10 SEO Tips For Developers

Web developers have more responsibility than just designing and developing applications. They ensure that the platform they are developing has the right set of features and also take measures to ensure that the users will embrace what they have come up with. Search Engine Optimization falls in this category. For the platform which has been developed to perform well in the search engine, a developer needs to incorporate SEO strategies. In this article, our SEO expert will take through ten SEO tips that a developer can use to enhance their websites or applications.

First, let's embark on understanding SEO and why developers need it in the course of their website development.

When internet users need to get some information or products on the web, they normally use search engines. They do this by typing keywords that are related to the content they require. The relevant pages will appear at the top of the search engine results. The chances of a user clicking on the pages that appear at the top are high. A developer who is looking to attract users who are seeking the content that is offered by a platform they have developed, needs to ensure that ranking is as close to the top as possible.

Algorithms normally use data that has been stored in a given webpage to decide on which pages have content that is close to what the user is looking for.

SEO convinces the algorithms that the webpage has content that the user is searching for. Additionally, ranking algorithms will display sites that have the best user experience at the top of the search engine results. This means that it is not enough for the page to rank at the top of the search results; it also ought to open easily. If it takes longer to open or load, it will have scored poorly in terms of user experience. When a developer combines these elements the platform that is built will have taken care of the SEO aspect.

A developer has the responsibility of handling the technical aspect of the SEO such as ensuring that the website is optimized. Developers need to use efficient code so that the page gives the users what they want in the first instance they click on the site. The overall design of a website needs to be effective in interacting with the target audience and in addition, should be simple and at the same time elegant.

With a basic understanding of what entails SEO, let’s embark on the SEO tips that developers can use to build a platform that will attract visitors and have a higher rate of conversion.

• Adding the relevant tags
• Enhancing the page loading speed
• URL best practices
• Mobile-friendliness
• Linking the website
• Encourage other relevant and trustworthy sites to link
• Personalization of the home page
• Put in place web analytics
• Keep yourself updated on the new SEO trends

1. Adding The Relevant Tags

Search engine crawlers need to identify the type of content being served by a webpage. Two tags; title and description tags are very relevant for SEO. When thinking about meta tags, a developer needs to consider what role keywords will play in optimizing the page. A keyword is a phrase that the user will rely on to search for the required content.

It is what will draw the user to a given page. Relevant keywords must be identified and used appropriately on a web page, especially within the title and H1 tag. For the title tag, it will work best if the identified keywords are placed at the beginning. If that is not possible, it should be used within the title while ensuring that it does not exceed more than sixty characters. Meta description tags may not have a lot of weight when it comes to the results of the ranking algorithm; however, they ought to be compelling to ensure that users click on the link that will take them to your webpage.


As a developer, you can use the techniques available to ensure that the search engine crawlers do not overwhelm the application’s server. This can be done by reducing the number of requests that are sent to the server. Robots.txt file can be used to tell the search engines which pages they should not crawl. Robots.txt file can also be used in preventing the web pages from being indexed in search engines.

2. Enhancing The Page Loading Speed

The speed at which the user gets to the page that has the content needed will determine the engagement with a website. A page that takes too long to load will not be attractive to the user. This stresses the need to work on the page load speed; a link that opens quickly will be attractive to the customer and will help in deciding within a reasonably short time.

In a survey carried out by Google, it was found that the chances of bouncing increase by thirty-two percent when the load time is between 1 to 3 seconds and increases by ninety percent when the speed goes from 1 to 5 seconds. It is out of this understanding that Google made loading speed part of the ranking algorithm.

A page that loads fast will rank highly in the search engine results. For developers, the trick is to make the page load fast but also ensure that the users take time to interact with the website. To achieve this, a developer can reduce the time that some of the content takes to load to hold the user’s attention.

3. URL Best Practices

Developers should aim at creating well-structured URLs as they are important to SEO. They give a clear explanation to the robot crawler on how the site is ordered. As a developer, you need to make sure that the URL can be easily read by the users so that right away they understand what the site is all about. It should incorporate keywords but in a moderate way as overdoing it may end up hurting the site in the search engines rankings.

4. Social Media Integration

Social media has a huge impact on site ranking; therefore integrating it with your website should be one of the priorities. This should involve adding the social media icons at a conspicuous location on your website. Most developers prefer putting the social media icons at the top right side of the website header. Share buttons should be enabled so that visitors can easily share the content with others. Remember the rule; the more your content is shared the more beneficial it is to the website.

5. Mobile-Friendliness

With mobile devices being used by a significant number of users to access content online, developers need to make their platforms mobile-friendly. They can use a responsive design, dynamic design, or mobile subdomain to make a platform mobile-friendly. A mobile-friendly platform provides users with a better experience.

6. Linking The Website

It may seem ironic since links take users away from your page but linking with other sites that have relevant content is a smart way of optimizing your website. Linking out works for your site, as it will provide trackable traffic making your page more valuable and scalable. It is also a way of attracting links; the websites that you have linked may also reciprocate giving you an edge.

7. Encourage Other Relevant And Trustworthy Sites To Link

Inbound links are important for search engine ranking. They need to be combined with do-follow and no-follow links to give a natural link profile that will be rewarded by the search engines.

8. Personalization Of The Home Page

When you have done everything possible to get users to your page, focusing on their retention is the next step. One way to achieve this is through the personalization of the home page. This is a technique that records the customers' views on the last visit. Useful suggestions can be made based on past interactions. Personalized online stores are known to help shoppers get more interesting products. As a developer, you need to design the page in such a way that it allows personalization.

9. Put In Place Web Analytics

You need to monitor the progress of your strategies, to help in this; software that can track what’s working and what is not is needed. Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics among other solutions can help in this end. There are even tools that can show what the users are clicking as well as their navigation around and out of the site. These details will help you in building upon the success of your SEO strategies and also improving on what may not be working.

10. Keep Yourself Updated On The New SEO Trends

As a developer, you need to keep up with the trends; search engines constantly update their algorithms. These updates affect your platform. To ensure that your platform continues to perform well in the search engine rankings, know what has changed and how it impacts your website’s performance. With such information, you will always be up to the game in matters of site optimization.

SEO is an important aspect of web development; it influences how your platform will perform in the search engines and subsequent building of traffic. As a developer incorporate these tips into your web design role and you will see a great difference in the platforms that you built.

About the Author:

Alex Lysak is a CEO at seobrotherslv.com. He has 10+ years of experience in online marketing. He is building a strong iGaming affiliate team and aiming to become number one in this niche worldwide.