Technical SEO involves optimizing your website's technical aspects to help search engines crawl, index, and rank your site more effectively. Important elements of technical SEO include crawling, indexing, rendering, and website architecture.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages. It can also help increase your visibility and rankings in search engines.
Why Is Technical SEO Important?
At the basic level, Google and other search engines need to be able to find, crawl, render, and index the pages on your website. The easier you make it for Google to access your content, the better chances your content will have to rank
How complicated is technical SEO?
It depends. The fundamentals aren’t difficult to master, but technical SEO can be complex and hard to understand the deeper you dive into a website.
Here’s a breakdown of what beginners should focus on when it comes to improving their website:
Technical SEO Best Practices
1. Website Speed Optimization
Page speed is a ranking factor for both mobile and desktop devices.Both search engines and users like fast websites. Google has stated that page speed is a direct ranking factor, meaning the faster sites will outrank slower sites. Ensure your site loads as quickly as possible.
- Why it matters: Search engines like Google prioritize websites that load quickly. Slow websites can lead to higher bounce rates, negatively affecting rankings.
- How to improve it:
- Test Speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to test your site’s speed.
- Optimize Images: Compress images without sacrificing quality using tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim.
- Enable Caching: Set up caching to store static files locally so they don't need to be reloaded each time a user visits.
- Minify Resources: Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files to reduce their size and improve loading times.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs like Cloudflare can distribute your content across multiple servers worldwide, reducing load times.
2. Mobile-Friendliness
A mobile-friendly website, also known as a mobile-responsive website, is designed to load quickly, display properly, and offer seamless navigation on mobile and tablet devices, just like it does on a desktop. Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices.
- Why it matters: Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it prioritizes the mobile version of your site for ranking.
- How to improve it:
- Responsive Design: Ensure your site adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes.
- Test Mobile Usability: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your site passes.
- Avoid Flash: Make sure your site uses modern technologies like HTML5 and CSS for better compatibility with mobile devices.
3. Site Architecture and URL Site Structure
Site structure is how all pages on your website are organized.Your website should adopt a flat hierarchy, meaning that any page on your website should only be 1-3 clicks away from the home page.
- Why it matters: A clear and logical site structure helps search engines crawl your pages easily and understand the hierarchy of content.
- How to improve it:
- Use Clear URL Structures: URLs should be descriptive and concise, avoiding unnecessary characters. For example: com/seo-tips instead of example.com/post?id=12345.
- Silo Structure: Group related content together using categories and subcategories, making it easier for search engines to understand the relevance of each page.
- Breadcrumbs: Add breadcrumb navigation to your site to improve the user experience and internal linking.
4. Crawlability and Indexability
Crawling is where search engines grab content from pages and use the links on them to find even more pages. There are a few ways you can control a crawl of your website.
A robots.txt file tells Google which parts of the site it should access and which ones it shouldn’t.
- Why it matters: If search engines can’t crawl or index your pages, they can’t rank them.
- How to improve it:
- Create a Robots.txt File: This file tells search engines which pages they are allowed or disallowed to crawl. Make sure it’s not blocking important pages.
- Submit XML Sitemap: Use an XML sitemap to help search engines discover all your pages. You can generate this using plugins (like Yoast SEO for WordPress) or online tools (like XML-sitemaps.com).
- Check for Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to check if Googlebot is having trouble crawling any of your pages. Fix 404 errors or broken links.
5. HTTPS and SSL Certificates
Hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) is a secured version of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and it has been a ranking signal since 2014. This helps protect sensitive user information like passwords and credit card details from being compromised.
- Why it matters: Google considers HTTPS a ranking factor, and users trust secure websites more.
- How to improve it:
- Install an SSL Certificate. This encrypts data between the user's browser and your server, changing your site’s URL from http:// to https://.
- Redirect HTTP to HTTPS: Make sure all HTTP traffic is automatically redirected to the secure HTTPS version of your site.
6. Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Structured data (schema markup) is a type of code that helps search engines better understand your content. It also enables features that can make your website stand out in search results, such as rich snippets and enhanced search listings.
- Why it matters: Structured data helps search engines understand your content better and can result in rich snippets (like star ratings, FAQs, etc.) appearing in search results.
- How to improve it:
- Use Schema Markup: Implement schema.org markup for things like articles, reviews, events, and products. You can add this manually or use plugins for platforms like WordPress (e.g., Yoast SEO or Schema Pro).
- Test with Google's Structured Data Testing Tool: Ensure your markup is correct and well-implemented.
7. Canonical Tags
When Google finds similar content on multiple pages on your site, it sometimes doesn’t know which of these pages to index and show within search results. The canonical tag (rel="canonical") is an HTML element used to indicate the preferred or original version of a webpage when there are multiple pages with similar or duplicate content. By adding this tag to the <head> section of a webpage, it signals to Google and other search engines which version of the page should be indexed and considered the authoritative source.
- Why it matters: Duplicate content can confuse search engines and cause ranking issues. Canonical tags tell search engines the "preferred" version of a page to index and rank.
- How to improve it:
8. Internal Linking
Internal links help users navigate the site, establish a clear site structure, and allow search engines to crawl and index content effectively. They help your pages be found and also help the pages rank better.
- Why it matters: Internal links help search engines discover content and understand the relationship between different pages on your site. They also improve the user experience by guiding visitors to relevant pages.
- How to improve it:
- Use Descriptive Anchor Text: Link relevant pages using clear, keyword-rich anchor text.
- Link Deep: Link to deeper pages (not just the homepage or category pages) to help search engines discover more of your content.
9. Fixing Broken Links and Redirects
Having broken pages on your website negatively affects user experience.Broken pages reduce site navigation efficiency, potentially causing users to abandon your site and seek alternatives.
- Why it matters: Broken links and improper redirects can harm your site's user experience and SEO.
- How to improve it:
- Fix 404 Errors: Use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify and fix broken links.
- Implement 301 Redirects: If you move or delete a page, use a 301 redirect to send visitors and search engines to a new page, preventing 404 errors.
10. Tracking with Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Tracking your website's performance using Google Analytics and Google Search Console is crucial for SEO.By using both tools together, you can monitor your website’s SEO performance effectively.
- Why it matters: These tools help you monitor your website's performance, identify issues, and improve your SEO efforts.
- How to improve it:
- Set Up Google Analytics: Track user behavior, traffic sources, and other important metrics.
- Set Up Google Search Console: Monitor your site’s search performance, identify crawl errors, and submit sitemaps.
11. Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
- Why it matters: Duplicate content can confuse search engines and harm your SEO rankings.
- How to improve it:
- Use Rel=“Canonical” Tags: As mentioned, use canonical tags to point search engines to the preferred version of a page.
- Avoid Thin Content: Pages with very little content (e.g., product pages with just a description) should be expanded with valuable content.
12. Optimizing Your Images for SEO and Speed
Images are among the largest content files on your website, optimizing them is essential for achieving the fastest possible site speed. When users search for images related to your content, optimized images are more likely to appear in search results, driving traffic back to your website.
- Optimize Image File Names:
- Use descriptive file names (e.g., blue-widget.jpg instead of jpg).
- Compressing them with image optimization tools like ShortPixel
- Add Alt Text to Images:
- Ensure all images have appropriate alt text to help search engines understand the content and improve accessibility.
13. Optimize for Local SEO (if applicable)
Google Business Profile is a free tool that allows local businesses to be included in Google Maps, display photos of their storefronts and products; and easily connect with a wide range of potential buyers within a specific geographical location. It's important to claim your profile and ensure it’s as complete as possible.
- Add NAP Information (Name, Address, Phone Number):
- Ensure that your site has consistent NAP details across all pages and external platforms.
- Set Up Google Business Profile:
- Create and optimize your Google Business Profile for local visibility.
Technical optimization is an ongoing process. That’s why regularly monitoring your technical SEO health and fixing issues as they arise is important.
Regularly running these technical SEO audits gives you action items to improve your search performance.
Boost your website's visibility and performance—start your Technical SEO optimization with Search Engine People today!