Making websites SEO compatible while the on-going development is not longer an optional thing. It has become a must and necessity to ensure that the websites are SEO compatible right from the day 1 when it goes live over the internet in order to start getting the fruits of the internet traffic and search. Clients now a days have a good idea about the importance of the SEO in making the reach of the website to their intended audience. There are still some of the development companies who undermine the importance of including basic SEO practices which can easily be inculcated during the development phase of the website.

Let’s explore some of the potential issues the website might face if it’s made live without basic SEO elemented included during the development phase.

  • Using non-optimized images like .png or .jpeg instead of .webp or .svg can lead to slower loading times.

  • If the image sizes exceed the container size, they waste bandwidth and load slower.

  • Without a properly configured robots.txt file, search engine bots might crawl unnecessary pages or fail to crawl critical pages.

  • Without proper title tags and meta descriptions, search engines may not effectively understand the content, leading to lower rankings.

  • If more than one H1 tag exists on a page, it confuses search engines about the primary topic of the page.

  • You cannot track user behavior, traffic sources, or conversion metrics.

Being a top website development company in India with a good experience in digital marketing, we feel that it’s our responsibility to ensure that the users and clients know about the importance of including basic SEO elements during the development phase itself. Let’s look into each of these elements in detail.

1. Image Optimization

Image optimization means making sure that the images that are used on the website are proper to the basic norms of the SEO. An image can be optimized in various ways. It is important to ensure that all the checkboxes of image optimization is ticked during the development phase only as post development it becomes a tedious process to optimize the images as it includes a detailed analysis of the non-optimized images on the website. From our experience, we have prepared a list of checklist to be taken are for optimizing the images during the development phase itself.

  • Ensure that all the images used in the website is either of .webp or .svg extension as these extensions are SEO savvy and introduced specifically for the images on the web to ensure faster loading.

  • Add ALT and TITLE attributes to all the images to ensure that WCAG 2.1 guidelines are followed for accessibility.

  • Images are presented in the section called as containers in layman’s term. The size of the image should always be equal to it’s container size so that it can be loaded without consuming much of the time. Imagine loading a 1024 x 1024 image in a container that is 586 x 568. It will take time to eventually load the entire page.

2. Canonical Tag/Attribute

The canonical attribute plays a crucial role in SEO during the development phase as it helps search engines understand the preferred version of a webpage when multiple versions with similar or duplicate content exist. Implementing the canonical attribute is essential for avoiding duplicate content issues and consolidating ranking signals.

  • The canonical tag specifies the "canonical" or preferred version of a page, helping search engines avoid indexing duplicate versions.

  • The canonical attribute directs all link equity to the preferred version.

  • By using the canonical tag, you tell search engines to focus on the canonical version, conserving crawl budget.

  • A canonical tag ensures that only the preferred version appears in search results.

3. Meta Title and Meta Description

The meta title and meta description are critical elements of on-page SEO and play a significant role in optimizing a website's search engine visibility and user engagement. Including these elements during the development phase ensures a strong foundation for SEO. They give an idea about the web page content in precise to the search engine crawlers.

  • Critical on-page SEO element that search engines use to determine a page's relevance to a query.

  • The meta title is the first element users see in search results, influencing their decision to click.

  • Including primary keywords in the meta title aligns the page with user queries.

  • A well-crafted meta description enhances the search snippet, making it more appealing.

Ideally, keep the meta-title should be kept under 60 characters and meta-description to be kept under 160 characters.

4. Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a critical element in managing how search engines interact with a website. It provides specific instructions to search engine crawlers on which pages or sections of a website they should or should not access. Including a well-configured robots.txt file during the development phase helps in setting up a right foundation for SEO.

  • Some pages (e.g., admin panels, internal search results, staging environments, or user data) are not meant for public access or search engine indexing.

  • If your website has a staging or development environment, allowing search engines to index these pages can lead to duplicate content issues.

  • Search engine crawlers consume server resources when accessing pages.

  • Robots.txt ensures that sensitive and irrelevant content is not exposed to search engines or users.

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5. H1 Tag and H-tag hierarchy

The H1 tag and H-tag hierarchy (H1 to H6) are fundamental for both SEO and user experience, serving as the structural backbone of a web page's content. Implementing H-Tags properly during the development phase ensures a well-organized page that is optimized for search engines and accessible for users. The search engine crawlers get an idea about the priority to be given to the content in search results and what to consider as a main heading of the page and establish a priority.

  • Helps search engines determine the relevance of your page to specific search queries, improving rankings.

  • Increases user engagement by making the content scannable and relevant.

  • Improves website accessibility, ensuring inclusivity and compliance with accessibility standards.

  • Strengthens the page’s SEO relevance and alignment with user intent.

6. Link Previews

Link previews, which are generated by social media platforms and search engines when a URL is shared, play a crucial role in the visibility and engagement of your website. During the development phase, ensuring that each page has optimized link previews can significantly enhance SEO, click-through rates (CTR).

  • Increased CTR can lead to more traffic and better engagement, signaling to search engines that the content is valuable and relevant.

  • Users are more likely to trust and engage with links that provide clear and informative previews.

  • More engagement can indirectly improve your page’s search engine rankings, as user behavior (such as CTR) is taken into consideration for SEO.

  • This contributes to brand recognition and can improve click-through rates, as users are more inclined to click on familiar and trusted sources.

7. Schema markup

Schema markup is a form of structured data that helps search engines understand the content of a webpage and enhance how that content is displayed in search engine results pages (SERPs). These schema markup enables the search engines to form the rich results or snippets in the search engine result pages during a keyword search. There is a high chance of getting your content projected separately in snippet if proper schema is added. Adding a correct schema markup is must and may require expert website developers to add it.

  • Improved search engine rankings because search engines can more effectively match the content with user queries.

  • Rich results attract more attention and can lead to a higher click-through rate (CTR) as they provide users with more comprehensive information before they even click on the link.

  • Improve user satisfaction as visitors are more likely to find what they're looking for immediately.

  • Implementing schema markup can help your content become more likely to appear in voice search results.

Conclusion

While the above mentioned elements are just the beginning of the SEO element inclusion during development, there are a lot many other categories of elements which can be included in the website which assists in better ranking of the web pages. The collective aim of all these elements is to ensure that the SERP and SEO performance of the website is on the high since the day the website is made live rather than implementing the elements backtracking the performances. It is essential to discuss these points with the website development company you hire or if necessary, hire a website development company who already have an experience in handling these aspects.