I'm unsure if people acknowledge how SEO best practices impact Web Development in today's digital world.
I'm not even sure if most people know what SEO means!
In case you're one of those, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
What0's more, it's responsible for positioning your page within the first results of search engines.
There's no magical recipe or an easy paved road to achieve the first page results.
Yet, there's a series of practices to promote better positioning among SERPs.
If you're ready... Let's climb up.
What is SEO?
First of all, let's talk about Search Engine Optimization.
SEO improves the quality and quantity of organic traffic from search engines to websites.
This practice is essential to target organic search results rather than direct or paid traffic.
As it aims to increase visibility in search engines, it leads to more traffic and better business outcomes.
SEO involves responsive design across screen sizes, high-quality content and understanding target keywords.
It also contemplates getting external links from other reputable sources (domain authority).
Basic SEO Technical Concepts
So far, I’ve mentioned many terms that, for starters, may be rather confusing.
Let's learn some basic SEO definitions.
- SEO SERPs. Search Engine Results Pages refers to the pages a search engine displays in response to a search query. The SERP typically displays websites relevant to query. It may also include advertisements, featured snippets and knowledge graphs.
- SEO Indexation. This edge refers to the process by which engines crawl and analyze pages. As a result, they can determine their relevance and include them in their index.
- SEO Crawlers. Crawlers, also known as spiders or search robots, are automated programs engines use to discover and index websites. Crawlers follow links from one web page to another, analyzing the content and structure of each one. In consequence, it adds them to the Search Engine's index or database.
Main Types of SEO
- Technical SEO. This involves a website’s optimization for easier crawling and indexing. Technical SEO involves work on on-page elements like site speed, mobile-friendliness and SSL/HTTPS.
- Off-Page SEO. Off-Page involves strategies like partnership marketing and working with SaaS link building agency. These implememtations outside your site help improve its visibility and authority in engine rankings. Tools play a crucial role in managing and scaling these efforts effectively.
Many agencies are using Linkee, an automated backlink outreach tool, or similar platforms to streamline communication, track campaigns and identify high-quality linking opportunities. Tools like Ahrefs, Pitchbox, and Respona assist with prospecting, email automation and performance tracking, making outreach more efficient. Leveraging the right combination of these tools can significantly enhance your off-page SEO strategy and deliver measurable results. - On-Page SEO. Known as On-Site SEO, it involves implementing practices directly on a website to improve its visibility. Examples include optimizing elements like HTML tags, internal linking, using relevant keywords, looking for broken links, and more.
SEO Best Practices for Web Development
Working on SEO involves more aspects than you think.
We will now delve into the aspects you can enhance during your Web Development process.
1. Mobile-First SEO
Mobile traffic is bigger than any other traffic coming from digital devices!
It's no surprise that Google is paying more attention than ever to mobile users.
In this context, mobile-first indexes and ranks sites based on its mobile version rather than its desktop one.
That's why companies should consider mobile versions as the primary source of traffic and rankings.
Ensuring your website's mobile performance provides a great User Experience is crucial to improve visibility.
2. SEO Content Quality
You might say, "This doesn't have much in common with coding!"
Yet, as well as using relevant and long-tailed keywords (specific and detailed phrases people use to search content), eye-catching content is key.
If your page doesn't offer quality content based on targeted keywords, you might be throwing all your work overboard.
You can use Google Search Console, Google Trends and Google Analytics to understand the keywords you are ranking for.
With these tools, tailoring your content according to user intent will be easier.
Tip: Avoid keyword stuffing, which is putting as many keywords as possible into a piece of content!
Remember that you’re creating content for people, not for the search engines!
Although black hat practices can put you among the first results, Google is not fond of these practices.
The most-used engine has a people-first approach, which rewards sites with user-oriented content.
To achieve its scope, you can rely on Google EETA and Helpful Content procedures.
If Google discovers you focus your content on search-first practices, it can severely penalize your site.
Examples of penalization include hiding it from top results and despising the keywords it has.
High-quality and dynamic content requires a great understanding of your target audience and industry.
Furthermore, it can take many forms, such as blog posts, videos, social media posts, ebooks and more.
Video content is playing a more important role than ever, as it tends to create more engagement!
To maximize this engagement, voice-over tools like Revoicer can make your content more relatable and engaging.
Also, video editing tools are essential to enhance video's quality.
3. Content Hierarchy
You must always consider implementing a proper title tag heading structure.
Using heading tags (from H1 to H6) to structure your content makes it easier for users.
Search Engines will also be more likely to understand the hierarchy and organization of your content.
You can use as many subheadings as you want—however, there’s always going to be just one H1 tag.
Having more than one confuses crawlers and generates duplicate content.
In the end, this extra title addition is counterproductive for proper indexation.
4. SEO Alt Texts
Alt text provides a descriptive, specific, and relevant text alternative for when users cannot see images.
Adding Alt Texts into your images is key to enhance both SEO and User Experience!
If you optimize images, Alt Text increases the chances of them appearing in image search results.
Depending on your CMS, you can add Alt Text to images in HTML or by filling in a picture description.
5. SEO URL Structure
Try to use descriptive and keyword-related URLs to give an idea to users what to expect from the page content.
Also, avoid using long, complex URLs with unnecessary parameters or numbers.
If you're working on an article about Cats in Tuxedos, your URL should be like: www.petstore.com/cats-in-tuxedos.
Pay attention to your URLs— leaving slugs like /hf74w5435shu makes it difficult for crawlers to find your site.
Make sure your anchor texts are descriptive or related to the link you're adding!
Your readers will know what to expect when they click on it.
6. SEO Clean Code
Clean code doesn’t mean you must sweep and mop whenever you finish working.
It’s all about writing HTML, CSS JavaScript, or any kind of well-structured, organized code.
There are some key principles you should follow to have a clean code.
- Indentation and Formatting. Your code must be consistent in indentation and formatting for it to be easier to read and understand. It makes it simpler for Search Engine bots to parse and index your website!
- Semantic HTML. Clean code uses semantic HTML tags to represent the structure and meaning of the content accurately. It helps Search Engines understand the hierarchy and context of your website.
- CSS and JavaScript. Try to avoid redundant or excessive CSS and JavaScript code. By minifying your CSS and JavaScript files, you can reduce file sizes and improve page loading speed.
How Does SEO Impact Web Development?
Knowing SEO's crucial role in Web Development improves your website's overall performance.
It also makes it stand out in the eyes of Search Engine Crawlers!
Here are some of the perks why running an SEO-optimized website is important when building your first website.
These benefits also help if you already have a website and would like to improve its SEO performance.
- Crawling. Search engine bots rely on clean code to understand and index your website's content. Messy or error-filled software products can lower your search ranking. Focus the title and meta description tags on the target keywords so that Google crawlers will understand your content. These two tags store data about your site and share this info with search engines and people when the time comes. Use them wisely!
- Load Times. Avoiding lazy loading might be challenging. Efficient coding will optimize your website's performance, resulting in faster initial page load times and lower bounce rates. Page speed is a crucial ranking factor as it prioritizes websites that provide a quick and seamless UX.
- User Experience. Speaking of UX, SEO also contributes to a smoother and more efficient User Experiences and Interfaces. When your site loads fast, visitors will likely stay on your site, engage with your content, and potentially convert.
- Maintenance. Knowing how the little details affect rankings can help you maintain your website more easily when you build it. Well-organized and structured code simplifies making changes, fixing issues and adding new features.
Conclusion
Now you know the secret behind the best practices for having a successful website from an SEO perspective.
Several factors can influence your organic rankings, like responsiveness and high-quality backlinks.
Remember that, in an effective SEO strategy, not everything is stone-written.
What functions for me doesn't work the same way for others.
Apply the rules you think will serve you better in your digital marketing strategies, and let them do their magic in SEO rankings!
