The Design vs. SEO question has come up so often in my career that it really does warrant a blog post.

So many business owners want their home page to be gorgeous, AND think that means little and often NO content. I would like to redefine beautiful design in the web industry. The current misconception is that a beautiful design means three things:

1. The entire home page fits “above the fold”

2. There is lots of movement and color

3. Content is for interior pages and less is more on the home page

The redefinition take into consideration:

1. “Above the Fold” - This concept in itself is not sustainable as the designer and business owner have no idea or control over the size and resolution of the visitor’s monitor. The average monitor size and resolution is growing so are you willing to redesign in a year or so? Also, (and more importantly) search engines use the home page to find out what you deem important on interior pages. People have done studies on this concept. Here’s the article I read this morning that inspired me to write this post.

2. Movement and color - As a user/buyer I think less is more here, for sure! I’ve seen home pages that are entirely built in Flash. Most people have landed on a particular page based on a search. The home page should clearly let them know they’ve found what they are looking for and point them to more information about that topic. These days, with new search friendly animation you can certainly use flash and Ajax and other “Web 2.0″ technologies to do exactly that. I have rarely seen it done well and is usually distracting. Often, because the business owner doesn’t understand what is SEO friendly and what isn’t and the web developer wants the job done quickly and profitably, the appropriate technologies and methodologies to achieve SEO advantage as well as the desired “effect” is not even attempted. Even if the business owner knew about these things, is developing an Ajax solution in the budget? Simplify.

3. Content is for the interior? Just like in modern warfare, the front line has disappeared. Every page is a “landing” page. The official home page, being the top page regarding the directory hierarchy (unless it’s flat) and having the appropriate home page name (index, home, default, etc.) is more of a signpost to the search engines about the most important information on the site than a “welcome” page to searchers.

The bottom line and sustainable concept here is - the home page content should be as long as is needed to emphasize the importance of interior pages, to create an intuitive experience for the visitor and to provide the most useful information possible.

The best idea for the home page as it relates to content is to keep it fresh! If you have a blog, feed the teasers to your site’s home page. Post industry news articles there. Or just go update it on a regular basis. Stagnant home page content will not rank as well as frequently updated content.

If you’re using Google at all, you’ll notice that when you search for something in a particular town, you get a map and listings that fit your search criteria in that area at the top of your search WITHOUT using the local tab.

So how do you get into the local search index?  Well, sometimes it happens naturally, putting your address in the footer or sidebar of every page of your site is a great way to make sure that happens.  Or you can get a free gmail account, login to google and go to the Local Business Center and add your business!  Simple as that.

 Yahoo has the same thing, can’t hurt to get listed there as well! 

I just watched Google’s own Adam Lasnik give an interview at the London SES.  It is gratifying to report that Google, who really founded this notion of sustainable search marketing, is continuing the trend. 

Adam Lasnik is the brains behind Google Webmaster Central and is the liaison between Google and webmasters of all shapes and sizes, keeping us all in the know about what Google would like to see us doing.  Thankfully, it all really makes sense and is sustainable.

1. With regard to use of new Flash and Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technologies, Adam was asked what Googles guidelines are.   The answer is go ahead and use it - it adds to the usability of the site.  Just make sure that you use <noembed> to indicates what text should be used when an embedded object can’t be viewed, and <noscript> to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed so that no matter who lands on your page, they can get the appropriate content from your flash and ajax objects.  The other important thing here is that you use the same text in those tags that you use in the object’s content and don’t use the tags to stuff keywords. 
2. Duplicate content is another hot topic covered, and one about which I have given some good advice and a little bit of wrong information as well…  Duplicate content is fine if it is inadvertant or useful to the user and is appropriately attributed to the originator.  So don’t worry about putting no follow on your printer friendly pages etc. 
3. Along with the duplicate content question, the idea of page rank sculpting came up.  Page Rank Sculpting is the act of aranging content so that pages you deem important get the best page rank, and isn’t diluted by content on other “less important” pages.  It is a fundamentally unsustainable idea, in that it will have to be rescultped as often as page priorities and algorithms change.  Achieve rank and position for important pages by linking to them from the home page and by obtaining other quality links to them.  The natural way!

What ties all of these ideas together is sustainability.  Don’t worry about the algorithms, or contriving meta information for specific keywords.  Focus on the needs and experience of the user/customer.  Provide them good and useful information in a natural and intuitive manner and you will do well.