Search engines drive the most significant traffic to your website as compared to other traffic drawn by other channels. It is essential to make your website just right for Google and other search engines to crawl and get ranked. The SEO and page optimization of the website done at the time of development improves the chances of getting it accessed by Google, thereby getting higher rankings in SERP. Here is the SEO checklist for developers and SEO Analysts that can help them create an SEO friendly website:
Domain Selection-
Domain selection for your business website should be your business name itself. If the exact business name is not available, you can choose the hyphen in between two words or add something that does not distort the business name. If your business name is my business, then the domain URL should be mybusiness.com or my-business.com. URLs need to be clear, easy to read, descriptive, and free of URL parameters. Including a keyword in domain name increases your chances of getting crawled by search engines.
Ensure Keywords in Meta Descriptions-
Meta descriptions are the short descriptions written in the source code of the website that appears when the end-user tries to search something using search engines. Meta descriptions include:
Title Tags: Tells the search engine what the site is about. Add the proper keyword or keyword phrase in the title tag. It should not exceed 55 characters.
Meta Description: It helps users to click the search result and redirect them to your website. Add a meaningful description along with the keyword that compels the user to visit your site.
Alt Tags: Description of images are Alt tags. One can add small descriptions(keyword) to it.
W3C Validation:
Making your website source code W3C compliant helps browser compatibility and site usability. It does not impact rankings directly, but Google’s search algorithm is ever-changing, and who knows the validating code to W3C can improve the classification. Ask your developer to validate the code while developing the website.
Site map
Site Map helps search engines to crawl the website’s pages using the information present. It is essential to have a properly structured site map linking all the pages to it.
Internal Linking of Pages:
Linking refers to link one page of the website to another page of the same site. To maximize the chances of getting indexed by Google, link the website’s new content/pages to already recognized pages. It also helps create a proper and efficient structure of the site and allows users to navigate through the website. The developer must add a keyword in anchor text to link the page.
Canonicalization and Pagination:
Canonicalization prevents Google to crawl duplicate content saving its time and budget to crawl multiple versions of the same page. Canonical tags ensure every page has a unique URL. Developers must know the basics of adding Canonical tags. Pagination splits the page content into numbered pages, making it easier for users and Google to navigate the content easily.
Final Thought
A proper SEO checklist to the developer is the ultimate guide for getting your website indexed and showing on top results of search engines. Ensure that the development team is aware of the checklist and understand the importance of SEO done during the development phase.
