The Importance of SEO in Web Development – Sonoma County WordPress Website Developers

Developing a website is the digital version of building a brick-n-mortar storefront from the ground up. Before you break ground, you need a clear blueprint. For your website, that blueprint is your Search Engine Optimization plan (SEO).

SEO saves you time and money by targeting your ideal audience and improving site rankings. Without SEO, it won’t matter how beautiful or user-friendly your website may be. You can contact to our Santa Rosa SEO experts in Sonoma County for more information.

Whether you’re building a website DIY-style or you plan to hire a professional WordPress website development company, there are some details to consider when incorporating SEO into the overall website development process.

1.Keyword Research

You want your website to rank on the first page of Google, and the way to do that is to rank for terms that your users are searching for. Market research and analytics will improve your keyword list so you can optimize content based on these keywords.

2.Wordpress Website Architecture and Internal Linking

Proper WordPress website information architecture makes it possible for crawlers to scan your website for credibility and relevance. Site architecture is also helpful for your human visitors, as they can browse your site and find what they need easily.

The ideal website architecture puts human needs first while also making the site crawlable. You can use canonical tags and redirects (if you have an existing website) to streamline your linking structure.

3.Website Content

Decide what type of content your site will have. Will you have blogs, ebooks and white papers or videos, infographics and large images? Your professional website developers can design your website according to the content that you produce. This is essential for both user-function and overall site performance.

4.Page Loading Time

Gone are the days we would patiently wait for a site to load to get the information we need. Users expect fast website loading time (according to recent research from Google, 1-3 seconds is ideal). A long page load time could lose you leads, but if you have a clean SEO plan and solid website structure your site will load faster.

5.Security

Before building your WordPress site, you will want to decide whether to use Hypertext transfer protocol or Hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTP or HTTPS). Until recently HTTPS was only a concern for ecommerce sites, but because HTTP sites are not encrypted, it is encouraged to choose HTTPS so all data that passes through this connection is secure.

6.Responsive Design

As more and more people use their smartphone or tablet to browse the web, it is essential that your website is responsive to all devices types. In other words, your website should be just as user-friendly on a smartphone than it is on a desktop computer.

7.Website Development and SEO Maintenance

Once the site is live, you will need to track performance, fix bugs and re-strategize keywords when it makes sense. Google Analytics is the most popular tracking software, but Screaming Frog and Big Web Master Tolls work great too. If maintaining your website sounds like a massive headache, it’s better to hire professional WordPress website developers to take care of updates and keep your site running smoothly.

Conclusion

When it comes to building a website, the “If you build it, they will come” mentality is only true if there’s a strong SEO plan amplifying the site. Investing in SEO for your WordPress website will ultimately set you up for a more profitable website in the long run. But, just like building a brick-n-mortar storefront, the website needs effective blueprints and regular maintenance to work well for your customers.

Need a website that performs as beautifully as it looks? Get in touch with our Sonoma County WordPress website developers for a free quote!