SEO for Developers: What Your IDE Doesn't Tell You

Most developers don't think about SEO until marketing asks, "Why aren't we ranking?" By then, it's often too late.

The Problem

AI coding assistants are great at building functionality, but they often skip: - Meta tags and page titles - OpenGraph images for social sharing - Semantic HTML structure - Alt text for images - robots.txt and sitemap.xml

These aren't just nice-to-haves. They're the difference between being discovered and being invisible.

Essential SEO for Every Page

1. Metadata In Next.js, every page should export metadata:

export const metadata = {
  title: 'Your Page Title | Brand',
  description: 'A compelling description under 160 characters',
};

2. OpenGraph Tags When someone shares your link on Twitter or LinkedIn:

export const metadata = {
  openGraph: {
    title: 'Your Share Title',
    description: 'What appears in the social preview',
    images: ['/og-image.png'],
  },
};

3. Semantic HTML Replace `<div>` with appropriate elements: - `<main>` for primary content - `<article>` for blog posts - `<nav>` for navigation - `<header>` and `<footer>` appropriately

4. Image Alt Text Every `<img>` and Next.js `<Image>` needs an `alt` attribute. Not just for SEO — for accessibility.

Check Your SEO Automatically

ProdReady scans for 15+ SEO issues including missing metadata, default favicons, and broken semantic structure.

Scan your site now →