SEO for Developers: Technical Optimization Guide

SEO isn't just for marketers. Developers play a crucial role in technical SEO. Here's what you need to know.

Core Web Vitals

Google's key performance metrics:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - Measures loading performance - Target: under 2.5 seconds - Optimize images, fonts, server response

First Input Delay (FID) - Measures interactivity - Target: under 100ms - Minimize JavaScript, use web workers

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - Measures visual stability - Target: under 0.1 - Set image dimensions, avoid dynamic content injection

Technical SEO Checklist

Crawlability - Valid robots.txt - XML sitemap - Clean URL structure - Internal linking

Indexability - Proper meta tags - Canonical URLs - No duplicate content - Structured data

Mobile Optimization - Responsive design - Mobile-friendly navigation - Touch-friendly elements - Fast mobile loading

JavaScript SEO

Modern JS frameworks need special attention: - Server-side rendering (SSR) - Static site generation (SSG) - Dynamic rendering for crawlers - Proper meta tag management

Structured Data

Implement schema markup for: - Organization - Products - Articles - FAQs - Reviews

Performance Optimization

• Image optimization (WebP, lazy loading)
• Code splitting
• Caching strategies
• CDN usage
• Minification

Common Mistakes

• Blocking CSS/JS in robots.txt
• Missing alt text
• Broken links
• Slow server response
• Not handling 404s properly

Tools for Developers

• Google Search Console
• Lighthouse
• PageSpeed Insights
• Screaming Frog
• Schema validators

At HostSpica, we build SEO into every project from the start. Technical SEO is the foundation that content and link building build upon.