Building a New Website in PHP: 6 SEO Mistakes to Avoid From Day One

Why SEO Needs to Be Part of the Plan From Day One

A common and costly mistake among both new and existing website owners is finding a web designer first and bringing in an SEO specialist second. The problem is that nearly every decision made during a website build affects how well that site can eventually rank. Owners often spend a significant amount on a new website only to learn afterward that entire sections need to be rebuilt to support a proper SEO campaign. The six areas below are worth reviewing before development begins, not after the site has launched.

1. Domain Name Registration and Hosting

When you register your website's domain, consider registering it for a longer term rather than the minimum available. Domains registered for very short periods can raise flags with search engines, which may interpret a short-term registration as a sign the site exists mainly to link out and boost another site owned by the same person or company.

When choosing a domain name, avoid cramming it full of hyphens between keywords. The domain should read naturally and target your actual visitors, not just search engine algorithms.

2. Creating Static URLs

One of the most overlooked but important steps in a successful SEO campaign is eliminating dynamic parameters from your website's URLs. Static URLs make it far easier for search engine bots to crawl and index every page on your site. This is typically accomplished using the mod_rewrite command in the .htaccess file in your server's root folder.

For example:

• Dynamic URL to avoid: http://www.yoursite.com/listings.php?ref=22
• Static URL to aim for: http://www.yoursite.com/listings/22.html

Make sure any programmer or designer you hire understands upfront that clean, static URLs are a firm requirement of the job, not an optional extra.

3. Editing the Head Tag Correctly

There are three elements within the head tag that you or your SEO should be able to edit directly: the page title, the meta description, and the meta keywords tag. Having control over these on every top-level page (the pages linked directly from your homepage) is critical to how well your site performs in search results. These elements should never be identical across pages — each one should be unique and reflect the specific content on that page.

For pages generated in high volume, such as product or listing pages, your developer should build in a variable string for each of these three fields so they populate automatically with content of the right length that reflects the page it belongs to. This, too, should be treated as a firm requirement for whoever builds your site.

4. Keeping Code Clean and Simple

Ideally, all aesthetic styling on your site should live in a separate CSS file rather than being scattered through the HTML as font, size, and color tags. It's also worth avoiding PHP scripts that are unnecessarily long or that rely heavily on JavaScript where it isn't needed.

The most important thing your site can do for search engines is make it as easy as possible for bots to scroll through your code and follow every link. Unnecessary code and scripting make that process harder, which in turn can hurt your SEO campaign. Whoever builds your site should understand that their job includes outputting the cleanest, simplest code possible — if you're unsure whether this has been done properly, it's worth having an SEO specialist review it.

5. Making Sure Written Content Stays Editable

The written content on your site is one of the most important levers you or your SEO have for improving rankings over time. It's essential that this content can be edited easily and at your own convenience. Search engine algorithms and best practices change over time, and a strategy that worked when the site launched may need adjusting later — that's only possible if the content itself is easy to update.

6. Getting Site Structure Right the First Time

Given how PHP works, your site will likely (and should) be built using a series of includes that assemble each page from reusable pieces. Make sure the layout and placement of graphics and navigational links within those includes is planned strategically from the outset. Restructuring this later is far more expensive than getting it right during the initial build.

If any of this feels unfamiliar, it's worth consulting with an SEO specialist throughout the design process rather than after the site is finished. A good SEO partner will work comfortably alongside your design team to make sure the finished site is built to last and positioned to generate results over the long term.

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