Effective SEO begins with understanding user intent through keyword research. Guessing keywords or buying lists often leads to targeting irrelevant terms. While local modifiers and good content are important, they must be informed by actual search data to be effective. Research ensures efforts align with real customer queries.

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is the industry-standard, recommended approach by Google for handling multi-device compatibility. It maintains a single URL, which is easier for users to share and for search engines to crawl, and provides a consistent experience. Separate mobile sites and apps add development and maintenance complexity, while simply increasing font size doesn’t solve all layout issues.

Duplicate or very similar thin content across multiple URLs can confuse search engines about which page to rank for a query, diluting ranking signals. This can lead to poorer performance for all affected pages. The solution isn’t necessarily deletion but could involve consolidating pages, improving them with unique content, or using canonical tags to indicate the preferred version.

A core goal of information architecture is to organize content logically and intuitively. An overloaded navigation menu creates cognitive overload, violating Hick’s Law, which states that the time to make a decision increases with the number of choices. This leads to a poor user experience, not technical errors, though site speed is a separate concern.

While ‘above the fold’ originates from print, it remains a relevant UX concept for web. It refers to the portion of a webpage visible without scrolling. This prime real estate should immediately communicate the page’s purpose and encourage engagement (e.g., with a strong headline or CTA). It is not outdated, but its implementation has evolved with varied screen sizes.

Image optimization is a fundamental web development task. Techniques like compression (saving in the correct format like WebP, adjusting quality settings) can drastically reduce file size while preserving acceptable visual integrity. This directly improves load times and Core Web Vitals scores. Removing the image or ignoring the problem are not balanced solutions.

While the primary purpose of alt text is accessibility for screen reader users, it also provides semantic meaning to search engine crawlers, which cannot ‘see’ images. This helps images appear in relevant image search results and can contribute to the page’s overall context for SEO. It does not affect loading speed or prevent broken images, though it is a best practice for compliance.

Clean, descriptive URLs (e.g., /services/web-design) are a UX and SEO best practice. They are human-readable, easier to share, and give users and search engines clues about the page content. A poorly structured URL (e.g., /page?id=48372) offers no context. While URL changes require proper 301 redirects to preserve equity, improving structure is a long-term benefit, not a technical penalty.

A theme or template separates the presentation layer (how the site looks) from the content and business logic. It controls the HTML structure, CSS styling, and often includes template tags to pull in dynamic content from the CMS database. This allows designers to change the site’s appearance without losing the underlying content.

Effective SEO begins with understanding user intent through keyword research. Guessing keywords or buying lists often leads to targeting irrelevant terms. While local modifiers and good content are important, they must be informed by actual search data to be effective. Research ensures efforts align with real customer queries.0