Web content 'should be written with SEO in mind'

Marketers need to ensure that content for their websites is written with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind rather than optimising content after it has been created.

This is according to Aaron Bradley of jewellery retailer ice.com, who said in a column for Search Engine Land that it is not enough to apply SEO to content after it has been written as it is unlikely to perform as well as that which has been created according to SEO principles.

"SEO needs to be involved strategically and tactically at many points in the content development lifestyle," he commented.

Mr Bradley went on to advise SEO executives to engage in strategic planning before writing new content and undertake research using tools such as Google Insight for Search - as well as internal traffic and search figures - to inform their work.

A number of experts have previously advised marketers to ensure that SEO is also built into the website design process.

Last year, Henry Jones of Web Design Ledger suggested that developers integrate SEO during the design stage by avoiding the use of Flash for navigation, cleaning up their code and refraining from overusing Ajax, as this content cannot be indexed by search engines.

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