We have written previously about web designers, and the different types we come across in our work, from the “SEO friendly” who not only understand and embrace the concept of SEO and optimising sites for the engines, and work in close contact with SEO’s for the benefit of their clients. These guys are generally the cream of the web design industry, and could do every bit as good a job as most SEO’s but just dont have the time.

..Through to the “SEO skeptical” types who have reservations, but are at least open to the idea in theory…

…But rarely in this day and age do you come across the absolute dinosaurs who:

“simply do not believe that there is any such thing..”

This would actually be immensely funny, if it were not:

• true

• sad

• for the fact that we’ve had to battle tooth and nail with one in particular now, for several months.

This morning, as the new site was going live, and supposed to be a controlled migration using 301′s from the old site pages, this particular individual was telling my client (and friend) that:

• a) there is no such thing, its all bullsh*t.
  

• b) it is luck alone where google place you in the index

• c) you have to pay to be at the top

• d) my friend (client only in that we are doing the work, he is an old old friend and we are not even charging him) is being duped.

wtf??!! ..on top of this, for months now we have been stressing in multiple (unpaid for emails) over and over again the absolute importance of not going live before the appropriate .htaccess with 301′s is working correctly.

“THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN” … lol. ..so yesterday what happens?

..the site: search shows a new index page installed, DNS switched across , and 7 x 404 errors on the Google cached old pages ffs.

…Apparently it’s not important anyway, because “he doesnt believe in SEO”

What can you do? ..so this leads us to ask the question:

Just how many web designers out there actually “don’t believe in SEO” ?

..Seriously, how can someone even dare to call themselves a “professional web designer” in this day and age, and never mind not understanding the importance of SEO, but …. “not believe in it”??

..I mean we’re not talking about religion or fairy tales where there is any element of reasonable doubt ??

..is this just some random isolated dinosoar on a far flung island who hasnt looked at the internet for the last ten years? Or is it a deep seated feeling or belief held by outdated webbies who feel threatened by the new age?

Either way the SEO Meteor will be causing their extinction all too soon we think…

This particular one is certainly far more interested in anyone who should randomly happen to chance across the site knowing that it has passed “strict validation tests” on every page, and thereby immediately leaching off 2 /11 ths of any available pagerank (from every page) to & w3.org, (and another 2/11ths to macromedia and himself) than of improving it’s chances of ever getting seen in the first place.

But then of course, its “just luck” anyway isnt it?   truly, we are speechless.

& the world is flat too I suppose ??

So if you are in the market for a new website, whatever you do, make absolutely sure your web designer is not one of these “I dont believe in SEO” types, because truly, even in this day and age, they are still out there.

really, we kid you not.