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SEO and Beyond: What Actually Matters

Badal Chowdhary

— 5 min read
SEO and Beyond: What Actually Matters

SEO feels like voodoo to most engineers. There's advice about keywords, backlinks, meta tags, content freshness, mobile-first indexing, Core Web Vitals, schema markup — the list goes on. Some of it works. Most of it is noise. SEO for engineers isn't about mastering every ranking factor Google uses. It's about understanding the fundamentals that actually move the needle and implementing them systematically. This post cuts through the noise and focuses on what matters: the technical foundation, content structure, and performance optimizations that drive real search visibility.

Why Engineers Should Care About SEO

You've built an incredible product. Your documentation is comprehensive. Your blog posts are technically accurate. But if nobody finds them, none of it matters.

SEO isn't marketing fluff — it's a distribution problem. And distribution problems are engineering problems.

Good SEO means:

  • Users find your docs
  • Your product appears when users search for solutions
  • Your technical blog builds authority

The Technical Foundation: What Search Engines Actually Need

Before worrying about keywords or content strategy, get the technical basics right. Search engines need to crawl, index, and understand your site. If they can't do this, nothing else matters.

1. Crawlability and Indexing

Make it easy for search engines to discover your content.

Check your robots.txt:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

Generate and submit an XML sitemap. Most frameworks have plugins (Next.js, Django, Rails all have good options). Your sitemap should update automatically when content changes.

Avoid common pitfalls:

  • Don't block important pages in robots.txt
  • Don't rely solely on JavaScript for navigation (more on this below)
  • Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues

Quick win: Check Google Search Console to see which pages are indexed and fix any crawl errors.

2. Mobile-First and Responsive Design

Google indexes mobile versions first. If your site breaks on mobile, you're invisible to search.

This isn't about making things "mobile-friendly" — it's about architecting responsively from the start.

Key checks:

  • Viewport meta tag: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
  • Touch-friendly buttons (minimum 48x48px)
  • Readable font sizes (16px minimum)
  • No horizontal scrolling

Test on real devices, not just browser emulators. Mobile behaviour differs significantly.

3. JavaScript Rendering and SEO

Here's where many modern sites fail. If your entire site renders client-side with React/Vue/Angular, search engines might not see your content.

The problem: While Googlebot can render JavaScript, it's slower and less reliable than serving pre-rendered HTML.

Solutions in order of preference:

  1. Server-Side Rendering (SSR) — Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit make this easy
  2. Static Site Generation (SSG) — Pre-render at build time
  3. Dynamic Rendering — Serve pre-rendered HTML to bots, client-side JS to users
  4. Client-side with SSR fallback — Ensure critical content is in initial HTML
// Next.js SSR example
export async function getServerSideProps() {
  const data = await fetchData();
  return { props: { data } };
}

Content Structure: Making Information Discoverable

Technical foundation is necessary but not sufficient. Your content needs to be structured for both humans and machines.

1. Semantic HTML Matters

Use proper heading hierarchy (H1 → H2 → H3). It's not just for accessibility — it helps search engines understand content structure.

<article>
  <h1>Main Topic</h1>
  <section>
    <h2>Subtopic 1</h2>
    <p>Content...</p>
    <h3>Detail A</h3>
    <p>More content...</p>
  </section>
</article>

2. Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

These appear in search results. Write them deliberately.

Title tag formula: Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

Keep it under 60 characters. Front-load important keywords.

<title>Best Dog Breeds for Apartments - Small to Medium Sized Dogs | PetCare</title>
<meta name="description" content="Find the perfect apartment dog breed. Compare 15 small to medium breeds by size, energy level, and care requirements with expert recommendations." />

Meta descriptions don't directly impact rankings, but they affect click-through rates, which indirectly matter.

3. Internal Linking Strategy

Internal links help search engines discover content and understand relationships between pages.

Best practices:

  • Link to related content naturally within paragraphs
  • Use descriptive anchor text (not "click here")
  • Create hub pages that link to related articles
  • Update old posts to link to new relevant content

4. Structured Data and Schema Markup

Schema markup helps search engines understand what your content represents. It can enable rich snippets in search results.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Best Dog Breeds for Apartment Living",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Dr. Sarah Mitchell"
  },
  "datePublished": "2025-01-15",
  "dateModified": "2025-01-15",
  "image": "https://example.com/apartment-dogs.jpg"
}
</script>

Keywords Without the Keyword Spam

Keywords matter, but not how you think. Forget keyword density and exact-match repetition. Modern search understands semantic meaning.

The engineering approach:

  1. Research actual search queries — Use Google Search Console to see what people search for to find you. Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush work too, but start with GSC.
  2. Map intent, not just keywords — If someone searches "how to take my dog for a walk," they want solutions, not definitions. Structure your content accordingly.
  3. Use natural language — Write for humans. Use synonyms and related terms naturally. Search engines understand them.
  4. Answer specific questions — "How to make the best meals for you dog" beats generic "Dog Food Recipes."

Write naturally covering these angles. Don't force the exact phrase 20 times.

Performance Monitoring and Iteration

Treat SEO like any engineering system: measure, iterate, improve.

Key metrics to track:

  • Organic traffic — Overall trend and per-page performance
  • Rankings for target keywords — Track your position for important queries
  • Click-through rate (CTR) — From search results to your site
  • Bounce rate and time on page — Engagement signals
  • Core Web Vitals — Ongoing performance monitoring

Tools you need:

  • Google Search Console (free, essential)
  • Google Analytics or privacy-friendly alternatives
  • Lighthouse CI for automated performance checks
  • Sitemap validators

Set up alerts for crawl errors, indexing issues, or performance degradation. Fix problems systematically.

What's Next: GEO and AIO on the Horizon

Everything we've covered remains foundational. But search is evolving rapidly with AI.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) focuses on how AI Overviews and similar features cite content. Your structured data, clear formatting, and authoritative signals become even more important when AI models decide what to reference.

AI-Powered Optimisation (AIO) extends beyond Google to platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. These tools increasingly access real-time web data and cite sources.

The good news? If you've implemented the SEO fundamentals correctly — clean technical foundation, well-structured content, semantic markup, and genuine authority — you're already positioned well for these AI-driven search experiences.

The principles don't change: create high-quality, well-structured, sound content that serves user needs. The distribution mechanisms evolve, but the fundamentals endure.

Key Takeaways

Technical foundation comes first — Crawlability, speed, mobile-first, proper rendering
Structure content semantically — Use proper HTML, clear headings, descriptive titles
Keywords are about intent — Answer real questions naturally, don't keyword stuff
Performance is a ranking factor — Optimize Core Web Vitals systematically
Internal linking builds structure — Create topic clusters and help search engines navigate
Schema markup helps machines understand — Implement structured data for key content types
Authority requires work — Earn backlinks through genuinely useful content
Prepare for AI-powered search — Strong SEO fundamentals position you well for GEO and AIO
Measure and iterate — Track metrics, fix issues, improve continuously

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