SEO efforts need to be viewed in a holistic manner. There are various details that go into making the entire puzzle complete. While some of these aspects are huge and hard to ignore, there are other intricate details that are still part of parcel of the process. One such element is coding. To gain a better understanding of coding, it is good to learn the impact of poor coding on SEO.
The Effects of Poor Coding
Poor coding may reflect text and images poorly on different devices and browsers. Search engines struggle to find your web pages if not well coded. This could impact your reach to potential customers. Too much or too little code can also cause suspicions. Coding also has a direct effect on how long it takes for web pages to load.
The tricky bit about coding is that, you may not notice poor coding if you are only using one device or browser. To you, your site may appear well coded, however, other internet users could be having a different experience. This is especially evident when it comes to search engine rankings. For instance, you may find that your site ranks better on a desktop, but the same is not reflected on a smart phone.
65 per cent of internet users in Singapore use their smart phones to search for products. In light of this, it is imperative that you clean your codes so that you can rank well on all devices. HTML and other codes need to be done well and should be squeaky clean. Remember that luring customers is a cut throat competition. You never know, a squeaky clean code can get you an edge over your competitors.
Cleaning your Code
Now that you’ve seen how poor codes affect your SEO efforts, it’s time for a cleanup. A website is ideally programmed using a CSS style sheet and HTML codes. It is important to seek SEO expertise in cleaning the code. The professionals will use a HTML validator to check the code. Ensure that the validator used is compatible with most browsers and devices. There are certain aspects of coding that are outside your reach. You can only clean what is within your reach, the rest does not have a huge impact.
Your next check should be your CSS. These are basically rules and standards that most browsers come with. This will give you a picture of how your site is seen by the public. You can check using different devices. Again, you should only clean what you can control. Do not stress about errors in third party codes such as Twitter or Facebook. If the errors from third party have a huge effect, you can consider whether you really need these third party sites and if they are of any benefit to your business.
Check for Duplications
Duplication is another coding error especially when using text editors such as WordPress. Text duplication can happen even when the words appear normal to the user. However, in the background, this duplication could be weighing down your page with unnecessary codes.
Check for Excess Code
One of the major problems with coding is excess code. Remember that the primary role of your website is to deliver useful content to your customers and attract more people. Excess code is therefore noise to your website. Again, your website will not rank well if 80 per cent is pure code, in fact, this is suspicious.
Removing excess code will improve the speed of your site significantly. An SEO professional in Singapore will help check for unnecessary plugins and even design elements that you really do not need. Overall, the website will be optimised to carry out its functions.
