SEO

Technical SEO – The what, why and how

by Vinamra Singh

Is Your Website Speaking Search Engine?

Is your website a ghost town in search results? It might not be your content, but your technical SEO. Think of it as the foundation of your online house – if it’s shaky, everything else crumbles. This guide will demystify technical SEO and show you how to build a solid foundation for search success.

“Good architecture is when you can’t see the seams.” – Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

This applies perfectly to technical SEO. When it’s done right, users (and search engines) have a seamless experience, and the technical details fade into the background.

(TLDR)

Technical SEO is about making your website easy for search engines to crawl, index, and understand. It involves optimizing things like site speed, mobile-friendliness, site structure, and technical elements. Get it right, and your website has a much better chance of ranking well.

Long read…

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing the technical aspects of your website to improve its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s the behind-the-scenes work that ensures search engines can easily access, understand, and index your website’s content. It’s not about keywords or content creation (that’s on-page SEO), but rather the infrastructure that supports all of that.

  • Focuses on the technical aspects of a website.
  • Improves website visibility in SERPs.
  • Ensures search engines can easily access and index content.
  • Not about keywords or content creation (on-page SEO).

Why is Technical SEO Important?

Technical SEO is crucial because it lays the groundwork for all other SEO efforts. If search engines can’t crawl or index your website properly, even the most brilliant content won’t rank. A technically sound website also provides a better user experience, which is a ranking factor in itself.

  • Foundation for all other SEO efforts.
  • Ensures proper crawling and indexing.
  • Improves user experience.
  • Direct impact on ranking potential.

Key Elements of Technical SEO:

  • Crawlability: Making sure search engines can easily access all the important pages on your website. This involves things like sitemaps, robots.txt, and internal linking.
  • Indexability: Ensuring that search engines can add your pages to their index. This involves things like avoiding duplicate content and using canonical tags.
  • Site Speed: Optimizing your website’s loading speed, both on desktop and mobile.
  • Mobile-Friendliness: Making sure your website is responsive and provides a good user experience on all devices.
  • Site Structure: Organizing your website in a logical and hierarchical way, making it easy for users and search engines to navigate.
  • HTTPS: Ensuring your website is secure and uses HTTPS.
  • Schema Markup: Adding structured data to your website to help search engines understand the content.

Technical SEO Best Practices:

  • Create and submit a sitemap: Helps search engines discover your pages.
  • Use robots.txt to control crawling: Tells search engines which pages to ignore.
  • Optimize page speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
  • Implement mobile-first indexing: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
  • Fix broken links: A bad user experience and can hurt SEO.
  • Use canonical tags: Avoid duplicate content issues.
  • Implement schema markup: Helps search engines understand your content.

Technical SEO Tools and Resources:

  • Google Search Console: Essential for monitoring website performance and identifying technical issues.
  • Google PageSpeed Insights: Analyzes website speed and provides recommendations for improvement.
  • Screaming Frog: A website crawler that can identify technical SEO issues.
  • SEMrush/Ahrefs: Comprehensive SEO suites with site audit tools.

Quick Bites:

  • Site speed matters. A lot.
  • Mobile-first is a must-have.
  • Crawlability and indexability are fundamental.
  • HTTPS is non-negotiable.
  • Schema markup is your friend.
  • Regular site audits are essential.

Explaining the Concept to a Non-Marketer:

Imagine your website is a house. Technical SEO is like making sure the foundation is solid, the plumbing and electricity work, and the house is easy to navigate. If these things aren’t in order, no one will want to visit, even if you have beautiful furniture inside (your content). Technical SEO makes sure search engines can easily find your “house” and understand what it’s all about.

Resources:

  1. Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search
  2. Moz Beginner’s Guide to SEO: https://www.moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
  3. Ahrefs Blog: https://ahrefs.com/blog
  4. Semrush Academy: https://www.semrush.com/academy/

(Keywords: Technical SEO, website optimization, site speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, indexability, schema markup, Google Search Console, website audit, SEO basics, SEO fundamentals, technical SEO checklist, website structure, HTTPS, robots.txt, sitemap, canonical tags, broken links, page speed optimization, mobile-first indexing.)