THE DEVELOPER’S GUIDE TO SEO-FRIENDLY WEBSITES
Bluelupin Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Digital Transformation Consultancy - Providing top-notch technological software solutions
Introduction
Being a developer you know very well how a website works as the digital window in front of viewers. And you must also know that efficient SEO is the only path that can bring the website in front of potential customers, right?
But, the vital challenge here is to develop and design the website to become SEO friendly and enable the SEO experts to work effectively on the website when required.
Handling a team of expert developers, I will draw some of my insights on how you can develop websites optimized for SEO in this blog.
Ambitious to become the top web development company in India? Let’s explore how being a developer you can work and contribute to making SEO-friendly websites.
Laying the Foundation: Structure and Crawlability
Clear Navigation - The GPS of Your Website
It’s relatively easy to design a website and call it a day. But whether your users feel it is easier to navigate through your website is important. They should not feel like they are trying to find a needle in a haystack! Hence, these tips will make their journey smooth -
Mega Menus: These menus are handy for complex websites. Consider mega menus as a well-organized virtual directory, where users can find specific content without struggling a lot. Hence, both the search engines and your users will be grateful for these menus.
Breadcrumbs: As the name suggests, this element highlights a user's journey on a website, which is generally kept at the top of a page. Breadcrumbs are a secondary navigation system, which will help guide your users through the deeper sections of your website. This option is perfect for those individuals who like to get lost in the abyss of your content.
Internal Linking Strategy: As internal linking helps Google and readers comprehend that your content is 9f high value, it becomes a crucial factor for an SEO-optimized website. Strategically linking other pages of your website with one of your web pages, surely boosts credibility and pushes your website to rank on Google Search Results pages. Simultaneously this helps your audience stay engaged on your site for a long.
Semantic Markup - The Search Engine's Language
Although basic tags are fine, going a little deeper is also a good idea,
Specific Tags: Specific tags, such as for blog posts <article> or for sidebars <aside> help search engines understand your content better. It is like speaking Google’s language.
Microdata vs. JSON-LD: You can use Microdata to embed data, not just pictures or text, but an actual set of nurturing, harmonious data in your HTML. Or, you may use JSON-LD, which can be maintained in a separate JSON file.
Optimizing URLs - Short, Sweet, but SEO-Friendly
URLs are more like miniature addresses - the easier, the better. The must-haves to create perfect URLs include -
Hyphens for Word Separation: Always use “hyphens (-)” instead of “underscores (_)”. Search engines see them differently, and we want to make things as clear as possible.
Keep it Short and Sweet: Aim for URLs under 60 characters. It’s easier for users to read and remember, and search engines love it.
No Stop Words: Words like “the'' or “and'' can usually be omitted unless they significantly enhance clarity. It's preferred to keep it clean and concise.
Sitemap Creation - Provide Search Engines with a Roadmap
Though having an effective internal linking strategy is vital, you can boost both crawlability and SEO through a sitemap. Sitemap is a file that lists all important pages on your website and shows the way how they are related to each other.
In other words, a sitemap acts as a roadmap for search engines, ensuring seamless navigation as they are more likely to detect and index all your content. Keeping an efficient sitemap in your website makes your SEO practices stand out from other companies for web development.
There are two main types of sitemaps to consider:
HTML Sitemap: This version of the sitemap is visible to users and includes all pages of your website. It is a guide for users to help them navigate through the website and find all pages. This version of the sitemap is not crucial for SEO.
XML Sitemap: This is a document in XML format that is submitted to search engines. This sitemap includes information about all pages of your website including URLs of pages, last update, significance, etc.
Right Content is King
Meta Tags: The Secret Sauce
They might be small, but meta tags can do big things! Here is how you can use this to be the top web development company in India:
Targeted Keywords: It’s 2024, so you don’t have to resort to keyword stuffing in your meta tags. But adding some spices can boost a URL's effectiveness - include targeted keywords in your meta descriptions.
Compelling CTA: End your meta tags with a strong call to action. Encourage the reader to click and discover more. “Learn More” and “Shop Now” are time-tested classics.
Test and Refine: Finally, don’t just write your meta tags and forget about them. Make sure you A/B test them to see which descriptions generate more clicks. It’s like cooking and adding more pepper if the dish is too bland.
Title Tags - The First Impression
Title tags are your first impression, so don't forget to make it count!
Keyword Placement: Craft your title tag in a way that naturally incorporates your target keyword, so it seems more relevant. It’s like presenting the main actor first.
Brand Consistency: Try to include the brand name at the end of your title tag. It will help you build brand credibility. It’s like leaving your unique mark on a passage, sculpture, or painting.
Unique Titles: Every page is different, and so are the title tags! Making two title tags the same is like mistaking poison with salt.
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Mobile-First Indexing - The Future is Here
Mobile-first indexing is one of the major changes in the online world, and with the increasing number of mobile users, the significance of this shift in trend should not be underestimated. The ways to stay ahead following the shift will include the following -
Responsive Design Frameworks: Using frameworks such as Bootstrap or Foundation will help create responsive websites. Sites made with responsive design change according to the device they are accessed from, making the overall website experience smooth.
Mobile-Specific Testing Tools: Tools such as the Google Mobile-Friendly Test will enable identifying and fixing mobile usability issues. It is like having a personal trainer for the website.
Website Speed
Speed isn’t just for supercars. Your website needs to be fast too, for our increasingly shorter attention span. Here’s how you can be a top web development company in India providing optimal speed to your website-
Image Optimization: You can compress your images without degrading their quality. Some of the good tools you can rely on include tinyPNG or Smush. Fast-loading images not only makes your users happy but also keeps them engaged.
Code Minification: Minify your “HTML”, “CSS” and “JavaScript” files to reduce their size and loading time. Every millisecond counts here.
Leverage Browser Caching: It stores the frequently loaded data on the user's device. As a result, the website load decreases whenever they visit again.
Structured Data Implementation -A Way to Stand Out in the Crowd
Structured data makes your content more visible. So, maximize it:
Rich Results Optimization: Focus on specific rich results like product reviews or recipes. You get more clicks as structured data gives you better search visibility.
Testing Tools: Use Google’s Rich Result Test tool to make sure that your implementation of structured data works. It will help you ensure that rich snippets are generated.
Internal Linking: The Backbone of SEO
Internal linking is not only for navigation purposes. It’s done to provide a better user experience. Here is how you could do it -
Anchor Text Optimization: Use the right text to link to other pages. The text which gets hyperlinked to other pages of the site or external links is referred to as the “anchor text”. The anchor text should be relevant as well as useful to the linked page.
Contextual Linking: Try to link to other related internal pages of your website naturally rather than using only navigational links. This would help in providing more information to users.
nofollow Attribute: Use the rel=“nofollow” attribute for the paid links or advertisements or links in guest posts to prevent the passing of SEO value to that linked page.
Server Response Time - Optimizing for Speed
Browser caching is an effective way to boost your website speed, but before encountering it, you need to understand the main factor affecting page load times - server response time.
In simple terms, server response time is the time your web server takes to process a search request and deliver content to the user’s browser.
Factors that affect your website server response time:
Server Hardware: Owning better server resources in the form of CPU, RAM, and storage may double the performance of your server and speed up response time.
Server Software: For increased performance and security, this software should be up to date.
Database Optimization: An optimized database aims to retrieve information quicker, resulting in faster page load times.
Code Efficiency: Clean and effective code on your page matters and can decrease the server load of the asset, thus speeding up server response time.
If you take care of these confidently you can differentiate yourself from other companies for web development making website speed your USP!
FAQs
How to do SEO as a developer?
As a developer, you have to create websites that support SEO efforts. Take care of the broken links, and page not found issues, and use 301, and 302 redirects. Set up clear URLs, give priority to keywords for easy categorization, and change the website's settings to HTTPS. Make the website mobile-friendly and optimized for faster loads. Last but not least, integrate schema markup and canonical tags, and generate an XML sitemap.
How to develop an SEO-friendly website?
There are a few key factors that determine if the site is SEO-friendly.
Conclusion
Well, if you have come this far, now you know a lot of tricks and techniques that you can use to make your client’s website SEO-friendly. But, believe me, this is only the tip of the iceberg and there are hundreds of more tools and techniques that you as a developer should consider to rank your client's website higher in search engines. So, considering this blog as an icebreaker boosts your research and efforts for better website SEO. What can make you the top web development company in India? It's your genuine care and efforts that you are giving to rank your client’s website higher and make the website in such a manner that can bring more traffic for your client.
All the best buddy, Happy coding and exploring!