SEO for Web Developers: How to get a headstart

So, you’re a developer creating a website for a client, or a personal project. And a big question arises: “How Can I, as a web developer, ensure that the website is optimized for Search Engines?“. You may rush into Google, and find yourself in an ocean of informations. With terminology that you don’t recognize, keywords, domain authority, keyword research, and much more. It can feel pretty overwhelming to not know how to optimize your project for SEO. But it doesn’t have to be.

Hello! Name’s Codedgar, and I have also felt the same, overwhelmed on how to improve SEO without previous knowledge. So I’ve advanced in this area for a while, so I can present you a guide on SEO for Web Developers, without the hastle.

Now, SEO can feel pretty hard, and I have seen developers fall into the most common SEO issues, and spreading the same information that might lead you nowhere. So I’m creating a guide that runs through creating an SEO optimized HTML, SEO tools, how to create content for SEO, and lastly, following up and making sure is paying off.

In this guide, we’ll explore the essential steps to lay a strong SEO foundation as a web developer, and neccesary tools.

Introduction - What does it mean to get a headstart on SEO?

Being a Web Developer gives you a good advantage in SEO. If you write your code following good development practice, is key for good SEO. And by also integrating the following tactics into your code, you can ensure you’ll get an edge on search engine ranks against your competitors.

1- Creating your HTML in a SEO-oriented manner

Making sure that your HTML is correct, and it’s easy for Search Engines to index and understand, is a key factor in creating a website that ranks higher. Good news is, this is really easy if you already follow good development practices. The main things to keep in mind are:

Optimize your HTML for SEO

Making sure that your HTML is readable and understandable for search engines, is really important for creating a website that ranks high on Google. And even so, it’s a really easy pitfall in which developers may fall, let’s learn what to do so you don’t make the same mistakes.

User your heading tags correctly

In a website, is super important that you use only one H1, or max 2 H1 Headings. This might be something you already knew, but did you know about heading hierarchy? It’s about making sure that you’re ordering your heading tags according to the importance of the title, and level of deepness within a topic that you’re speaking of. To illustrate better, in this same article, the main title is an H1, titles of the sections are h2, and titles inside of these sections are h3, and so on. So when you’re creating a website, always make sure you’re not abusing one heading tag. Use them in the correct context so Google and other search engines can uderstand what your website is about, and how the headings and paragraphs connect with each other.

Use ALT attributes for your images

Yup, you might have seen this one before, but it’s really, really important. It just isn’t about SEO, it’s also about making your website accesible for people with impaired vision. To ace at this, just make sure that you’re writting a good description of the image, and always give it a little thought on what should you add that might be relevant. Don’t get too comfy though, ALT attributes are not a place to fill with keywords, or things you want to appear on in search engines, add only the relevant information needed.

Stop using inline CSS

Fact: CSS repainting can slow your loading times even if all of your code is really well optimized, why? That’s because sections with inline CSS need to be repainted several times during loads. Affecting the speed of the website or the feeling of snappiness you might be looking for. Instead, opt for just having all of your CSS neatly packed within classes, and avoid using inline CSS.

2- Getting the best tools for SEO data

Creating a website easier to index and read for search engines can only get you so far. In the world of SEO, data is one of the most valuable assets you can have. More so if this data is about how people are interacting with you, finding your content, and what are your most popular pages. You can use these bits of information to craft larger strategies that make sure to position yourself better against competitors, and providing the best experience for visitors. There are a lot of tools out there you can use, but these are the main ones I recommend for any web developer who wants to rank higher on Google.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console it’s the link between how your website is shown on Google. What pages are being shown to people from search queries, and your status of indexation in Google. Which refers to what pages are currently displaying on Google results. This is really important, as it allows you to understand the traffic that your website is bringing from Google and terms that are making you visible. It also provides you with tips, things you can improve, and issues your website might be having. Truly a no brainer if you want to get that SEO boost.

Also, installation is pretty easy, you will need to install a TXT tag into your domain, and Google provides very easy instructions on how to get it done.

Plus: Install a sitemap into Google Search Console

Sitemaps are, as their name suggest, a map that describes the pages and hierarchy of them to Google. This can ensure that your pages can be indexed more rapidly, but also make sure that Google understands the structure of your website. It will also provide you with information of how the pages are displaying or getting indexed in Google. If you’re using WordPress, you can generate a sitemap by using Yoast SEO, and if you’re using AstroJS as myself, you can use Astro Sitemap. And then integrate it into Google Search Console by going into Search Console -> Indexing -> Sitemaps.

Google Analytics

We saw how Google Search Console gives you information on how people are getting your page. Google Analytics in the other side, provides information on how users are interacting in the site itself. What are the most popular pages, what is the amount of time that people is interacting with your content. And most importantly, it provides information about Bounce Rates. The bounce rate is determined by the amount of users that visit one page, stay for little to no time, just to go back to Google. A super important metric to have if you want to improve your SEO and experience to your users.

Installation is as simple as Google Search Console, if you’re using WordPress, you can integrate it by using Google’s Sitekit. And for Astro and custom code fellas, you can just install the script provided from Google Analytics into your head tag in your HTML.

Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity is not known by many people, but I consider it to be a great tool for improving SEO, why? Really simple: Microsoft Clarity provides you with recordings and heatmaps of interactions of users. This is great, as it empowers you to understand at first glance the experience users are having within your website. If users have found any errors in their navigation, what are the main parts of your website that they click, or how much they scroll before abandoning the site. After it was recommended to me and I started using it, it became a life changer for my and how I test, improve, and create strategies for SEO.

3- Orient your URL structure for better navigation and SEO Indexation

This is one of the most common issues I’ve seen developers make. URL structure is all about how the deeper URLs of your website are formatted. This helps Google understand how your website is built, and what content is a parent of other pages, creating a relation of how your website is defined.

For example. If you had a bakery, and had /cakes, and then /birthday-cakes, google would interpret that as you selling cakes, and birthday cakes. While having /cakes, and then /cakes/birthday-cakes, search engines will understand that you do cakes, and that birthday cakes are a child category of the cakes you make. This becomes a harder issue in WordPress sites, where the date URL is used for the blog. And you end up with URLs looking like 08/26/2024/birthday-cakes, and Google cannot understand what are all of these numbers separating the content.

To make sure you don’t fall into this issue, imagine your website as a tree, with content being derived from main content, and watch how the branches and the structure of the site. Creating also a map of main content to child content can also be useful to make sure you have a well-defined URL structure that will improve your SEO.

Getting a headstart for SEO is just the beginning

Launching your website with a well defined URL structure, and using the right tools for SEO information, will really set you apart from most of the competitors. But you will also need content that Google can index to bring traffic into your site consistently, so: What is content, how can we create inticing content for Google that will make or SEO better, and what kind of content should we create? Let’s dive right in into how to create SEO Content like a pro.