The Benefits of Building a Website from Scratch with SEO

This is a problem we often encounter in agencies: some clients are not aware of the links between SEO and the Internet site. They want to finalize the creation of the website as quickly as possible and prefer to postpone the implementation of an SEO strategy until later.

It's up to you to convince them that things don't work this way and that generally, a website redesign is the best solution. The arguments below will help you convince them for an SEO overhaul just as much as a site redesign.

👨‍✈️ Better control over SEO

Taking into account SEO issues when designing the website allows you to optimize it from the start. It will not be necessary to go back and change things later, once the site is finished. The necessary changes are sometimes significant and range from modifying content to changing the site's architecture.

1. Adding keywords after the fact

Of course, you can analyze keywords later and add them directly to your content. However, doing so is difficult, as the result may appear artificial. If search engines consider that your website overuses certain keywords or that the content is of poor quality, your ranking will suffer. This is by far the worst methodology. We recommend establishing an effective content strategy from the design stage that will bear fruit over several years.

2. Web analytics

In addition to implementing best practices in design, you also need to analyze audience and behaviors, so as to know the strengths of your site. It is also important to know your target audience (see the definition of persona) and understand how users interact with the site in order to implement your customer acquisition strategy. The best way to get all this information is to use web analytics tools.

Here is a list of the main web analytics tools:

• Google Analytics (visitor statistics)
• Piwik (visitor statistics)
• Optimizely.com (page optimization – A/B testing)
• Hotjar (user behavior)

Web analytics solutions require the integration of a source code on the pages. If, when creating your website, you are not sure of the parameters you want to analyze, you can implement a simple source code.

🚀 Taking advantage of the latest SEO trends

SEO is constantly evolving. This means that you must constantly adapt your strategy. Creating a site from scratch will allow you to gain an advantage over your competitors by integrating new trends from the start.

3. Accessibility

Digital accessibility is one of the relatively recent trends. In addition to having to adapt to different devices, sites must be accessible to a wide range of users. For example, they must be able to work on a screen reader. Making your content accessible from the start saves you time by avoiding having to make changes later.

To go further, I invite you to look into RGAA compliance.

4. Maintenance & future evolutions

In addition to taking into account current SEO trends, you need to keep an eye on keeping your client's CMS (content management system like Wordpress, Drupal or Jomla) up to date. A site that is difficult to maintain accumulates security flaws that can harm your client's ranking. For this, do not hesitate to design a site that is easy to update.

You can recommend SEO-optimized CMS like Wordpress (and a few plugins). To learn more, check out our guide on SEO optimization for Wordpress.

💎 The importance of creating a website with an SEO strategy

Some entrepreneurs consider that implementing an SEO strategy is too big an investment and prefer to create their website without it. Others go even further and think they can develop their business without a website. These are two mistakes and here's why:

5. Without SEO, no visitors

You will need to appear on search engine results pages for internet users to find you and be properly informed. Your current customers also need to be able to access your website, especially to learn more about your new offers, services, and promotions.

6. Increase conversions

Even when all your sales are made in physical stores or via social networks, a website contributes to increasing conversions. Thanks to your website, you will be able to make internet users aware of their needs and show them why your offer is the best. If your sales funnel is particularly long, you will need a website to nurture your prospects, whether through a regularly updated blog, premium content, or newsletter subscriptions.

🛠 Redesigning a site: the opportunity to improve the user experience (SEO + UX = SXO)

SEO and UX complement each other. Optimizing them promotes an optimal user experience and meets all SEO criteria. Some elements are common to both disciplines.

7. Site speed

Nearly half of internet users believe that a web page should load in 2 seconds. It is easier not to add elements that slow down the page loading time when creating the site, rather than boosting its speed after the fact. If you do not optimize the site speed during the design phase and later notice that some pages are slow to load, you will need to analyze your entire website.

Remember, Google now takes into account site speed in the calculation of positioning.

8. Multiple establishments

If your company has more than one establishment or is present in several countries, it is important to think about how users from different geographical areas will interact with your site. When you want to create pages specific to each location, you need to implement a content strategy to avoid duplicate content. If users speak several languages, you will need to create a multilingual site using one or more domains.

Also, be careful to differentiate geographical areas from languages: we have already experienced this for one of the world leaders in industrial weighing (present in the United States, India, Australia). All English-speaking countries do not always share the same vocabulary, especially in ultra-technical/niche areas.