SEO for Software Developers
& Software Development CompaniesWhen companies need help developing custom software, they use a search engine to find a software development company.
Learn how you can use SEO and get more business for your software development firm.
What is SEO?
SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization, helps get your app development company’s website to appear in search engine results when people are searching for keywords like “freelance developer,” “software development engineer,” “custom software development” and other terms people enter when searching for mobile app programmers.
The Cost
What Does SEO for Software Developers Cost?
Help from a pro costs between $500-750 (or even more per month), and your actual cost will depend on the scope of the SEO engagement.
Many freelance and small software development companies need a more affordable solution. If you have some time to work on your marketing, consider a DIY SEO option for software development companies like the one offered by Jess. For $29 per month, you get step-by-step instructions that show you exactly how to optimize your software development company website yourself, analytics tracking that measures your results, and access to “Office Hours” webinars to get tips from our SEO experts.
How Does SEO Make My Software Development Website Rank Better?
SEO involves making many small changes to the pages on your website that makes them more likely to rank higher in the search engines. When users type in keywords, they are really asking questions. Pages that answer these questions better, load quickly, securely, and without errors, and are viewed as more trustworthy by search engines are more likely to rank higher.
In theory, it’s pretty straightforward, but it takes time to optimize your software development services website. It involves:
- Making sure your current website thoroughly describes all of your design, development, and QA services
- Improving user experience throughout your website
- Showing your website is authoritative and trustworthy
- Developing new content on your website that describes what makes your software development process different in more detail or that educates your prospects and customers about different platforms and technologies you support
The above outcomes are achieved through SEO tactics called on-page optimization, technical SEO, link building, and content development.
On-Page Optimization
Keyword Research
On-page optimization involves knowing what terms people use when searching for someone to create a new custom software and making sure you use these words and phrases on your site. The first step is keyword research which helps you know exactly what people are searching for and how often. “Software development” is the most popular keyword phrase people search for when they are looking for businesses like yours and “dev engineer” is the second most popular. It also helps to know about more specific keywords people use to search. For example, people search for custom software development as well as for help developing SAP and Oracle projects. Next, you place keywords on your page in your site’s title tag, meta description, page text, and headings. While there are plenty of keyword research tools and articles on how to title tags, you will get better results and save hours of time by hiring an SEO pro or leveraging a DIY SEO platform with suggestions specifically for small software designers and developers, like Jess.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO makes sure your site is fast, secure, and can be crawled by search engines. Google’s Page Experience that went live in June, 2021 makes technical SEO a bigger priority than ever. Contact the person who manages your website if your site isn’t secure or if it seems slow. They should be able to help you speed it up. You can also improve site speed yourself by editing images in your portfolio so they are as small as possible as well compressed and optimized for use on your mobile app company website.
Content Development
Most software development company websites are just a few pages. This doesn’t give you much space to tell search engines or your prospects much about your services and rates. If this describes you, consider adding some new pages to your website. Consider creating separate pages that go into detail about services like UX/UI, QA, and DevOps, if you offer them. Create a separate page to optimize for the software platforms and languages you support. Do you need help with your software development website’s SEO? Contact us for a free 30 minute consultation. We’re here to help you.