Do you know how to integrate SEO into Front-end and Back-end development of your site? SEO is a concept that must be present in all phases of a digital marketing strategy. Still, there are still companies that do not understand its importance and relegate it to the background.
This decision always ends up causing technical and positioning errors that do not always have a solution. For this reason, it is essential to integrate SEO in Front-end and Back-end development from the moment the project website is born.
The good SEO should start from the moment you decide to create your own website . A good house starts with the foundation, and in order for yours to be solid and effective, you have to follow a series of rules. And remember, laying the last brick is not the end, then another equally important part begins: maintenance.
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Basic rules to integrate SEO in Front-end and Back-end development
There are multiple aspects to which you should pay attention if you want your positioning to be optimal. Never forget that your success depends on all being correctly implemented.
Correctly b design the structure of your pages
It is essential to identify the content with labels that help Google to know the value of the text for the user. This is known as a content hierarchy. All the pages of your website must meet these requirements:
- A single H1 tag . It is the one used to identify the page title. It is the most important tag, since it represents the highest level of hierarchy on each page. It must be used only once per page.
- Various labels H2 and H3 . The first is used for subtitles and is taken into account by search engines if used properly. Multiple H2 tags can be put on one page. H3, and the successive labels, are at a lower level within the hierarchy. As with H2, they can be included more than once on the page.
- Paragraph tag <p>. Despite being an essential brand, many programmers ignore it when they use languages like php. Texts that do not carry <p> are interpreted from the DOM by browsers such as Firefox or Chrome. The user does not notice any alteration, but in terms of positioning it can be harmful.
Take care of the page loading speed
Google has always taken into consideration the loading speed of web pages. But since it introduced the “ Google Speed update ” algorithm in 2018, it has become a determining factor for SEO.
According to the search engine, the average total load time of a page should not exceed 22 seconds . To avoid breaking this rule and favor a quick load, you have to optimize all resources. The higher the loading speed , the more possibilities of obtaining high traffic for your site. And all this has a positive impact on your positioning.
To achieve this goal, try to follow the steps below:
- Make correct use of the code. Avoid duplicating and never use very long and unnecessary lines.
- Modify the code so that it weighs as little as possible.
- Try to simplify it as much as possible. And validation always has to be through good practices.
- Use the fewest number of files to minimize download requirements to the server.
- Try to make queries to the database justified.
Don’t forget any tag
When you are immersed in the development of the Back-end you have to keep in mind the following distinctive features:
- Title . Indispensable tag to position the page in search engines.
- Meta description . It is not key to SEO, but its content can push the user to enter your website. It is a brief description of the content found on the page.
- Doctype . Thanks to this brand, the browser will know what type of content the page offers.
- Prev / Next . Tag used to organize the pagination of a website.
- Alternative text . Essential for Google robots to take images into account when crawling.
- Canonical . It is used to redirect URLs when necessary. For example, when duplicate content errors happen.
- Nofollow . It is used when you want to prevent Google from crawling certain pages .
- Hreflang . If your website is going to be in several languages, you have to include this brand.
Includes friendly URLs
All content on a website must be identified by a url. Each must have a hierarchy that defines the content type for the crawlers. Google prioritizes user-friendly urls that link keywords to content and that are semantically understandable.
A properly made link makes things much easier for the user. When it is shown in the search results list, it will be possible to see what type of content the page contains.
The structure of a website has to be basic, clear and easy to trace. For this, when you are thinking about how to integrate SEO in Front-end and Back-end development, you have to keep in mind the following 3 basic principles :
- Create a hierarchy-based structure in which the order of relevance of the contents is clear.
- Whenever possible, don’t use variables &, id, and #.
- Never include words in the URL that have nothing to do with the content of the page.
Use and configure Google Analytics correctly
Many times, when it comes to integrating SEO into Front-end and Back-end development, you overlook the importance of the Google tool. The truth is that much of Back-end development is based on implementing Google Analytics on your website. You have to consider these tips if you want to obtain reliable information for your strategies.
- Regularly monitor the searches that visitors make on your website . The terms they use can be very helpful in optimizing your SEO strategy. In turn, this information is decisive for improving the user experience. The sooner you start collecting this data, the faster you can start climbing up the positions on the results page.
- Filter the IPs that are not interesting . To do a real analysis of the situation you have to have real data. You have to have well identified the sources of your traffic . That is, you have to exclude visits and other actions that are carried out from your IP address. It is also advisable to leave out the visits that come from your competition.
- Monitor all the domains and subdomains of your company . If you use more than one domain, or divide content between subdomains, track user movements between all of them.
- Track events on your page. In this way, you can save time on future work and on decisions related to page design.
Introduce all the elements of SEO and web analytics
To integrate SEO in Front-end and Back-end development, all the main elements of this technique must be introduced. To do this, the first step is to have Google Analytics correctly configured . In the following you will have to add the following components:
- Robots. txt. It provides information to search engines to crawl and index the website correctly.
- Sitemap.xml. It is used to give information about pages, images, videos and other files of a website and their link.
- Google Search Console . An essential tool within the wide range of options offered by Google. Provide infinite data on the current situation of the positioning of your website. It also helps to solve problems related to this topic as they appear.
- Google Tag Manager . All the labels that you have implemented require periodic control. For this there is this platform that will help you to make management not a tedious task .
Don’t forget that the mobile version is also important
In 2018 Google launched Mobile First, the indexation focused on mobile devices . Now, it has just announced that its algorithm will give more importance to search results through mobile devices for all websites . The mobile version will determine the positioning of a page. Therefore, it is essential to have it when you consider integrating SEO in Front-end and Back-end development.
If you still do not have a mobile version of your website, you can choose several options to do so. The Responsive design is the most common option, although an alternative to value is the duplicate URLs . If you decide on the latter, make sure that your new site meets these requirements:
- The content of the mobile version and the main version must be identical.
- Titles and meta descriptions must also be the same.
- The Robot.txt tag has to be properly configured. Both versions of the website will have to follow the same instructions.
- If the website is in several languages, all versions must be correctly connected through the hreflang links.
- The configuration of the labels must be meticulous, especially the elements rel = ”alternate” and rel = ”canonical”.
Without a doubt, integrating SEO into Front-end and Back-end development will help improve the positioning of your website. But if you want to make a big jump, you need the help of an expert hand.
