Dukespot.co






Tech SEO (Basic Concepts)

Image illustrating SEO title heading


Domain Format

What is the domain format?



This is simply the structure and configuration of a website's domain name, including the Protocol , Sub-domain , Domain-name , and Top-level domain.

Click the Underlined text to show some explanation.

**Best Practices**

  • Use a secure and trusted connection to link your website domains (https)

  • Choose a domain name that best describes the purpose of your site and could target keywords probably.

  • Use Sub-folders for organizing and structuring content, they are usually preferred over sub domains

  • Always implement canonicalization to avoid duplicate content issues




    • Note: Canonical tags are written in the head section of the html page

URL Structure

illustration for URL structure

URL Structure



This is closely linked to the domain format and simply refers to the organization and structure of a websites User Resource Locator (URL)

**Best Practices**

  • Have a consistent URL structure through out your page (each URL should have a consistent pattern)

  • Make sure you avoid unnecessary characters and parameters, keep things simple.

  • Always specify the preferred version of a URL (this can be done through Canonicalization)



    Note: Canonical tags are written in the head section of the html page

  • Use https to ensure secure and trusted connection.

Broken Links

illustration for broken links

Broken Links



Also known as Dead links have a negative impact on the SEO of your page.
This is a case whereby the links are referring to a:

  • Non-existent page or resource (404 errors).

  • A temporarily unavailable page (500 errors).

  • A page that has temporary or permanent redirects (301/302 errors).

  • Links with duplicate or canonicalization issues.

This could totally affect your site as it leads to crawl errors and have negative impact on page authority, it could also lead to bad user experience, decrease your pages trust on search engines and so much more!.

**How To Fix**



  • Monitor Your page regularly, you could use tools like Screaming frog , Ahrefs or SEM rust to check for broken links.

  • You should either fix the broken links or completely remove them.

  • Improve your website maintenance to avoid broken links from occuring in the first place.

Web Structure

Website structure illustration

Website Structure



This involves the organization and architecture of web pages, content and resources.

**Best Practices**



  • Reduce the number of clicks to reach important content.

  • Always use a navigation menu to make it easy for users and search engines, to find and access content.

  • Optimize the page speed and performance to improve user experience and search engine ranking.

  • Ensure responsiveness on all devices to improve user experience.

  • Use internal linking to link relevant and related content to improve user experience.

Pagination

Pagination



This is closely related to your web structure, as it focuses on the structure of the pages that make up your site.

The purpose of pagination is to help Search Engines understand the structure of your paginated content, in order to give engines an idea on which page to crawl next and which page came before.

Use rel ="next" and rel ="prev" attributes in your html header to practice pagination.

XML Sitemap

sitemap illustration

XML Sitemap



An XML Sitemap is a file written in Extensible Markup Language (XML) that lists a website URLs along with metadata such as : "last modified", "Change frequency" etc.. it can be simply generated using online sitemap generators.

**Best Practices**



  • Regularly Update the XML Sitemap to reflect website structural and content changes.

  • It is good practice to use a single sitemap for the entire site instead of generating different ones for different pages.

  • Use a consistent format following the official sitemap protocol.

  • Finally Always submit to search engines!

    • Sitemaps can be auto generated from online sitemap generators like "XML-Sitemap.com"

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals



This is a set if metric introduced by Google to measure the user experience of a website.

The 3 Core web Vitals are:

  1. LCD (Largest Content Paint): This measures the time it takes for an element to load. (recommended target is 2.55s or less).

  2. FID (First Input Delay): This measures the time it takes for the browser to respond to a users first interaction; such as clicking a button or typing in a text area (recommended target is 100ms or less)

  3. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): This measures the amount of layout shift that occurs when the page loads, it monitors the movement of elements on the page which can actually have a negative impact on the user experience if not handled properly by the developer.


**Best Practices**



  • Always ensure that your site is responsive on all devices

  • Use libraries and tools like Quicklinks in your code to ensure faster page loading.

  • Avoid using Javascript to load navigation links

  • Ensure to test your site on different browsers before going live.

  • Monitor your core web vitals on Google Search Console, to be informed on your sites performance

Multi-lingual SEO

Multi-lingual SEO



This involves optimizing websites to rank on search engines for multiple languages and regions. This is a crucial step to take in the growth of your business, especially if you want to reach out to wider audience and expand your online presence globally.

**Best Practices**



  • It's best to use language specific domains such as .es(Spain) or .fr (France) to help search engines understand the language region

  • Use localized content to cater to local preferences and cultural nuances.

  • Monitor and analyze your efforts using tools like google analytics to track performance and identify areas for improvement.

Extras

Extras (For developers)



Here are some other practices you may want to consider:

  • You could use SEO tools like surfer to know which keywords rank and also analyze competitors.

  • Employ various libraries and frameworks like quicklinks in your page to ensure fast page loading and improve the overall User experience.

  • If there are any changes to your websites, ensure to regenerate another sitemap to reflect those changes.

  • Write quality and researched content so your page can be served on search engines.

  • Regularly monitor your page's performance and always be on the lookout for issues and fixes so you can be ahead of your competitors.

Summary

If you reached this point, your a Champion!

(less than 30% of readers can actually finish reading an article.)

Search Engine Optimization is a skill that is a must have for every developer, and writer out there, because what's the point of writing or developing pages that would not be served on search engines due to negligence of simple practices?.
Developers are mostly all about great design and interface, that sometimes we tend to forget that good structural management is what gives your website completeness!.
you've reached the end! follow all the practices mentioned here carefully and bookmark this site for more updates.
congrats you can now add SEO expert to your resumé!!