Implement technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices to improve your site's visibility on search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. While much of SEO involves content strategy, technical SEO is the developer's domain. It starts with using semantic HTML tags (`<main>`, `<nav>`, `<article>`, etc.) to give search engines context about your page structure. Properly configuring the `<head>` of your HTML is crucial; this includes a unique and descriptive `<title>` tag and a compelling `<meta name="description">` tag, as these are often shown in search results. The Open Graph protocol (`<meta property="og:title">`, etc.) controls how your content appears when shared on social media. Other key technical aspects include creating a `sitemap.xml` file to help search crawlers find all your pages, ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, and optimizing for performance (page speed is a ranking factor). For JavaScript-heavy applications, understanding the difference between Client-Side Rendering (CSR) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is vital, as SSR often makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.