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The SEO-Friendly Developer: A Checklist We Use on Every Project

 

The SEO-Friendly Developer: The 35-Point Checklist We Use on Every Project

There's a silent war raging in many companies, and it's costing them a fortune in lost revenue.

On one side, you have the SEOs. They're obsessed with rankings, traffic, and the subtle signals that tell Google a site is an authority. On the other side, you have the developers. They're focused on clean code, blazing-fast performance, and elegant functionality.

Too often, these teams speak different languages. The SEO team audits a live site and files a massive ticket of "fixes"—redirects, meta tags, and site speed issues—that the development team views as a tedious, low-priority burden. This creates a reactive, costly cycle of retrofitting SEO onto a finished product.

What if we could end the war?

At our agency, we've done just that. We don't have "SEO tasks" and "development tasks." We have one unified goal: launching high-performing, search-friendly assets. The key is baking SEO into the development process from the very first line of code.

This is the exact, internal checklist our development team uses on every single project. This isn't a post-launch audit; it's a proactive blueprint for building rankings directly into the foundation of your website.

The Philosophy: SEO is a Feature, Not a Fix

We treat "SEO-Friendliness" as a core, non-negotiable feature of every website we build, right alongside responsive design and security. By shifting left and integrating these checks throughout the development lifecycle, we save our clients thousands in post-launch remediation and, more importantly, months of lost ranking potential.

The checklist is broken down into five critical phases.

Phase 1: Foundation & Architecture (The Blueprint)

Goal: To ensure the site is built on a solid, crawlable, and logically structured foundation that search engines can easily understand and index.

✅ 1. HTTPS Everywhere

  • Action: SSL certificate is installed and enforced. All HTTP requests are permanently redirected (301) to HTTPS.

  • Dev Speak: Configure the server to force SSL. No mixed content warnings.

  • Why: A core Google ranking signal and a fundamental trust indicator for users.

✅ 2. XML Sautomap is Dynamic & Accessible

  • Action: A dynamically generated sitemap.xml is implemented at the root level and submitted via Google Search Console.

  • Dev Speak: The sitemap should auto-update when new pages are published. It should only include indexable, 200-status pages.

  • Why: This is your invitation to Google to crawl and index your most important pages.

✅ 3. robots.txt is Logical and Unblocking

  • Action: The robots.txt file is live at the root and allows crawling of essential assets (CSS, JS).

  • Dev Speak: Avoid Disallow: /. Ensure critical resources aren't blocked, or rendering will be affected.

  • Why: Directs search engine crawlers and prevents the accidental blocking of important site sections.

✅ 4. Clean, Semantic URL Structure

  • Action: URLs are human-readable, contain relevant keywords, and use hyphens to separate words.

  • Bad: domain.com/p=1234 or domain.com/my_blog_post

  • Good: domain.com/blog/seo-friendly-developer-checklist

  • Why: URLs are a minor ranking factor and a major UX factor. Users understand and are more likely to click a clean URL.

✅ 5. Logical Information Architecture (IA)

  • Action: A flat, shallow site structure is implemented. No page should be more than 3-4 clicks from the homepage.

  • Dev Speak: Use a logical folder structure (e.g., /services/web-development, /services/seo-audits) rather than a deep, parameter-heavy mess.

  • Why: Helps distribute "link equity" (ranking power) evenly and makes it easier for users and bots to find content.

✅ 6. Canonical Tags Self-Referential

  • Action: Every page has a self-referencing rel="canonical" tag in the <head>.

  • Dev Speak: <link rel="canonical" href="https://domain.com/exact-page-url/" />

  • Why: Prevents duplicate content issues by explicitly telling Google which version of a URL is the "master" copy.

Phase 2: On-Page & Content (The Signal)

Goal: To ensure every page is optimized to communicate its topic and intent clearly to both users and search engines.

✅ 7. Title Tags are Unique & Optimized

  • Action: Every page has a unique, descriptive <title> tag, ideally under 60 characters.

  • Formula: Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

  • Why: The single most important on-page SEO element and what displays as the clickable link in search results.

✅ 8. Meta Descriptions are Compelling

  • Action: Every page has a unique meta description, ideally between 130-160 characters, that acts as a compelling ad copy.

  • Why: While not a direct ranking factor, it heavily influences Click-Through Rate (CTR) from the SERPs, which is a key performance indicator.

✅ 9. Heading Hierarchy is Pyramidal

  • Action: A single, logical <h1> tag is on every page. Heading tags (<h2>, <h3>, etc.) are used to structure content, not for styling.

  • Dev Speak: Never use a heading tag just to make text bigger. Use CSS for that. The <h1> should be the main topic, with <h2>s supporting it and <h3>s supporting the <h2>s.

  • Why: Provides a content outline for search engines and improves accessibility.

✅ 10. Structured Data (Schema.org) Implemented

  • Action: Relevant JSON-LD structured data is added to the <head> of appropriate pages.

  • Examples: Organization or LocalBusiness on the homepage, Article on blog posts, Product on e-commerce pages, FAQPage for Q&A content.

  • Why: Helps Google understand the context of your content, leading to rich snippets and enhanced visibility in search results.

✅ 11. Image Optimization is Standard

  • Action: All images are compressed, use descriptive filenames, and have alt attributes.

  • Dev Speak: kitten-playing.jpg is good. IMG_0234.jpg is bad. Alt text should describe the image for the visually impaired and for when the image fails to load.

  • Why: Image alt text is a key ranking factor for Google Image Search and improves accessibility. Compression improves page speed.

Phase 3: Performance & Core Web Vitals (The Speed)

Goal: To deliver a fast, non-janky user experience, which is a direct ranking factor and critical for user satisfaction.

✅ 12. Core Web Vitals are Monitored & Optimized

  • Action: Use Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console to monitor and optimize for the three core metrics:

    • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) < 2.5s: Measures loading performance. Optimize by using a CDN, optimizing images, and caching.

    • INP (Interaction to Next Paint) < 200ms: Measures responsiveness. Optimize by breaking up long tasks and minimizing JavaScript execution time.

    • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) < 0.1: Measures visual stability. Always include width and height attributes on images and videos.

  • Why: These are direct Google ranking factors. A slow, unstable site provides a poor user experience.

✅ 13. Critical CSS is Inlined

  • Action: The CSS required to render the above-the-fold content is inlined in the <head>.

  • Why: Eliminates render-blocking resources, allowing the page to become usable much faster.

✅ 14. Lazy Loading is Implemented

  • Action: Images and iframes that are below the fold use the loading="lazy" attribute.

  • Dev Speak: <img src="image.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="...">

  • Why: Reduces initial page load time, bandwidth usage, and memory footprint.

✅ 15. JavaScript & CSS are Minified and Concatenated

  • Action: All non-critical JS and CSS are minified and combined into single files where possible.

  • Why: Reduces the number of HTTP requests and the total file size, speeding up page loads.

Phase 4: Mobile & UX (The Experience)

Goal: To ensure the site delivers a flawless experience for the majority of users who are now on mobile devices.

✅ 16. Mobile-First, Responsive Design

  • Action: The site is built using a mobile-first, responsive approach. It is tested on real devices, not just emulators.

  • Why: Google uses mobile-first indexing. Your mobile site is the primary version Google crawls and ranks.

✅ 17. Viewport Meta Tag is Present

  • Action: The <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> tag is in the <head>.

  • Why: Instructs the browser on how to control the page's dimensions and scaling on different devices.

✅ 18. Touch Targets are Adequate

  • Action: Buttons and links are at least 44px by 44px.

  • Why: Prevents frustrating mis-taps on touchscreen devices, improving usability and reducing bounce rates.

✅ 19. No Intrusive Interstitials

  • Action: Avoid pop-ups that cover the main content and are difficult to dismiss on mobile, especially immediately after a user lands on the page.

  • Why: Google penalizes pages where content is not easily accessible to the user on the transition from the search result.

Phase 5: Launch & Beyond (The Vigilance)

Goal: To ensure a smooth, error-free launch and to maintain SEO health over time.

✅ 20. 301 Redirects for All Changed URLs

  • Action: A complete redirect map is created for any URL that changes during development (e.g., from a staging site or an old site structure).

  • Why: Preserves the SEO equity (backlinks, ranking power) of old URLs and prevents 404 errors.

✅ 21. Staging Environment is Blocked from Indexing

  • Action: Staging and development sites are password-protected or have noindex tags.

  • Why: Prevents Google from indexing duplicate, unfinished content, which can severely harm the live site's rankings.

✅ 22. Analytics & Search Console are Installed

  • Action: Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console are properly configured and tracking code is installed on all pages.

  • Why: You can't manage what you don't measure. This data is essential for diagnosing issues and tracking performance.

✅ 23. International & Hreflang (If Applicable)

  • Action: For sites targeting multiple countries/languages, hreflang tags are correctly implemented.

  • Why: Tells Google which version of a page to serve to users in a specific region or who speak a specific language.

The Final Check: The Pre-Launch SEO Sniff Test

Before we push the big red button, we run the entire site through this final gauntlet:

  • Crawl Simulation: Use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl the site as Googlebot, looking for 404s, redirect chains, and missing tags.

  • Manual Spot Check: Check key pages (homepage, main services, blog) for correct titles, meta descriptions, and structured data using a rich results test.

  • Speed Test: Run 3-5 key pages through PageSpeed Insights to ensure Core Web Vitals are in the green.

Conclusion: Build It Right, Rank It Right

This checklist isn't a burden; it's a quality assurance protocol. By making these 23 points a standard part of our definition of "done," we don't just build websites; we build digital assets primed for growth.