Technical SEO Skills Everyone Must Have
Technical SEO is a foundation of a successful website as it ensures and maintains the site’s crawlability, indexing, speed and architecture. When done right, it keeps a website healthy and friendly for every user that visits. Take it as an unsung hero that always works behind the scene and make things run smooth.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is a continuous process of making sure a website runs smoothly and easy for search engines to find and understand by organizing the site’s URLs, creating a clear sitemap and setting up instructions for search engines to follow. It also involves fixing broken links, managing duplicate content and using tags that help search engines understand the site’s pages.
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We can say technical SEO focuses on the security and improvement of a website’s speed to make sure it works well on all kinds of devices that are able to access internet. This means optimizing the images, using tools to make pages load faster and moving the site to HTTPS for better security.
By keeping an eye on these technical details and fixing any issues that come up, Technical SEO helps the website rank higher in search results and provides a better experience for visitors.
What is crawling a website?
Website crawling is the process search engines use to explore and understand the internet. They use automated programs called web crawlers to visit websites and read their content.
These crawlers start with a list of known websites and follow links to discover new pages. They collect information like text and images from each site, which helps search engines keep track of what’s available online.
This process is important because it helps search engines find and index new content to make it easier for users to find what they are looking for. If a website is easy to navigate and has clear links, it’s easier for crawlers to understand and index it correctly. If a site is hard to navigate or has broken links, crawlers might miss important information which results harder for that site to appear in search results.
Understanding website indexing
Website crawling is the process search engines use to explore and understand the internet. They use automated programs called web crawlers to visit websites and read their content.
These crawlers start with a list of known websites and follow links to discover new pages. They collect information like text and images from each site, which helps search engines keep track of what’s available online.
This process is important because it helps search engines find and index new content to make it easier for users to find what they are looking for. If a website is easy to navigate and has clear links, it’s easier for crawlers to understand and index it correctly. If a site is hard to navigate or has broken links, crawlers might miss important information which results harder for that site to appear in search results.
10 ways to improve your technical SEO game
1. Optimize your website architecture
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A well-organized website architecture helps both users and search engines find your content easily. By using clear and hierarchical structures, you ensure your most important pages are easily accessible and can be easily navigated. This means you must create a logical flow from the homepage/money-page to category pages and individual content pages.
A well-structured website helps distribute page authority more effectively through internal linking, which is a strategy to improve visibility of all your pages while helping search engines understand the relationship between different pages. This can boost the rankings of key pages and make it easier for search engines to index your entire site with ease.
2. Create an XML sitemap
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An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap is a file that contains lists of all the pages on your website. Submitting it to search engines helps them understand your site’s structure and ensures all pages are crawled and indexed.
The XML sitemap should include all the important URLs on your site, including pages, blog posts and any other relevant content. You must keep the site map up to date, especially when adding new content or making significant changes to your site structure.
3. Ensure crawlability
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As we have covered this process earlier, allow us to emphasize it. Ensuring your site is easily crawlable involves making sure there are no barriers that prevent bots from accessing your content. Proper use of internal linking, a well-structured site hierarchy and an up-to-date XML sitemap all contribute to improved crawlability.
Avoiding excessive use of JavaScript which can hinder crawling, and make sure that important content is available in HTML format. Regularly auditing your site for crawl errors and resolving them quickly can help maintain good crawlability and ensure that all valuable content is indexed.
4. Manage robots.txt
The robots.txt file tells search engines which webpages they can or cannot crawl. Properly managing this file ensures that important pages are crawled and indexed while unimportant ones are not.
Please note that you must regularly review and update your robots.txt file to adapt to any changes in your site structure or content strategy. By carefully managing your robots.txt file, you can guide search engine bots to crawl and index your site more effectively to improve your overall SEO performance.
5. Implement HTTPS for security
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HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP and is needed to protect information of also search engine users. Search engines prefer safer sites and implementing HTTPS can improve your site’s ranking.
HTTPS encrypts data between the user’s browser and your server, providing a safer browsing experience. This security measure builds trust with your audience, which is essential for maintaining a positive online reputation.
6. Improve page speed
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A fast-loading website improves the experience for visitors and is favored by search engines. To speed up your website, make sure images are the right size and format, store parts of your site on users’ devices for quicker loading on return visits and use a network of servers to deliver content faster.
7. Optimize for mobile devices
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Use a responsive design to provide a good experience on all kinds of devices. This means designing your site to adapt to different screen sizes which makes your content accessible and readable on mobile devices.
To optimize for mobiles, it means you must improve some touch elements’ usability such as buttons and navigation menus, to make sure mobile users have an excellent experience.
Another thing, regularly testing your website on various mobile devices and using tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help identify and resolve any issues your site may encounter.
Website owners that prioritize mobile optimization has improved their site’s accessibility and performance which in turn stays relevant to trends because the mobile audience has grown and still is. It is out of argument that mobile users prefer voice-search for more convenience.
8. Use structured data and schema markup
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Structured data helps search engines understand your content better and can make your site show up more attractively in search results. By using schema markup, you provide extra information to search engines, which can lead to features like review stars, event dates and product prices appearing in search results.
You can use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to easily add schema markup to your site. It’s also important to regularly check your structured data with Google’s Rich Results Test to ensure everything is working correctly. Using structured data properly can make your site stand out in search results and lead to more clicks and increased traffic.
9. Fix Broken Links and Redirects
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Broken links can harm user experience and the overall SEO strategy. Regularly check for and fix broken links and use 301 redirects to guide users and search engines to the correct pages.
Implementing 301 redirects ensures that any removed or moved content seamlessly redirects to the new location to preserve SEO value and user experience. Avoid using too many redirects, as they can slow down your site and affect crawl efficiency.
10. Monitor core web vitals
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Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics related to speed, responsiveness and visual stability. Monitoring and improving these metrics can improve your SEO game greatly.
Key metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and each of them work with different aspects of page performance.
Additional tips for technical SEO
1. Implement breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs improve site navigation and help users understand where they are on your site. They also provide additional context to search engines, improving your site’s indexing. Implementing breadcrumbs involves adding structured data markup to your HTML, which helps search engines interpret and display them correctly in search results.
2. Use lazy loading: Lazy loading defers the loading of images and videos until they are needed, improving initial page load times and user experience. Regularly testing your site to ensure lazy loading functions correctly across different devices and browsers ensures a seamless user experience.
3. Performing regular SEO audits: Regular SEO audits help identify and fix technical issues that may affect your site’s performance. Use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog and other SEO audit tools to keep your site in top shape. Audits involve checking for crawl errors, broken links, duplicate content and other issues that could impact your site’s visibility and performance.
Creating a checklist for regular SEO audits ensures that all critical aspects of your site are reviewed and maintained. Also, addressing issues quickly and continuously optimizing your site based on audit findings helps improve search engine rankings and user experience. So, do a regular SEO audits to maintain a healthy and competitive website.
4. Stay updated with SEO trends: SEO is constantly evolving and staying updated with the latest trends and best practices is crucial. Follow industry blogs, attend webinars where you could also build professional networks and participate in SEO forums to keep your knowledge current.
For example:
- Voice search optimization: As more users adopt voice search, optimizing for natural language queries is becoming important.
- AI and machine learning: These technologies are influencing how search engines rank content, making it vital to focus on user intent and high-quality content.
Common technical SEO questions:
1. How often should I conduct an SEO audit?
Ideally, you should conduct an SEO audit at least twice a year, or whenever you make significant changes to your site.
2. What is the difference between a sitemap and a robots.txt file?
A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website to help search engines understand its structure. A robots.txt file tells search engines which pages they can and cannot crawl.
3. How does HTTPS affect SEO?
HTTPS improves security by encrypting data between the user and your site. Search engines favor secure sites, which can improve your rankings.
Do you need expert assistance or personalized SEO strategies? Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of professionals. Let us help you achieve your digital marketing goals and drive more traffic to your site. Contact us now to get started.