Search engine optimization (SEO) concerns the ranking of web pages within the Google algorithm and is one of the most powerful marketing tools of today. This can, and should, have a big impact on how businesses consider web dev.
Search Engine Journal recommends putting SEO at the forefront of any design when it comes to digital presence. What this means for businesses doesn’t actually deviate much at all from the principles of good quality web content. Underpinning every single piece of digital content should, firstly, be a high-quality technical framework, and a willingness to engage with innovation.
High-quality development
When it comes to web development, the better quality the code, the better quality the end product. As it happens, that’s the same for SEO, too. According to US News, the technical end of SEO can be just as influential with the Google algorithm as the content being posted.
Site structure, XML sitemaps, robots.txt and site speed are all factors dependent on the quality of the framework behind the digital display, and all factors that will heavily influence the page’s ranking. It follows that getting the absolute basics of your website’s technical infrastructure correct will give the biggest SEO boost without ever actually developing a bespoke SEO strategy.
For more in-depth changes, it’s important to note that technical SEO has transcended the basic levels where it began, according to marketing experts Moz. At its most basic level, technical SEO enables the search engine to better find your content when trawling and searching.
Common technical terms and good quality code enables search engine algorithms to easily notice your website and place it within their indexes. However, really developing this to the next level requires an understanding of in-depth indexing processes that will raise the visibility of your website. As these are always changing, you must be aware of new developments in the SEO field and adapt to them – many of which are led by market forces.
High-tech features
High-tech developments are the primary vector for these changes. Google strives to bring in the latest in convenience and accessibility tech when it comes to how their search algorithm values content.
Search Engine Journal asserts that Google’s move away from traditional advertising methods, such as expanded text ads (which have now been sunsetted), highlights just the level of importance placed by the company on allowing in technology as the first factor in any given web search.
Instead, technology is the focus, and only marketing efforts that are inclusive of the latest developments will continue to see growth in the search engine rankings. What does that look like for the modern business?
Web development often incorporates elements of accessible tech. Voice activation, cross-platform compatibility and text-to-speech are all important assistive features that, as it happens, Google prioritizes in the rankings battle. Having these features become part and parcel of the website enables it to always be at the forefront of web page ranking.
This also completes an important business consideration by satisfying certain ethical demands placed on businesses to help disadvantaged people become full participants in the digital community. Ensuring that all members of society are able to access your content, and that alienation is minimized, is a big tick box for Google and its algorithm.
Bringing in the community
The focus by Google on accessibility will remain ever-important. A report by the Bureau of Internet Accessibility highlights how Google’s new UX Algorithm infrastructure has created new metrics for accessibility.
These include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which penalizes websites with large, poorly optimized images; Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures unexpected shifts in page layout after click; and First Input Delay (FID), which maps out the responsiveness from a website following the first interaction by a visitor.
All of these features impact internet users, but are especially impactful when it comes to internet users living with disability. This calls back to the need for good technical SEO underpinning the page.
Good systems and processes that ensure your web content is delivered in an easily consumed and navigated way prevents any alienation of disadvantaged communities and will promote your business – both reputationally, and in terms of SEO. In both ways, this is good for the business.
Advancing keywords
According to LiveCodeStream, keywords are what define an amateur and professional web dev-SEO operation. Proper inclusion of meta tags that are up-to-date, authentic to webpage content, and, crucially, can be identified by Google, is important in the overall stakes.
This takes on another dimension when looking to fine-tune the system with follow and no-follow tags, which can help to further direct the search engine to and from the related content. Google prizes authenticity and the removal of duplication, and so these small changes can make a big impact in helping the business to find its way onto the top rankings within its industry.
Keywords are, in many ways, part of fine tuning. Approaching SEO from an in-depth technical perspective, and accepting new technological changes and then integrating them into your long-term strategy, will provide the overarching principles that define how your SEO efforts continue and then migrate when new algorithm updates are released.
Keyword tuning, and making them absolutely specific to your business, its goals, and its marketing objectives, is the day-to-day effort that will help to make your long-term strategy a reality that works for your business.
Web dev with an SEO tilt is about, in the end, web dev principles. You have to be diligent in your code, ensure that all the boxes are ticked, and that you have good technical features. Google is, ultimately, a technically driven search engine.
Adjusting to that will bring results. As Google brings in new technological advances, this creates new demands on developers to ensure that what they are providing is up to scratch for the most modern of digital businesses. Having a progressive technologically mindset will achieve this and keep your business moving forward.
