What is SEO and why is it important at the web-site web development stage?
If by the time of development your project will be optimized for all search engine algorithms, you will receive a number of advantages:
- accelerated growth of positions, an optimized site will quickly enter the top search queries;
- saving money for further seo-promotion, there will be no need to fix existing mistakes;
- less time spent on payback, an optimized project allows you to generate income and cover development costs much faster.
What are the main components of an SEO at the stage of website development?
Preparatory or analytical phase.
Before the stages of work will start, it is necessary to obtain basic information from the customer: the main idea of the project, the theme, its development plan and the final vision of the development result. Based on this information, seo-specialist select an optimal solution that will meet the requirements of search engines and suit the client. Then we choose a CMS (most often OpenCart, Shopify or WordPress) or the framework on which the development is carried out. And finally, start a process of developing the site layout and discussing the deadlines. During this stage, the SEO specialist analyzes your market and competitors and evaluates:
- the effectiveness and features of seo-promotion in this niche of market;
- specific technical requirements that will facilitate promotion on the client’s niche;
- general analysis of competitiveness, determinate the level of competitors’ optimization;
- features of filling with content and purchasing external links.
The preparatory stage allows you to assess the efficiency and cost of seo promotion at the development stage. Also it allows you to predict the further development of the project. Recommendations for technical site optimization. An SEO specialist who is involved in the development of the site will pay attention to the optimization of technical aspects that can affect the promotion of the site and prepare technical specifications for developers: for designers and programmers. Technical aspects that included in SEO optimization at the stage of website development:
- Practicality and clarity for customers and search bots. A SEO specialist will help build a good internal linking on the site, so customers will find the desired product or service faster, and search bots will better crawl content.
- Site indexing. A correctly formed and included .xml sitemap, configured robots.txt will help to correctly and timely index the necessary pages, and not display technical or incomplete pages in the search.
- Searching and closing duplicates. It is necessary to display only high-quality and unique content that will be useful to users in the search results.
- SEO Friendly URL that are easy for users to read.
- Optimization of the mobile version and increasing the speed of loading pages. Recent search engine updates (in particular, Google’s Web Vitals) are focusing on the quality of sites. Sites and pages that have a convenient responsive design and load quickly on many devices are more likely to be included in the top 5 search requests.
Work with content, text content of the site. SEO at the stage of website development includes setting up a generator of meta tags and micro-markup. Clearly written and structured title and description, useful micro-markup as organization, product or FAQ-pages are displayed correctly in search results, and extended snippets attract more users. No less important for promotion is the text content of the site. High-quality content that meets the needs of users will increase behavioral factors and contribute to the position’s growth in the search results. At the stage of website development, the seo-specialist forms the semantic core of key requests and prepares the technical task for the copywriter. Filling landing pages with content also includes the correct hierarchy of h1-h6 headings, visually attractive and structured text, photo and video materials on the topic. For images will be prescribed Alt and title, they can also become an additional channel for attracting new customers who will come from image search, for example. Connecting analytics systems. To track customers’ reaction and improve the quality of the site, you need to connect and properly configure analytics systems. They will help to understand what your users are interested in, why and where they come from, how they refuse to buy a product, etc. SEO at the development stage allows you to create and prepare accounts in Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica so that they function from the first day of the project launch. Creating a good link profile. To increase the effectiveness of promotion, a seo specialist can prepare a plan for buying links (both forum and article ones). Link building needs to be done with caution, as a spike in your link profile can create suspicion of search engines and lead to sanctions. Therefore, a specialist must carefully select donors with a high search engine thrust rating and build up the link mass gradually and organically. If you consider these nuances, SEO at the stage of website development will create good conditions for a project launching. Optimization measures carried out on time will allow you to unleash the potential of the site already at the time of its public release. A high-quality product will quickly pay off and begin to bring stable income. The cost of preparation work will be much cheaper than optimizing the whole existing business. Therefore, if you are looking for a project developer, you should always give preference to companies that include SEO at the stage of website development.
