Hey there! So, you know how important it is to have a killer website, right? Well, it’s not just about looking good anymore. These days, if you want your website to get noticed, you’ve gotta crack the code on something called SEO – Search Engine Optimization.
Now, there are a bunch of different parts to SEO, but today, we’re gonna focus on the technical stuff. Don’t worry if you’re not a tech whiz – we’re gonna break it down into plain English so everyone can get it.
Think of technical SEO like the engine under the hood of your website. It’s all the stuff that happens behind the scenes to make sure your site shows up when people search for stuff online.
But let’s be real – all the jargon and tech talk can be super confusing. That’s why we’re here to help! In this guide, we’re gonna walk you through everything from picking the right website platform to making sure your site loads lightning-fast on mobile.
By the time we’re done, you’ll be a technical SEO pro, ready to take your website to the top of the search results. So, grab a coffee, sit back, and let’s dive into the wonderful world of technical SEO!
Key Takeaways of Elements of Technical SEO
| Key Takeaway | Description |
|---|---|
| Security is Non-Negotiable | Secure your website with HTTPS to protect user data and improve search rankings. |
| Mobile-Friendliness is Essential | Optimize your site for mobile devices to cater to the majority of users. |
| Speed is of the Essence | Make sure your site loads quickly to enhance user experience and SEO. |
| Guide Search Engines Effectively | Use index and noindex directives to tell search engines which pages to prioritize. |
| Organize Content Hierarchically | Structured content hierarchy aids navigation and search engine understanding. |
| Enhance Content with Structured Data | Add schema markup to provide context and improve search result displays. |
| Leverage Sitemaps for Discovery | Submit sitemaps to search engines to ensure all pages are indexed efficiently. |
| Fix Broken Links Promptly | Ensure a seamless user experience by regularly checking and fixing broken links. |
| Acquire Quality Backlinks | High-quality backlinks signal credibility and authority to search engines. |
| Prioritize User Experience | Focus on delivering a seamless and enjoyable experience for website visitors. |
List of 20 Technical SEO Elements
In the domain of Search Engine Optimization, Technical SEO is one of the most important factor to consider. There are a lot of elements of technical SEO but, I will introduce 20 elements of technical SEO that I think are relatively more important than other elements.
Let’s dive in:
01. Pick the Right Website Platform
Your website’s platform is like the foundation of your house. It’s the underlying system that determines how your site functions. For example, platforms like WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace offer different features and functionalities suited for various needs. Choosing the right platform ensures your site is stable, secure, and customizable to meet your goals.
Practical Example of website platform
If you’re building an online store, platforms like Shopify or Woo Commerce (built on WordPress) provide robust e-commerce features, while WordPress might be preferable for a content-focused blog or website due to its flexibility and extensive plugin ecosystem.
02. Keep Your Site Secure with HTTPS
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is like putting a lock on your front door to keep your visitors’ information safe. It encrypts the data transmitted between your website and your visitors’ browsers, protecting against hackers and ensuring privacy. Search engines prioritize secure sites, so having HTTPS can also boost your rankings in search results.
Practical Example of Secure site
When you visit a website and see a padlock icon next to the URL in the address bar, that means the site is using HTTPS encryption to secure your connection.
03. Make Your Site Easy to Navigate
Just like organizing your closet so you can find stuff quickly, you want your website to be easy to get around. Clear navigation menus, intuitive categories, and logical page structures help visitors find what they’re looking for without getting lost.
Practical Example of Easy Site Navigation
A website with a simple menu bar at the top, clearly labeled categories, and a search function makes it easy for users to navigate and find relevant information.
04. Make Sure Your Site Looks Good on Mobile
With more people using smartphones to browse the web, it’s essential that your site looks good and functions well on mobile devices. Responsive design adapts your site’s layout and content to different screen sizes, ensuring a seamless user experience across devices.
Practical Example of Mobile Friendliness
A responsive website will automatically adjust its layout and font sizes to fit the screen of a mobile device, eliminating the need for users to zoom in or scroll horizontally.
05. Speed Things Up
Nobody likes waiting around for a slow website to load, so make sure yours is lightning-fast. Site speed not only improves user experience but also impacts search engine rankings. Optimizing images, minimizing HTTP requests, and using caching techniques are some ways to improve site speed.
Importance of Site Speed
Studies show that even a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a significant drop in conversion rates, highlighting the importance of speed optimization.
06. Let Search Engines Know What to Index
Just like giving a tour guide a map of your house, you’re telling search engines which pages to show in search results. By using index and no-index directives, you control whether a page should be included or excluded from search engine indexes.
When to Use a No-index tag?
You might use a no-index tag on pages like privacy policies or thank-you pages to prevent them from appearing in search results and cluttering up search listings.
07. Make the Most of Your Crawl Budget
Search engines have limited resources, so make sure they’re spending their time on the most important parts of your site. Crawl budget optimization involves optimizing your site’s structure, internal linking, and sitemap to ensure search engine crawlers prioritize crawling and indexing your most valuable pages.
How to Reduce Crawl Budget?
By reducing duplicate content, fixing broken links, and focusing on quality over quantity, you can make better use of your site’s crawl budget and improve overall crawl efficiency.
08. Keep Your URLs Simple and Descriptive
Your website’s URLs should be like easy-to-read addresses so people can find it without getting lost. Clean, descriptive URLs not only improve user experience but also help search engines understand the content and context of your pages.
How Does an Effective URL Look like?
Instead of a long, convoluted URL like “www.example.com/products/item?id=12345,” a clean URL like “www.example.com/products/blue-widget” is more descriptive and user-friendly and effective.
09. Organize Your Content
Just like putting your books on shelves, organizing your website’s content helps visitors and search engines find what they’re looking for. A clear content hierarchy, with well-defined categories and subcategories, makes it easier to navigate your site and understand the relationships between different pages.
How to Organize Content in a Blog?
A blog might organize its content into categories like “Technology,” “Health,” and “Travel,” with subcategories like “Gadgets,” “Fitness Tips,” and “Destination Guides” to further refine the content.
10. Give Search Engines More Info with Structured Data
Think of structured data as adding labels to your stuff so search engines know what everything is. By adding schema markup to your HTML, you provide search engines with additional context about your content, enabling rich snippets and enhanced search listings.
What Displays More Data Of My Website in Search Result?
Adding schema markup for a recipe allows search engines to display rich snippets with details like cooking time, calorie count, and user ratings directly in search results.
11. Help Search Engines Find Your Content with Sitemaps
Sitemaps are like a table of contents for your website – they make it easy for search engines to find all your pages. By submitting XML sitemaps to search engines, you ensure that all your pages are discovered and indexed efficiently.
What Role Does a XML Sitemap of a Website Plays?
A website’s XML sitemap lists all the URLs on the site, grouped by priority and updated frequency, helping search engines crawl and index the content more effectively.
12. Avoid Duplicate Content
You don’t want to confuse search engines by having the same stuff in different places – it’s like talking in circles. Duplicate content can dilute your site’s authority and lead to indexing issues. Implementing canonical tags or using 301 redirects to consolidate duplicate content signals to search engines which version of the content should be indexed.
How to Avoid Content Duplication Penalty from Google if your Content Contains Both a WWW and a non-WWW version?
If you have both a “www” and “non-www” version of your site, setting up a 301 redirect from one version to the other ensures that search engines only index one version, avoiding duplicate content penalties.
13. Fix Broken Links
Broken links are like dead ends on a road trip – nobody likes hitting a dead end, so make sure all your links work properly. Broken links can negatively impact user experience and harm your site’s credibility. Regularly checking and fixing broken links ensures smooth navigation for visitors and helps maintain a healthy link profile.
How to Avoid Generating Error When Clicking a Link?
Using online tools or website crawlers to identify broken links and updating them to point to relevant, working pages prevents users from encountering error messages when clicking on links.
14. Get High-Quality Backlinks
It’s like getting a stamp of approval from someone trustworthy – it tells search engines your site is legit. Backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites act as votes of confidence, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and deserving of higher rankings.
How to Increase Domain Reputation?
If a reputable industry publication links to your blog post as a source of information, it indicates to search engines that your content is credible and relevant within your niche.
15. Link Your Pages Together
Just like connecting the dots, linking your pages together helps search engines understand how everything on your site is related. Internal linking strengthens the connections between pages, distributes link equity, and helps search engines discover and index content more efficiently.
What Helps Bot And Users to Navigate a Site Smoothly?
Including contextual links within your blog posts to related articles or resources on your site helps users navigate to relevant content and signals to search engines the importance and relevance of linked pages.
16. Make Sure Your Site is Easy to Use
Think of it as making your house comfortable for guests – you want people to stick around and explore. User experience (UX) encompasses elements like intuitive navigation, clear calls-to-action, and fast-loading pages. Prioritizing UX not only keeps visitors engaged but also improves search engine rankings.
Do This if You Struggle With Conversion?
Optimize form fields for easy input, providing clear instructions, and minimizing distractions (by removing unnecessary fields to fill and providing multiple payment options) on the checkout page which enhance the user experience and encourage conversions.
Bonus Tips: Allowing customers to sign in as a Guest while checking out is also enhancing user experience. It might as well boost your conversion.
17. Keep Your Content Fresh
Updating your website regularly is like planting new flowers in your garden – it keeps things interesting for visitors and search engines alike. Fresh content signals to search engines that your site is active and relevant, potentially boosting rankings and attracting more traffic.
What Ensures Returning Website Visitors?
Publishing blog posts, news updates, or product releases on a regular schedule keeps your audience engaged and encourages return visits to your site.
18. Get Featured Snippets
Being featured at the top of search results is like getting the best seat in the house – it gets you noticed. Featured snippets are concise answers to search queries displayed directly in search results, increasing visibility and driving traffic to your site.
How to Increase Likelihood of getting a Featured Snippet?
Structuring your content with clear headings, lists, and bullet points, and providing concise answers to common questions increases the likelihood of your content appearing as a featured snippet.
19. Avoid Keyword Overload
It’s like trying to fit too many ingredients into a recipe – keep it simple and focused. Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your site target the same keyword, diluting the relevance and authority of each page. Focusing on unique, targeted keywords for each page improves clarity and avoids competition between your own content.
Optimize Your Keyword Like a Pro- Practically
Instead of optimizing multiple pages for the same keyword “best running shoes,” you might target specific long-tail keywords like “best trail running shoes for women” or “best lightweight running shoes for beginners” to capture more specific search intent.
20. Focus on What Matters Most
Instead of trying to do everything at once, focus on the things that will have the biggest impact on your website’s success. Prioritize optimization efforts based on your site’s specific goals, target audience, and competitive landscape to achieve meaningful results efficiently.
What Should Your Website Focus On?
If your site’s primary goal is to generate leads, focusing on improving conversion rates, optimizing lead capture forms, and enhancing user experience on key landing pages would be more impactful than spending resources on less critical areas.
Besides a technically sound web page, you will also need to avoid mistakes on on-page SEO elements and regularly monitor and audit them.
Bonus Elements of Technical SEO
Here is a list of bonus elements you would want to consider:
01. Ensure Your Content is Accessible
Accessibility means making sure everyone, including people with disabilities, can access and use your website. This includes considerations like providing alternative text for images, using descriptive link text, and ensuring compatibility with screen readers.
Practical Example of Site Accessibility:
Adding descriptive alt text to images allows visually impaired users to understand the content of images when using screen readers, enhancing accessibility.
02.Optimize Ad Placement
While ads can generate revenue, excessive or intrusive ads may harm user experience and SEO. Strategic ad placement ensures ads complement rather than detract from your content and user experience.
Where Should You Place Ad?
Placing ads within the natural flow of content, avoiding pop-ups or auto-playing videos, and limiting ad density on mobile devices maintain a positive user experience and avoid penalties from search engines.
03. Regularly Monitor Your Site's Performance:
Keeping an eye on your site’s performance metrics allows you to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. Metrics like traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, and page load speed provide insights into user behavior and site health.
What Can You Use to Monitor Your Page Speed?
Using tools like Google Analytics or Page-Speed Insights to track key performance indicators and identify opportunities for optimization, such as improving page load times or reducing bounce rates.
04. Stay Informed About SEO Trends and Updates
SEO is constantly evolving, so staying up-to-date with the latest trends, algorithm updates, and best practices is essential for maintaining and improving your site’s search visibility.
How to Keep Up With Latest SEO Trend?
Following reputable SEO blogs, attending industry conferences, and participating in online communities allow you to stay informed about emerging trends and adapt your SEO strategy accordingly.
05. Test and Iterate
Testing different elements of your website, such as headlines, calls-to-action, or page layouts, allows you to identify what works best for your audience and optimize accordingly. A/B testing and user feedback are valuable tools for refining your site over time.
What is A/B Testing in Website?
AB testing is testing two different versions of a landing page with variation of one parameter to see which one generates more conversions, then implementing the winning version as the new default.
06. Invest in High-Quality Content
Content is king in SEO. Creating valuable, informative, and engaging content not only attracts visitors but also earns backlinks and improves search engine rankings.
Practical Example of Investing in Quality Content:
Producing comprehensive guides, tutorials, case studies, or industry reports that address common pain points or provide unique insights establishes your site as a valuable resource within your niche.
07. Build a Strong Brand Presence
Establishing a strong brand presence online, through consistent branding, messaging, and content, builds trust and authority with both users and search engines.
Create Brand Voice:
Your brand voice can be created by using consistent branding elements like logo, color scheme, and tone of voice across your website, social media profiles, and marketing materials.
It reinforces brand recognition and credibility.
What To Do Now?
Start implementing these technical SEO strategies and best practices, you can enhance your website’s visibility, usability, and overall performance in search engine rankings.
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Happy SEOing folks!