results. It is important to recognize that content relevance is one of the key ranking parameters adopted by Google. If you add a duplicate content, your business and site will suffer severe consequences, including attracting a penalty and being ignored by the search engine algorithms. To optimize your SEO efforts, make sure your website design is up to speed.

• Use Google Analytics – if you are experiencing budgetary constraints, consider using the freely available, Google Analytics software to review your site’s performance and check out crucial metrics. Some of the useful tools integrated in Google Analytics include Event Tracking, Intelligence tool, Goal Tracking and bounce rate. The intelligence tool can help you point and track the traffic sources and keywords driving leads and sales. The information provided by Google Analytics can also be used to perfect your website and user experience.

• Keep the code bloat as low as possible – a website clogged with codes will most certainly make it difficult for search engine spiders to locate them on the web. The other downsides include slow loading speed, high code to content ratio, diminished SEO impact and increased probability for coding errors. The corrective measures to keep the bloated code count low entails adding unique content and introducing all scripts and CSS files as external objects.

• Make use of meta-description tags – meta descriptions are an important identifier that gives site visitors an overview of what a website is all about. Because this information will appear on your search engine results pages (SERPs), try your best to incorporate sound online marketing strategies in order to capture the attention of your visitors. Better results can be achieved by submitting appealing content that stands out from the rest. The other vital information to be added includes: up-to-date contact details, discounts, and free offers. While doing so, avoid content duplication. The tag carries 160 characters, including the spaces.

• Incorporate keyword rich title tags on each page – the title tag is another crucial crawling tool used by search engines to decipher the content on your webpage. To optimize search results, consider using high ranking keywords such as those used by graphic design clients performing online searches. The title tag supports 60 characters, including the spaces.

Learning from SEO Experts!

Graphic designers are increasingly using SEO to leverage their skills and grow sales. Graphic designers can use a business website as part of the promotion strategy to attract customers. According to web development site PSD2HTML, the promotion can be advanced by marketing unique selling points; updating marketing materials and leveraging connections to ramp up sales. SEO agencies and consultants can help ensure your website design corroborates with the search engine operative guidelines.

Jeff English Hoboken is a renowned graphic designer, entrepreneur and online marketing guru. In his recent industry assessment, Jeff observes that graphic designers play a crucial role of creating visual presentations for various products and services. Their input also informs key decisions that go into operating print, web and mobile organizations. Jeff English Hoboken believes graphic designers can achieve a lot by incorporating SEO practices to strengthen brand image and build customer loyalty