A high-quality web resource should have a clear, user-friendly interface and a well-thought-out technical component. All this is ensured by the work of a professional team consisting of IT specialists, testers, UX designers.
But many people forget about another important stage of website development – search engine optimization. Proper implementation of SEO at the stage of creating any resource significantly speeds up and simplifies the subsequent promotion of an Internet project. In cases where search results are considered as one of the main traffic channels for a developed resource, the involvement of an SEO specialist in working on it is mandatory.
Basic optimization – what is it for?
A site that is optimized at the time of launch to meet the requirements put forward by search engines initially receives a number of advantages. They are listed below:
- Internal optimization takes a minimum of time. After its launch, the site owner does not need to spend time on basic work, since they have already been completed.
- The period of stay of a web resource in the “sandbox” of search engines is reduced. Site positions and targeted search traffic are growing significantly faster.
- The payback of the project is significantly accelerated. The real profit starts to come earlier. This allows you to quickly recoup the costs of developing an Internet project and its promotion.
- Financial savings. The SEO budget is less expensive if the resource has already undergone basic optimization during development.
Search engines are constantly improving their algorithms, applying new indicators to analyze the quality of a web project, its text content. In this regard, modern optimizers are engaged not only in the compilation of semantics and technical improvements. They have to additionally use measures aimed at:
- increasing the usefulness and attractiveness of pages for users;
- improving the content and structure of the site.
Such actions have a positive impact on the project’s conversion rate and behavioral factors. Therefore, optimization increases the number of user transitions from search engines, motivates them to make calls, orders and other targeted actions, keeps visitors on the resource, thereby increasing the effectiveness of all marketing channels used.
Basic optimization – features
Let’s figure out what work a modern SEO specialist does, and what the optimization process includes when creating a website.
Analytics
It is impossible to create a high-quality project that will be of interest to users without a professional analysis of the niche and target audience. To accomplish this task, we study search traffic and competitive sites in a niche, taking into account:
- subtleties of technical optimization of sites;
- planned SEO reach as a customer channel;
- the level of optimization of competitor sites;
- SEO performance in a specific niche;
- features of the reference mass and content;
- errors of competing resources;
- indicators of user activity in different seasons.
On the basis of the analysis, a scheme of work is prepared, technical assignments are drawn up for other specialists and recommendations are given. It is important that well-executed analytics provides an opportunity to develop a forecast for the effectiveness and speed of a web project.
Semantic core
The optimizer should cover in the search as many queries as possible, according to which target visitors will come to the site. To achieve this, the specialist makes up the SYA – the semantic core. Moreover, it not only collects requests, but also groups them according to a specific topic (clusters), distributes them in a special way over the resource in order to simplify the process of finding the required content for users.
The ready-made semantic core allows you to create terms of reference for materials for landing main pages. Additionally, the site structure is formed, which is necessary for the most efficient and correct distribution of semantics.
Structure optimization
When forming the structure, the distribution of link weight and key queries over the Internet project, ease of navigation for visitors are taken into account. The user experience is the responsibility of the UX specialist. And the task of the optimizer is to create a guaranteed efficient structure.
Now, when creating sites, they try to exclude too much nesting of web pages. Modern standards require that the user be able to get to the main project, on which the main link weight is concentrated, in a maximum of 3 clicks.
The distribution of the reference mass on the remaining pages is provided through internal linking. Her scheme is formed very carefully. After all, it is internal linking that guarantees redirection to key web pages of the maximum static weight.
Technical optimization
Many SEO errors of a technical nature do not have a significant negative impact on the correct functioning of the site, users may not even notice them. Often, when testing, they are not even given much importance for this reason. But in the presence of such bugs, the position of the resource in the search can significantly deteriorate.
Search engines, for example, do not see pages with inaccuracies in robot.txt and simply do not index them. Such problems can be avoided by technical optimization, which involves performing periodic checks of the site, as a result of which recommendations and terms of reference are sent to programmers.
Content optimization
Working with the text content of an Internet project at the stage of its development is of great importance. Both the behavioral indicators of users and the position of the site depend on the quality of the content. The optimization specialist forms the terms of reference for the texts, requiring the author who writes them to take into account such important criteria:
- The purpose of the content. Good texts perform a specific task – they motivate users to register, provide contact information, increase sales, inform, and so on.
- The intentions of site visitors. Content is written so that users in an understandable form receive the information they need.
- Keyword queries. The texts must contain words for search engines.
- Technical requirements. They represent various criteria – water content, the density of occurrence of key queries, the uniqueness of the text, and others, according to which articles are checked in specialized online services.
Properly optimized content at the site creation stage significantly reduces the effort and time spent on subsequent text processing after the web project is launched. In addition, at this stage, the SEO specialist prescribes unique meta tags for each web page. They have a great influence on the position of the site.
Link weight building
For the purpose of effective promotion, a list of so-called donors is prepared – sites, links from which, with external optimization, have the maximum value. To do this, we are studying:
- the most trusted information projects in a specific niche;
- link profile of competing resources.
In the early stages, increasing link equity must be thoughtful and very careful. Search engines react nervously to situations when there are sharp jumps in the link profile. For this reason, an SEO specialist plans the processes of placing backlinks as carefully as possible. He tries to achieve an organic profile look for search engines.
Implementing Basic Optimization Recommendations
When creating a website, an SEO specialist interacts with developers at all major stages of work.
- Design. The optimizer takes part in the process of forming the structure of the project and its individual pages at the stage of creating a layout. Due to this, all the nuances of linking and optimizing texts are taken into account in advance.
- Design. SEO and UX specialists work together to review layouts. At this stage, you need to think about how you can place all the planned content on the future site, as well as achieve high page conversion.
- Layout. The created project must be fully adapted to various user devices, from laptops to smartphones, and not just for a personal computer.
- Programming. SEO-specialist carries out work aimed at avoiding repetition of content, the presence of incorrect redirects and broken links, ensuring correct indexing of texts.
- Testing. A comprehensive final audit is carried out, which confirms the required quality of work carried out at all previous stages.
- Launch. Choosing the right hosting and domain name for the site. This issue should be approached responsibly. The correct functioning of the web resource and the effectiveness of its search promotion depend on it.
The participation of SEO specialists in the process of creating a site can cause some delay in the planned work. A similar situation usually arises when earlier developers did not take into account the features of the basic optimization of Internet projects and do not know how to work in conjunction with an SEO specialist. For this reason, it is recommended to trust the work of experienced performers who know how to achieve effective SEO when creating a site and at the same time do not delay the process.
