Technical SEO refers to the steps people take on their web pages to ensure their sites can be easily followed, indexed and search engines can crawl pages with ease.
Search engines take these cues from your web page, so to avoid technical SEO issues, make sure you understand the fundamentals.
In this article I'll explain the importance of this area of SEO, as well as 4 components all technically optimized websites possess.
Why is Technical SEO important?
It's one way to boost your organic traffic because you allow Google and other search engines to render and crawl your pages. Without this crucial element, your dream of climbing the SERPs is that much harder.
When you give your favorite search engine what they need to do their job, the ideal outcome is that your efforts will go further.
Search engines appreciate technical SEO because you allow them to seamlessly gather the information they need to bring your content or your website to the people looking for what you have to offer. Without it, your long-form blog content, your article, your website is literally just a decorative.
On-Page SEO vs Off-Page SEO:
Technical SEO falls under the umbrella of on-page SEO because it involves performing tasks that directly affect your website or blog post. Think internal links, fixing broken links, eliminating duplicate content and overall site structure.
Off-page most commonly refers to building trustworthy and reliable backlinks, or links that point to your content as a respected reference. Here, what you're trying to build is relevance, trustworthiness and authority.
Both, however, contribute to search engine optimization, and when combined make for a whole and complete SEO strategy.
Technical SEO Audit: 5 Questions to Consider
- Are you comfortable navigating Google Search Console? Do you understand which aspects to focus on?
- Have you designed the structure of your webpage with the user's experience in mind? Have you factored in mobile users, and made that rendering seamless?
- How often do you perform a site audit to catch any low-hanging technical SEO fixes?
- When's the last time you checked your site speed / page speed? Do you have proper meta tags which improve readability? Is your meta description compelling?
- Is your XML sitemap accurate?
What are the benefits of technical SEO?
- Appearing in more search results: when you adhere to Google's best practices, usually, it pays off.
- Safety: one aspect on everyone's technical SEO checklist should be security. No spammy, sketchy, questionable sites here, folks!
- Clear URL structure: this helps Google better navigate your site, and it's also more aesthetically pleasing. www.No OnE WaNtS.//a.UrL-lIKE_thIs.com, right?
I'm not sure if it's clear yet, but technical SEO strategies usually have one goal in mind: make your page easily crawlable, indexable and searchable.
Also, am I the only person on the planet that didn't know that URL stood for Uniform Resource Locator? *scratches head*
