SEO Checklist for Web Developers 2022

Trends in SEO keep on changing every now and then. As a web developer, it is very important to keep up with the latest trends so you do not miss out on any opportunity to reach out to users. There are definitely financial benefits to this, but a the same time it ensures the overall success of your content and website as an SEO friendly automatically ranks better on search engine results.

No matter how great your content is, if it never reaches out to the users it is meant for, there is no use for your hard work. And SEO trends help you do just that. If you as a web developer take care of best SEO practices and design your website code accordingly then you can positively impact the number of visitors you get on your website. But otherwise, your content will not be visible to these users and your business will suffer losses in turn.

Knowing these tips and tricks will not only be helpful in the professional career of web developers but will also benefit you in making your own web developing projects. Doesn’t matter if you are developing a new website or working on an old one, these tips will help you make a website that will rank better on search engines that can adapt to any device. These tips are really simple and can be used by anyone. These will not only be helpful for a web developer but any individual or business which is looking to expand their reach through a website can also benefit from it by drawing more organic traffic to their websites.

SEO Checklist for Web Development in 2022

1. HTML Headings

The heading is the first thing that catches our attention on a webpage. For an HTML document, a heading is usually as a tag. Every HTML document allows six levels of headings, with varying sizes. So you can choose the size depending upon which part of your website you want to highlight the most. Thus, as a web developer always be careful of what headings you are using in your document, as these get indexed by search engines and this is the part of your content that affects SEO the most.

2. Labels or Alt tags

Alt tags are another tag used in HTML documents. This is essentially a label that accompanies any images, videos, or hyperlinks that are posted on your website. So it is important that while developing a website you do not ignore this aspect considering it to be irrelevant. You should make it a point to fill out these tags without fail. Just like headings index the structure of your website, these alt tags index the images for any search engine. As this is the text that appears in case an image or video fails to load, it is important that you fill out this tag carefully so that the user gets a complete idea of your website even if the image is not available.

3. Optimize the images on your website

Everyone loves to see images with written content. But adding a lot of images or images with a high resolution increases the data of your website which can affect its loading speed. Usually, users on the internet have a lot of options for the same search. So in case, your website takes too long to load they tend to leave the website and look for some other website instead. So one way of increasing the loading speed of your website is by optimizing the images that you add to it. A few simple ways to optimize your images are by an image with suitable file size, naming it properly, using the correct dimensions of the image without compromising on the details. You should also keep in mind about JPEG format rather than PNG format because that ranks better on search engine results.

4. Optimize the videos on your website

Just like images, the videos also need to be optimized as they too add a lot of data to your website. Videos are in fact even more data-heavy as compared to images. So you should avoid using videos with large file sizes as it will only add to the time required by your website to get load completely. So what you should do is use a video from a suitable video streaming platform, transcribe the video by adding subtitles to it and finally use a thumbnail that is interesting enough to capture your viewer’s attention.

5. Use a proper structure for the data on your website

As discussed earlier, using proper headings and tags on your HTML document will give it a proper structure. This is important for any website as, when your website has a well-defined structure search engines are able to read it better. Thus your website’s ranking will also improve on the search engine results. Having good content is not enough, providing it a good structure is essential to help the search engines understand your content in a better manner and display the same to your users when they have a related search query.

6. The speed of your page

Users tend to lose their span of attention within three seconds of trying to browse a website. So if your website takes any longer to load then the usual reaction of users will be to close your website and rather search for another one. This is a reason why websites lose out on a lot of visitors. So, optimize your images and videos according to your website to ensure that your users have a smooth experience while browsing your website and do not experience such lag.

7. Device compatibility

All websites are compatible with laptops but the same is not true for mobile phones. Users today are no longer limited to their laptops, they also use other devices like their mobile phones to browse through websites. Therefore, as a web developer, you should always keep in mind that your device should be mobile-friendly. You need to optimize your websites so that all features of your website are also compatible with your mobile phone. Also, ensure the layout is proper and usable. Only making all displays much smaller is not enough, you should never compromise on user experience. The browsing on mobile phones should be as smooth as that on laptops and computers.