SEO Templates - The Whole Truth

A question I was asked a couple of times at the Affiliate Summit last week was whether our company, BasicTemplates.com, offers SEO ready templates. I had to scratch my head on that one for a second, and then I realized that obviously there must be designers erroneously labeling their templates as SEO ready as a gimmick for people to buy. {sigh}

FACT: To search engine optimize any web page you need page content.

Are you ready for the whole truth? There is no such thing as an SEO template. To search engine optimize your website you need content. Period. But before you need a template or a web designer, you need to set your website's goals and know your target market which includes researching your keywords. Only then should you build your website. Otherwise, you are making the mistake of developing your website backwards.

For more information about backwards development, listen to our Podcast #002: The Backwards Website Development Trap.

Let's thoroughly read what Google recommends that you do to prepare your website for their spiders here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Did you read it? Everything listed in Google's Webmaster Guidelines requires that you have web page content in order to completely prepare your website for search engine indexing.

Some SEO experts say that you need your navigational menu on the right side of the page, others say the left, and believe it or not, some will say at the top and bottom of the page. But again the textual hyperlink containing your anchor text (Anchor text is the keywords you are targeting.) cannot be provided by any template designer until YOU do your keyword research and make that critical decision yourself.

H1, H2, etc. tags are important. Yes, that is true. BasicTemplates.com designs come with an external cascading style sheet with some of these tags already provided as should any worthwhile template design you purchase. Copy/pasting more of these tags through H6 using Windows Notepad into the .css file, and editing a six digit hex color code or background color takes less than a minute.

Would you pay someone $50 for a minute's worth of work? Not me. No, I'm not cheap; I'm basically realistic and wise to tricks. Don't worry, you will be too especially if you ever fall victim to this unethical marketing tactic.

Why do templates designers resort to not-so-honest marketing tactics? Because they still do not "get it". To build loyalty, trust, and a high rate of referral business and return business you need to provide a no-gimmick product at a reasonable price. Most fail at this simple business concept and have to resort to these types of gimmicks.

Page Titles are important but also cannot be provided by a template designer selling a pre-packaged design without your page content.

Meta keywords and a site description cannot be provided by a template designer selling a pre-packaged design without your page content.

Internal page linking cannot be provided by a template designer selling a pre-packaged design without your page content. When they develop multiple pages for you in advance, they are already determining how many pages you will need. Thus causing you far more work deleting and changing internal navigation menu hyperlinks than reasonably necessary.

Site maps are important but they too cannot be provided by a template designer selling a pre-packaged design without your page content.

Reciprocal linking and back linking cannot be provided by a template designer selling a pre-packaged design.

Some SEO gurus will swear that pure CSS template layouts are the way to go while others, yes, you guessed it - will say that table-based layouts are best. The latter believe that tables render properly across most types of web searching media including cell phones, Blackberrys, PDAs and other small or handheld wireless Internet access devices. Since handheld devices are getting smaller and smaller these days, websites that wish to reach a diverse audience need to consider that desktop computers and laptops are not the only devices through which people may find their website. Pure CSS is a great concept and it (or something similar to it) will be the future, but it's not quite the time for mass use.

Choosing an appropriate DOCTYPE and CHARSET is important, but unless the template designer pre-decides for you who will be your target market, they cannot ethically provide you with a template that is appropriate for 100% of the websites that might be using it.

Validating your template is a nice added assurance that the code is correct. But that validation is "prior" to you adding anything to it, plus the template designer has to decide for you which DOCTYPE and CHARSET you will be using in order to get the template to validate. Validating a template today doesn't mean it will always validate years from now as technology changes especially after content has been added to it. Simply opening a template in Frontpage for example, sometimes adds Frontpage proprietary code that W3C will return as invalid. Some successful website owners are die-hard validation advocates and others not. Some templates designers use the validation label as another gimmick to sell to newbie or unsuspecting buyers. We produced a prodcast about the misconception of validation last year. Go to Podcast 005: Most Effective CSS Method and the Truth About Validation to listen to find out what even the most seasoned web designers don't know about validation.

A good rule of thumb is to remember that if the websites of the big players are not using it, then you likely should not use it yet either. Learning about new technology is great. Playing with it to create test sites or websites that are not dependant on your household income is also fine.

Above all - TEST. If you think that a pure CSS layout works best for you. Test it. If you think a right-side vertical navigational menu is better, test it too. What works for one website may not work for another. Each website's needs are different as each webmaster behind them.

Most of all, remember that being honest and fair with your customers will ALWAYS work. That is usually a 100% guarantee of a high rate of referral and return business. Providing quality products and services at a fair and affordable price is the simplest form of viral marketing. It's virtually free too.

// posted by BasicSusan on 1/15/2006 12:01:00 PM / Permanent Link