Understanding Technical SEO For Your Website
If you are a business owner, then you understand how essential it is to have an online presence. Your website is often the first introduction a user has to your brand. However, simply having a website is not enough to ensure that users will find you in the digital vacuum of space.
Your website must also be optimized through Technical SEO.
This refers to the backend processes, such as site speed, mobile optimization, and other critical elements, that will ensure your site is not only indexed but is functionality sound so that your organic search profile can increase.
When it comes to technical SEO, here is what you need to know:
What is Technical SEO?
Before we dive into the main components of Technical SEO, let’s first understand what it is. As mentioned, Technical SEO is all of the behind-the-scenes components for your website.
By looking at critical elements, such as your website’s speed, you can ensure that your website is accessible, fast, and user-friendly. Not only will your web users have a better experience on your site, but it also means that search engines, such as Google, are more likely to rank your website higher.
What Are the Key Factors For Technical SEO
Many factors go into Technical SEO, especially because it relates to all of the backend processes and functionality of your website’s performance.
However, here are a few of the core components:
Sitemap
This is the structural overview of your website and will list all of the pages that you want web crawlers to index. It can also tell search engines when content is updated so that pages can be recrawled.
A sitemap is essential if you want search engines to crawl your site, or if there are entities, such as AI, that you do not want to crawl your website.
Structured Data
In a similar vein, structured data provides information about page conduct and can make indexing more effective. While this is true for all websites, e-commerce can especially benefit because it makes product listings more effective.
Site Speed
The speed of the website is important for SEO and user experience. Think about when you visit a website. Do you click off the page if it does not load or do you wait? If you are like us, chances are, you exit the page. This frustration leads to a higher bounce rate (the rate at which users leave your site) which can negatively impact your website ranking.
To check and address your website page speed, you can use tools like GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights. Some of the most common fixes for addressing page speed are minimizing the amount of JavaScript, using browser caching, and optimizing the pictures on the page.
Mobile Optimization
Mobile optimization is more crucial now than ever because of the increase in mobile searches and Google's mobile-first indexing. It is estimated that more websites are being found through mobile searches than desktop or tablet.
Making sure your website functions and looks good on mobile devices is part of this. Using touchscreen optimization, responsive design, and Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool to test your website are some of the best practices you can employ.
As mentioned, there are many other components of Technical SEO, but the above are some of the main aspects you should check.
What Are the Key Factors For Technical SEO
Once you recognize what the various components are for Technical SEO, you must also implement best practices to ensure these technical optimizations are effective.
For example, we recommend the following best practices:
Regular Audits
Conducting the initial SEO audit is a great way to understand what needs to be addressed immediately. However, after you complete these fixes you should have dedicated time to regularly audit your website. This will ensure that maintain your site health.
We recommend addressing areas at least once a month with tools such as Screaming Frog. There are also many other SEO audit tools that can help evaluate your website.
You can check for crawl errors, duplicate content, broken links, etc. We recommend having a checklist full of mistakes that you want to check for to streamline the process. Once these errors are found, you should then spend a specific amount of time devoted to fixing them.
Keep Up With Technical SEO Trends
SEO is constantly changing and that is especially true for Technical SEO. Search engine algorithms change constantly as do their requirements for indexing. Thus, we recommend following industry blogs, such as the Google Webmaster Central Blog or Search Engine Journal.
There are also plenty of additional resources such as networking events, SEO forums, webinars, and more.
While the above best practices can help you ensure your website remains index-ready, we would also recommend the following:
Hire A Dedicated Team To Ensure Technical SEO Success
Conducting regular SEO audits and keeping up with the latest trends can certainly help, but can also be very time-consuming. If you want to significantly improve your website’s performance with SEO, you may also want to consider hiring a dedicated team.
That is where we come in! Starbound SEO can not only audit your website to recommend tangible improvements to your site’s technical profile, but we also offer monthly maintenance, including addressing site health issues.
Reach out today and let’s work together to increase your website performance.