If you’re interested in learning more about technical SEO, then you probably have a reasonable grasp of the basics of search engine optimisation (SEO).
In simple terms, this is the process of improving your website’s visibility in search engines like Google and Bing using techniques such as content optimisation and quality link building.
Technical SEO is less about the content and links to other channels and more about the structure of the site. The things going on under the hood, so to speak, can be just as important in boosting your SEO and getting you to those all-important top spots in the search engine rankings.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is an aspect of on-site SEO, and, as the name suggests, it deals with the more technical aspects of how the site works with respect to search engines, crawlers and SEO. Web crawlers, sometimes known as spiders or bots, are digital bots that crawl across the World Wide Web to find and index pages for search engines.
Technical SEO is just as important as any other side of SEO services as it ensures that your website structure is easy to navigate (by bots and people alike) and free from errors.
Search engines also take user experience into account, so technical SEO experts will also look at things like loading speeds and improving the experience for human visitors in the process. We will now look at some of the techniques, tools and best practices you can use to improve technical SEO.
Understanding Technical SEO
There are a number of different elements included under the banner of technical SEO. These include (but are not limited to) factors such as your website and URL structure, how easy your site is to crawl, indexing, website speed, and how mobile-friendly your website is. See below for more detail.
Website Structure
Site architecture is a foundational principle of technical SEO. So, randomly placed pages and content can be confusing to navigate for both visitors and the web crawlers that play such a vital part in boosting and maintaining your SEO.
You need a logical website hierarchy, which essentially means that each element of the website is linked to the next in a logical and predictable manner. You might, for example, use topic clusters to link certain pieces of content together or make sure you have hub pages providing a high-level route to more detailed information.
URL Structure
Again, URLs can be important for both human visitors and bots. People tend to be put off by messy-looking URLs with lots of symbols. Clean, clear URLs that incorporate keywords are also best practices when it comes to SEO.
Crawlability
Imagine search engine bots as little explorers that go around the internet, discovering and collecting information from websites. Crawlability simply refers to how easily these bots can explore and navigate your website.
Good website structure and URLs will help bots to navigate your site, but there are also some extra things you can do, such as creating a robots.txt file and a sitemap.xml file that you can submit to Google Search Console.
Indexing
Indexing simply refers to the process search engines (like Google) use to find and store information from websites. So, when you create a new website or add new content to your site – you want search engines to know about it so that they can show your web pages in their search results.
You can use the Google Search Console (GSC) to request indexing. This can be important if you are setting up a new website, while an XML sitemap can be used to list all the URLs you want Google to index.
Website speed
Page loading and other speed elements are crucial to improve user experience and boost SEO. You can improve individual pages and overall site speed in a number of ways, including file compression, optimising code and leveraging browser caching.
Mobile-friendliness
More and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the internet, search for information, and make online purchases. So, it’s important to ensure that your website provides a smooth and enjoyable experience for mobile users.
So, search engines and customers alike are now expecting your website to be optimised for mobile. It used to be common to design a separate mobile site, but these days responsive design that adapts to the device tends to be a better solution.
Best Practices for Technical SEO
In general, when you improve the experience for your visitors, you are also improving your SEO.
Search engines have placed increasing importance on user experience, so you should ensure that your site is easily navigable with fast loading speeds and ideally able to be viewed and used on a range of devices.
It’s also important to remove errors such as broken links that can result in 404 Errors. Duplicate content can be counter-productive as it is viewed negatively by search engines, so make sure that every page is unique and adds value. Other things, such as creating a sitemap, optimising images and implementing schema markup, can all help you to improve your technical SEO.
Helpful Tools for Technical SEO
There are plenty of tools out there that can help with technical SEO tasks. Just a few of the more popular ones include:
Google Search Console
You can use Google’s own Search Console for a variety of tasks, such as making sure that resources like images and CSS files are accessible, using robots.txt rules to prevent crawling of certain areas and sitemaps to encourage it on others. It’s also useful for more in-depth SEO tasks, such as preparing for a site move or managing a multi-lingual site.
SEMrush
SEMrush provides a number of useful capabilities. In technical SEO terms, you can use it to audit your site, analyse file logs and receive on-page SEO tips and suggestions.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset. It’s great for retrieving and analysing data, such as looking at your competitors’ best-performing pages, but also provides a technical SEO audit that can help you to identify issues and areas for improvement.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a powerful website crawler that is able to identify issues such as broken links and duplicate content, generate XML site maps and perform a host of other tasks to help you improve your technical SEO.
The Benefits of Technical SEO for Your Website
The technology behind the websites we use and the search engines that crawl, classify and rank them, is constantly changing. SEO professionals need to be able to constantly adjust their approach in response to new trends and techniques.
Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, is being tipped to have an increasingly important impact in all sorts of fields, and SEO is certainly no exception.
Google’s confirmed the use of its RankBrain machine learning algorithm a few years ago, and while they have been tight-lipped about the details, experience and observation show that indications gleaned from user experiences (such as click-through rate and time spent on the page) are important factors.
The future of technical SEO will continue to change and evolve with the technology, which is why our SEO experts are constantly learning and adapting, keeping firmly up to date with all new developments.
Reach Out to Our Tech SEO Experts Today
Looking to stay ahead in the ever-changing world of technical SEO? Well, our experienced team of SEO experts at Maxweb is here to help you navigate the exciting future of search engine optimisation.
We understand that technology and search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, which is why our experts are always on the lookout for the latest trends and updates. We make it our mission to stay up to date with all the new developments in the SEO landscape – so you don’t have to.
We are a trusted agency, with over 20+ years of experience working with businesses in Merseyside and across the UK. From local companies to nationwide organisations, we deliver exceptional results and personalised tech SEO solutions.
So, whether it’s adapting your website to the latest algorithm changes or implementing cutting-edge strategies, our technical SEO experts can do it all.
Reach out to our tech SEO experts today on 0151 652 4777 or fill out our contact form.
Posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2023 in SEO.
