Source code

Software plays a big role in most businesses. It is important that the software you work with is of quality. To strive to achieve this, it is good to know how the website is put together. What makes your website come about? It starts with the foundation of a Web site: the source code. In this article, we will tell you what the structure of a source code is and its importance for SEO.

What is the source code of a website?

A website looks the same to every visitor. But what causes us all to see the same Web site? The answer can be found in the source code. It is an important piece of text that shows the Web site browser what a page should look like. Every Web site consists of codes that make the Web site a whole. In short, a source code is the original text from which software is created. (1)

The foundation of a web page

Source code is the foundation of a Web page. It is the code that translates a piece of text into the website with the correct layout. Programmers create this code. Errors are easily identified through the source code. The source code is error-prone. It is therefore crucial to handle it with precision. As soon as errors are made in the code, your website goes offline.

Website optimization

Google regularly crawls your Web page and measures it against several factors. With this information, your web page gets a rating from Google. The higher the rating given, the higher your position within Google’s search results. The goal of website optimization is to obtain the highest possible ranking. Since source code is the foundation of your website, it is very important that it is well put together and free of errors.

The importance of building your source code

As just discussed, Google uses an algorithm to rate your Web page. The higher the rating the higher your position in Google. How exactly does that algorithm work? There are many factors Google takes into account. We discuss three that are relevant:

  • Keyword weighting: At what position are important keywords incorporated into the texts of your website?
  • Keyword frequency: How often do the relevant keywords appear in the texts on your website?
  • Keyword saturation: The degree to which relevant keywords are incorporated into the texts of your website.(2)

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the structure of your source code is very important for several factors related to keywords. It is important that the foundation of the website, the source code, is ironclad. After all, it’s what you build the rest of the website on. Optimizing the source code in turn results in higher rankings on Google. For this reason, it is advisable to update the source code when the factors within Google change.

Resources

  1. Wallask, S. (2023, Jan. 3). source code. App Architecture. https://www.techtarget.com/searchapparchitecture/definition/source-code
  2. Github. (s.d.). GitHub – github/semantic: Parsing, analyzing, and comparing source code across many languages. GitHub. https://github.com/github/semantic

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Source Code?

The source code is the foundation of your website. Often you also hear the English translation, source code. It shows what pages will look like. You can think of it as a kind of translation engine that the Web browser uses to load your Web site correctly and in the right layout and display it on the screen. Source code includes HTML code developed by the website builder.

What is the impact of Source Code on SEO?

Good quality source code will ensure that you get a good rating and thus higher ranking. In fact, when Google crawls your website, the technical state of the site is one of the things it looks at.

Senior SEO-specialist

Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
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I have been working for 10 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 19 April 2024. The last update of this article was on 19 April 2024. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.