SEO for Developers : Developing a website takes a lot of time and work. You also want additional folks to view it.Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is used for that purpose.We’ll talk about SEO for web developers in this article, along with some recommended practices.
But let’s begin with the fundamentals.
SEO Fundamentals for Developers
SEO increases the visibility of your website on search engine result pages (SERPs).
It entails enhancing technical characteristics (like site structure and performance), constructing off-page signals (like social media mentions and backlinks from other websites), and optimising on-page elements (like content and HTML tags).
Technical SEO is often handled by developers, while writers and marketers handle on-page and off-page SEO. It primarily aims to facilitate search engines’ ability to index (store) and crawl (find pages) your material.
Thus, focusing on technical enhancements guarantees that search engines comprehend your website more thoroughly.
Why Developers Should Care About SEO
In the end, a well-optimized website propels growth and assists your organisation in realising its objectives.
How?
Your website’s search engine ranking is strongly impacted by the code you write and the technical choices you make. and influences the user experience (UX) as well.
This may result in:
- Better SERP rankings (higher places)
- Increased natural (unpaid) traffic
- More clients
When combined, those increase revenue.
10 SEO Best Practices for Developers
The following are our suggested SEO best practices for building websites:
1. Create a Clear Website Structure
Achieving an SEO-friendly website layout entails structuring your content so that search engines and users can easily navigate it.
It should exhibit the hierarchy of your website and make apparent how pages relate to one another. which your URLs also represent.
For instance, a URL such as
The URL “yourwebsite.com/products/kitchen/blenders” indicates that the category “kitchen” includes “blenders.” and that both of them are included in your website’s “products” section.
The structure of a logical website should resemble this:
To strengthen this structure, use internal links, which are links on your website that point to other sites within it. and make it easier for visitors and search engines to traverse your website.
This method of classifying and arranging material makes it easier to navigate and makes it easier for search engines to index and crawl your pages.
2. Manage Your Redirects Carefully
Users and search engines are sent from one URL to another via redirects. When you move your website to a new domain, remove pages from it, or alter its structure, they become crucial.
The user experience and link equity (ranking power) of your website are maintained when redirects are managed correctly. It also avoids problems like broken links, 404 errors (which mean the resource couldn’t be located), and endless redirect loops that never end for users or search engines.
To stay clear of these problems:
- When making permanent changes to a URL, use 301 redirects to help the new URL gain link equity.
- Only use 302 redirects when making momentary URL modifications. similar to when you redesign your website and then restore the original URLs. They transfer link equity differently.
- Always reroute to the place you have in mind to end up. in order to avoid building chains or loops that degrade both your SEO performance and the user experience.
Use Site Audit to look for redirect chains and loops.
To set up your project, adhere to the Site Audit configuration guidelines.
After configuring, search for “redirect chain” or “redirect loop” under the “Issues” tab.
“# redirect chains and loops” should be clicked.
After then, the impacted pages will be visible to you.
Redirect each URL in the chain to the page you want it to go to in order to break chains.
You must modify one of the redirects to point to the correct end destination in order to break loops. Consequently, it stays at the current URL.
3. Secure Your Website with HTTPS
The data that is transferred between a visitor’s browser and your website is encrypted thanks to HTTPS, or hypertext transfer protocol secure. to protect private and sensitive data, such as login credentials.
One ranking criteria is HTTPS. Thus, using HTTPS to secure your website can improve its search engine ranks. Additionally, it increases visitors’ trust in you.
To move from HTTP to HTTPS:
- Obtain an SSL/TLS certificate from your web hosting company (such as Bluehost) to ensure safe connections. These certificates are frequently given away or offered as extras by hosts.
- As directed by your host or certificate provider, activate the certificate. Usually, they’ll walk you through the steps.
- Change the settings on your website so that HTTP is replaced with HTTPS. There might be an easy fix for this from your host. Altering the configuration files on your website to require HTTPS connections may also be necessary.
- For your complete website, set up 301 redirects from HTTP to HTTPS. This instructs users and search engines to access the secure version even if they attempt to view the insecure one.
For step-by-step assistance, see our post on How to Redirect HTTP to HTTPS (+ Best Practices).
Use Site Audit to see if there are any issues with your HTTPS implementation.
In the “HTTPS” section, select “View details.”
A total score as well as any problems that need to be fixed will be displayed.
In the “Why and how to fix it” section, select the issue that was identified. to get additional knowledge about it and appropriate solutions.
4. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
For your website to rank highly in search results, it must function well on mobile devices. due to Google’s preference for indexing and delivering pages to people on mobile devices.
Reactive design is one of the finest techniques to make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
With responsive design, the layout of your website is automatically changed to fit the size of the user’s screen using HTML and CSS. This facilitates reading and navigating across your website on all devices.
Using a content management system (CMS) or website builder, selecting a responsive theme will make this task simple.
For instance, markets such as Themeforest offer a wide selection of responsive WordPress themes.
Use CSS media queries and flexible layouts if you created your website yourself or if you need to make a non-responsive site responsive.
With these methods, you may adapt to various screen sizes. and instantly conceal or resize components as necessary.
Prioritise the mobile experience during the development stage in addition to utilising responsive design by:
- Making menus simpler
- Growing button diameters
- ensuring navigation that is touch-friendly
- Employing readable font sizes
- Using white space
- Reducing pop-ups
Use Site Audit to check your website for any issues pertaining to mobile devices.
Ascertain that the crawler is configured to “SiteAuditBot-Mobile.” which is similar to how Google searches your website. Next, select “Start Site Audit.”
Go to the “Issues” tab from your report dashboard after the audit is complete. And look up “mobile” to concentrate on problems unique to mobile devices.
To make sure the problems are fixed, take care of them and rerun the audit.
5. Speed Up Your Website
Your search engine rankings are directly impacted by how quickly your website loads. It enhances the user experience as well.
Thus, be proactive in optimising the loading speed of your website. Among the most crucial SEO pointers for site developers is this one.
Utilise Google’s PageSpeed Insights to determine the speed at which particular pages on your website function on desktop and mobile devices.
In order to view the diagnostics, scroll down. Take action to speed up your page based on that.
Use Site Audit to assess speed throughout your entire website.
Access your summary report. And in the “Site Performance” area, select “View details.”
You will see the total score. Any problems with the functionality and speed of your website.
Large graphics usually cause your website to load more slowly.
Therefore, request that your marketing team lower the size of picture files by using free tools like TinyPNG. and to select contemporary file types like WebP, JPEG, and PNG.
Furthermore be aware that code with extraneous characters, white spaces, and repeated lines slows down your website. Therefore, minify your code using the minification tools that Google recommends.
6. Implement Structured Data
Structured data, also known as schema markup, is code that adds details (such product prices) to your website’s content to make it easier for search engines to interpret it. which can raise organic traffic and improve your visibility in search results.
How?
by enabling rich snippets for your content, which show more information right in search results. similar to this
In order to use structured data:
- Collaborate with your marketing or SEO team to determine which content may benefit from structured data. Reviews, articles, recipes, events, and products are examples of common schema types.
- For developers, Google’s structured data documentation can be used to determine whether schema is suitable for a given type of content.
- Include the schema markup in the HTML code of your website; JSON-LD is advised.
(To learn the entire procedure, refer to our detailed guide on applying schema markup.)
Use the Site Audit tool to check for problems with your newly uploaded structured data on your website.
Click “View details” in the “Markup” section of the “Overview” tab.
How much of your schema is valid relative to how much is invalid is shown by a score.
Go to the “Structured Data Items” section by scrolling down. In order to view the complete list of errors, select “View all invalid items.”
Adjust your markup code as necessary to resolve the issues.
7. Generate and Submit an XML Sitemap
Your important pages are listed in an XML sitemap so that search engines can presumably find and index them.
Collaborate with your SEO or content team to determine which pages are most crucial to include in your XML sitemap before creating it.
Next, create the sitemap using the technique of your choice. For example, writing the code by hand or use an online generator or plugin.
Some platforms automatically create XML sitemaps, such as Shopify, Wix, and WordPress. Then all you have to do is get it back.
Upload your own sitemap to the server of your website if you have one.
It should normally be placed in the root directory of your website. That means that if your website is “www.example.com,” your sitemap should be located at “www.example.com/sitemap.xml.”
Use the Site Audit tool to verify that your sitemap is formatted appropriately after submitting it.
To find out whether there are any problems with your sitemap.xml file, go to the “Issues” tab and search “sitemap.”
Resolve any problems the tool identifies.
After making sure your sitemap is error-free, use Google Search Console (GSC) to submit it to Google.
After logging into your GSC account, select “Indexing” > “Sitemaps.”
Copy the URL for your sitemap into the designated field and hit “Submit.”
Every time you update an old page or add new content to your website, your sitemap will be immediately updated if your content management system (CMS) generates this file automatically.
However, keep in mind to update your sitemap whenever you add new pages or alter content if you manage it manually or if you have a custom setup that doesn’t update it automatically.
8. Implement Canonical Tags
When a page has several versions, canonical tags help identify which version is the main one. to guarantee that the version you want to see in search results is known to search engines.
Without them, search engines struggle to decide which website to highlight. This could cause none of your pages to appear in search results.
A webpage’s section is where canonical tags are added. similar to this
Collaborate with your marketing or SEO team to determine which pages require canonical tags.
They can identify problems with duplicate material on your website by using Site Audit. by looking up “duplicate content” under the “Issues” menu.
Canonical tags can be used when they’ve determined which page is the primary one for each set of duplicates.
Canonical tags can be used when they’ve determined which page is the primary one for each set of duplicates.
Simply insert the subsequent line into the duplicate pages’ head> section:
9. Configure Your Robots.txt File Correctly
Search engine crawlers can access and ignore certain areas of your website by using a robots.txt file. This guarantees that more of your crucial pages can be located and assists in hiding sites you don’t wish to be indexed.
This is an illustration of a robots.txt file:
You can use the “disallow” directive in your robots.txt file to prevent search engines from indexing particular pages, folders, or sections of your website.
The following example demonstrates how to block a particular page as well as the full “private” directory:
The “allow” directive can also be used to create exceptions for particular directories or pages inside of a banned area.
Here’s how to exclude search engines from the full “private” directory but permit them to access a particular page:
Additionally, you can use the “user-agent” directive to define search engine bots.
For instance, here’s how to stop Google from indexing your whole website:
To begin creating your own, use a text editor (such as Notepad) and create a file. And make sure you include all the necessary instructions (you might need to collaborate with your SEO and marketing departments on this).
Once you’re done, upload this robots.txt file to your website’s root directory.
Last but not least, make sure your robots.txt file is valid.
Open the “Issues” page after conducting a site audit. Then look up “robots.txt.”
To view a list of erroneous lines that need to be fixed, click “Robots.txt file has format errors” if there are any.
10. Make Your Website Accessible
Making sure that your website is usable by people with disabilities as well as others fosters inclusivity and increases the size of your audience. By improving the user experience on your website, this helps SEO.
Semantic HTML is one of the greatest approaches to prioritise accessibility. It helps people with visual impairments who rely on screen readers and search engines to understand what’s on the page by conveying the meaning and structure of your content.
HTML tags come in two primary varieties:
- Structure tags: These provide the general layout of the page (use for navigation links and for information about the introduction).
-
Text formatting tags (for paragraphs and for links, for example): These show what kind of text it is. 
Make reproducible templates with semantic HTML tags in order to guarantee that the rest of your team uses these tag kinds appropriately.
Additionally, be aware that a lot of content management systems (CMSs) that are used to create blog posts have intuitive editors that let content creators apply these components without having to write code.
You may improve accessibility even more by making your website keyboard-friendly. Thus, confirm that any interactive components (such as buttons, links, and form controls) can be accessed and used with a keyboard.
Additionally, strive for adequate contrast between the background and text colours to enhance legibility for those with vision problems.
To verify the accessibility compliance of your website, use couponsberg’s Accessibility Scan & Monitor app.
After launching the programme and entering your domain, select “Start Scan.”
After making your selections from the list of URLs to review, click “Scan # pages.”
AI is used by the tool to check your website for problems (on desktop and mobile). It aids in locating website components and code lines that violate regulations.
To view a report that rates your compliance with accessibility guidelines and enumerates all of the infractions, click the “Dashboard” option.
Click “View # Violations” to view more information about the violations.
To expand an issue, click the plus sign (“+”).
A explanation of the infraction, advice on what to do, and the code that is affected are all provided.
It is best to discuss these adjustments with your company’s content team members as many of them will be pertinent to them. And together, you two can overcome them.
Improve Your Website’s SEO
Achieving success with SEO plays a function in assisting your business in realising its objectives. That involves making sure the technological base is solid and optimised for search engines for developers.
Use the Site Audit tool from couponsberg to get started.
Examine your website, find any technical SEO problems, and address them.
Even a free trial is available.
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FAQs : SEO for Developers
1. What is SEO and why is it important for developers?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing websites to rank higher in search engine results. It’s important for developers because good SEO ensures that the sites they build are easily discoverable by users, leading to more traffic and better user engagement.
2. What are the key on-page SEO factors developers should focus on?
Key on-page SEO factors include:
- Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Ensure each page has a unique, descriptive title tag and meta description.
- Headings: Use proper heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) with relevant keywords.
- URLs: Create clean, keyword-rich URLs.
- Alt Text for Images: Use descriptive, keyword-rich alt text for images.
- Content: Ensure content is high-quality, unique, and relevant.
3. How can site speed affect SEO?
Site speed is a crucial ranking factor for SEO. Faster-loading websites provide a better user experience, reduce bounce rates, and are favored by search engines. Developers should optimize images, leverage browser caching, and minimize CSS and JavaScript files to improve site speed.
4. What is mobile-first indexing and why is it important?
Mobile-first indexing means Google primarily uses the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking. It’s important because more users access websites via mobile devices. Developers should ensure their sites are mobile-friendly, with responsive design and fast load times on mobile devices.
5. How does site architecture impact SEO?
Site architecture impacts SEO by influencing how easily search engines can crawl and index a website. A clear, logical structure with a good internal linking strategy helps search engines understand the content and improves user navigation. Use sitemaps and avoid deep nesting of pages.
6. What are structured data and schema markup?
Structured data and schema markup are types of code that help search engines understand the content of a page better. They enhance search results with rich snippets (like reviews, ratings, and event details), which can improve click-through rates. Developers should implement schema markup for relevant content.
7. How can developers ensure their website is crawlable?
To ensure a website is crawlable:
- Use Robots.txt: Properly configure the robots.txt file to guide search engines on which pages to crawl.
- Avoid Broken Links: Regularly check for and fix broken links.
- Create an XML Sitemap: Submit an XML sitemap to search engines to help them discover and index all pages.
- Use Clean Code: Write clean, efficient code that loads quickly and is easy for search engines to parse.
Conclusion :
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