This Is How Search Engine Optimisation Is Related To Web Development

Search engine optimisation is frequently associated with marketing processes as a tool to obtain more traffic to a website or webpage. However, it can also be used in web development to improve user expertise, load times, as well as crawling and indexing.

“A majority of developers don’t really think about [SEO]. They want to build beautiful websites and applications. SEO is always an afterthought, but unfortunately most of the benefit really comes from having that initial consideration of SEO at the very beginning”, said senior SEO scientist Britney Mueller of SEO software provider Moz. “Everything from page speed to how accessible it is to online readers or people with visual impairments…these are all things Google evaluates and wants to account for, and if you start the [development] process with the SEO mindset in play, it is a huge benefit across the board”. 

To be able to bring SEO more to the forefront, Muller discussed that web developers have to have a strong connection with the SEO team. The way the search engine optimisation team has traditionally taken care of implementing SEO modifications is by working with developers and telling them what they are supposed to do. However, developers may find this complicated and disruptive.

Developers should know the fundamentals of SEO. The SEO agency, on the other hand, need to have a better understanding of what developers do too at all times. This way, both sides can create trust and have empathy for how everything is carried out based on their perspective. “Without any rationale, trust or established relationship before, that can be really harsh and dangerous to the future success for a website”, said Mueller.

Muller said that, in most cases, developers would actually have an improved method to apply Search engine optimisation alterations because they know the backend of your website along with the nuances of program code. “We as SEOs have so much to learn from developers, and I think it is really important to open up that dialogue early and often”, she said.

Muller’s company Moz has released the Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet so SEO experts and developers alike can pinpoint and understand issues properly.

Some areas the cheat sheet will go over includes:

Critical crawler issues: This includes 400- and 500- levels HTTP status errors. It’s important to SEO teams because they don’t need a high-value and high-traffic page to return to these types of errors. The cheat sheet says: “Users hitting an error page don’t wait around for it to be first — at best, they try to find what they’re looking for elsewhere on your site. At worst, they head to your competitor”. For the web development team, they need to address critical problems at all costs. If SEO teams and developers work together, they can find and solve problems, stay updated with major modifications in the website, and prepare a summary of high-value pages that must be observed.

Crawler warnings: By creating crawler warnings, developers can determine why webpages aren’t appearing on search results pages, if there is content that cannot be indexed or if there are any internal links that search engines might not crawl. Some warnings include meta noindex, meta nofollow, x-robots, nofollower, x-robots non-index.

“Some pages are intentionally hidden from search engines, such as staging sites or those hidden behind a login screen, so not every crawler warning is going to be something your web dev must fix. Double-check whether URLs coming back with a crawler warning are truly pages you want to hide. If important pages are lost behind incorrect noindex/nofollow tags, you’re missing out on valuable traffic and ranking opportunities”, according to the cheat sheet.

Redirect problems: This includes temporary redirects, redirect stores, and meta refreshes that may have an effect on user experience. The cheat sheet stated: “As we’ve said before, it’s important to understand why a decision was made before you can find an effective way to fix it. Figure out why your developers chose to use certain redirects, and make sure to communicate with them why one decision is better than another. If they have a regular process in place for implementing redirects, see where you can fit into that process and provide insight”.

Metadata problems: For example, missing titles and descriptions, titles too long or too short, and multiple titles. “While much of this metadata isn’t directly linked to ranking factors, all of these elements do affect how your content looks in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Every one of them can affect the clickability of your ranking pages, and if a page doesn’t draw clicks, you lose both traffic and valuable user engagement signals that help power rankings”, the cheat sheet stated.

Content problems: This includes missing headers, duplicate content and titles, poor load time, and slim content. These problems can cause confusion among users and search engines. So it is better for the SEO and web development team because it can have a negative impact on traffic and rankings. This is what the cheat sheet says: “While much of this metadata isn’t directly linked to ranking factors, all of these elements do affect how your content looks in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Every one of them can affect the clickability of your ranking pages, and if a page doesn’t draw clicks, you lose both traffic and valuable user engagement signals that help power rankings.”

“The primary takeaway is your code is so much stronger and will have far more success if you create it with this awareness and optimization for search,” Muller said.

This Is Why Google Does Not Recommend Full Website Takedown

The coronavirus pandemic is continuously causing problems to numerous businesses. Some were even forced to shut down temporarily. To help companies maintain their Google search visibility, the search engine giant published recommendations on how to limit your website’s functionality if you will halt your operations.

Do not disable your entire website. According to Google, disabling your website can have a significant impact on your visibility in search, even if it’s just for a few days. You will still want visitors to discover your business, your services and products even if you’re just temporarily closed.

A full website takedown can make ranking really challenging since your website must be reindexed. It can also lead to a Search Console verification failure as well as a loss of reporting data.

Options for a worst-case scenario. If you really have to take down your website, Google presents these following pieces of advice:

• For temporary takedown, use the Search Console Removals Tool.
• For longer website takedowns, put up an indexable homepage placeholder for visitors using the 200 HTTP status code.
• If you are taking down your website for a few days, it is recommended to return an informational error with a 503 Services Unavailable code.

Think about limiting site functionality instead. If you want to continue normal operations, Google advises these options to maintain your search visibility:

• Keep visitors informed by using a banner or popup outlining the changes with your business. Always consider Google’s guidelines for popups and banners to make sure that you’re not messing up with user experience.
• Submit your website modifications to Google by requesting a recrawl through Search Console.
• E-commerce websites should adhere to Google’s Merchant Centre guidance on availability. If needed, turn off cart functionality.
• Modify your structured data to reflect even updates, temporary closures, and product availability. Also, using Google My Business, you can also mark your business as temporarily closed.

Why we care. Every industry right now is experiencing huge changes due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Some needed to shut down temporarily, but doing this without proper Google guidance can have unexpected longer-term outcomes for your organic presence, undermining all the work you’ve done for UK search engine optimisation up to this point. Look at the possibilities that will help you resume your operations in the smoothest way as soon as the pandemic is over.

All details in this post were gathered from https://sdtimes.com/softwaredev/what-seo-has-to-do-with-web-development/ and https://seotradenews.com/businesses-should-limit-not-disable-their-sites-during-temporary-closures-google-says/. Click these links to learn more.

When it comes to improving your website rankings, you can choose to do it yourself or employ the assistance of the best SEO professionals you’ll find today. Focus on managing other areas of your business instead. For more information about our available SEO packages, visit Position1SEO.