A stunning website is great—but if no one finds it or it loads too slowly, it’s not doing its job.
At Chico Web Design, we often hear from businesses who invested in a beautifully designed site that simply doesn’t perform. It’s not showing up on Google. It’s taking too long to load. Or it’s clunky on mobile devices. The truth is, visual appeal is only one piece of the puzzle. A truly successful website also needs to be fast, technically sound, and optimized for search engines from the ground up.
Why SEO and Site Performance Matter
Search engines like Google consider technical performance, mobile responsiveness, and structured content when ranking websites. If your site isn’t built with these principles in mind, you’re likely missing out on organic traffic and potential leads. Worse, visitors who do find your site may bounce if it doesn’t load quickly or function properly on their device.
That’s why it’s crucial to ask your web designer or developer about how they handle technical SEO and performance optimization—before the project begins.
What to Look For in an SEO-Ready, High-Performing Website
Here’s what a well-optimized website should include:
✅ Optimized content structure: Pages should follow a hierarchy that makes sense for both humans and bots—improving both usability and SEO., or automation—we also offer full-scale web app development tailored to your business.
✅ Clean, search-friendly code: The backend of your site should be lean, organized, and easy for search engines to crawl.
✅ Proper use of heading tags and metadata: H1s, H2s, meta descriptions, and image alt text aren’t just for organization—they’re key to helping search engines understand your content.
✅ Fast load times: Compressed images, minimized scripts, and efficient hosting ensure that users (and search engines) aren’t kept waiting.
✅ Mobile responsiveness: With mobile traffic now dominating the web, your site must function flawlessly on all screen sizes and devices.
Onsite SEO vs. Offsite SEO: What’s the Difference?
To fully understand how to rank on Google, it’s important to know the difference between onsite and offsite SEO—and why both matter.
🏗️ Onsite SEO (Also called On-Page SEO)
This is everything that happens on your website to help search engines understand and rank your content. It includes:
- Proper use of title tags, meta descriptions, and headings
- Structuring content around target keywords
- Internal linking between related pages
- Alt text for images
- Fast load times and mobile responsiveness
- Clean, crawlable HTML structure
When we build your website, we make sure all of this is handled correctly from the start, so Google can easily find and understand your content.
🌐 Offsite SEO (Also called Off-Page SEO)
This refers to factors outside your website that affect how trustworthy and authoritative your site appears to search engines. Examples include:
- Backlinks (other reputable websites linking to yours)
- Social media signals
- Local citations and directories
- Online reviews and brand mentions
While we primarily focus on onsite SEO during web development, we also offer consulting and strategy around offsite SEO to help grow your site’s visibility over time.
Questions You Should Be Asking Your Developer
To avoid future headaches, ask your designer/developer the following:
- Will the website be optimized for search engines from day one?
- Do you submit the site to Google and help with setting up tools like Google Analytics and Search Console?
- Will you guide us on content structure and keyword placement?
- Are all images, scripts, and stylesheets optimized for speed?
- Is caching enabled, and are performance metrics tested before launch?
If you’re not asking these questions, you may end up paying for fixes later—or worse, losing valuable business.
We Build with SEO and Speed in Mind—Always
At Chico Web Design, we don’t just make websites that look amazing—we create websites that perform. Whether you’re a small business in Chico, Sacramento, or Reno, or you’re launching a major eCommerce platform in Lake Tahoe or Redding, we build every site with:
- Technical SEO best practices
- Mobile-first design
- Lightning-fast load times
- Scalable content architecture
- And optional tools like on-page SEO optimization, custom schema markup, and performance audits
We also offer custom web app development for clients who need something more powerful than a standard site—everything from directories to booking platforms and internal tools, all built to perform and scale.
Don’t Just Look Good—Be Found, Fast, and Functional
Your website is your digital storefront. It needs to load fast, rank well, and deliver an effortless user experience. Make sure your developer isn’t just handing you a pretty design, but a solid, search-optimized, high-performing platform that helps your business grow.
If you’re ready, Give us a call! 530.893.5257
Get a free quote HERE.