When people are interested in purchasing a product or service, the first thing they do is research. They go to Google, looking for reviews and all kinds of information that helps them decide whether it’s worth it or not. This is why companies strengthen their online presence to provide users with all the information they need and transform them into customers. To appear in the first searches of Google and make your business visible, you need SEO. 

SEO experts, with the help of web developers and UX/UI designers, will take your company’s website to the next level. In this article, you’ll learn why SEO in web development has become the ultimate strategy for most businesses wanting to generate leads, increase visibility, and become more competitive. 

What is SEO?

Whenever you need information about something, whether it’s a recipe for a special dinner, research for an essay, statistics for a presentation, or the prices of plane tickets, the first thing you do is to Google it.  While some might argue about other search engines like Yahoo or Bing, the reality is that 70% of those searches happen on Google. 

Google is this ‘’magical’’ place that somehow has the answers to everything. Yet, one thing is for sure: none of us go to the second page of Google because we often find what we need in the first results.

But how do the first results even appear? Because of SEO. 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which means the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. In plain English this means that SEO optimizes a website to make Google identify it and read it quickly, adding it to the first results. So, you’re competing with thousands of other websites to appear on the first page. 

Writing quality content with the right keywords and images is part of winning the SEO game against other companies, but it also has a lot to do with web development. Web developers need to acquire SEO skills to optimize websites and make them more visible. 

But why is SEO becoming increasingly relevant in web development nowadays? Here’s why. 

6 Reasons Why SEO Is Important in Web Development

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1. Working on SEO Increases Your Website Speed 

A study by Unbounce shared that if an eCommerce site is slow, over 45% of people admit that they are less likely to make a purchase.  And the same happens with other industries and types of websites; If they don’t load fast, people are likely to keep browsing for another faster site. 

Having a fast website should be one of your top priorities if you want to become an authority on what you offer to a market. If you have a slow website, you could lose users’ attention in a heartbeat. And this, consequently, translates into losing money. 

Additionally, Google has indicated that page speed is one factor that impacts how a website is ranked. And SEO focuses on reducing redirects, optimizing images and codes, leverage browser caching, among other things that help to improve the page loading speed. 

2. Helps You Build a Responsive Design

Most users, when searching for any information, use their mobile devices. As the number of smartphone users keeps increasing, web developers need to build websites compatible with mobile phones. Here’s why being able to develop responsive websites becomes crucial.  

SEO focuses on matching the expectations of users with the website you’re building.  To make your website more visible, developers need to meet the SEO criteria of building fast and responsive websites.  

In 2015 Google realized that more people viewed websites by phone than by desktop. Because of this, the engine started penalizing sites that weren’t mobile-friendly. You could have a speedy site with quality content, but if users can’t browse it properly on their phones, all this effort is in vain. 

3. Enhances User Experience

One of the main reasons why SEO in web development matters is because of the user experience. When users go to your website, you want to give them the best experience possible. This means that it is easy for them to understand how it is organized, that the features are easy to use, that it’s responsive and that overall, it has a good aesthetic.

For example, if you have a goal, your focus should be to provide your readers with quality content that is well-structured with the right headings, subheadings, and images. 

Proper SEO web design offers users a seamless experience. Every single aspect of your website is consistent and user-friendly – even the smallest details. This makes users transform into customers. It increases your popularity and reputation and helps you develop into a solid competitor to other similar companies. 

4. Creates a Secure Website 

The security of a website is one of the most important SEO aspects for developers while building a website. Many factors, such as HTTPS, indicate the secured websites are preferred by search engines for ranking.

In 2015, Google revealed that their HTTPS ranking boost identifies the quality signals for two different search results but is similar in other aspects. This means that if you and your competitor are equal in terms of speed, title tags, content, meta descriptions, etc., but your competitor’s site is HTTPS and yours isn’t, Google is likely to rank their website at a higher level than yours. 

Making a secure website, from an SEO perspective, helps you attract more users to your website. But besides the superficial aspect, it also enables you to avoid data loss or data breaches, which ultimately impacts how a user trusts your website. 

5. Improves Your URL Structure 

The URL structure is how you configure the URLs of your website to reflect what is on the page in a more simplified way. Web developers create all these links that can be optimized by focusing on the keywords that describe the page. SEO in web development focuses on optimizing these links by making them shorter and targeting the main keywords that make search engines know when to display that link when a specific search matches it. 

When your remote developer is working side by side with the SEO criteria, they will need to give special attention to URLs.  A well-optimized URL will help search engines and users to identify the web page that contains the information they are looking for

Besides URL optimization, web developers also focus on other URL areas like canonicalization and redirects. 

6. Increase conversion and sales

SEO optimization surely can improve the conversion rate. It only can be done if you’re creating content that your audience likes. Using a sales video, create a more than image but infographic, not only text. 

Google’s love visual content that attracts viewers. If you can create great content, your traffic website will boost and so will your conversion and sales.

Final Thoughts 

Websites without SEO won’t succeed in today’s market. SEO in web development has become a key aspect to make businesses visible and better positioned. For users, everything in a site matters. From the quality of the content and how it is displayed to how long a website takes to charge. 

Make sure you are prioritizing your users’ experience while designing your website. Investing in SEO doesn’t have to be necessarily expensive. You can optimize your site even with low-budget strategies. The key is to find the best ways to build a website that provides users a seamless experience. This will help you increase your leads and connect with more potential customers, among other things. 

Author’s Bio: Gabriela Molina is a journalist and the copy editor of Think Remote, a remote work news and media company. As a former freelance journalist, she has covered a wide range of topics throughout her career. She was featured in Datasciencentral, Simpleprogrammer, to name a few. She is currently specializing in the areas of technology, leadership, and remote work.