There is a lot of competition that you’ll have to fight if you want your website to make a big splash. But how can you even begin when there are so many other websites that are light years ahead of you?
It all starts with good digital marketing, more specifically, technical SEO. But what is technical SEO, and how is it different from regular SEO? Why is it important for your website’s growth and success?
Keep reading this technical SEO guide and learn more about how it works.
What Is Technical SEO?
How does technical SEO (search engine optimization) work? There are almost 2 billion websites on the internet, but less than 200 million of them are active. If you want to stand out, you’ll need to understand technical SEO.
Learning how to do technical SEO isn’t difficult, but there are certain tips and tricks you should be aware of. Technical SEO services or a technical SEO agency can help you if you don’t know anything about it.
But learning the basics is important if you want to know how successful websites work. This form of SEO is important for ensuring that search engines can effectively identify your content. But shouldn’t search engines like Google or Bing do this automatically?
Yes and no. Most websites are recognizable to search engines, but that doesn’t mean they’re optimized. Some websites are very difficult for search engines to recognize.
When this happens, the website in question might not rank very well. The benefits of technical SEO are numerous and can fix these problems. This form of search engine optimization is important for the structure of your website.
It is also important for your site’s Google sitemap, your site’s page speed, duplicate content, and so on. It also determines how well your website will run on mobile and much more.
The Details
Having a technical SEO checklist is a good place to start. You can mark down anything that needs improvement. Doing a technical SEO audit may also be a good idea for the same reason.
An Orlando technical SEO service agency can help you with that. If your website doesn’t have good technical SEO, you’ll be in trouble. You’ll find that you won’t get many people coming to your site.
You might get a view here and a view there, but not much more than that. This is not a great way to make your site a success, but you can fix it by optimizing SEO. Creating a technical SEO strategy will fix any major problems your website may have and improve your overall seo performance.
This allows your website to rank much higher and get more views. It will also make your website more authoritative and reputable. This ensures that you will have a good foundation on which you can build your website.
How Does Technical SEO Work?
Technical SEO works by using a technique known as crawling. Crawling refers to how a search engine like Google finds and ranks your site. Suppose you have a new website, and you put up your first blog post.
Google’s job is to crawl this website and review this blog post and the rest of your website. This crawling process brings Google to links that it might not have known about before. It can then index those sites.
Google must index your sites. Once Google does this, it needs to check that the content fits its ranking criteria. This allows your content to rank on Google and show up in search results.
When someone searches for your content on Google, it will show up. But where it shows up will depend on the quality of your SEO. There might be millions of other search results that are very similar to yours.
The most popular might end up on Google’s first page. Your content might end up on the 10th page. This is not ideal because few people bother to click on Google’s second page, let alone the 10th.
This will make it very difficult for people to find your content. A person could specifically be looking for your content and still not find it because it isn’t optimized. But if you optimize your content, Google will be compelled to rank it higher.
This makes your content more visible, and more people will likely see it and click on it. It will also make it more likely that Google will continue to index new pages that you create.
What You Need to Know
New blogs and new webpages will get indexed by Google and eventually rank somewhere in the search results.
This is great for keeping your content fresh and alive. But none of this will be possible if your site has terrible technical SEO. Your SEO might be so bad that Google can’t recognize your site as a site.
This will prevent the search engine from indexing and ranking your site. If Google does index your site, there is a chance that it won’t fit Google’s ranking criteria. This may make it very difficult or impossible for people to find your content.
This is why you need to be careful when creating your content, site structure, xml sitemaps, and so on. If you don’t pay attention to all these factors, it may not be possible for Google to rank your website properly.
This would prevent you from getting the traffic that your website desperately needs. This is bad news if you are hoping to make your website part of a business. Poor technical SEO isn’t a death wish.
This is because there are many ways in which you can improve it. Once you improve your technical SEO, you should notice a considerable boost in traffic and other important analytics.
Best Ways to Improve Technical SEO
The first thing you should do to improve your site’s technical SEO is to improve your site structure. Your site structure includes pages on your site like your homepage, blog pages, contact page, and so on. If your website is also your business, there may also be product and service pages you need to worry about.
All of these pages should link directly to each other. There should never be any orphan pages. An orphan page does not have any links running to it.
This makes it difficult for people to find this page. It also makes it difficult for search engines. This is because Google works by following links to new pages it hasn’t indexed before.
If no links are running to a specific page on your website, it may not be possible for Google to discover and index certain pages. This would be like keeping those pages out in a void where no one can see them.
This is why it is important to have direct links running throughout your content. Your home page should have several links running to different areas of your site, much like the branches of a tree. A menu on the home page is a great way to do this.
It also keeps things simplified so that users don’t get overwhelmed or confused when visiting your site.
What to Know
You can use certain SEO tools to see if you have any orphan pages that you don’t know about. You can then link to those pages so they are no longer floating in space.
Linking between smaller pieces of content like blog posts and product pages is a good idea too. Links that go to more of your own content are called internal links. This makes it easier for users and search engines to flow along your content and discover new pages.
Internal links also show that your content is reputable and authoritative. This may help it rank better, especially when combined with other technical SEO factors. You should also submit your sitemap to Google.
This gives Google the full rundown of your website. This ensures that Google has all the information it needs to map it out, index it, and rank it. This is important if your site has a lot of different pages.
You should also make sure that your website is formatted properly. Many people write long paragraphs and long sentences, but this is not good for technical SEO. It is hard for both internet users and search engines to cut through these large walls of text.
It is better to write with small paragraphs and sentences. This breaks up the flow of your content and makes it much easier to follow. It is also less of a strain on the eyes.
Using headers can do the same thing. It makes the content easier to follow and understand. It also helps with targeting certain keywords that you want your content to rank for.
The Function of Technical SEO Audits
An audit analyzes your site and makes sure that it is optimized for various search engines. Many people optimize their sites for Google but forget about other search engines like Bing and Yahoo. While they aren’t as popular as Google, they are still important as millions of people use them daily.
It is a good idea to do an audit as soon as your site is up and running. This will give you the baseline of your site and how it’s doing. An audit is done first by crawling your website.
The auditor will then spot any crawling or indexing issues. These issues may prevent search engines from ranking your content properly. It is very important to address these issues because they could prevent your site from getting a steady flow of traffic.
The audit will then check out various on-page elements. These elements include meta descriptions, page tags and titles, structured data, and more. Consider the title of the blog post.
If this title isn’t optimized and doesn’t use the right keywords or grammar, it won’t do you much good. It may instead harm your website’s content and make it rank lower if it isn’t optimized. But an optimized title and meta description will do wonders for your website’s success.
How It Works
An audit will find any issues you may have with images on your site. Images should always have alt text that targets an important keyword. They should also not be oversized, or they may make your site run slowly.
This process will also weed out broken images that may not load and make your site look bad. An audit will then explore your internal links. These links should allow a person or search engine to flow through your content without any issues.
If you don’t have many internal links, the audit will point this out. Checking external links is important, too. The last part of the audit will focus on your website’s speed and whether it is mobile-friendly.
Website speed is important if you don’t want people leaving your website for a competitor site. People don’t want to wait several seconds for content to load, so make sure your website is fast. Making it mobile-friendly will also expand its reach.
This is important since many people use their phones for Google searches.
Benefits of Technical SEO
The benefit of technical SEO is that it will make your site more visible. It will help you achieve a higher rank. The higher your rank is, the better.
Most people aim for Google’s first page because this ensures that they will get the most traffic. Traffic is everything for a successful website, especially if you are trying to sell products from your website.
It makes it easier for people to find your website as well. Technical SEO can also identify important issues that your site may have. This makes it easier to fix these issues and improve your site overall.
The more you polish your website, the higher quality it will be. Google prioritizes high-quality websites, so this may increase your rank as well. Here is an overview of the benefits:
More traffic
Technical SEO brings more traffic to your website by placing it in the right settings and position so that more people are able to see the site and consequently visit the website bringing increased traffic.
Better search engine ranking
With proper technical seo your website will begin to rank much higher on the SERP as search engines are able to properly crawl, index and access the site and see all that it has to offer and provide it with a better ranking so that their users can see and visit your website.
Fewer site indexing issues
Less indexing issues means the search engines will have a much easier time analyzing and understanding your website’s content. It helps your site to be better classed with the correct type of data in turn helping the ranking of your website.
More opportunities to grow your site
Having the opportunity to grow your website is important because you want to be able to experience more conversions and an increase in your click through rate. You also want to be able to have a site where other sites would want to have backlinks on their site that link back to your site and content.
A better reputation and authority for your site
With proper technical seo your website will appear more trustworthy to the search engines and users. Having less broken links and better page titles and descriptions will make your site more interesting and intriguing to the search engines and the users.
Why Is Technical SEO Important?
If you don’t use technical SEO, your content will never go anywhere. You may use all the right keywords and titles but still find that your website isn’t getting any views. Your content may be finely crafted, but no one is clicking and viewing it.
This can make your online endeavors feel hopeless. But using technical SEO will jumpstart your website and allow it to succeed. By using sitemaps, internal links, and other factors, you can make sure your website is visible and indexed.
You can then build off this foundation and make your website a real success.
Signs That Your Technical SEO Needs Work
If your website isn’t getting any views, this is a sign that your technical SEO needs some work. Your site may not be indexed, or Google may not have your sitemap. If your site isn’t properly indexed, it isn’t going to rank as well as you would prefer.
This means that no one can find your website, even if they search for it. Your website will essentially be a ghost that no one can see. But you can fix this by making Google index your site and improving your site structure.
Another sign that you need to improve your SEO is that some sites are getting plenty of views, but others are not. These low-traffic pages may be orphan pages that you need to fix.
Some of your links may also be broken or lead to the wrong areas. Addressing these issues will improve your website.
Factors That Affect Technical SEO
Here are some of the most common factors that affect technical SEO:
- Poor site structure
- Incorrect indexing or no indexing
- Little to no internal linking
- Poor content titles and meta descriptions
- Not mobile-friendly
- Broken pages or duplicate content
- Slow loading speeds
All of these factors will cause your site to rank low or not at all. There is no point in having a website that doesn’t get any traffic. This is why it is important to fix these issues if you have them.
If you are unsure of what issues you have, create a checklist of various factors that should be optimized. If you see that some of these factors are not optimized for your website, you should fix them right away.
You can then start checking these various factors off your list. Little by little, your website will become far more refined and relevant.
An Overview of Basic Technical SEO
You now know the basics of technical SEO. It functions to get search engines to recognize your website. Once Google crawls your site, it will index it and see if it fits its search criteria.
It will then rank your site according to these factors. If your site ranks low, it’s because your technical SEO is not very good. If your site ranks on Google’s first page, this is a great sign.
This means that your technical SEO is in great shape, and people can find your content easily when they search for it.
Technical SEO vs. On-Page & Off-Page SEO
On-page SEO doesn’t necessarily focus on how Google crawls and indexes your site. It instead focuses on how it can optimize your site once it is already crawled and ranked. It can help improve your website’s rank and also increase its traffic.
There are a variety of factors that are important, such as keywords. Keywords are what people search for when they type something into Google. Targeting certain keywords can make your content easier to find.
It also prioritizes user experience, which keeps people coming back to your site. You can optimize all of these factors by working on your site. Off-page SEO concerns inbound links, which are located on websites other than your own.
This affects the way people discover your site.
Crawling Your Website
Google needs to crawl websites in a specific way to gather information. You can imagine this process as Google sending out little spiders to explore your site. Crawling is one of the key factors on how search engines actually work.
You have to make sure that all of your new pages or updated content can be easily accessed by the search engines so that they can properly crawl your site and eventually allow you to appear on the SERP for that type of content. Search engines typically visit pages on your website that they are already familiar with so when you add new content or information to that page it gives the search engine an opportunity to crawl that new content and use it to your advantage.
Indexing Your Website
Indexing is the first part of the crawling process. It starts with Google following your content through its internal links. The search engine will bounce between your different web pages and gather information from each page. This is the point where the search engine tries to understand and analyze the content or the information that they just crawled
It will then memorize this information and place it into a large database with lots of other webpages which then eventually assists with ranking your site.
Ranking Your Website
Once your website gets ranked, it will fall somewhere on Google’s search results. It could end up on the first page or the 20th page.
It is best to reach the first page since your content will be far more visible. You can do this by improving your technical SEO and on-page SEO. The next time Google crawls your site, it may rank it higher if it sees that you made some improvements.
Google likes to see new freshly updated content that their users can actually benefit from. Any information that deem useful to users they prefer to rank higher on the SERP because they want it to be seen first. It is essential to remember that when creating content you want to create things that are fresh, new and overall useful to the users.
Accessing Your Website
Accessibility is important for websites. Your website should rank in a way that makes it visible and accessible to search engines and internet users.
Using the right SEO practices will help with this. Your website should be as accessible as possible while still being secure. You want your users to be able to easily navigate and access your site in a way that reduces the overall bounce rate and increases the click through rate and keeps them coming back. You do not want your website to be confusing or filled with broken links and pages that cannot be accessed that negatively impacts the overall performance of your website.
Best Technical SEO Practices to Follow
Some of the best technical SEO practices include the following:
Improving site structure
Your website should have a clear organized structure so that it is easy for Google to understand and navigate the content. Google typically gravitates towards better structured websites and rewards them with certain benefits. You want to ensure that you are using the right structured data markup so you can be placed in the right spot.
Submitting your website’s site map
This helps Google to discover your website much quicker and this allows you to find any issues that your site map may have. If there are any issues with your site, when it is submitted the google search console will point those issues out and you can correct them so that everything is operating smoothly.
Better internal linking allows Google to be able to find your site and index it properly so that your website content and information can be stored in the database and be used to help your website rank among others. These internal links can also be used to establish page authority.
Better titles and descriptions
Having good titles and descriptions helps the algorithm to rank your website but it also helps to provide your website users with a much more enjoyable experience. This will draw them into wanting to discover and explore more about what your website has to offer.
Remove orphan pages and broken links
Removing orphan pages and broken links is extremely important as they can negatively affect the performance of your website. They can cause high bounce rates and severely impact the click through and conversion rate.
You need a site where all of the pages are working properly and people can find exactly what they are looking for with no issues. Broken links can also hinder your website especially when other sites might have backlinks to your site and when the site is visited the page is broken so you want to avoid that all cause.
Following these practices will allow you to make your website a success with ease. It may take some time to put all of these factors into action. Start with the most important practices like getting your site indexed and ranked.
You can then move on to other practices like internal linking and improving your titles. Leave the less important factors like meta descriptions for last. This allows you to improve your website in a short period.
All About Technical SEO
Technical SEO is one of the most important things you can use to give your website a boost. It allows Google and other search engines to crawl, index, and rank your website. Doing this makes your website more visible, so it can attract more traffic.
To learn more about SEO and how it works, check out our services and see how we can help.
