It’s easy to overlook SEO until after launch, but if you want a website that ranks, that’s not the best approach.
Successful websites recognise that SEO and web development are intrinsically linked, which means SEO needs to be considered from the very beginning of the build.
If you risk relegating it to an afterthought, you’ll find yourself having to restructure pages, rewrite content and, basically, redo a lot of work.
SEO: An improvement or an integral part?
SEO is often framed as something you do to improve an existing website. But when you’re building a new website, it makes more sense to consider search visibility from the outset because, what’s the point of having a website no one can find?
Integrating SEO into web design from day one, means your website is built to be discovered. It means creating with a purpose in mind.
It’s also worth addressing the elephant in the room… AI has changed how people search and how search results are presented. This, in turn, has changed how SEO has to work and led to the evolution of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). GEO switches the focus from ranking on a standard search page to getting cited and recommended inside AI-generated answers from platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. This in no way replaces traditional SEO practices, but it’s often overlooked. GEO and SEO actually heavily overlap, so they should be simultaneously considered when building a website. With AI becoming part of everyday search behaviour, appealing to AI search tools has never been more important.
So, with this in mind, how do we put the idea of ‘considering SEO and GEO at every step’ into action?
When we say from the beginning, we mean THE BEGINNING: website structure
Optimised websites don’t just look good on the surface; their structure has to make sense. Not having a clear structure that reflects your business damages how easily search engines can understand and crawl your page. A poor structure fails to offer context and clarity, which is crucial to being cited in overviews and highly ranked on search pages.
If your business offers several services, your website should help to clarify what these services are and how they relate to each other.
For example, if you’re a law firm, your page hierarchy may be as follows:
Home page > Services > Family law > divorce
This page hierarchy supports internal linking, creates focused landing pages and provides clear topical structure, boosting SEO and helping to guide users through your site.
The way SEO and web go together, so do content and design
Instead of building a website page and asking, ‘what content goes here?’. Content should play a more formative role when settling on a structure.
Keyword research, search intent and competitor analysis help you to identify what consumers are looking for and the information they want to find. Rather than considering this after the build is complete, use this insight to shape the website’s design.
If your research reveals that consumers are repeatedly searching for specific services, those key services may need their own page rather than being grouped together on one all-encompassing page.
Sticking with the hypothetical law firm website, keyword research might reveal that people are searching for terms like ‘divorce lawyer near me’ rather than broader phrases like ‘personal law lawyers’. In that case, giving divorce its own dedicated service page may make more sense.
Or if your research shows consumers are frequently asking similar questions, it’s ideal for the website design to accommodate FAQs or advice pages. Allowing SEO-focused content to influence web design guarantees your page hierarchy is logical, and the information consumers, search engines and LLMs are looking for is readily available.
Design decisions have SEO consequences
A website that prioritises visual effect over usability is slow and frustrating. On the flip side, a minimal website that makes it difficult to find information is equally painful to use.
When your website is slow and inaccessible, SEO suffers. And if a website is too complex, LLMs struggle to understand the content.
You may be thinking, I don’t want to sacrifice what makes my website special to appeal to bots. And we completely agree. While user experience is always a priority, SEO makes your page visible and brings the visitors in. One doesn’t work without the other.
Optimisation doesn’t mean limiting your website’s character, just that creative and technical decisions should be working together to support widespread reach – instead of intentionally working against it.
Again, with the hypothetical law firm’s page, its template should allow for the easy display of service-specific information like FAQs, trust signals and CTAs. Not only does this make navigation easier for users, but it also allows AI search tools to discover, understand and potentially cite your content.
Building a sustainable website
A website shouldn’t be considered finished when it goes live.
Search behaviour changes. Competitors publish new content. Search engines evolve. Customer expectations change. New services and products are introduced.
An effective website needs a foundation that supports growth.
When SEO and web development are integrated from the outset, the website is more likely to have the flexibility to accommodate new content, new landing pages, new functionality and changing search opportunities without requiring major structural work every time.
Don’t let SEO be an afterthought
SEO shouldn’t be an improvement you make to a website once it’s finished; it should mean taking an intentional and targeted approach.
A website’s visibility, usability, performance and conversion potential are interconnected.
- A website that looks fantastic but can’t be found is a missed opportunity.
- A website that ranks well but provides a poor user experience is unhelpful.
The result of integrating SEO with web development is a website that looks good, ranks well, attracts the target audience, delivers on user experience and is adaptable.
As a growth- and performance-focused agency, our web design and development team and marketing team work together from the start. We create websites that are built to perform, that people (and search engines) love.
If you’re planning a new website or refurbishing an existing one, let’s talk.
