SEO Introduction
Introduction
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of web development that focuses on improving a website's visibility and ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs). By implementing SEO-related practices, developers can ensure that their content is discoverable to users searching for information online. Because organic search is the top method by which people discover and access online content, following this practices is essential for ensuring that the digital content you publish can be found and chosen by the public, increasing your websiteâs organic traffic.
Basics
Core Web Vitals and HTML structure
Having a good performance is crucial for good SEO metrics, and Google's Core Web Vitals serve as key indicators of a website's user-friendliness. These metrics measure various aspects of load time, visual stability, and interactivity.
To understand Core Web Vitals, we have to look into diverse metrics. On one hand, there is the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which tracks how quickly your main content loads, aiming to ensure users don't wait too long to see what matters most. On the other hand, the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability, preventing layout jumps that can occur when elements shift unexpectedly during loading.
User interaction metrics are equally important. First Input Delay (FID) measures initial responsiveness, i.e., the time from when a user first interacts with the page (like clicking a button or link) to when the browser starts processing that interaction. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) tracks the responsiveness of all user interactions (clicks, taps, etc.) over the pageâs lifecycle, focusing on how quickly the page responds to each input, and the Speed Index (SI) provides insight into how quickly content becomes visible to users, unlike LCP, SI considers the progressive rendering of the page, providing a more comprehensive view of loading speed.
Two other critical metrics are Total Blocking Time (TBT), which measures periods when the page is unresponsive to user input, and Time to First Byte (TTFB), which indicates server response speed after a page is requested.
Additionally, it is very important to be mindful of how we structure our HTML code. HTML tags are not just containers for styling content; they are designed with specific purposes to define the structure and meaning of the webpage's content. When we adhere to these purposes, we create a webpage that is accessible, understandable, and optimized for search engines. For instance, take heading tags; proper heading hierarchy is essential for both SEO and accessibility. The <h1> tag should be reserved for your main page heading, with subsequent headings (h2 through h6) organizing content in a logical, hierarchical manner. Avoid using heading tags purely for styling, as this can confuse search engines and screen readers.
Another tag whose proper use could improve how search engines track our webpage is the anchor <a> tag. Links can include various attributes that enhance the user experience and provide them more information to boost the SEO results. For example, the rel attribute in links defines relationships between pages, helping search engines understand your site structure, and improves crawling and indexing. Additionally, using aria-labels ensures links have descriptive text, benefiting both SEO and accessibility. Misuse of links, like excessive "nofollow" attributes or poor labeling, can confuse search engines and impact rankings negatively.
Application JSON+LD
JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linking Data) is a structured data format that makes it easier for machines, like search engine crawlers, to understand and interpret information on a webpage. While standard JSON serves as a machine-readable syntax to encode data, JSON-LD adds a layer of semantic meaning. By interlinking data and adding specific context, JSON-LD helps search engines and other machine systems interpret not only what data can be found on the webpage but also how itâs connected and what it represents in a broader context.
JSON-LD achieves this by providing extra syntax to JSON, enabling the serialization of Linked Data, which is data that describes relationships between entities (like people, places, or products).
Using this tool helps ensure that search engines discover important details about the content, even if those details arenât explicitly visible on the page. This increases the chances that your page will rank for specific and relevant queries, and improves indexing by making relationships between pages clearer and more accessible to search engines.
Meta values
Metadata is essentially data that describes other data, offering a summary that helps people and systems quickly understand the nature of specific content without having to look at the content itself. Rather than telling us the actual details within the content, metadata describes its attributes.
Meta tags, especially Open Graph tags, play a crucial role in SEO and social media marketing. They help ensure that your content is displayed in an optimized format when shared across platforms, making it more likely to attract clicks and engagement. In addition to enhancing user experience, properly implemented meta tags also help search engines better understand and categorize your content, ultimately improving its discoverability.
Properly set meta tags make shared links visually appealing, which is particularly important in social media feeds. For instance, OG tags that allow you to specify an image, title, and description for the shared links, making them more attractive and also provides enough information to encourage users to click them. For example, the OG:title tag gives a concise page title, while the OG:description offers a compelling summary. The OG:image tag ensures that a relevant image accompanies the link, drawing more attention than a simple text URL. When sharing content on social media, the size and aspect ratio of the images you use can significantly impact how your content appears to users. Each social media platform has its own recommended image sizes to ensure that your content looks its best. Also, using a canonical URL is crucial for ensuring consistency and avoiding duplicate content issues. The canonical URL specifies the preferred version of a webpage, which helps search engines consolidate link equity and ensures that shared links point to the correct page.
Robots
Robots meta tags instruct search engines on how to crawl and index a websiteâs pages. When implemented correctly, they ensure search engines can crawl and index the most important parts of a website, while avoiding duplicate content or incorrect page indexing.
For example, using a ânofollowâ directive can prevent search engines from following links within a certain view, while a ânoindexâ directive in the robots meta tag can exclude certain views or sections of the webpage from being indexed.
The robots.txt file is critical for guiding search engine crawlers on which parts of your website should or shouldn't be indexed. For SPAs, this file becomes especially important to ensure JavaScript, CSS, and other essential resources are accessible to search engines.
Accessibility
Both accessibility and SEO focus on optimizing websites for better user experiences. By incorporating accessibility practices, websites become more user-friendly, which leads to improved SEO metrics such as time on site, lower bounce rates, and increased organic traffic.
Creating an accessible website improves the experience for users with disabilities and aligns with search engines' emphasis on usability. For example, adding descriptive alt text to images enhances accessibility for screen readers while also helping search engines understand image content. This synergy between accessibility and SEO can improve rankings and ensure your site reaches a broader audience.
Tools
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a tool for managing your siteâs visibility on search engines. It allows you to submit sitemaps, monitor indexing, and check for errors that may prevent the proper crawling of your site. This is particularly critical for SPAs, where dynamic content can present indexing challenges.
By using the URL Inspection Tool, you can verify how Google renders your pages and identify any issues with JavaScript content. The Coverage Report highlights pages excluded from indexing, such as those blocked by robots.txt or suffering from errors. Submitting a sitemap ensures Google discovers all your URLs, even for dynamically rendered content.
Search Console also provides insights into search performance, such as click-through rates, impressions, and average ranking position, enabling you to adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers detailed insights into user behavior and website performance, making it an indispensable tool for SEO. You can track how users interact with your content, which helps identify the most engaging pages and those needing improvement.
For SPAs, itâs crucial to ensure proper tracking of dynamic page views. This can be achieved by configuring event tracking or using custom dimensions to capture interactions. The Behavior Flow report in Google Analytics reveals user navigation patterns, allowing you to optimize internal linking and content presentation.
The tool also helps in understanding key metrics such as bounce rate, session duration, and conversion rates. By analyzing this data, you can identify areas where SEO improvements, such as faster page loads or better-targeted keywords, can enhance user experience and engagement.
Site checkers
Site checkers, such as those integrated with platforms like AHREFs or standalone tools, offer a snapshot of your siteâs SEO health. These tools scan for errors such as missing meta tags, duplicate content, or slow page speeds.
AHREF
AHREF is a robust tool for in-depth SEO analysis, focusing on backlinks, keyword research, and competitive analysis. Its backlink checker helps identify quality links pointing to your site, which are vital for improving domain authority and rankings. For SPAs, where internal linking structures might be less clear, AHREFs can uncover gaps in your link-building strategy.
SEMrush
SEMrush is an all-in-one platform for SEO and SEM that helps optimize your website's visibility and performance. It offers robust keyword research to target high-value terms, a site audit feature to identify technical SEO issues like crawlability and JavaScript rendering problems, and competitor analysis to uncover gaps in your strategy.
Its backlink management tools enhance your domain authority by tracking quality links and spotting toxic ones. SEMrush also provides content optimization insights, suggesting improvements to meta tags, readability, and keywordsâessential for SPAs with dynamic content. Additionally, its position tracking and advertising tools allow you to monitor rankings and optimize PPC campaigns, making it a versatile resource for boosting both organic and paid search strategies.
Applications models and SEO
When developing modern web applications, the choice of an application modelâSingle-Page Applications (SPAs), Multi-Page Applications (MPAs), or Progressively Enhanced Single-Page Applications (PESPAs)âsignificantly impacts SEO and user experience.
SPAs depending on JS
SPAs operate entirely within a single browser session, dynamically rendering content without reloading the page. They rely heavily on JavaScript for navigation and view rendering, changing URLs via the History API to mimic traditional navigation.
This model presents several challenges for SEO. Since the entire application shares a single HTML file, search engines often struggle to crawl and index the dynamically generated content. Adding unique meta tags such as <title> and <meta> descriptions for different sections becomes complex. Additionally, when users encounter an invalid URL, the application may return a generic 200 OK status instead of the appropriate error code, which can confuse search engines and users.
When indexing SPA pages with Google Search Console, itâs essential to ensure that each page or view within the application has a unique and crawlable URL. This can be achieved by using the History API to create distinct URLs for different sections of the site. Navigation links should be built using <a> tags with valid href attributes to make them accessible to crawlers.
Itâs crucial to verify that Google can render the JavaScript content properly. The URL Inspection Tool in Search Console allows you to check if the rendered page matches the content visible to users. Additionally, submitting a sitemap with all SPA URLs helps Google discover and prioritize indexing.
Your robots.txt file must not block JavaScript, CSS, or other critical resources, as Googlebot needs access to these files to render the page accurately.
MPAs
Multi-Page Applications take a more traditional approach, where each page requires a full reload, and every section has a distinct URL. This design inherently supports SEO because search engines can easily identify and index each page independently. Titles, descriptions, and meta tags are straightforward to manage for each page. Moreover, MPAs handle errors effectively, directly providing appropriate HTTP status codes, such as 404 for missing pages.
Despite being SEO-friendly, MPAs may not provide the smooth transitions and fast user interactions seen in SPAs. Full-page reloads can slow down the experience, especially for applications requiring frequent navigation between sections.
PESPAs
Progressively Enhanced SPAs, like those built with frameworks such as Next.js, combine the strengths of SPAs and MPAs. They offer a balance between dynamic interactivity and server-side optimization by using techniques like server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG). PESPAs can pre-render content, making it immediately accessible to search engines while delivering SPA-like interactivity once the page loads.
References
Kseniia Kyslova - "Google Analytics 4 for SEO: How to Find Key Data Insights"
Sarah Berry - The Complete Guide to Google Search Console for 2025
Ana Sofia Gala - Accessibility and SEO: how does accessibility affect SEO?
Anna Postol - The robots meta tag and X-Robots-Tag made clear