by The Computing Australia Group | SEO Code
Optimisation
Optimising your website’s source code is one of the most powerful – and most overlooked – on-page SEO tactics. Even if your content is excellent, messy or poorly structured code can hold back your rankings, confuse search engines, and frustrate users.
During technical SEO audits, source-code issues come up again and again: missing title tags, duplicated headings, bloated scripts, incorrect canonical tags… the list goes on. The good news? Most of these problems are fixable with a structured approach.
This guide walks you through how to optimise your website’s source code for better SEO visibility, stronger user experience, and more search traffic.
1. What does “optimising your source code” actually mean?
Your source code is the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other files that browsers and search engines use to render your web pages. When you right-click a page and choose “View page source” (or press Ctrl + U), you’re looking at the underlying instructions powering that page.
From an SEO point of view, code optimisation means:
- Making it easy for search engines to understand what each page is about
- Ensuring your pages are crawlable and indexable
- Highlighting key SEO elements correctly (titles, headings, structured data, internal links, canonical tags, etc.)
- Avoiding duplication, technical errors, and bloat that slow down or confuse crawlers
In simple terms: source-code optimisation is about helping search engines and humans read, understand and trust your website.
2. How search engines use your source code
Before we dive into specific elements, it helps to understand how search engines see your site:
1. Crawl – Bots (crawlers) follow links and request your pages.
2. Render – They process your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build a representation of the page (the DOM).
3. Index – They extract key signals (content, links, tags, structured data) and store them.
4. Rank – They use these signals (plus many others) to decide where to place your pages in search results.
If your source code is poorly structured, missing key tags, or heavily dependent on JavaScript, crawlers may:
- Misunderstand what the page is about
- Miss important content or links
- Waste crawl budget on duplicate, low-value or unimportant URLs
That’s why clean, optimised HTML with clear signals is crucial for SEO.
3. Key SEO elements in your source code
Search engines rely heavily on specific HTML elements to understand your pages. Let’s go through the most important ones and how to optimise each.
3.1 Title tag optimisation
Your title tag is one of the strongest on-page ranking signals. It appears:
- In the <title> element in your HTML <head>
- As the main clickable headline in search results (unless Google rewrites it)
- In browser tabs and some social previews
Best practices for title tags
- Make titles unique for every page
Each page on your site should have a distinct
- Aim for 50–60 characters
Google generally displays titles in this range. Longer titles may be truncated.
- Include your primary keyword naturally
Ideally near the beginning:
How to Optimise Your Website Source Code for SEO | Brand Name
- Optional: add your brand to important pages
For home pages and key landing pages, appending your brand can help:
SEO Source Code Optimisation Services | Brand Name
- Avoid keyword stuffing
Bad:
SEO, SEO Services, SEO Company, SEO Perth, SEO Experts
Good:
SEO Source Code Optimisation Tips for Better Rankings
- Align the title with the page’s actual content
Misleading titles may get clicks but will increase bounce rate and reduce trust.
3.2 Meta description optimisation
A meta description is an HTML element that summarises the content of a page for users and search engines:
<meta name=”description” content=”Short summary of what this page is about.”>
It usually appears as the descriptive text under the title in search results. While it’s not a direct ranking factor, it strongly influences click-through rate (CTR), which can indirectly impact SEO performance.
Best practices for meta descriptions
- Ideal length: 130–160 characters
Long enough to be informative, short enough to avoid truncation.
- Include your primary keyword and related terms naturally
So users see immediate relevance to their query.
- Communicate value and benefits
Focus on the problem you solve or outcome you provide, not just a generic description.
- Include a subtle call-to-action (CTA)
e.g. “Learn how…”, “Discover…”, “Get practical tips…”
- Make each description unique
Duplicate descriptions across many pages are a wasted opportunity.
3.3 Heading structure (H1–H6)
Your heading tags (<h1> to <h6>) organise the content of your page. They help both users and search engines understand the hierarchy and key topics.
H1 tag – your main heading
- Each page should normally have one primary <h1>
- It should summarise what the page is about in plain language
- Include your primary keyword naturally
- Avoid generic H1s like “Home” or “Blog”
Example H1
<h1>How to Optimise Your Website Source Code for SEO Visibility</h1>
Subheadings (H2–H6)
- Use <h2> for main sections, <h3> for subsections, and so on
- Break long content into digestible chunks
- Use descriptive headings that hint at what’s in the section
- Naturally include secondary keywords where they fit
Good structure example
<h1>How to Optimise Your Website Source Code for SEO Visibility</h1>
<h2>Why Source Code Matters for SEO</h2>
<h2>Optimising Key HTML Elements</h2>
<h3>Title Tags</h3>
<h3>Meta Descriptions</h3>
<h3>Headings and Subheadings</h3>
<h2>Improving Code Performance for Better Rankings</h2>
This logical structure makes life easier for both readers and crawlers.
3.4 Internal links and anchor text
Your source code contains all your internal links – and how you structure them is crucial for SEO.
Internal links help:
- Search engines discover and crawl more pages
- Spread link equity (PageRank) across your site
- Show which pages are most important
- Guide users to related content
Best practices
- Use descriptive anchor text
Instead of “click here”, use text like:
Learn more about technical SEO best practices
- Link to relevant pages only
Internal links should feel natural and helpful, not forced.
- Give important pages more internal links
Your key service pages, cornerstone content and high-value resources should receive more internal links from other pages.
- Check for broken links regularly
404 errors waste crawl budget and create a poor user experience.
3.5 Nofollow, sponsored & UGC attributes
Not every link on your site should pass SEO value. For transparency and to comply with search engine guidelines, use the correct rel attributes:
- rel="nofollow" – for links you don’t want to endorse
- rel="sponsored" – for paid or sponsored links
- rel="ugc" – for user-generated content (comments, forums, etc.)
3.6 Alt text for images
Image alt attributes describe what an image is about. They help:
- Search engines understand your images
- Users who rely on screen readers
- Provide fallback text if images fail to load
Best practices for alt text
- Be descriptive and specific
Describe what’s in the image and how it relates to the content.
- Include relevant keywords naturally
But avoid stuffing keywords or using the same alt text everywhere.
- Skip decorative images
For purely decorative images, you can use empty alt attributes: alt=””
- Focus on user meaning, not file name
Don’t just repeat the file name in the alt text.
For e-commerce sites, alt text is particularly important for product images as they can appear in image search and shopping results.
3.7 Canonical URL tags
Canonical tags help search engines understand which version of a page is the preferred (canonical) URL, especially when you have similar or duplicate content.
When to use canonical tags
- Product pages with variants (colour, size) that generate different URLs
- Filter or sort parameters (e.g. ?sort=price or ?colour=blue)
- Print versions of pages
- Content accessible via multiple URL paths
Best practices
- Point the canonical tag to the cleanest, most complete version of the page
- Avoid self-conflicting canonicals (don’t point each variant to a different canonical)
- Ensure canonical URLs actually return a 200 status, not 404 or 301
- Don’t use canonical tags as a band-aid for serious duplication issues – fix at template/architecture level where possible
3.8 Robots meta tags and index control
Beyond robots.txt, you can control indexing behaviour directly in your source code using the robots meta tag:
<meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”>
- index, follow – default; page can be indexed, links followed
- noindex, follow – page not indexed, but links can still be followed
- noindex, nofollow – page not indexed, links not followed
Use noindex on:
- Thin content pages
- Duplicate or near-duplicate pages
- Internal search results pages
- Certain system or utility pages you don’t want in search
Be consistent and careful-accidentally adding noindex to important templates (like blog posts or products) can pull large sections of your site out of the index.
3.9 Structured data (schema markup)
Structured data is code you add to your pages to help search engines better understand your content and potentially unlock rich results (stars, FAQs, breadcrumbs, product info, etc.).
The most common format is JSON-LD, placed in theor:
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Article”,
“headline”: “How to Optimise Your Website Source Code for SEO Visibility”,
“description”: “Guide to improving your website source code for better SEO performance.”,
“author”: {
“@type”: “Organization”,
“name”: “Your Company Name”
},
“datePublished”: “2025-01-01”
}
</script>
Useful schema types for SEO:
- Article / BlogPosting for blog content
- Product for e-commerce pages
- Organization and LocalBusiness for brand and local SEO
- FAQPage for FAQ sections
- BreadcrumbList for breadcrumb navigation
Structured data doesn’t replace good content, but it enhances how that content appears in search results.
3.10 Social meta tags (Open Graph & Twitter Cards)
While not strictly SEO ranking factors, social meta tags affect how your pages look when shared on social platforms.
Key tags:
<meta property=”og:title” content=”How to Optimise Your Website Source Code for SEO Visibility”>
<meta property=”og:description” content=”Learn how to improve your website source code for higher rankings and better user experience.”>
<meta property=”og:image” content=”https://www.example.com/images/source-code-seo-guide.png”>
<meta property=”og:url” content=”https://www.example.com/seo/source-code-optimisation/”>
<meta name=”twitter:card” content=”summary_large_image”>
Better previews can lead to more shares and traffic, which support your overall visibility.
4. Performance and code quality: SEO by stealth
Search engines increasingly reward websites that are fast, stable and mobile-friendly. Many of these performance wins come directly from improvements to your source code.
4.1 Minify and compress your files
- Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to remove unnecessary characters (spaces, comments)
- Enable GZIP or Brotli compression on your server
- Combine smaller files where appropriate to reduce HTTP requests
These changes are often configured at the build or server level, but you can usually see the results in your source code (shorter, cleaner scripts and styles).
4.2 Optimise images in code
- Use modern formats where supported (e.g. WebP, AVIF)
- Specify width and height attributes to reduce layout shifts
- Implement lazy loading for below-the-fold images:
<img src=”image.jpg” alt=”…” loading=”lazy”>
4.3 Reduce render-blocking resources
- Move non-critical JS to the bottom of the page or load it asynchronously:
<script src=”script.js” defer></script>
- Inline critical CSS or use media queries so the browser can paint the page faster
4.4 Make JavaScript SEO-friendly
If your content is heavily dependent on JavaScript:
- Ensure your main content and links are rendered reliably without complex user interaction
- Where possible, render critical content server-side or use hybrid rendering (SSR/ISR)
- Avoid hiding important content behind tab clicks or events that crawlers may not trigger
5. Practical workflow: how to optimise your source code step-by-step
Here’s a simple process you can follow, whether you’re an SEO specialist, developer, or website owner.If your content is heavily dependent on JavaScript:
Step 1: Audit your current pages
- Use “View page source” and DevTools to check key templates
- Manually inspect a sample of important pages (home, key services, top blogs, product pages)
- Check for:
- Missing/duplicate titles and H1s
- Weak or missing meta descriptions
- Poor heading hierarchy
- Missing image alt attributes
- Incorrect or missing canonical tags
- Unintended noindex or nofollow tags
- Excessive inline styles or scripts
Step 2: Fix issues at template level
Where possible, make changes at the template or CMS level, not one page at a time:
- Set sensible default patterns for titles and meta descriptions
- Ensure your CMS outputs a single H1 per page
- Add default or conditional logic for canonical tags
- Configure image fields to require alt text
- Inject structured data for certain content types automatically
Step 3: Clean up internal linking
- Add contextual internal links to cornerstone pages from related articles
- Update menus, footers and sidebars to reflect your content priorities
- Remove or update broken links
Step 4: Implement and test structured data
- Add JSON-LD for your most important page types
- Use testing tools (e.g. structured data validators) to catch errors
- Roll out templates across whole content types, then refine
Step 5: Monitor and iterate
- Track changes in impressions, clicks, rankings and crawl stats
- Continue refining titles and descriptions based on click-through data
- Review new pages regularly to ensure they follow your optimised structure
6. Common source-code mistakes that hurt SEO
Watch out for these frequent issues:
- Multiple H1 tags used for styling instead of structure
- Missing or duplicate <title> tags across large numbers of pages
- Meta “keywords” still being used instead of focusing on real signals
- Canonicals pointing to the wrong domain or HTTP/HTTPS variant
- Cloned content with no canonical or noindex
- Heavy inline styles and scripts cluttering HTML
- Important content loaded only after a user action (e.g. button click)
- Unintended noindex meta tags on money pages
- Alt text stuffed with keywords or identical across all images
7. Quick checklist for source-code SEO
Use this as a mini audit:
- Every important page has a unique, descriptive <title> (50–60 characters)
- Each page has a unique <meta name="description"> with a clear value proposition
- One clear <h1> per page, with a logical H2–H3 hierarchy
- Internal links use descriptive anchor text and point to relevant pages
- Image tags include meaningful alt attributes (except purely decorative images)
- Canonical tags are present where needed and point to correct URLs
- Robots meta tags are used intentionally (no accidental noindex)
- Structured data is implemented for key page types and validates correctly
- Unnecessary scripts, styles and code bloat are removed or minimised
- Pages load quickly and pass Core Web Vitals where possible
Canonical URL tag
This is a powerful tool to identify duplicate content. Canonical URL tags are used mainly for e-commerce sites, as you may need to create different pages for your products using the same content with minor differences such as colour or variety of the item. Adding these tags to each page variation would help search engines recognise the main/ original page from a group of pages with similar URLs.
Is your website code optimised for SEO? Contact us or drop an email to us at sales@computingaustralia.group and let’s find out.
Jargon Buster
HTML codes – HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) are codes used to structure a web page and its content.
Anchor text – refers to the visible, clickable words in a hyperlink. It is of a different colour than the surrounding text and sometimes underlined.
No-follow links – Links with no follow tags tell search engines to ignore that link for SEO or page ranking calculations.
FAQ
How often should I review my website’s source code for SEO?
At least twice a year, and whenever you make major changes-such as redesigns, CMS migrations, or new themes. A quick spot-check of new templates before launch can prevent serious SEO issues.
