Alex Harford, a Technical SEO consultant and mentor, discusses URL structure, page templates, coding languages, and status codes with Jack. They highlight the significance of user-friendly websites on SEO, understanding web servers and status codes, considerations of CDNs, and the importance of page templates and coding languages in SEO.
URL structure can guide users effectively and should be optimized based on the specific needs of a website.
Understanding and utilizing appropriate status codes can greatly impact search engine resources and user experience.
Analyzing representative samples of each page template can provide valuable insights for website optimization, ensuring consistency and efficiency in design and content management.
Deep dives
Understanding URLs and Web Servers
URLs provide concise and descriptive information about web page content and can be structured to guide users effectively. Web servers are essentially computers that store website files and deliver them via the internet. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can provide localized copies of websites, improving speed and user experience. However, CDNs may not always be necessary, especially for websites with predominantly local audiences. It is important to assess the specific needs of a website before implementing a CDN.
The Importance of Status Codes
Status codes play a crucial role in website functionality. Commonly encountered status codes include 200 OK, indicating everything is fine; 404 Not Found, signifying page not found; and 410 Gone, denoting a permanently removed page. Understanding and utilizing the appropriate status codes can significantly impact search engine resources and user experience on a website.
The Role of Page Templates
Page templates are predesigned formats that help create consistency and efficiency in website design and content management. Many websites utilize page templates to maintain a cohesive look and feel across various pages. When auditing a website, analyzing a representative sample of each page template can provide valuable insights into potential issues or opportunities for optimization.
The Value of Prioritizing Recommendations
Prioritizing SEO recommendations is crucial to ensure efficient resource allocation and impactful changes. Evaluating the potential impact of an action and balancing it against the required resources can help identify quick wins—changes that can produce significant results with minimal effort. For instance, modifying a single page template can affect numerous pages, making it a high-priority recommendation to improve overall website performance.
Importance of Understanding HTML and CSS for SEOs
Understanding HTML and CSS is important for SEOs, especially in terms of making SEO recommendations related to tags in HTML such as canonical tags and meta tags. These are often the first things that SEOs become familiar with when learning about SEO. Having knowledge of HTML and CSS allows SEOs to analyze the code of a website and make informed recommendations. Additionally, having a basic understanding of these languages can also help with client relations and communication with web developers.
The Golden Rule of SEO: Don't Compromise Usability
The golden rule of SEO is to never make changes that compromise usability. It is essential to prioritize user experience when making SEO modifications. SEO changes should not negatively impact the usability of a website. Making usability worse for the sake of SEO is not beneficial in the long run. Good SEO and good usability often go hand in hand, and it is crucial to find a balance between them to ensure a positive user experience.
