Lots of businesses are now using SEO to increase business and help people find their products online. Whilst this does not directly relate to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) it is clear that many new businesses cannot explore this type of marketing and promotion.

From a Web Designers point of view this means that you will want to stay up to date with the latest changes in the SEO world. It is always a good idea to see what your competition is doing and then taking the necessary steps to offer more. By knowing more than the standard web design crowd by having some SEO knowledge then you will be much more likely to attract new business.

By using some standard SEO techniques in combination with the web designs you are producing you will be able to boost the profile of yourself and your clients. These are some simple steps to incorporate SEO into you web designs

1. Make sure your code passes the W3C validation checks for both XHTML and CSS. This will assist search engines when they come to your website. In addition to this it also opens up the opportunity to submit your website designs to some of the top CSS design galleries, which in turn will give your website more exposure.
2. Having a fast website is of particular importance nowadays as we are creating more media rich web designs. Added to this is the fact that Google now sees a sites speed as one of its many ranking factors. Using GZip to compress text, compressing images, combining CSS files and minifying JavaScript files are all going to help the speed of your site.
3. Use Google’s keyword tool to determine the most common phrases that people use to search for your clients website. You can make your website easier to find by using some of these keywords in the titles of your web pages. This will also increase the relevance of your website to search engines.

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, seo, web design