Fixing Our Website’s SEO & Speed: Ahrefs, Google PageSpeed & Smart Optimizations

Introduction: Why We Decided to Optimize Our Website

When we finished developing our website, WeCanDevelopIT, everything seemed perfect. The design looked
sleek, the structure was well thought out, and the content was informative. However, when we ran performance tests, we realized things weren’t as great as we thought.
Google PageSpeed Insights, Ahrefs, and other tools showed that our loading speed and SEO optimization were far from ideal. Since our goal was to attract organic traffic, rather than relying heavily on paid ads, we knew what had to be done — website optimization.
Here’s how we tackled the issue and what results we achieved.

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Where We Started: Website Audit

Our first step was to connect Google Search Console, which allowed us to check how search engines indexed our pages and whether any critical issues were affecting our rankings. Next, we analyzed our site using Ahrefs, one of the most powerful SEO tools we use regularly. It helped us quickly identify technical errors, indexing issues, broken links, and more.

We also checked Google PageSpeed Insights, an essential tool that evaluates website performance on mobile and desktop devices. It not only provides a speed score but also gives detailed diagnostics on what needs improvement.

What Did We Discover?

After running the initial analysis, we found that our Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO scores were all at 100. This meant that, from a structural perspective, the site was well-optimized. However, one major issue stood out — Performance was significantly below expectations. This is where Ahrefs helped us pinpoint exactly which pages had issues and what needed to be fixed. With that information in hand, we moved on to the actual improvements.

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 What Did PageSpeed Insights Reveal?

Google PageSpeed Insights provided us with specific areas for improvement, including:

• Minimize main-thread work – Too much JavaScript processing was slowing down rendering.
• Reduce render-blocking resources – Some scripts and stylesheets were delaying page rendering.
  
• Reduce Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) time – The primary content of the page was loading too slowly, especially on mobile.
  
• Eliminate render-blocking resources – CSS and JavaScript were preventing the page from rendering quickly.

These issues were critical to site performance because they directly impacted loading speed and user experience. A slow website means higher bounce rates and lost potential customers. With these findings, we knew exactly where to focus and began implementing solutions.

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How We Optimized and Accelerated the Website

We didn’t just fix problems—we took a holistic approach to optimization, addressing both technical performance and SEO best practices.

Code and Content Optimization

• Code Splitting with Dynamic Imports – Heavy components now load only when needed, reducing initial load time.
  
• Lazy Loading for Images and Components – Content loads only when it becomes visible, cutting unnecessary requests.
  
• Next.js Image Optimization – All images were converted to WebP format, significantly reducing file size.
  
• Optimized GSAP Animations – We ensured GSAP  animations were used only where necessary to prevent performance slowdowns.

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SEO Optimization: A Full Overhaul

After tackling performance, we focused on deep SEO optimization, implementing:

• Meta tag improvements – Proper title, description, canonical tags, robots.txt, and sitemap.xml setup.
  
• Full blog interlinking – Blog articles were strategically linked to each other to improve site structure and SEO weight.
  
• Alt tags for all images – Search engines now better understand the content of our images.
  
• Enhanced Google Analytics tracking – We fine-tuned event tracking to gain more insights into user behavior.

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Fixing Ahrefs-Detected Issues

Ahrefs helped us uncover several critical SEO flaws that needed fixing:

• Canonical URL has no incoming internal links → We added internal links to important pages to boost their authority.
  
• HTTPS pages with internal links to HTTP → All internal links were updated to ensure secure connections.
  
• Orphan pages (no incoming links) → These pages were properly linked within the site structure to increase visibility.
• Pages linking to broken pages → Broken links were removed or replaced with valid ones.
  
• Pages without outgoing links → We added relevant outbound links to improve SEO trustworthiness.
  
• Pages linking to redirects → Unnecessary redirects were eliminated to speed up navigation.
  
• Pages with only one dofollow incoming link → We improved internal linking to help these pages rank better.

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Results: What We Achieved After the Improvements

 PageSpeed performance score improved to 90+ on Google PageSpeed Insights.

• SEO rankings increased, leading to higher organic traffic.
  
• Ahrefs issues resolved, ensuring better page discoverability.
  
• User experience improved, keeping visitors on the site longer.

After all these optimizations, our website is now faster, more SEO-friendly, and provides a better user experience.

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Need Help Optimizing Your Website? 

If your website is slow, poorly ranked, or struggling with SEO, we can help! At WeCanDevelopIT, we specialize in performance optimization, SEO improvements, and enhancing user experience. Contact us, and let’s take your website to the next level!

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