Nowadays, SEO is integral to any marketing plan, including technical SEO. The “technical” term might sound complex, but there’s more to it than the name it carries. Learn about technical SEO and why it’s crucial for improving your online presence.
With over 3.5 billion online searches made daily, SEO is becoming one of the most essential marketing tools. This statistic is not surprising since we all turn to Google whenever we need an answer. Often, users don’t expect a reliable, well-put, and clear answer the second they press the search button. This is where Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, comes into place – to deliver the correct answers to search queries.
When it comes to an online business, integrating SEO brings out the best results, working positively for both the user and the business owner.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to a website’s technical requirements to improve organic rankings and traffic. Applying SEO might do the job, but improving its technical side would perfect it.
Great content and a website mean nothing if your technical SEO isn’t done correctly. A technical SEO enhances the website to allow Google’s crawlers access for crawling, indexing, and rendering. Technical SEO ensures an uninterrupted website workflow and user experience.
Here are some of the things that technical SEO should cover.
Site Speed
From the moment the page appears on the search engine to the point the user gets the information is the most important. It is crucial how fast the website loads, as users want to get information quickly.
If Google robots crawl onto a page, it should be easy and fast for them to get around. Arranging the page to effortless crawling will be good for both the users and the creator, as the technical SEO application aligns it well. Otherwise, your website might not rank high at all.
Mobile Optimization
Since people have a habit of researching on their computers and mobile phones, the website must be optimized for both. Users should find their way around when they switch to opening the page to a smaller device with the same ease as the one they’ve used before.
How the menus, the search button or the scrolling works is vital for users, and technical SEO optimizes these elements.
Content Duplicate Issues
Part of technical SEO is fixing duplicate content issues, as they can confuse users and Google’s crawlers. There are two ways to fix this – preventing your CMS from posting multiple versions of a post or letting search engines know which one is the original with a canonical link element. The less confusing your content is from a technical point of view, the easier it will be to index.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
The website should have a Secure Socket Layer added. It is mainly for protecting the page and encrypting data sent between a web browser and a server. Google has openly stated that HTTPS sites would always be preferred over non-secure ones, regardless of whether all other parameters are in order. That’s why installing an SSL certificate on your website is imperative.
Data and Site Structure
User experience on a website is mainly decided by how well they can find their way around it, and Google’s crawlers are no different. That’s why how data is presented on the website is important. The major search engines require the data to be structured and organized. It adds to a better user experience and allows the search engine to present it well once the content is searched.
How the site is outlined and how the internal links and features are integrated together are essential. With technical SEO, you can control whether the structure is suitable to how the website is perceived in the background by crawlers.
Why is Technical SEO essential?
Technical SEO is essential because it helps ensure that your page is indexed and ranked high.
When a website design and content are created, the search engine crawls through the page to check and rate what it offers. Each search engine has its crawlers, going through the pages and indexing them according to what they come across.
To ensure that a particular website satisfies the technical demands and gets a high ranking, technical SEO helps crawlers do their job more efficiently and smoothly. Getting high on any search engine’s list is important, and making it easy for crawlers to visit a page would guarantee a higher ranking.
Technical SEO means filtering out everything that might hinder that process and putting the website to its full potential. Technical SEO practices are fundamental in online businesses, especially when a high ranking is necessary.
It’s worth noting that it requires technical knowledge, so in many cases, it’s a shared effort between different teams within a company.
Tips and Tricks to Improve Technical SEO
There are a few other suggestions on how one can apply technical SEO in a more efficient way. In the competitive world of marketing, tips and tricks are always welcome.
Create an XML Sitemap
This might sound otherworldly, but it’s simple. The XML sitemap file helps crawlers better understand your page. It’s like a map that guides them through your site, telling them where each page is located. It also gives them information on how frequently a page on your website is updated, when it was last updated, and its priority on your site.
Add Structured Data Markup
If the XML is a map to your website’s pages, the structured data markup is a map for the content on your site. The structured data markup makes it easier for users to find more relevant results through rich snippets. You can also use it to add stars for ratings, prices, or reviews to make the results even more visually appealing to users.
Canonical Tags
Search engines are not keen on ranking duplicates, so when a website shares content, it should be protected and tagged as the original. The tags are included in the HTML, implying the website’s content is original.
This way, technical SEO protects the content and allows the search engine to identify it as the original.
Multilingual SEO
If you are operating in more than one country and want to target audiences in different languages, then you could use hreflang tags. These tags can be added to other pages to define the country and language it wants to target. This will help crawlers better understand the markets a page wants to target and show users more relevant results.
Take Advantage of the Search Engine
Once the page is all set, the search engine will help improve it. Observing from the user’s point of view would help improve the page and technical SEO.
Final Word
As the online market is expanding, employing proper SEO practices is more vital than ever. Hopefully, our guide on technical SEO helped you better understand how to use technical SEO to your advantage.
And if you still have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our team of professional marketers can help you with anything from web design and development to social media marketing and various SEO practices.
Let our team help you elevate your business and online presence.
