'Integrate SEO at the start of web design projects'

2nd July 2008

Companies should do more to place search engine optimisation (SEO), usability and accessibility at the heart of their web design projects.

This is according to Justin James of TechRepublic, who said that those struggling with SEO should place it high on their priority lists and perhaps hire a consultant for expert guidance.

Furthermore, usability and accessibility can be best tested with "real" web users, he added.

"If you want to leverage your website as much as possible and minimise the amount you need to spend on paid ads, you might want to bring in an outside expert," Mr James stated.

He went on to note that SEO has moved on significantly from the days when just using clean HTML, correct metadata and targeted content would do the trick for businesses.

Marketers may now have to take into account the use of Flash content for new websites following Adobe's recent announcement of plans to improve the search indexing of Flash pages and applications.

It said that it had provided its Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! for this purpose.