Every web designer knows that there are two essential qualities in every good websiteappearance and how it performs in the search engines. There is no doubt it is critically important for pages to look good so they keep visitors on the page. But visitors will never arrive at the site to appreciate even the best design without search engine optimization (SEO). Integrating these fundamentals of effective website design can be complex, and compromises are almost always required.

The place web designers start to find the balance between appearance and performance is SEO. If SEO never generates traffic, your beautiful page design can never be appreciated. The basics of SEO include linking between pages, keyword density, meta tags, and proper tagging of images. Each of these factors is something to consider as you begin designing your site.

Your site must integrate enough text to allow for the keyword density it requires. Nowadays less is more when it comes to keyword density, so that means you need concise and compelling copy that is long enough to give you acceptable keyword density, but short enough to retain the attention of your visitors. This also means that you cannot have every possible image or screen shot on your page. If you put them there, the search engines, and certainly Google, will have no means of determining how to index your content. Words, not images, tell the search engines what your site is about. That’s why it is essential that you create multiple pages with text that can be optimized.

Your next step is to make sure that you tag any images you use on your website with the “alt” tag in HTML. Each and every image must have this tag. It allows you to tell the web browser which text will pop up when visitors run their mouse over the image. Moreover, make an effort to name every image with a title that is SEO-friendly. That means if you use a picture of a giraffe on your website, you should choose the name my.pet.giraffe.jpg over 7893A86giraf98My.jpg. Doing this, you put more keywords into the HTML for your pages. Just be sure not to get carried away. Too many keywords in your meta tags and file names will look like spam.

Another vital step in search engine optimization is linking the various pages of your site. Visitors always appreciate internal navigation. The search engines also appreciate internal navigation, because internal links are places you can insert keywords that identify your pages. For instance, if you have a page called “White Sand Beaches” you can link to that page from every other page in your site with a link entitled “White Sand Beaches.” This way you not only tell all search engines have created a page, but you tell the search engines what the page is about.

The ultimate rule for integrating page design and SEO is to keep design simple. Using flash sparingly, avoiding excessive images, and shunning complex design will boost your freedom to do SEO. You don’t have to make your website unattractive, you simply need to do more with less.

Justin Harrison is a leading Internet Marketing consultant responsible for the Internet Marketing strategies behind some of the biggest online brands including Amazon, BBC, MasterCard and many others.