When I first started in digital, I was purely a graphic designer. My “web development tools” were Photoshop slices, beautiful visuals, and websites built entirely out of images. Seriously… buttons were images, text was images, navigation was images. Great for design freedom, terrible for SEO.

Fast forward about a decade, and we find ourselves building websites not just for humans, but for algorithms. Search engine optimization (SEO) changed everything.

From Designer to Developer to SEO Expert

Initially, web designers (myself included) had one major objective: make it look cool. Beautiful visuals, creative layouts, flashy buttons… you name it. SEO wasn’t on the radar at all. In fact, doing SEO tasks felt more like “homework,” the boring part we tried desperately to avoid.

Then, as I moved deeper into web development, the demands evolved. Suddenly, those “boring” SEO tasks weren’t optional anymore—they became mandatory:

• Alt text on images

• Clear, descriptive meta descriptions

• Correctly structured H1, H2, H3 tags

• Canonical URLs

• Structured data markup

• Open Graph tags for social sharing

• Clear authorship and unique users per post

This wasn’t the glamorous side of designing… it was meticulous, repetitive, and frankly, a little tedious. But guess what? This meticulous work actually started paying off.

The Joke’s on Me

Ironically, SEO turned out to be everything I resisted as a designer: filling out every single possible field, providing detailed context to search engines, and structuring content meticulously.

It’s funny because this stuff works. When you fill in all those tedious little fields, your site actually starts to rank. The traffic arrives, your audience grows, and your business benefits. Turns out SEO rewards consistency, attention to detail, and thoroughness… exactly what designers originally ignored or resented.

Blogging and SEO: Why Separate User Accounts Matter

One small but impactful tip: If you’re blogging, create separate user logins for authors. Why? Because Google notices unique authorship. It rewards clarity, expertise, and trustworthiness (that E-A-T factor you’ve heard about).

Each blog post isn’t just content—it’s a unique SEO opportunity. Complete those user profiles, use clear metadata, and tag everything correctly. Yes, it adds more fields to fill out… but every completed field inches you closer to digital authority.

Why SEO is Exponentially More Complex

If you’re a designer-turned-developer-turned-SEO-pro like me, you’ve witnessed the exponential increase in complexity firsthand. SEO isn’t just another step; it’s an entirely new dimension of website development.

Each SEO task leads to another. Each field you fill out demands another layer of strategy – content strategies, link-building strategies, technical audits. SEO isn’t linear; it’s exponential.

A Personal Note to Designers: Embrace the Grind

SEO is the stuff designers always resisted. But it’s also the stuff that delivers the greatest long-term value. The sooner you embrace these seemingly minor tasks—the sooner your website, or your client’s website, will truly succeed.

Here’s a quick, practical reminder list:

• Fill out every metadata field

• Write clear and helpful alt text

• Tag headers correctly (H1, H2, H3)

• Set up canonical tags
  

• Regularly audit and optimize your content

• Structure your content strategically (pillar and cluster approaches, which btw just essentially means Main and Sub categories 😉 Just sayin’)

SEO is Not Optional—It’s Essential

Trust me, I get it… SEO can feel tedious. But when your carefully crafted content finally ranks, attracts leads, and boosts revenue, you’ll wonder why you ever resisted it.

SEO isn’t everything you originally wanted to do—but it is exactly what you need to do. And when done right, it works beautifully.