The Ultimate Guide to Technical SEO (2024)

If you've heard about SEO but find yourself unsure about the technical aspects, this guide is for you.

If you’ve heard about SEO but find yourself unsure about the technical aspects, this guide is for you. We’ll walk you through technical SEO in clear, straightforward language, helping you understand how to make your website more appealing to search engines.

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO involves optimising your website’s infrastructure so that search engines can easily crawl, understand, and index your pages. It’s about making your site more accessible and user-friendly, which in turn helps search engines rank your content higher.

Unlike on-page SEO, which focuses on content and keyword optimization, technical SEO deals with the backend of your website. It ensures that your site meets the technical requirements of modern search engines with the goal of improving organic rankings. Think of it as fine-tuning your website’s engine to run more efficiently in the vast landscape of the internet.

Key Elements of Technical SEO

1. Site Speed

Site speed refers to how quickly your web pages load for users. It includes metrics like Time to First Byte (TTFB), First Contentful Paint (FCP), and Time to Interactive (TTI).

In today’s fast-paced digital world, users expect websites to load quickly. A delay of even a few seconds can lead to increased bounce rates and decreased user satisfaction. Search engines, particularly Google, have made page speed a ranking factor, meaning faster sites often receive preferential treatment in search results.

How to improve it:

Image optimization: Compress images without sacrificing quality. Use modern formats like WebP, which offer better compression than JPEG or PNG.
Minify code: Remove unnecessary characters from your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript without changing functionality.
Leverage browser caching: Set expiry dates for certain file types so that returning visitors load the page faster.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): This distributes your content across multiple, geographically diverse servers to reduce load times for users worldwide.
Optimise server response time: Work with your hosting provider to ensure your server responds quickly. Consider upgrading your hosting plan if necessary.
Reduce redirects: Each redirect creates additional HTTP requests, slowing down page load times.

Tools to use: Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom

2. Mobile-Friendliness

Mobile-friendliness refers to how well your website performs on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. It encompasses aspects like responsive design, touch-friendly navigation, and mobile-optimised content.

With mobile devices accounting for over half of global web traffic, having a mobile-friendly site is crucial. Google has moved to mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing. A site that performs poorly on mobile can significantly hurt your search rankings and user experience.

How to implement it:

Responsive design: Use CSS media queries to ensure your site adapts to different screen sizes. This approach is preferred over having separate mobile and desktop versions of your site.
Mobile-optimised content: Use shorter paragraphs, bullet points, and concise headings to make content easily scannable on smaller screens.
Touch-friendly navigation: Ensure buttons and links are large enough and spaced appropriately for touch interactions.
Optimise images for mobile: Use srcset and sizes attributes to serve different image sizes based on the user’s device.
Avoid software not common on mobile devices: Steer clear of Flash and other technologies that aren’t widely supported on mobile platforms.
Test across multiple devices: Use tools like BrowserStack to test your site on various mobile devices and operating systems.

Tools to use: Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, Chrome DevTools for mobile simulation

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3. Site Structure and Navigation

Site structure refers to how your website’s content is organised and interconnected. It includes your URL structure, internal linking, and navigation menus.

A well-structured site helps both users and search engines navigate and understand your content. It can improve user experience, reduce bounce rates, and help search engines discover and index your pages more effectively.

How to optimise it:

Create a clear hierarchy: Organise your content into main categories and subcategories. This should be reflected in your URL structure (e.g., example.com/category/subcategory/page-title).
Use descriptive URLs: Include relevant keywords in your URLs, but keep them concise and readable.
Implement a logical internal linking structure: Link related content together to help users and search engines discover more of your site.
Create a sitemap: Both HTML and XML sitemaps can help users and search engines understand your site structure.
Use breadcrumbs: These navigational aids help users understand where they are on your site and can also appear in search results.
Optimise your navigation menu: Keep it simple and intuitive. Consider using a mega menu for sites with lots of categories.
Limit depth: Try to keep all pages within 3-4 clicks from the homepage.

Tools to use: Screaming Frog for site audits, Google Search Console for sitemap submission

How to create a sitemap?

4. SSL Certificate (HTTPS)

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate creates an encrypted link between your web server and a visitor’s browser, ensuring that all data passed between them remains private.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a ranking signal for Google. It builds trust with your users, which is especially important if you’re handling sensitive information like credit card details. Many browsers now warn users when they’re accessing a non-HTTPS site, which can deter visitors.

How to get it:

Choose an SSL certificate type: Options range from domain validated (DV) certificates to extended validation (EV) certificates for e-commerce sites.
Purchase and install the certificate: Many hosting providers offer SSL certificates and can help with installation.
Update internal links: Ensure all internal links use HTTPS instead of HTTP.
Set up 301 redirects: Redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS to maintain SEO value and user experience.
Update external services: If you use CDNs or external scripts, make sure they’re called over HTTPS.

Tools to use: Let’s Encrypt for free SSL certificates, SSL Server Test by Qualys SSL Labs

5. Robots.txt and Meta Robots Tags

Robots.txt is a file that sits in your root directory and provides instructions to search engine crawlers. Meta robots tags are HTML elements that provide more granular control over how individual pages should be crawled and indexed.

These tools allow you to control how search engines interact with your site. You can prevent crawlers from accessing certain parts of your site, like administrative pages or duplicate content, which helps focus crawl budgets on your most important pages.

How to use them:

Create a robots.txt file: Place it in your root directory (e.g., www.example.com/robots.txt).
Use appropriate directives: Common directives include “User-agent:”, “Disallow:”, and “Allow:”.
Be careful with wildcards: Using wildcards incorrectly can accidentally block important content.
Implement meta robots tags: Use these in the <head> section of individual pages for more specific instructions.
Common meta robots values: “index,follow” (default), “noindex,follow”, “index,nofollow”, “noindex,nofollow”.
Test your robots.txt: Use Google Search Console’s robots.txt Tester to ensure it’s working as intended.

Tools to use: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog for checking meta robots tags

6. Schema Markup

Schema markup is a form of structured data that provides additional context about your content to search engines. It uses a specific vocabulary of tags that you can add to your HTML.

Schema markup helps search engines understand the context and meaning of your content, which can lead to rich snippets in search results. These enhanced listings can improve click-through rates and visibility in search results.

How to implement it:

Identify relevant schema types: Common types include Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, Review, and Article.
Choose a format: Schema can be implemented using JSON-LD (recommended by Google), Microdata, or RDFa.
Add schema to your HTML: Place JSON-LD in the <head> section or use inline markup for Microdata or RDFa.
Test your implementation: Use structured data testing tools to ensure your markup is valid and recognized.
Monitor performance: Keep an eye on how your rich snippets perform in search results.

Tools to use: Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper, Schema.org for reference, Google’s Rich Results Test

7. Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are HTML elements that tell search engines which version of a URL should be considered the “master” copy when similar content exists on multiple URLs.

They help prevent duplicate content issues, which can dilute your search rankings and confuse search engines about which version of a page to index and rank.

How to use them:

Identify duplicate or similar content: This could be due to URL parameters, print-friendly versions, or similar products.
Add the canonical tag: Place it in the <head> section of your HTML.
Use absolute URLs: Always use the full URL in your canonical tags.
Self-referential canonicals: It’s good practice to include canonical tags on all pages, even if they point to themselves.
Handle pagination properly: Use rel=”next” and rel=”prev” along with canonicals for paginated content.
Cross-domain canonicals: These can be used if you have the same content on multiple domains.

Tools to use: Google Search Console for identifying duplicate content, Screaming Frog for auditing canonical tags

Useful Tools for Technical SEO

To help implement and monitor your technical SEO efforts, consider using these tools:

Google Search Console: A free tool from Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.
Google PageSpeed Insights: Analyses the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster.
Mobile-Friendly Test: A tool by Google to test how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider: A website crawler that helps you improve onsite SEO by extracting data and auditing for common SEO issues.
GTmetrix: Provides insights on how well your site loads and provides actionable recommendations on how to optimise it.
SEMrush: An all-in-one marketing toolkit that includes technical SEO auditing capabilities.
Ahrefs: Primarily known for backlink analysis, but also offers site audit features for technical SEO.

Don’t hesitate to ask our SEO experts for guidance and insights when needed!

Learn more here: SEO Guide for Beginngers

Technical SEO is a crucial component of any comprehensive SEO strategy. While it may seem daunting at first, addressing these key elements can significantly improve your website’s performance in search engine rankings and provide a better experience for your users.

Remember, SEO is an ongoing process. Start with these basics, and as you become more comfortable, continue to learn and adjust your strategy. Your efforts will be rewarded with improved rankings, increased traffic, and ultimately, more customers for your small business.

If you find yourself stuck or have questions, don’t hesitate to seek our help! Investing in professional assistance can be valuable for your business growth. Keep learning, stay updated with the latest SEO trends, and watch your online presence grow!

Technical SEO Checklist for 2024

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The Ultimate Guide to Technical SEO (2024)

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What is Technical SEO?