Climbing up to Google's ladder of rankings proves to be no easy feat which is why we are passing on some pointers to you in this Technical SEO guide. So, let us begin with technical SEO-related factors such as speed optimization, responsiveness, structure, schema, errors, and configuration of a website. These elements make up an important part of an SEO strategy with the motive of optimum structured rankings on search engines.
An overview of SEO and Technical SEO
The term
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It refers to the process of optimizing a website for search engines. The purpose of SEO is to increase the visibility of a website in organic search results. As a result of these efforts, there will be an increase in visitors and a boost in the odds of more conversions which will help you gain more customers and leads.
The terms on-page and off-page SEO categorize the SEO activities whether they should be executed on a website or not.
From content optimization to technical factors, on-page SEO includes everything you can do on your website.
Off-page SEO is primarily concerned with obtaining high-quality backlinks to indicate to search engines that your website is authoritative and valuable. Off-page SEO is also linked with other aspects of online marketing, such as social media marketing and branding, all of which have an indirect impact on your website's credibility and authority.
Most marketers and business owners leverage technical SEO to enhance their website's chances of performing well on the
search engine result page (SERP). Technical SEO is the process of optimizing the website to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages. Its goal is to be found and improve rankings. Consequently, this requires using the right tools. To begin with, you will need to connect your site with Google Search Console and Analytics which is one of the most influential tools of this age. If you want your site to appear at the top of the search results, then it needs to be indexed. Other essential elements of Technical SEO include the following.
Web Page Speed
Speed is vital to the SEO of your website since it factors into Google’s ranking. Therefore, the ideal site speed is three seconds or less, and remember that there is a different speed range for desktop and mobile phones accordingly. As page speed is a critical factor in digital marketing, it has a significant impact on:
- The duration visitors stay on your site
- Number of converts into paying customers
- How much you are spending on a CPC basis in paid search
- Rankings on organic search
Secure Socket Layer
SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, relates to the security of your website. It keeps internet connections secure and prevents criminals from reading or modifying information transferred between two systems. The padlock icon next to the URL tells the user that you are encrypted and therefore secure, which means all data that passes from the server to the browser remains private.
Mobile Friendly Qualities
A mobile-friendly website works well on mobile and handheld devices like iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries, as well as iPads and tablets. These website designs, also known as responsive web design, will "react" to ANY device or display.
Usually, Google has established two indices, one for mobile results and the other for desktop results. As such, your approach to SEO must also have a dual-pronged approach to have a successful website to help you with:
- Streamlined user experience on all devices
- Brand visibility
- Improving ranking signal
- Improve mobile conversion rate
- Faster download speed
XML Sitemap
XML sitemap serves as a roadmap for search engines on your site. For SEO, XML sitemaps are important as it becomes easier for Google to find the identity of web pages. Although they have been around forever, for this reason, they are still quite important when it comes to technical SEO. With it, you’ll make sure search engines won’t miss any important content on your site and it will help in:
- Lists all the URLs including the hidden ones for the search engine
- Helps Google understand the entire website structure
- Faster indexing
- Categorization of the content
- Better reporting on the site
Enabling AMP
AMP stands for Accelerator Mobile Pages, an open-source framework that facilitates the creation of mobile-optimized content. AMP creates the best conditions for a mobile website to load quickly, even when data transfer is slow. Some benefits are:
- Reduced load time
- Low bounce rate
- UI adjustments on any browser
- Mobile friendly
- Optimized data consumption
Structured Data Markup
In SEO, Google search uses schema data to enable the result of features and enhancement. Structured data markup is a machine-readable delineation of your product data on your website. Google uses this data to not only comprehend but also process your content more efficiently.
Structured data has many benefits including:
- Higher click-through rates
- Greater search visibility
- Faster indexing
- Voice search domination
A connection to Google Search Console and Analytics
Google Search Console lets you easily monitor and resolve some server errors, site load issues, security issues, etc. Google Analytics gives you an insight into how people reach your website, how well it's performing, and how many conversions you have. Technically, if you want your site to show in the search result then it needs to be indexed. It is one of the influential tools of this era.
How Technical SEO Works
Technical SEO is the process of ensuring that a website meets the mentioned above technical requirements of modern search engines with the goal of improved organic rankings. The process of technical SEO includes:
Crawling
Crawlers grab content from pages and use the links on those pages to find more pages. This lets them find content on the web.
Indexing
It is the gathering of contents found during the crawling process. It organizes information before a search to enable super-fast responses to queries.
Rendering
Keyword Research
As one of the most fundamental components of SEO, keyword research is vital to achieving a higher SERP ranking. This process involves researching groups of widely used high-volume terms that will be strategically integrated into your content. Your keyword research sheds light on the questions that are entered into the search bar by your target audience.
Competitor Research
Knowing what your target audience is looking for gives your content strategy some direction. However, you should also research the competition to see how they are leveraging trends in the market. It involves researching the content and other elements like the links and keywords a competitor has used. By analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, the information you are gaining is necessary for improving your service, product, or business. Plus, you might discover some gaps in your niche that your competitors have ignored.
Content Optimization
Content and SEO go hand-in-hand. Along with surpassing your competition and diligently incorporating your keywords, you can make sure that you have the appropriate meta and title tags. Additionally, you can add images and persuasive CTRs along with gripping headlines that resemble questions and problems that users would enter in a Google search. People use search engines to find answers and search engines prefer the most relevant content available.
On-page SEO
With the current Google updates,
on-page optimization has become more complex—but not impossible. For starters, you should opt for shorter URLs with your keyword included. Also, integrating LSI keywords in your content assists Google with comprehending your topic, thus resulting in higher rankings. In addition to posting relevant, high-quality content, on-page SEO also comprises optimizing your headlines, HTML tags, and images.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO helps build a website's recognition and domain authority. It deals more with the marketing aspect of your SEO strategy. This includes brand-building, social media presence, citation, and content building. When you maintain a solid presence on another platform that links back to your site, you are bound to draw in a larger number of leads.
Backlink Audit
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backlink audit is the evaluation of all links leading to your website. While an effective off-page optimization increases traffic, you still need to conduct backlink audits periodically since not all links are reputable or favorable. It means you will have to track them down, determine which ones are bad and which are good, and devise a strategy to deal with them. Once you have downloaded a list of your backlinks from Google Webmaster Tools, you can benchmark your backlink profile against your competitors. Remember to pay close attention to the number of backlinks and the authenticity score. From there, you can evaluate every backlink using an auditing tool and determine which ones you will disavow or remove.
Importance of SEO
SEO makes your website more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. It allows brands to position their website and their content highly on the SERPs for targetted keywords to attract the attention of prospective customers and bring them into their sales funnel.
While it is important to maintain that “human voice” that engages your target audience, SEO still ranks high on the list of priorities for your website. Of course, you can seamlessly combine engaging, informative content with your optimization tactics.
Naturally, you might still have questions about how to go about developing and applying an effective technical SEO strategy. Here are a few that we often encounter.
SEO FAQs
So do not risk failure with your SEO strategy and hire marketing experts. With over 17 years of staying current with the latest SEO and marketing trends,
Digital Marketing By Don can examine your existing website to determine the next steps toward optimization or build a whole new one.
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