Web Development Vs. SEO

Do Web Developers Do SEO?

Some developers also do SEO, but not all of them. From the outside looking in, they might seem like relatively similar services, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Web development generally focuses on the coding required to build and customize a website. search engine optimization, however, is focused on the content the website puts out. 

The main thing that developers and SEO professionals share in common, however, is that their creations must be geared to be accessible for everyone. Meaning a developer must create a website that anyone can easily use. Likewise, a search engine optimization expert must create content that provides value and answers any possible question the user may have. Developers can absolutely execute an SEO strategy however, and it's especially common during a redesign process as well.

How Is Web Development Different From SEO?

SEO and website development are similar only in that they both try to satisfy the need of their users, but other than that, they are nothing alike. SEO focuses on creating quality and relevant traffic that will bring in relevant and quality leads. Website development, however, focuses primarily on creating unique and powerful functionality that improves the users' experience and the business's bottom line.

Web developers focus on writing custom code to create customized applications, systems, and websites, whereas SEO is a way to organize and systematize content creation to gain more organic traffic.

Should I learn SEO or Web Development?

The choice to learn SEO or web development depends on your goals. Do you want to write code and learn to create custom websites, plugins, and functionality from scratch, or do you want to create quality content that gets businesses valuable traffic?

If time is an issue, SEO can be learned much more quickly than web development. Learning to build websites will require you to have a decent computer, download and familiarize yourself with an IDE, learn to be proficient with several different languages (HTML, CSS, JS/PHP), etc.

On the other hand, search engine optimization can be learned after learning HTML, how Google works, and how SEO works. It is more complicated than this, but that's all you would need to do to learn SEO. I would say that to be proficient in either would take about a year. However, the time you would need to invest in website development to learn it in a year would easily double or triple that of learning SEO.

Both are lucrative career choices, but which is best for you ultimately is determined by you. I would say that if you learn front end development, you can much more easily learn about SEO. SEO in its entirety is a lot in and of itself and will take a long time to learn, regardless, but it will be much easier if you already have a development background.

Is Digital Marketing Better Than Web Development?

Which is better ultimately depends on the topic at hand. Digital marketing is better for a career because it is easier to pivot to owning your own business. Web dev alone will always be an employed career choice unless you learn design alongside it. If you learn both design & development, then I would say that web development would make more sense. But this, of course, comes down to your goals. Based on my experience, the choice between digital marketing and development does not need to be made. Why? Because if you learn development, design & search engine optimization, you can do both - digital marketing and development.

Conclusion

Web dev vs. search engine optimization ultimately comes down to what makes the most sense for you. Some people will prefer content creation & marketing, and will learn towards SEO, others want to have complete control over applications and functionality and will prefer development. Neither is wrong, and the choice is yours. We hope this article helped you determine which makes the most sense for you! If you want to learn more, we have articles about custom search engine optimization strategies, as well as how to balance everything in your campaign. We even have an article on how organic search consulting can help your business grow!