SEO has an essential digital marketing component for spreading your business. Without SEO, it becomes impossible to align your website as per user and search requirements. Further, you might have heard a lot about the significance of the content, website design for website optimization. From this, technical SEO remains the most ignored one.
If the website infrastructure is not friendly, then users can’t navigate it properly. Also, the website becomes trouble for search engines to crawl and index. Let’s illustrate more about technical SEO.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is known as “Techincal” because it neither deals with the website content nor promotion. It deals with website technical aspects. It makes search engine website crawling, indexing, and interpreting easier.
Well, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO are not individual entities. But they are somehow interlinked with each other. At one point, technical SEO becomes a part of on-page SEO.
Importance of Technical SEO
Technical SEO deals with the performance of the website. There is some issue with the website speed due to code bloat, HD images, or other reasons.
With this, the website loading speed becomes more than three seconds. It is a direct factor responsible for increasing bounce rate and reducing the efficiency of the website. So, what will happen to the website rankings? It will go down the drain.
Do you know Technical SEO removes any redundant or deal links in the website? It is responsible for finding and fixing any broken links within the website. Also, it points out any links that are no longer working, like 404 errors and repeated redirects.
Further, it doesn’t confuse search engines with duplicate content. By assigning canonical tags, search engines become clear which one pages to index first.
There are instances where a website needs to operate in different languages. In this case, Technical SEO focus on using hreflang tags. Also, multilingual SEO is applicable. Next, we’ll see how we can accomplish Techincal SEO.
SEO services are a reliable source to improvise your technical SEO using the best practices recommended by webmaster tools.
Technical SEO best practices
Now, the meaning and significance of technical SEO are clear. But, how to achieve it? These are the ways to accomplish technical SEO:
Specify preferred domain
The confusion between www or non-www could be deadly. Technically, there is not much difference between both the domains. But, it is crucial to specify a proper domain name on all online platforms.
Optimize Robots .txt file
A Robots .txt file may be a tiny file telling which pages are not to crawl and how to crawl. But, a minor error in this file could prove to be SEO havoc. So, cross-checking the Robots .txt file is more than necessary.
Set URL structure right
URL structure is essential for giving the best user experience. First, it is case-sensitive. So, using the title case is a big no. Also, use hyphens for separating words. And don’t use stopping characters within the URL structure.
Optimize website navigation and architecture
Google prefers simple website navigation with not more than three-level architecture. But, what does it mean? It must not take more than three clicks to reach the home page. For website navigation, the number of categories must be minimum for easy user selection and navigation.
Mention breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs may seem to be an unnecessary SEO part. However, they play a vital role in telling users where they are within the website. They guide users in moving backward or forward from where they are.
Also, it specifies categories and subcategories of the products or services. Well, it makes it easy for users to explore the website.
Add schema markup
Schema markup ensures that the search engines understand the context of important elements of the web pages. By adding schema markup in the HTML code, search engines display rich information in the search results. With CTR increases exponentially from zero-click results.
XML Sitemaps
XML sitemaps are the front runner of the entire website. It contains a list of all URLs and image URLs. It provides a roadmap that helps search engines find, index, and crawl website content.
Get SSL certificate
Technical SEO recommends having an SSL certificate for the website. It gives authentication to search engines that this website is secure. It improves the rankings and indexing of the website.
AMP pages
Accelerated Mobile pages improve website performance by eight times than standard pages. It increases the speed of the website for mobile usage.
Target Mobile Friendliness
Google especially launched Mobile-first indexing for catering to its mobile users. But, what was the need? More than 90% of internet users use mobiles to access the internet. These are the foremost requirements:
- Responsive website
- Easy navigation
- High readability
Conclusion
Finally, technical SEO is an essential part of website optimization. With improvising technical SEO, the website becomes mobile-friendly, having desirable loading speed. Thus, it enhances the reliability, security, and indexing of the website.
