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SEO for Web Engineers

johnwdefeo.com

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21–30 of 57 posts

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#21

Post by josephjrobison »

XCSme wrote: post #18

Don't waste your time reading this article, it just mentions random points about how to have a functional web app, plus in a perfect world SEO should not exist, it's the Search Engine's job to find the content and show the user the content he is looking for, not the developers. I shouldn't have to add "hacks" in my code for the Google Crawler to understand my site the same way users already do.

Agreed, but it’s not a perfect world and those who take into account that headings, structured data, ordered lists, internal linking structure, etc have positive benefits and rewarded by Google will prosper...until the day that Google’s algo is sophisticated enough to not need those anymore.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#22

Post by CM30 »

XCSme wrote: post #18

Don't waste your time reading this article, it just mentions random points about how to have a functional web app, plus in a perfect world SEO should not exist, it's the Search Engine's job to find the content and show the user the content he is looking for, not the developers. I shouldn't have to add "hacks" in my code for the Google Crawler to understand my site the same way users already do.

Eh, not sure I'd say SEO shouldn't exist. At least, the techniques used for it are all things that should be the expected default on every site, like having a logical HTML structure with heading tags, having a useful unique title for every page, having a description shown in listings, logically linking to relevant content, rendering the page on the server rather than the client, etc.

Maybe black hat/spammy SEO shouldn't exist, but at a certain level, good SEO is basically just about designing a good product and marketing it well.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#23

Post by solwyvern »

XCSme wrote: post #18

Don't waste your time reading this article, it just mentions random points about how to have a functional web app, plus in a perfect world SEO should not exist, it's the Search Engine's job to find the content and show the user the content he is looking for, not the developers. I shouldn't have to add "hacks" in my code for the Google Crawler to understand my site the same way users already do.

Get off your high hirse mate

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#24

Post by CM30 »

paulpauper wrote: post #7

The million dollar question is how to get good rankings for good keywords without having to spend too much money. This article does a good job describing how to keep a successful site optimized but actually getting the rankings is not covered much. Never, ever, let marketers send newsletters and promotional e-mails from the same IPs that the websites are hosted on. A rogue employee who violates the CAN-SPAM act may r…

The key to getting good rankings for good keywords is really the same as it's always been: writing stuff people actually want to read/find useful and getting it referenced by sites and services with a large audience and a decent reputation.

That's why so many startups and agencies fail miserably with their blogs; because their content is third rate crap that no one really wants to read. They wonder why say, Moz or Sitepoint gets all the traffic, and you want to say "have you actually looked at your own work?" given that the latter two companies offer useful, actionable advice and they don't. It's like they expect the magic Google fairy to take their uninteresting work and hey presto, it suddenly appears on page 1 and get millions of views.

Okay, it's not quite that simple. Sites with a bigger marketing budget tend to do better, as do sites and companies willing to put a lot more time into getting content out on a regular basis. And yes, some people will get temporarily (or sometimes semi permanent) advantages through dodgy things like private blog networks and paid links.

But actually trying and putting in the effort/treating the SEO side as a full time job is really the minimum here, and many don't seem to even bother.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#25

Post by chiefalchemist »

maroonblazer wrote: post #11
chiefalchemist wrote: post #2

A brisk but thorough checklist that fulfills the promise of the title. My only objection would be this bit (below). Specifically, "demands." How many engineers are in a positiin to demand anything? The truth is, for the most part, it's not engineers who are ruining the internet with bloat and privacy infringements. It's designers and marketing. They're more likely to forget the end user and opt for so nasty excess. >…

If a designer or marketer is forgetting the end user then they don't deserve the title "designer" or "marketer". And to counter your point, I often see sites built by engineers that ignore the end user by not employing any of the best practices the UX/UI and marketing communities have uncovered over the years.

re: "If a designer..."

No argument from me. There's plenty of title inflation, and turds wearing lipstick.

re: "And to counter..."

I have to push back. Unless there's a glaring technical omission, then whatever you see was likely not the engineer's decision. That all happened prior to construction. And even a technical faux pas might not be the engineer's. More than once I've stuck my neck out and said, "...that's not ideal..." and was overruled and marginalized.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#26

Post by butler14 »

Solid list overall.

"Consider using the "304-Not Modified" response code on large websites with lots of pages that don't change very often."

This is the only thing that, from an SEO perspective, I'd challenge. I can't even begin to see where the supposed benefit of this would be.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#27

Post by simplecomplex »

SEO is extremely simple. This is all you need to know to rank top page on Google: Get lots of backlinks from sites with good Google ranking to blog articles on your site about the subject you want to rank for.

In other words, publish content people want to link to, and get big players to link to it.

That’s it. Other SEO advice is usually a distraction or snake oil.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#28

Post by seanwilson »

> Never, ever, let marketers send newsletters and promotional e-mails from the same IPs that the websites are hosted on. A rogue employee who violates the CAN-SPAM act may result in the entire website being blacklisted.

Can someone expand on that one? The blacklist would only apply to the IP address being sent from and not the domain?

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#29

Post by midef »

butler14 wrote: post #26

Solid list overall. "Consider using the "304-Not Modified" response code on large websites with lots of pages that don't change very often." This is the only thing that, from an SEO perspective, I'd challenge. I can't even begin to see where the supposed benefit of this would be.

The spirit of the idea is that Google will see the 304 status and move onto the next page more quickly than if it received a 200 status and reconciled that version of the page with the version that was previously crawled.

Re: SEO for Web Engineers

#30

Post by virtualized »

caiocaiocaio wrote: post #5
chiefalchemist wrote: post #2

A brisk but thorough checklist that fulfills the promise of the title. My only objection would be this bit (below). Specifically, "demands." How many engineers are in a positiin to demand anything? The truth is, for the most part, it's not engineers who are ruining the internet with bloat and privacy infringements. It's designers and marketing. They're more likely to forget the end user and opt for so nasty excess. >…

My main objection is medium grey text on a white background.

"but it looks fine on my $4000 MacBook with my perfect 25-year old eyes"
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