Why Pittsburgh SEO Companies Must Be Web Developers

We’ve written about how we handle Search Engine Optimization (SEO) here at Top Hat.

Now, we’ll tell you something SEO companies might fail to mention when you’re signing on to an SEO implementation plan.

There are Two Sides to SEO

At the highest level, you can contribute successful SEO to two things.

Side #1: Keyword Quality

How your keywords are researched and implemented. This is the side most SEO agencies focus on.

Side #2: Development Quality

The way your website is designed and developed. This is the side Pittsburgh SEO companies may not mention to you — and it’s the biggest reason SEO plans can hit a ceiling before you see any meaningful progress.

You can’t spell SEO without “well-developed website”

Okay…yes, you can.

But from an SEO standpoint — sure, good SEO has much to do with keyword research and implementation. But the other half sets the foundation for that strategy.

If you don’t have a strong foundation, you aren’t going to see max performance. Even the strongest keyword strategy will leave you trailing behind your competitors.

What that actually means

Think of each fundamental issue with your site structure as a number of steps away from peak effectiveness.

• Wrong HTML structuring? Take 3 steps back.
• Slow loading times and poor website performance? Take 3 steps back.
• Wrong content structure and mapping? Take 10 steps back — this is gonna take awhile.
• Riddled by 404 (broken pages) errors? 50 and under? Take 5 steps back. 100+? Take 20 steps back — your ship is full of holes and it’s sinking.

SEO is very straightforward. It just has to be done right to be worth your while.

What a Web Developer can do for your SEO

Solving the problem of a poorly-optimized website requires 3 things of the website owner and the SEO specialist:

1. Honesty and transparency
2. Comprehension of the core problem
3. The skillset(s) to address it

These are three things the SEO-minded web developer is all in for.

An SEO-minded web developer can:

• Develop or re-develop the parts of your website holding your SEO back, whether core structure, performance or other.
• Write schema markup — code that helps search engines know what your web content means, not just what it says, in order to help deliver the best possible results to searchers.
• Properly set up 301 redirects to contextually repair those 404 errors, and get you off Google’s hit list.
• Set up your Content Delivery Network to further improve loading speed on your website, especially if your website is consumed across the globe.

You also have to consider the question, “OK, once we get them to our website, are we converting them to a specific action?” That puts the design and usability of your site in the spotlight, and if that’s lacking, you’ll need a redesign and redevelopment.

Here’s Our Pitch

We do things differently than many Pittsburgh SEO companies — we specialize in helping blowing up our clients’ business with SEO while developing websites that do so from the outset.

It’s our business to assess your SEO fairly, present solid recommendations and help you make an informed decision based on your goals. We do it every day.

Ready to rock? Drop us a line or read up on how SEO works at Top Hat.