The document provides a comprehensive guide on search engine optimization (SEO) specifically for engineers and developers, highlighting its importance for job prospects and improving user experience. It covers essential topics such as website planning, user messaging, tool utilization (like webmaster tools), and best practices in coding to enhance site performance and search visibility. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of user experience metrics like bounce rates and time spent on page while recommending strategies like optimizing internal linking and utilizing schema tags.

1. SEO for
Engineers
Search Engine Optimization for People Who Know What return
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By Cort Tafoya

2. SEO for Developers
1. UX
2. Webmaster Tools
3. HTML and URLs
4. Tools and Best Practices
5. Hackers
Table of Contents

3. Why Care?
1. Engineering Job Ads Now Count SEO Knowledge as a Bonus or
Required Skill
2. Essential for Working at Startups
3. Improves Your Web Users’ Experience
4. Increases Web Traffic and Customer Acquisition
5. Improves Your Product If Your Website Is Your Product
SEO - Who Gives a F**K

4. User Messaging: 3 Things to Think About
1. Is my site simple and intuitive enough for a person who has never seen it
before to easily use the first time?
A first-run experience that concisely explains or shows the user what the
product is and/or how to use it is extremely valuable.
Source: https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/usability-latency
1. User Experience

5. 1. User Experience

6. User Messaging: 3 Things to Think About
2. Does this message interrupt or add steps to the user's workflow?
Think carefully about how messages you display may lengthen the
user's workflow. There may be more appropriate times and ways to
display a message that won't keep the user from getting things done.
Source: https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/usability-latency
1. User Experience

7. User Messaging: 3 Things to Think About
3. How can I reassure the user during wait times?
Let's face it: there are going to be times when the user has to wait. There
are, however, a few things you can do to make the inevitable wait time a
little more bearable.
If the user has to wait more than a few seconds, show a progress bar.
Source: https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/usability-latency
1. User Experience

8. Bounce Rates
Bounce Rates - If people go to your homepage (or any web page for that
matter) but nowhere else, or worse, return to their search engine result
page, did Google do its job of giving their user what they wanted?
Probably not. Over time, Google will remember not to return your site for
similar search queries/results.
Some analysts believe a bounce rate over 50% is bad.
1. User Experience

9. Time Spent on Page
Nothing indicates quality more than time spent on page. Poor UX and
design can greatly impact this number. Track your TSOP averages, and
adjust if necessary.
1. User Experience

10. Plan Your Website:
● Create a user-friendly and search engine friendly platform.
● Plan a website with flat architecture.
● Create intuitive information architecture and website navigation.
● Optimize the internal linking structure for SEO, usability, and flow of traffic and authority.
● Plan a site based on keyword research, focusing on page structure and page targets.
● Ensure that all onsite factors have been optimized for SEO based on the keyword research before
1. User Experience

11. Plan Your Website: Flat Architecture is Best for Search
Engines
Source: “Why You Lose if You Skip Planning a Website.”
1. User Experience

12. Poor Architecture
1. User Experience

13. For the Love of God, Just Do It
Add your website to Webmaster tools while signed into your Gmail account
2. Webmaster Tools

14. Just Do It
There are various
methods of verification:
Uploading HTML Files,
syncing your Google
Analytics or inserting
an HTML Tag in
your homepage header
2. Webmaster Tools

15. Alternate Verification Methods
Include using your domain
name provider and your Google
Tag Manager account.
2. Webmaster Tools

16. Stuff You’ll See in Webmaster Tools
Potential crawl errors, non indexed URLs, options to submit sitemaps
2. Webmaster Tools

17. Sitemap Data
If there are crawl errors and warnings, Webmaster Tools will provide
directions on how to fix all outstanding issues
2. Webmaster Tools

18. What Else to Look For in Your Dashboard
1. Page speed issues?
2. HTML improvements?
3. Security issues?
2. Webmaster Tools

19. Submit Video Sitemaps
2. Webmaster Tools

20. Submit Image Sitemaps, Apply Image SEO
1. Add Alt Text so Google can read the image (put keywords in there)
2. Change the filename to include your keywords and a description of the
image
Example of an image sitemap file via http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
2. Webmaster Tools

21. PageSpeed Insights: Examples
2. Webmaster Tools
1. No one likes a render
blocker
2. Optimize CSS delivery
3. Compress image files

22. PageSpeed Insights: Examples
via Webmaster Tools
2. Webmaster Tools

23. PageSpeed Insights: Examples
via Webmaster Tools
2. Webmaster Tools

24. PageSpeed Insights: Examples
via Webmaster Tools
2. Webmaster Tools

25. PageSpeed Insights: Examples
via Webmaster Tools
2. Webmaster Tools

26. PageSpeed Insights: Examples
via Webmaster Tools
2. Webmaster Tools

27. HTML Improvements Include:
via https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3069489
3. HTML and URLs

28. HTML Improvements Include:
Removing Duplicate Title Tags, Meta Descriptions etc. - Google looks at
duplicate content as keyword stuffing, a black-hat SEO technique used to
manipulate search results. Do not have duplicate title tags, meta
descriptions or web pages. Be sure to run redirects.
Filling in Missing Title Tags with Keywords - Improves search rankings,
expands your keyword eco system
3. HTML and URLs

29. What Are Schema Tags?
Essentially, the same as rich snippets, structured data markup. They are a
collection of tags that define words better for Google. How would Google
know what Squirt is unless Cameron added Schema Tags indicating to
Google that is a business or product?
Schema Tags let you do that shit. “(Schema.org) provides a collection of
schemas, i.e., html tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in
ways recognized by major search providers.”
3. HTML and URLs

30. What Are Schema Tags?
Example via Schema.org
3. HTML and URLs

31. URLs - You Only Need to Know 3 Things:
This is a shitty SEO URL http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-9912342-3046240?
_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FN0KWA. Google can’t read that.
This is a great SEO URL - searchengineland.com/seo-friendly-url-syntax-practices. Includes
keywords that describe the content.
3. Do not have 404 errors and please run redirects. This affects UX.
Bonus Link:11 Best Practices for URLs - Read that.
3. HTML and URLs

32. Properly Including StyleSheets and Scripts
1. Combine external JavaScript files
2. Include external CSS files before external JavaScript files
3. Do not include inline JavaScript between external CSS and other
resources
via https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/include-scripts-properly
4. Developer Best Practices

33. Compress Your JavaScript With a Closure Compiler
4. Developer Best Practices
“The Closure Compiler finds ways to compress your JavaScript code even further than existing
minimization tools. It achieves additional compression by using compiler-like technology to
rewrite your JavaScript into a much smaller form, while ensuring the code still runs correctly.
Closure Compiler can condense several files into one single file, and can easily reduce the size
of your JavaScript in half. The Closure Compiler also does syntactic checks and static analysis
for your program, so it flags potential syntax and type errors and highlights code patterns that
may not work well on all browsers.” - Google Best Practices
http://closure-compiler.appspot.com

34. PHP Optimization: Via Google
- Avoid writing naive setters and getters
- Don't copy variables for no reason
- Avoid doing SQL queries within a loop
4. Developer Best Practices

35. Don’t Let Hackers Hack Your Shit
5. Is Your Site Hacked?

36. Don’t Let Hackers Hack Your Shit
5. Is Your Site Hacked?

37. Help for Hacked Sites
5. Is Your Site Hacked?

38. Testing Resources (Links):
1. Android Emulator
2. BlackBerry Device Simulators
3. iPhone
4. Opera Mini Simulator
5. Palm Pre
6. Windows Mobile
7. User Agent Switcher extension for Firefox. Switch your desktop user agent to quickly test
how a page may behave behind a different user agent.
8. Page Speed Firefox/Firebug Addon. Evaluate a web page's performance and receive
Bonus: Optimizing Mobile Pages