SEO Basics For Web Developers
Understanding the fundamentals of SEO will help you collaborate more effectively and get better SEO results. Here's everything you need to know as a developer.
But how can you enlist the help of your web developers?
When they have so many other competing concerns on their
plate, how can you help them comprehend the importance of your SEO needs?
I used to be able to conduct around 90% of my SEO work for a
customer myself fifteen years ago.
Those were the days. Content production, UX, code
development, IT, numerous layers/levels of approvals, and more are now all part
of SEO.
I've written before on how SEO can't be done in a vacuum,
and I'm glad it's a discipline that now emphasises alignment in order to
provide a high-quality experience for website visitors.
Throughout my profession, I've always had a need for web
developer assistance.
That meant either walking down the hall at my agency or
collaborating with a third-party developer hired or contracted by my clients.
In any scenario, gaining web development's buy-in and
support is crucial for SEO.
It's much better if the developers are aware of SEO
concepts.
Developers that understand the fundamentals and incorporate them into their builds and site upkeep are considerably more efficient, reducing the need for rework later.
Check out my list of 10 must-know SEO essentials for web
developers, as well as some focus group conversations with my SEO and
development teams.
1. Security
Search engines are concerned about website security.
Ensure that you have an SSL in place and that there are no
issues.
That's where it all begins.
Have the essential protections in place to guarantee that
the site is free of vulnerabilities that might allow for an injection, modified
content, and so on.
Hacking at any level degrades the user experience and sends
out negative signals to both users and search engines.
When using plugins, extensions, or tools to safeguard the
site, keep site performance in mind (more on that later).
2. Response Codes
The server response codes are important.
There are often unique UX designs and techniques to get a
page to render for a user that motivate some inventive dev implementations.
In any case, double-check that pages are rendering 200
server codes.
Any 3xx or 4xx codes should be sourced and updated. Remove
redirects if you don't need them.
3. Redirects
Redirects are an important aspect of the website migration
and launch process when moving from an old to a new site.
If you don't do anything else during your launch, at the
very least, use redirects.
We're talking about ensuring that all URLs from the previous
site point to the most appropriate subject matter page on the new site using a
301 redirect.
If you're simplifying and upgrading content structure, this
might be 1:1 old site to new site pages or many to one.
Don't trust a page's rendering and think it's fine, just as
you shouldn't trust server codes.
Verify that redirects are 301s using tools.
4. Robots.txt
Nothing counts in SEO unless the site is indexed and
displayed in search results.
Don't let the robots.txt file fall by the wayside.
In certain circumstances, default commands are too permissive,
while in others, they are excessively restrictive.
Understand the contents of the robots.txt file.
Don't push the staging file to production without first
double-checking it.
A prohibit all command from staging (to protect the dev site
from being indexed) that was sent to the live site has thwarted several sites
with fantastic migration and launch preparations.
Block low-value things like tag pages, comments pages, and
any other variants your CMS generates.
You'll almost always have to examine a lot of low-value
garbage, and if you can't stop the pages from creating, at the very least stop
them from generating.
5. Sitemaps
Using XML sitemaps, we can ensure that search engines are
aware of all of our pages.
Don't squander time and resources by allowing photos,
unimportant pages, and other items that shouldn't be prioritised for
concentration and indexing to get in the way.
Ascertain that all pages specified in XML sitemaps return a
200 server response code.
Keep them clear of 404s, redirects, and anything else that
isn't the intended destination page.
6. URLs
Good URLs are short, contain terms that are pertinent to the
page's topic, are in lower case, and contain no letters, spaces, or underscores.
I like it when subfolder and page URL structures reflect the
content hierarchy in the navigation and site structure.
What's three levels lower?
Then type
"example.com/level-1/level-2/topical-page" into the address bar.
7. Mobile Friendly
Remember that just because something works or appears well
in a browser doesn't imply it'll work or look good in a search engine.
In terms of search, mobile-friendliness is critical.
Make sure it's mobile-friendly by using Google's
mobile-friendly tool.
Ensure that it passes.
Consider how the material is displayed in the mobile
version.
"Mobile first" indexing is used by Google.
This indicates that they are viewing the site on their
mobile device.
Examine whether you're concealing or not presenting crucial
material that you want search engines to consider in the mobile version for UX
reasons.
8. Site Speed
This is number eight on the list, but it may be the most
crucial after making sure your site can be indexed.
The speed of your website is crucial.
Slow page loads and sites have a negative impact on user
experience and conversion rates.
They have an effect on SEO performance as well.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving site
performance.
It all boils down to keeping your code light, utilising
plugins and extensions sparingly, having a well-optimized hosting environment,
compressing and minifying JS and CSS, and keeping picture sizes in check.
Any code, files, or other elements that might cause
performance or stability issues are a risk.
Include any content management protections so that a 10MB
picture cannot be uploaded and cause a website to crash. Alternatively, a
plugin update that slows things down goes undiscovered.
Site speed should be measured, monitored, and improved on a
regular basis.
Web.dev or Lighthouse in the Google Chrome browser dev tools
are my Lead Developer's preferred tools.
9. Heading Tags
For search engines, heading tags are excellent context
information.
Keep in mind that these are content shortcuts rather than
CSS shortcuts.
Yes, you should link your CSS to them, but do it in the
order of relevance.
Subheadings on a page should not be H1s, and the initial,
largest page heading should not be an H5.
There's a lot of discussion about the influence (or lack
thereof) of headers on SEO performance.
In this article, I'm not going there.
Just be as specific as possible when it comes to the
hierarchy and how it's applied.
Wherever possible, use them instead of other CSS.
If possible, limit the number of H1s on a page to one.
Work with your SEO team to grasp the general strategy for
headers and on-page content.
10. Content Management & Dynamic Content
As previously said, CMS functionality may wreak havoc on
even the most well-designed development projects.
Think about how much power you're giving away.
Understand the site's long-term content strategy and
requirements so that content writers have the power they desire while not
jeopardising site speed or any of the SEO on-page features.
Having as many dynamic elements as possible, such as
tagging, XML sitemap creation, redirects, and more, may save you time and make
your site and code stable.
Final Thoughts
The confluence and collaboration between SEO experts and site developers is critical.
For technical SEO and other things like enterprise scaling
of on-page objects, SEO relies on best practises.
Understanding SEO fundamentals may help developers
collaborate more effectively and get better SEO results.
Additionally, it may result in fewer rework or
"SEO-specific" adjustments and demands, resulting in more efficient
website development labour.
You may also like: Does Meta Description Matter For Ranking? Google Answered.
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