Redesigning our agency site. A blank slate, any suggestions...?
-
I'm an SEO at a Web Design Agency and we are just about to start work on a new site. We have a complete blank slate to work with and the designers / developers will honor any requests I make.
I'm not asking you guys to do my job for me, I've been doing a lot of research and I have a large feature set ready. However I am interested in what you guys would go for in this situation. What cool new SEO features can we use? Any examples of websites that you like?
The creatives are very keen on HTML5, parallex scrolling and very minimalist design. I need to make sure we can achieve these things whilst also have a super optimised site.
Any suggestions / examples?
Thanks
-
We just redesigned our site.
We just did a Parallax Site with onsite optimization. It also has CSS3, and responsive design. It is still in Beta. It is also Wordpress and it has Yoast
http://www.posicionamientowebenbuscadores.com/
This article is in spanish but I will be posting it in Youmoz in English very soon. The graphics help
http://www.posicionamientowebenbuscadores.com/blog/seo-parallax/
It is not optimized for IE (Internet Explorer). You must use Chrome or Firefox to see it. You will be redirected to our old site if you use Explorer
Thanks
Carla
PS. I forgot to mention that it has some schemas too.
-
Beat them with a stick. It's the only kind thing to do
I'll admit that I just find those pages annoying anyway. The Smokeybones one in particular I just wouldn't bother with. Any page that needs instructions is a fail in my book.
The blue leaf one is better (although IMHO falls apart a bit after the home page). However neither are really built with much regards to SEO beyond the title tags.
Something that has worked well for us in the past when dealing with those with a strong creative agenda is to specify minimum standards - particularly with regards to page structure. Literally give them a CSS free example page to work from. Could be a route to go down and will give you a chance to minimise the difference impact of change if the site currently does well.
-
Hi Mat,
Not dull at all, thank you! Yes that is the struggle I face. The designers want something similar to this:
I'm thinking we can have a long scrolling page like this for the homepage but have a more traditional layout with inner pages.
We get most of our leads from organic search so we can't afford to lose out on SEO in favour of design.
Any more input from Mat or anyone else is very welcome
-
I'd be careful with parallax scrolling to be honest. I know that designers love it as it gives them a chance to play with something new that they can show off. However it really doesn't lend itself to the best structure for SEO or even (in many cases) the best user experience. Like most things, it can be done if done well, but it's something to be aware of.
I'm not entirely sure that there are many cool new SEO features. The principals of solid, sustainable SEO haven't changed that much in the 16 years I've been involved (although the shortcuts have!).
Microdata & semantic markup is one area that could be described as an SEO feature, but the uses of that would be limited on most agency style sites.
If I were looking at redesigning (which I really should be!), I'd lean more towards video as well - with the appropriate microdata and video sitemap - in fact optimising for all types of universal results.
If you are including blog style content then I'd also have real focus on the social sharing angle. Look at how best to maximise that for all that it can bring.
Dull answers I am afraid.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to make this informational site successful
Hello, We've got a problem with one of our sites. Our main writer is too advanced for the mainstream SERPs. She is a genius at what she does and really writes beyond where the mainstream looks. Way beyond. I can't even ask her to dumb down, it doesn't make sense. I don't think we're going to hit any of the main (mainstream) keywords with this site because of it, which is fine, but what advice do you have to making money off ads with content like that? There doesn't even really exist keywords for her articles. It's hard to explain. The traffic will be small because the audience is large enough if we got the whole thing but small compared with mainstream. I think mainly experts will understand her. The area of writing is conspiracy, fringe, ancient knowledge, progressive science, healing, consciousness, spirituality. I guess I'm wondering what you guys would do. It would be great if this site could make a good income. She's been studying the topic nonstop for fifteen years. Thanks.
Social Media | | BobGW0 -
Best Link Building Agencies in Australia
Hi all, I'd like to ask the community to recommend some great agencies that specialise in large scale link building (enterprise level), especially around link baiting & social linking. Would like to avoid the traditional paid links and have someone who's innovative in their approach. If you've had experience with any of them, would be great to hear your experiences. Thanks.
Social Media | | danng0 -
Implementing Pinterest On Site and Social Snippets
Hi can someone confirm, does Pinterest use Open Graph Protocol? If you use the Pinterest Widget builder - http://business.pinterest.com/widget-builder/#do_pin_it_button Will the image you place in the widget replace the image Pinterest selects if it does use the Open Graph Protocol? The site already uses Open Graph Protocol for Facebook and Google+. It also uses Twitter cards for twitter. It would be good if we don't need to add more html (such as from the Pinterest widget builder) for Pinterest. -- Matt
Social Media | | Mattcarter080 -
Best social bookmarking sites
What are the best 5 ( or 10 ) social bookmarking sites to promote a new site ? If we were to launch a new site, what bookmarking sites would be beneficial to spread the word about it. Thanks
Social Media | | seoug_20050 -
Identifying Social Activity of Competition in Open Site Explorer.
Analysing the competition in Open Site Explorer, as you all know the results come back with the following detail: Facebook Shares Facebook Likes Tweets Google +1 There is no link through to the pages that have liked, followed or tweeted the URL. I want to understand what the competition is doing in moire detail. How are these numbers actually defined? Is their any way (or whats the best way) to identify the individual pages that the numbers refer to? Thanks in advance. Justin
Social Media | | GrouchyKids0 -
How are the metrics measured in Open Site Explorer?
I am using Open Site Explorer to measure some metrics. The Facebook Shares, Facebook Likes, Tweets, and Google +1 metrics make no sense to me. Where and how are these being pulled? Is there a timeframe attached? Can I assign a timeframe to them? I have a ShareThis account that states one of my pages was liked over 3000 times but the metrics say 1 like. Very confused. Thanks for any help! Ari
Social Media | | aricom0 -
Will you be adding +1 to your sites?
I logged into my Adsense account yesterday and saw a notification that I could have code to add the plus one button to my site. I currently have addthis on most pages, so I set it up so that the +1 button is floated next to my Addthis FB, Twitter and Share buttons. I'd love to hear your personal thoughts on +1. Do you think it will have a great effect on rankings? Are you likely to +1 interesting sites as you surf the web? Are you adding it to all of your pages?
Social Media | | MarieHaynes1