Designing Diliemna - SEO vs. Function airsplat vs. hobbytron

[SEONovice]

I'm sure this has been one of those ongoing debates. But I was hoping to call upon your expertise on some specific examples.

I have been hired to help with a company that needs some major overhaul and have done extensive research. I was able to narrow it down to 2 options and am using their competitors as examples.

The first, is a very lean, functional site with a good code to content ratio and high keyword ratios. Overall this site is doing well and scores high on google, MSN, and yahoo.
www.airsplat.com
If you type in the main keywords "airsoft gun", or "airsoft guns", it's usually in the top 3 if not the first page.

Thr second is a very loaded, heavy, less functional site loaded with keywords and bigger pages. This website is a little harder to maneuver through, but has recently, because of this design, improved in ranking across the board for all the SE's.
www.hobbytron.com/AirsoftGuns.html

My dilemna is should I design a website for a client that is heavy is keywords and more likely to do better in the SE's or go with the functional less keyword, lean option.

I know the standard response is "a good moderation between the 2 is your best choice". But I'm looking for a little more than that. I would hate to have to come back and redesign the site if it was penalized with keyword loading for spam.

I guess what I'm also asking is, where is the line? And what is your opinion of both sites? As well as which option would you choose?

Thank you for your help. Long time reader and first time poster. Thank you for your help.

[Webnauts]

I would tell that the first example site can make better, but there is for sure a lot of Design and SEO work missing.

[incrediblehelp]

http://www.airsplat.com/ does not even load for me.

[SEONovice]

I would tell that the first example site can make better, but there is for sure a lot of Design and SEO work missing.

Thanks for the comment. I was leaning more towards the first one too. You think there is a lot of SEO work missing, intresting. I couldn't agree more with that, but I don't understand why they are doing so well in the SE's despite that.

[SEONovice]

http://www.airsplat.com/ does not even load for me.

It's working for me over here. Please try again. Thank you.

[incrediblehelp]

I really don't see and easy answer here. First off why would you take on a job and not know what to do to improve the clients website? I am sure if you know SEO well enough to sign a clients following some simply steps will help get the website crawled and indexed fairly well.

As for the difference between the two websites they both seem to have the same architecture layouts:

Main Page->Prod Cat->Prod

As you have said both are doing well in the SE's setting your website up similar to either would probably work well.

One thing to note is to make sure your pages are as different as possible. I know a lot of the specs are the same for many of these guns so you really cant help that, but as much content you can differentiate between the pages the better off you are.

[SEONovice]

Great to hear from you Hulk. Actually, I'm doing this job more as a mutually beneficial favor.

Thank you for helpful suggestions.

I may have gotten in over my head for for one of my first handful of projects.

Perhaps I shoudl consider the option of referring my client to a real firm. Any suggestions? (I hope that doesn't come across as a stupid question, there seem to be so many out there).

[incrediblehelp]

Plenty of great Mods and MVP's here at WPW that run their own SEO firms.

[SemAdvance]

I really don't see and easy answer here. First off why would you take on a job and not know what to do to improve the clients website?

Answer: $$$$$$

Which is a view from two sides:

Client who doesn't know better and / or opted for a cheaper offering.

Makes many don the SEO moniker without the needed experience or skill set.

[okparrothead]

I liked Airsplat for the speed, but consider your target demographic. From design perspectives only, I think Hobbytron could be mistaken for a Video Gaming site, which might be a positive. Airsplat needs a little design work, IMHO. I think it could be any catalog for any product in any category. A bit generic.