Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
After 7 years of building what I now call "digital ghost towns," I had an uncomfortable realization. I was creating pixel-perfect websites that looked amazing in portfolio screenshots but generated zero organic traffic for my clients.
The harsh truth? I was essentially training world-class sales reps to do door-to-door sales in an empty neighborhood. These websites had become expensive digital brochures—impressive when someone stumbled upon them, but nobody was stumbling upon them.
This revelation forced me to completely restructure my approach to web design and SEO. Instead of starting with beautiful layouts and hoping Google would notice, I learned to build websites around what actually drives rankings and traffic.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why traditional "design-first" websites fail at SEO
The fundamental mindset shift from homepage-centric to SEO-driven architecture
My proven framework for balancing design aesthetics with ranking factors
Specific web elements that actually move the needle for Google rankings
Real case study: How I transformed a client's site from <500 to 5,000+ monthly visits
Ready to stop building beautiful websites that nobody finds? Let's dive into what actually works for modern website optimization.
Industry Reality
What every web designer thinks they know about SEO
Walk into any web design agency and you'll hear the same advice repeated like gospel: "Make it beautiful first, then optimize for SEO later." The industry has convinced itself that great design and strong SEO are separate disciplines that can be bolted together after the fact.
Here's what most designers and developers will tell you about Google ranking factors:
Page speed is king - Compress images, minify CSS, use CDNs
Mobile responsiveness matters - Make it work on phones
Clean code helps rankings - Semantic HTML, proper heading structure
User experience signals count - Low bounce rates, high engagement
Technical SEO basics - Meta tags, schema markup, XML sitemaps
This advice isn't wrong—it's just incomplete. The problem is that most web professionals treat SEO like a checklist to complete after the "real work" of design is finished. They build stunning homepage experiences, craft perfect user journeys, and then wonder why their technically perfect sites generate no organic traffic.
The fundamental flaw? They're designing websites like physical stores with one front door, when they should be designing them like shopping malls with hundreds of entry points.
This traditional approach works great for businesses that already have strong brand recognition or hefty paid advertising budgets. But for startups, SaaS companies, and ecommerce stores trying to build organic growth? It's a recipe for digital invisibility.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Three years into my freelance web design career, I was proud of my portfolio. Beautiful, conversion-optimized websites that looked fantastic and functioned flawlessly. My clients loved the initial presentations, and I was charging premium rates for "conversion-focused design."
Then came the reality check that changed everything.
I was reviewing analytics with a B2B SaaS client whose website I'd redesigned six months earlier. The site was gorgeous—clean interface, compelling copy, seamless user flows. We'd followed every conversion optimization best practice in the book.
The results? Less than 500 monthly organic visitors. Despite having a technically perfect website, they were practically invisible to their target audience.
"This looks amazing," the founder said, "but we're basically running the world's most expensive business card. Nobody can find us unless they already know we exist."
That's when I realized I'd been building what I now call "digital ghost towns." I was creating pixel-perfect websites that looked amazing in portfolio screenshots but generated zero organic discovery for businesses that desperately needed it.
The harsh truth hit me: I was treating websites like print brochures instead of the dynamic, searchable, multi-entry-point digital experiences they needed to be.
I started analyzing my entire client portfolio and found the same pattern everywhere:
Beautiful homepages with single-digit monthly visitors
Perfect user journeys that nobody was taking
Conversion-optimized checkout flows processing minimal orders
That night, I made a decision that would completely transform my approach to web design: I would never again build a website without considering organic discoverability from day one.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that wake-up call, I spent months studying how successful websites actually get found. I analyzed top-ranking sites, interviewed SEO experts, and most importantly, started treating every new project as an SEO experiment.
Here's the framework I developed that transformed my client results:
Step 1: Flip the Design Process
Instead of starting with homepage wireframes, I now start with keyword research. Before designing a single page, I map out:
Primary target keywords and their search volumes
Content clusters around each topic
Potential entry points for organic traffic
Internal linking opportunities between topics
Step 2: Design for Multiple Entry Points
The biggest mindset shift? Stop thinking about websites as having one front door (the homepage). In an SEO-driven approach, every page is a potential first impression. I design navigation and calls-to-action assuming users might land anywhere.
Step 3: Embed SEO Elements in the Design Phase
Rather than retrofitting SEO after design completion, I integrate ranking factors into the visual design process:
Heading hierarchies that support keyword targeting
Image placement that supports descriptive alt text
Content sections designed for featured snippet optimization
Internal linking patterns built into the navigation structure
Step 4: Content-First Page Architecture
For one Shopify client with over 1,000 products, I implemented a radical approach: I made the homepage itself the product catalog. Instead of traditional "featured products" sections, we displayed 48 products directly on the homepage with only a testimonials section below.
The result? The homepage became both the most viewed AND most used page, with conversion rates doubling.
Step 5: Technical SEO as Design Foundation
I now treat technical SEO elements as non-negotiable design requirements:
Page speed budgets that constrain design choices
Mobile-first layouts that prioritize key content
Schema markup planned into content sections
Core Web Vitals considerations for every interactive element
The most dramatic example was an e-commerce client where I modified the H1 structure across all product pages, adding main store keywords before each product name. This single change, deployed across 3,000+ products, became one of our biggest SEO wins for overall site traffic.
Keyword Research
Start with search intent, not design inspiration
Content Architecture
Map user journeys from search results, not just homepage
Technical Integration
Build SEO requirements into design mockups
Performance Balance
Optimize for both aesthetics and Core Web Vitals
The transformation in my client results was dramatic. The same SaaS client who initially had under 500 monthly visitors? Their organic traffic grew to over 2,000 monthly visitors within six months of implementing the SEO-first redesign.
But the real breakthrough came with my e-commerce projects. One Shopify store went from virtually no organic traffic to 5,000+ monthly visits in just three months using my AI-powered SEO content strategy combined with SEO-first design principles.
The key insight? When you treat SEO as a design constraint rather than an afterthought, you create websites that are both beautiful and discoverable.
More importantly, this approach changed my client relationships entirely. Instead of delivering websites that looked great but performed poorly, I was now delivering digital assets that actually drove business growth. Clients started referring to their websites as "revenue machines" rather than "digital brochures."
The approach also solved a major business problem for me as a freelancer: client retention. When your websites actually generate traffic and leads, clients don't just pay your invoices—they become advocates who refer new business.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this SEO-first approach across dozens of projects, here are the seven critical lessons that separate successful websites from beautiful failures:
Design constraints improve creativity - SEO requirements force more innovative solutions
Every page needs a purpose - If it doesn't target a search intent, question why it exists
User experience includes discoverability - The best UX in the world doesn't matter if nobody finds it
Content and design are inseparable - Plan them together, not sequentially
Small technical changes compound - One H1 modification across thousands of pages can transform traffic
Mobile-first isn't just responsive - It's about prioritizing the most important content for smaller screens
Analytics tell the real story - Beautiful portfolios lie; traffic numbers don't
The biggest mistake I see other designers make? Treating SEO as someone else's job. In 2025, you can't separate good web design from search optimization—they're the same discipline.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies, implement this by starting with keyword research around your product features before wireframing. Build use-case pages for each major feature, create integration guides for popular tools, and design your navigation to support content discoverability.
For your Ecommerce store
E-commerce stores should focus on product and collection page optimization. Design category pages as landing pages, implement schema markup for product data, and create content hubs around purchase intent keywords rather than just product catalogs.