Don't make it hard for your company - build SEO activity into your Website Design Phase

Companies should make redesigning their website to ensure it is tailored for search engine optimisation (SEO) one of their key aims for this year.

Econsultancy has urged firms to overhaul their web presence so as to boost their ranking on search engines such as Google, but noted that they should seek assistance from a Search engine optimisation firm if they are not confident of doing the task themselves.

"Speaking from experience, it's very frustrating to be called in to work on a website's optimisation just after a (completely useless) redesign," writer Kevin Gibbons remarked, adding: "If you can't do it, get help".

Using keywords in page names, adding internal links and optimising the meta description tags of a portal are all ways of boosting the SEO of a website, Mr Gibbons observed.

Implementing keywords is another important aspect when redesigning a site, he noted, advising companies to make sure they "know and understand" the phrases they want to use before starting.

He added that firms are most likely to have success with long-tail keywords - specialist phrases that are relevant to a niche business.

The need for an SEO-optimised site may increase as web use rises.

A recent poll by Harris Interactive found that the average internet user spends 13 hours online every week.