Over the past few years more and more website owners are coming to the realization that the "if you build it they will come" ideal does not fit with websites. Simply registering a domain and putting up content is not enough to draw consistent traffic to a website, unless of course there is a major marketing initiative in place that draws visits. Sites need search engine rankings in order to drive people interested in their product, services, or information, for the most part. Of course there are exceptions, such as educational websites that get lots of links from popular related sites. But when it comes to trying to drive traffic, search engine optimization is becoming almost a required element of site design.
A recent thread at WebmasterWorld Forums advocates that SEO should be considered when doing a site design or redesign. The original poster, Senior Member "reseller" titled his thread "Watch Out For Those Web Designers & Programmers." he listed a few things that should automatically be considered when building a site and wonders
why site owners don't "incorporate" SEO Specialists from the beginning as part of the site building / site migration team to be sure that their sites would be "search engine friendly" too?
Some excellent responses follow, and the thread turns into a valuable evangelistic conversation about the merits of SEO. One of the highlights is an interesting analogy by "webdude" who compares web designers and web developers to "right-brained" and "left-brained" individuals. He reasons that the best sites will be designed by teams of people that consist of both of these types of individuals.
See the thread and add your thoughts at Webmasterworld Forums.
