SEO strategies don’t usually fail because of poor insight. They fail because fixes don’t get implemented.  

Every unimplemented SEO fix is a compounding tax on your marketing budget. 

Regular SEO audits can highlight critical issues and provide you with a list of actions and fixes to improve search performance and address problems with your site, but improving performance relies on being able to tick those items off your to-do list.  

The problem isn’t knowing what to implement. It’s who is expected to do it. Some technical tasks to do with SEO are often handed to the development team by default, even when many fixes don’t actually require developer input.  

Many tasks in your SEO to-do list can be checked off by your marketing and content teams, saving time and achieving faster results. Embracing this practice of “no-dev SEO” is the single best way to clear your backlog and improve your performance. 

What is no-dev SEO? 

No-dev SEO tasks are those that don’t require coding expertise or an understanding of programming languages to action. In fact, many items on your list can be completed in your content management system (CMS). This includes changes to content for on-page SEO, updating off-page elements, and using plugins and third-party tools to conduct SEO tasks.  

Because no-dev SEO doesn’t require developer resource, you’ll find you can mark them as done quicker, giving your search performance a boost. 

What’s clogging up your SEO backlog?
A typical SEO backlog will usually include technical fixes, optimisations, and content updates. These are identified in site audits and form part of a wider marketing strategy to boost rankings, visibility, traffic, engagement, and conversions.  

Common tasks you might see in your SEO backlog include: 

  • fixing broken links 
  • optimising title tags and headings 
  • implementing schema markup 
  • improving keyword optimisation 
  • implementing HTTPS 
  • fixing server errors 
  • analysing user behaviour. 

How can no-dev SEO help clear your backlog? 

No-dev SEO helps clear your backlog by understanding how your marketing team owns many of the actions in your list. 

Content marketers with access to and experience of using a CMS can complete a wide variety of SEO tasks, from improving headers and metadata to enhancing internal linking and images, along with many on-page SEO elements. 

Sharing the workload enables developers to spend valuable time on specialist tasks, and can unlock items that have been in your SEO backlog for some time. 

Technical no-dev SEO 

When you think of technical SEO, you probably think of complex actions that require code changes. But let’s explore some technical no-dev SEO tasks that can be completed without developer time. 

Redirecting broken links 

Broken links usually lead users and search engines down dead ends to 404 errors, which are damaging to performance and user experience. They often appear after restructuring your website, changing or removing pages, or linking to external URLs that have been updated. 

Applying 301 redirects and fixing or removing broken links are SEO maintenance tasks you’ll regularly need to do. And it doesn’t always need a developer. Use the Ahrefs Broken Link Checker to identify any broken links on your site. From there, you can: 

  • Change the URL the internal link points to or apply a 301 redirect. 
  • Delete links to external pages that have been removed. 

Indexing pages

Pages need to be indexed so your content is discoverable by search engines and users. Check if pages are indexed in Google Search Console (GSC) with the URL Inspection tool. If they’re not, you can submit a page for indexing within the tool. 

Your backlog may also include instances where you want to no-index a page. For example, if it’s a new product page that’s not on sale yet, or a page that’s too thin and waiting for more content. You can also do this without developer resource in GSC. 

Adding schema markup 

Applying structured data and schema markup may sound like work for a developer, particularly as it involves code that helps search engines better understand elements of your content, such as product prices, inventory status, reviews, and FAQs. 

However, it is possible to add schema markup without developers. Google’s schema markup validator helps test your structured data for a specific URL. Many content management systems, like WordPress, also offer plugins that help create and add relevant schema markup. 

Improving page speed

Loading speed is vital for user experience, whether users access your site via desktop, mobile, tablet, or any other device. Page speed matters to businesses, with websites that take longer than two or three seconds to load said to lose around 40% of traffic.  

Page speed can also impact rankings, so ensuring speedy loading is essential for strong performance. You can check this using PageSpeed Insights — simply paste in a URL to analyse its current loading speed on mobile and desktop. 

If your site is running slow, there are a few simple things you can try to improve it before checking again, including: 

  • Stop any videos from auto-playing
  • Compress large images
  • Remove unused and redundant plugins. 

Cleaning up URLs

Improving URL structures can involve improving the logical organisation of pages (such as product and category pages) or cleaning and shortening slugs to make them more SEO-friendly. 

This task can often be done without dev time, too. Update URLs in your CMS. Just ensure any required redirects are in place and reindex the page if needed. 

Setting canonical URLs

If your SEO audit has flagged any duplicate content on your site, you’ll want to indicate which is the primary page. Duplicate content should be removed, but it can be unavoidable when using templated content or syndication. 

Many SEO plugins let you set a canonical URL to designate the primary page without the need for code updates.  

On-page no-dev SEO 

While there are likely to be technical fixes throughout your SEO backlog, many other common items are more closely linked to on-page content. 

Let’s take a look at some common on-page no-dev SEO tasks your team can clear to reduce your SEO backlog.    

Improving content quality

Tweaking and updating content to improve quality includes assessing existing pages to check they’re relevant, valuable, demonstrate expertise, meet search intent, and are user-led.  

Ensuring your content is unique and satisfies Google’s “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness” (EEAT) framework” while being helpful for readers increases its value to the target audience. High-quality content has a better chance of ranking in the SERPs and being surfaced and cited by LLMs.   

Check pages have a logical heading structure, use bullet points to improve readability, and use compact paragraphs to demonstrate chunking, which is helpful for AI search. In most cases, you can make these updates via your CMS. 

Consolidating thin and duplicate content

Identify examples of duplicate or thin content and determine if they can be combined with other pages to improve depth and remove duplication, or whether they simply need to be removed and redirected. 

Duplicate content causes issues because it’s not unique, and search engines struggle to determine which page to prioritise and rank, while thin content doesn’t provide enough information to satisfy user intent and EEAT, so removing and consolidating is key. 

Optimising headings and metadata 

Optimising headers and metadata is a common SEO quick-win. It involves optimising on-page headers for keywords, removing multiple H1s and improving the structure of header tags across the page, and updating meta titles to make them more engaging. Most of these can be quickly updated in your CMS to boost performance. 

Boosting internal linking

Adding relevant internal links in your content helps boost performance by allowing search engines to comprehend your website’s structure and identify important pages. Good internal links also drive user journeys and direct them towards related content, products, and services. 

Ensure your pages link to relevant and logical next steps and use clear anchor text. 

Improving optimisation

Keyword research helps identify what you should optimise a page for – whether it’s new or existing. This aims to increase your page’s ranking positions in the SERP and improve visibility. It’s a job many content marketers can complete without developer input. 

Assess the relevance and realistic ranking opportunity of each keyword for mapped pages. From there, content marketing teams can optimise for keywords within the metadata, headers, and body copy where they fit naturally. 

Professional help for your SEO backlog 

SEO backlogs are common, with tasks varying in size, complexity, and time requirements. But the right SEO strategy helps prioritise and clear your backlog to optimise performance. 

Get in touch today to discuss your project.