“It Just Made Me Really Mad”

I don’t get mad that often.  Just when I see bad things happen to good people, mostly.

Like last week.

I was at a women’s business conference, where I finally met Allison* (we’ll change her name here to keep this all confidential).

I’ve followed Allison online for a while because she plans absolutely beautiful weddings, and I love weddings.  Plus, the types of weddings she plans are those amazing, 5-day “events” that you only see on reality TV.

She’s kind of a big deal.

When I told her I ran a web agency, she paused.  Then she said.

“You know, I had my website redesigned back in April… Can I ask you something?”

Well, sure.

“Is it normal for search rankings to slip after a redesign?  Because I used to rank on page 1 for ‘[City name] wedding planner,’ and I’m now on page 6…”

Rankings definitely can be affected by a relaunch, but falling for four months and heading downward six pages isn’t normal, in my experience.  I told her I’d take a look.

I finally found her on the top of page 7.

And when I clicked onto her website, I could see why—A three-word meta description for the home page.  Her focus keyword not even used.  Entire paragraphs wrapped in <h1> tags.

It was so, so obvious that her website designer had no clue about SEO.

And it just made me really mad.  So mad I did what any good Millennial does and ranted on Twitter.

This amazing, talented event planner's website hasn't dropped from page 1 to page 7 for her focus keyword because of a "launch dip" /2

— Sara Dunn (@Sara11D) October 18, 2017

If you take on a client whose leads and livelihood depend on search engine traffic, you have an *obligation* to understand basic SEO /4

— Sara Dunn (@Sara11D) October 18, 2017

If you want to make a difference for people, no more designing pretty things that cause their traffic to fall off the earth. /6

— Sara Dunn (@Sara11D) October 18, 2017

Here’s the most important thing that spouted out of my furious fingers, which I truly believe.

If you take on a client whose business, leads, and personal livelihood depend on search engine traffic, you have an obligation to understand basic SEO.

They should not pay you money as a web designer to reduce their traffic and cut off their lead source.

What I Learned From Getting Ticked Off

I think what we stand against shapes us.

As of today, I am officially against websites that are made without a client’s business needs in mind.

I’m against good business owners paying money for websites that hurt their search rankings (if search traffic is important to them).

I’m against business owners who watch their websites fall from page 1 to page 7.

I’ve been doing a lot of data analysis and ranking and matrices lately, trying to figure out what niche is right for me.

But maybe this experience taught me what I really needed to know.