What came first Websites or SEO?

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How should I approach my re-design

Websites came first, as the web filled up with content, we needed an easy way to find the things we were looking for, then came the search engines.

It wasn’t long after that (circa 1999) before we saw the first SEO companies setting up shop. They were trying to find a way to put their customers at the top of the search results, which was both good for them, and their customers.

There were few rules as search engines hadn’t started monitoring their search portals, then they did, and it all started to get complicated.

PPC (pay per click) advertising changed everything.

Organic listings were pushed down the page, replaced by sites with marketing budgets that are happy to pay to be seen at the top of the search page results.

Brands dominate organic listings for commercial products in today’s SERPs.

Building your brand is crucial in the long term.

Back at the beginning, you built a website then tried to SEO it for the first page results on the search engines.

Today you should be thinking the other way round.

Before you build your website, you should discover your on-line market and write your content to match its requirements. So get your SEO consultant on board before you start spending money on a website that might not succeed because you built it for yourself rather than for your audience.

If you’re thinking of a re-design then put the breaks on, and consider, your brand, who is my audience, what do they want, how do they search, and how can I make it easy for them to find what they want?