The top four ways SEO affects developers

Whether you’re a web developer working on a project from scratch, or improving an existing one, SEO will always have a big part to play within your work.

Here Tecmark’s web developer, Joe Curran, lists some of the many ways that SEO affects his role.

1. Getting Mobile Ready

One of the biggest and most difficult tasks for developers is making sure that a site is mobile friendly and meets the guidelines set out by Google.

In basic terms, a website needs to be accessible using any screen size.

This is where responsive design and media queries steal the show. Using a framework, such as Bootstrap or Foundation, makes this process much easier.

Within these frameworks, a number of media queries are used to alter the layout and design of the website, based on a device’s screen size.

But it’s also quick and easy to create your own media queries, which can be adapted to your own design.

If you’re working on an existing site, you’ll need to make lots of tweaks to check whether or not the site is touch ready, readable and quick to load.

Nevertheless, being ready for mobile is critical as more and more people are using their phones and tablets.

2. Logical URL Structures

The URL structure you use has a huge part to play with both ranking and accessibility.

Using a strong structure that follows a logical path can provide a great deal of information for both the user and a search engine.

Use your URL structure to contain keywords that are using within your pages, however keep them as short as possible.

It’s also a good idea to use common works for pages that you would expect on most sites like: About, Contact or News.

If you take a look at the Tecmark website you will see these techniques in practice. For example, all of the pages about the services we provide follow a similar structure:

• http://www.tecmark.co.uk/services/content-strategy/
• http://www.tecmark.co.uk/services/interactive-content/
• http://www.tecmark.co.uk/services/content-promotion/

As you can see all of these pages fall under services. This provides both users and search engines with information about the page’s content and category.

Following a similar structure allows quick, simple navigation around the site.

3. Utilizing Meta Tag

Meta Tags are on of the most critical assets you can add to any website. They are simple to install and have an instant impact.

Meta Tags are hidden elements that provide extra information about your site to services, such as social media and search engines.

It’s important to include these in your website development process, if you want to have some degree of control over what content – title and description etc. – appears on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

There are many different meta tags that you could use and various services will use them differently.

It’s important to include the correct meta tags for your website. For example, use social tags for Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Doing so will allow you to customise the content display on these social networks. In the example below you can see that an image, title and description are all included.

Digital Elite Camp 2016 – Round Up https://t.co/vFSFoSqgwv #elitecamp2016 #Estonia

— Tecmark (@tecmark) July 7, 2016

4. Using Headings the Correct Way

The use of headings is one element that is often taken for granted. Headings are beneficial in a number of ways, when used correctly.

The first and most important benefit is creating a well-defined and clear layout for an article or page, however it is important to use them sparingly.

Headings should be used to break down content into clear chunks, which makes the page or article much easier to read and navigate.

Therefore it’s important to limit their use in non-content areas such as headers, sidebars, and footers.

The other great benefit is that headings also provide a great tool for structure your content for search.

Providing short, but descriptive titles about the content on the page helps search engine to understand your content.

Titles should include the keywords that your content is targeting, but remember that your content should be designed for your readers not search engines.

As a developer, it’s important to make sure the content on the page has been marked up accordingly with the correct header tags. It’s also important to refrain from using them for normal page elements.

“Heading Tags SEO: Tips for Using H1 to H6 Right Way” is a great article to check out about how to use heading tags correctly and their recent update in HTML5.

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