- Responsive design
- The page layout automatically adjusts to the screen size, so it stays usable on phones, tablets and desktops alike. Most visitors now arrive on mobile, so this isn't an extra, it's a basic requirement.
- Core Web Vitals
- Three metrics Google measures about the loading experience: when the main content appears (LCP), how stable the layout is (CLS) and how quickly the interface responds (INP). They also play a role in rankings.
- Structured data (schema.org)
- Machine-readable markup in the page's HTML code that tells search engines and AI answer engines exactly whether they're looking at a company, a service or a question-and-answer pair. It's what allows a rich result to appear in search.
- CMS: content management system
- The interface through which the page's content can be edited without any programming knowledge. When requesting a quote, it's worth asking whether the finished website comes with one and how much you can really do with it.
- 301 redirect
- A signal to the browser and search engines that a page has permanently moved. When you replace a website, this is how the search value of the old addresses is passed on to the new ones. Leave it out, and traffic to previously well-performing pages can vanish too.
- WebP and AVIF
- Modern image formats that offer the same visual quality at a fraction of the file size of the old JPEG. Images make up most of an average page's weight, so this is one of the biggest speed gains available.
- CDN: content delivery network
- A geographically distributed server network that serves the page's elements from the point closest to the visitor. It speeds things up and also protects against overload attacks.
- SSL certificate
- Provides an encrypted connection between the visitor and the server, which is why the address starts with https and why the browser doesn't show a “not secure” warning. It's mandatory for any business website with a form.
- AEO: answer engine optimisation
- An extension of classic SEO to AI-based answer engines. Its aim is for the company to appear as a source even when the user receives a ready-made answer to their question instead of a list of results.