SEO | 5 minute read
An introduction to technical SEO
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Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes optimization of your website to improve its crawlability, indexability, and overall performance in search engine rankings. While on-page SEO, like content and keyword optimization, and off-page SEO, like backlinks get much attention, technical SEO is equally crucial in ensuring that search engines can access, understand, and rank your website effectively.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing a website’s infrastructure to help search engines crawl, index, and render it more effectively. This involves ensuring that your website is built in a way that makes it easy for search engines to navigate and understand, ultimately boosting your search engine rankings.
Technical SEO is different from content-focused or link-building strategies. It involves improving the underlying elements that help search engines read and process your website. If done correctly, it helps ensure that your website is accessible, user-friendly, and optimized for both search engines and visitors.
Why is technical SEO important?
Without proper technical SEO, even the best content and the most valuable backlinks can go unnoticed. If search engines can’t properly crawl and index your website, it won’t appear in search results, and your site’s performance can suffer. Here’s why technical SEO is essential:
Improved crawlability and indexability
Search engines like Google use bots (or crawlers) to scan your website and index its content. If your website’s technical elements are misconfigured, bots may have trouble crawling your pages, meaning important content may not be indexed or ranked.
Enhanced user experience
Search engines, particularly Google, prioritize websites that offer a positive user experience. A fast-loading, mobile-friendly website with clear navigation improves user engagement and decreases bounce rates. As a result, your technical SEO efforts can contribute to a better user experience and improved rankings.
Increased organic traffic
By implementing technical SEO best practices, your website can rank better in search engine results pages (SERPs), leading to more organic traffic. Search engines reward websites that are optimized technically, increasing your chances of appearing on the first page of search results.
How to improve your technical SEO
Now that we understand why technical SEO is important, let’s dive into some actionable steps you can take to optimize your website and improve your rankings.
Site speed
Site speed is a critical factor for both user experience and SEO. Slow-loading websites lead to higher bounce rates, which can negatively impact your rankings.
- Reduce the size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary characters and spaces.
- Allow visitors’ browsers to store static files so they don’t have to reload them on each visit, speeding up the experience.
- Compress images without compromising quality to ensure faster loading times and/or use a content delivery network (CDN).
Mobile friendliness
With mobile-first indexing, Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for ranking and indexing. This means that having a mobile-optimized site is no longer optional—it’s essential.
- Ensure your website is designed to adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices.
- Test and improve the load speed of your website on mobile devices.
- Pop-ups can be frustrating on mobile devices, leading to a poor user experience and potential ranking penalties.
SLL Certificate
Security is another ranking factor for Google. Websites with HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) are considered more secure and are favored over those with HTTP. A website with HTTPS encrypts user data, ensuring that transactions, personal information, and other sensitive data are protected.
- Purchase and install an SSL certificate on your site to enable HTTPS. Most hosting providers offer SSL certificates.
- Regularly scan your website for vulnerabilities and fix any issues that could compromise security.
Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website, helping search engines find and crawl your content more efficiently.
- Your sitemap should be well-structured, organized, and error-free.
- Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and other search engines to ensure that they can find and index all your pages.
Robots.txt
The robots.txt file helps control which parts of your website search engine bots can and cannot crawl. If misconfigured, it could block important pages from being indexed, which can negatively impact your SEO.
- Review your robots.txt file to make sure that critical pages and sections are accessible to search engines.
- Use Google Search Console to check your website’s crawl status and identify any crawl issues.
Navigation
Security is another ranking factor for Google. Websites with HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) are considered more secure and are favored over those with HTTP. A website with HTTPS encrypts user data, ensuring that transactions, personal information, and other sensitive data are protected.
- Purchase and install an SSL certificate on your site to enable HTTPS. Most hosting providers offer SSL certificates.
- Regularly scan your website for vulnerabilities and fix any issues that could compromise security.
URL-structure
Clear, descriptive URLs make it easier for search engines to understand your content. Ensure that your website uses clean, readable URLs and avoid long strings of numbers and characters.
- Search engines can read hyphens as spaces, making it easier for them to understand keywords in URLs.
- If you have duplicate content (e.g., multiple product pages with similar content), use canonical tags to tell search engines which page to prioritize.
404 and redirects
404 errors (Page Not Found) occur when users try to visit a page that no longer exists. Not only do these errors harm user experience, but they also negatively affect your SEO.
- Regularly check for 404 errors on your site and set up 301 redirects to guide users and search engines to the correct pages.
- Be cautious with URL parameters (like ?id=123). Excessive parameters can lead to duplicate content and crawling inefficiencies.
What's next?
Technical SEO is a vital part of your overall SEO strategy. It ensures that search engines can access, crawl, and index your website efficiently, contributing to improved rankings, user experience, and site performance. If you’re ready to improve your website’s SEO, our team can help you with technical SEO audits and optimization strategies. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your brand improve your technical SEO.
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