What is Technical SEO: Complete Guide on the Basics

When it comes to improving your website’s search engine performance, technical SEO is often the hidden powerhouse to accelerate your SEO strategy. 

Remember, SEO is also about ensuring your site is structured so search engines can easily crawl, index, and rank better. 

So, in this ultimate guide to technical SEO, I’ll explain its basics and the strategies you can use to boost your rankings and provide a better user experience.

Let’s start with a definition first.

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to optimizing your website’s technical aspects to improve its visibility and performance on search engines. It ensures that search engine crawlers can easily access, understand, and index your site’s content. 

While on-page SEO deals with content and keywords, and off-page SEO is primarily about link-building, technical SEO addresses the behind-the-scenes factors that impact search engine rankings. 

This includes factors such as:

• Site speed, 
• Mobile-friendliness, 
• Website architecture, 
• Security (HTTPS), 
• Crawlability, 
• Structured data.

By optimizing these technical elements, you make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages, ultimately boosting your organic traffic and search rankings.

Why is Technical SEO Important for Website Optimization?

Neglecting technical SEO can have several negative consequences, which I’m going to discuss below so you can get a better understanding of its importance: 

1. Impaired Crawlability and Indexability

Search engines rely on bots to crawl and index your website’s content.

If your site’s technical structure isn’t optimized, these bots might struggle to discover and properly index key pages. This can lead to reduced visibility in search results, lower rankings, and a significant loss in traffic. 

Ensuring proper crawlability and indexability is essential for allowing search engines to access and rank your website’s content fully.

2. Poor User Experience

User experience (UX) plays a major role in technical SEO. Elements like site speed, mobile friendliness, and overall usability ensure visitors stay on your site and engage with your content. 

Slow-loading pages, non-responsive designs, or confusing navigation can lead to higher bounce rates and lower user engagement, which search engines notice. 

A poor user experience will negatively impact your rankings, as search engines prioritize websites that deliver seamless interactions.

3. Missed Opportunities for Rich Snippets

Rich and featured snippets are key opportunities to boost your visibility in search results. These enhanced listings attract more clicks by providing additional information directly in search results. 

Properly implementing structured data and schema markup increases your chances of being featured in these valuable snippets.

You can use the AIOSEO Schema Settings feature to implement schema markup and optimize your content for rich and featured snippets. 

By configuring schema settings within AIOSEO, you can provide search engines with structured data about your content, helping them understand its context and meaning more accurately. 

This includes adding schema for articles, products, events, FAQs, etc. 

With AIOSEO’s schema options, you can ensure your content stands out and performs better in search rankings.

4. Compatibility with Emerging Technologies

Search engines constantly evolve to incorporate emerging technologies such as voice search, artificial intelligence (AI), and mobile-first indexing. 

Failing to optimize your website for these advances can cause it to fall behind competitors. 

Voice search, for example, requires a different approach to keyword research, often focusing on natural language and long-tail keywords.

Similarly, AI-powered algorithms now prioritize content that aligns with user and keyword intent rather than just keyword density.

So make sure that you optimize your content for these evolving search trends.

How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit

Here’s how to approach a technical SEO audit:

1. Use SEO Audit Tools

You can use SEO analysis tools to understand your website’s health comprehensively. 

Tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and Semrush crawl the site and uncover technical issues like broken links, crawl errors, and duplicate content. 

They also provide valuable insights critical to improving your website’s visibility and search engine performance.

After running an audit, focus on resolving the following key issues:

• Eradicate broken links.
• Remove crawl errors, which can occur when search engines can’t access certain pages on your site.
• Remove duplicate content that can dilute your SEO efforts. Once you have identified the duplicate pages, you should either remove them or rewrite the content using SEOBoost’s Content Optimization feature.

Speaking of SEOBoost, I recommend running a technical SEO audit and pairing it with a content audit through SEOBoost. 

While technical SEO tools focus on your site’s back-end infrastructure, SEOBoost’s Content Audit helps ensure the quality of the content itself. This allows you to improve your website’s technical and content-based aspects.

It analyzes your content against more than 25 ranking metrics to identify what needs to be improved.

Using SEOBoost, you can further ensure that the content on the improved pages is optimized and relevant for search engines.

2. Analyze Google Search Console Data

Google Search Console is an invaluable tool for uncovering issues related to how search engines interact with your website. 

You can use its reports to gain insights into how well Google understands and processes your content, allowing you to address potential roadblocks.

Here are a few reports you can use to analyze your website:

Coverage Report:

This report highlights the pages that have been indexed and those that were discovered but not indexed. 

Pages marked “Discovered – currently not indexed” indicate that Google has found the page but has yet to index it. 

This could be due to technical issues, crawl budget constraints, or low-quality content.

Sitemaps:

Ensuring that your sitemaps are correctly submitted and up to date is crucial. 

To do that, regularly check your submitted sitemaps in the Search Console to ensure that Google knows all important pages. If URLs are missing from the index, recheck the sitemap for errors or use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing.

URL Inspection:

This tool allows you to inspect specific URLs to see how Google crawls and indexes them. It’s beneficial for troubleshooting pages that may have issues.

3. Assess Website Architecture and Structure

A well-organized website architecture is critical for user experience and search engine crawling. 

Evaluating your site’s structure includes fixing orphan pages and enhancing internal linking to create a seamless path for users and search engine crawlers.

Here’s how to improve your website structure:

• Identify and fix orphan pages.
• Improve internal linking between related posts and pages to create a strong web of connections within the site.

4. Test Site Speed and Performance

A slow-loading website can frustrate visitors, leading to higher bounce rates and lower engagement, negatively impacting your rankings. 

To keep your site running smoothly, do the following:

• Use image compression tools to reduce file sizes without sacrificing image quality, ensuring faster load times.  
• Enable browser caching to store elements of your site in users’ browsers to load faster on subsequent visits.  
• Optimize CSS and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary characters and combining files to improve performance.

5. Check for Duplicate Content

Duplicate content can confuse search engines, making it harder for them to determine which version of a page to index and rank. 

This can dilute your SEO efforts and harm your search visibility. 

To prevent this, use tools like Siteliner to scan your website for duplicate content.

Once you have identified the duplicate content, implement canonical tags on the duplicate pages to point search engines to the original version. 

You can also choose to rewrite duplicate content or merge similar pages into one comprehensive resource. This will help eliminate redundancy and improve the overall quality of your site’s content.

To rewrite content perfectly and optimize it for on-page SEO, use SEOBoost’s Content Optimization feature.

Analyzing your content against various ranking metrics identifies areas for improvement. It helps you refine your writing, restructure paragraphs, and incorporate relevant keywords while ensuring originality.

6. Evaluate Mobile-Friendliness

With Google’s mobile-first indexing, having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional, it’s essential. 

To ensure your site is fully optimized for mobile users, use Mobile-Friendly Test to identify any issues that might impact the user experience on smaller screens. 

This tool highlights areas where your site may not meet Google’s mobile standards, such as poor formatting or usability issues.

Make your site responsive by adjusting the design to adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes.

You should also optimize text and buttons for mobile users to ensure that text is legible without the need for zooming and that buttons are large enough and spaced appropriately for easy tapping.

7. Inspect Structured Data and Schema Markup

Implementing schema markup is a key step in helping search engines understand the context and structure of my content. 

By using schema, I can provide detailed information about my pages, improving the chances of appearing in rich snippets and significantly boosting visibility and click-through rates in search results.

Incorporate the appropriate schema types for articles, reviews, FAQs, or products to ensure that search engines can accurately interpret and display my content in enhanced search results.

8. Review Redirects and URL Structure

Properly managing redirects and maintaining a clean URL structure is essential for both user experience and SEO.

You can do the following:

• Eliminate redirect chains to prevent unnecessary hops, slowing page load times and negatively impacting SEO.
• Fix broken links to ensure that visitors and search engines can easily access the intended pages.

Technical SEO Audit Checklist

Here’s a brief technical SEO checklist to guide you through the technical SEO audit process:

1. Website Structure Checklist

• Analyze site architecture and ensure a logical hierarchy.
• Identify orphan pages and improve internal linking.
• Implement breadcrumb navigation (if applicable).

2. Crawlability and Indexability Checklist

• Check Google Search Console for crawl errors.
• Ensure proper submission of XML sitemaps.
• Inspect URL parameters and canonicalization issues.
• Resolve broken links and redirects.

3. Mobile Optimization

• Test mobile usability with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
• Ensure responsive design and fix mobile-specific crawl issues.

4. Website Security and HTTPS

• Ensure the website is migrated to HTTPS.
• Check for mixed content issues and resolve them.
• Implement secure HTTP headers and HSTS.

5. Structured Data and Schema Markup

• Implement relevant schema markup (e.g., product, article, FAQ).
• Test structured data using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
• Optimize for rich snippets and featured snippets.

6. Site Speed and Performance

• Analyze site speed with PageSpeed Insights
• Optimize images and implement browser caching.
• Minimize render-blocking resources and leverage compression.

Advanced Technical SEO Strategies

Here are a few advanced technical SEO strategies you can adopt once you’ve covered the basics.

1. Voice Search Optimization Techniques

With the rise of virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, voice search optimization has become a key component of technical SEO. 

Here’s how you can optimize for voice search:

• Focus on long-tail keywords because voice search queries are often phrased as questions.
• Many voice search results come from featured snippets, so structure your content to provide clear, direct answers to common questions.
• Implement schema markup to help search engines understand the context of your content.
• Since most voice searches are conducted on mobile devices, make sure your site is optimized for all screens.

2. JavaScript SEO Best Practices

JavaScript-heavy websites pose unique challenges for search engines. 

Here’s how you can ensure that your JavaScript content is SEO-friendly:

• Implement Server-Side Rendering (SSR) to generate fully rendered HTML on the server, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index.
• Use Google Search Console to monitor how Google renders your JavaScript pages.
• Provide fallback content if JavaScript fails so search engines can crawl and index.

3. Dealing with Dynamic and Database-Driven Websites

Dynamic and database-driven websites generate content on the fly based on user interactions.

These sites often display different content based on user preferences or queries, making it more difficult for search engines to crawl and index your website’s full scope.

Here’s how you can optimize dynamic and database-driven websites for SEO:

• Ensure that each filter or pagination option creates crawlable URLs and uses canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues.
• Implement caching solutions to store frequently accessed content and reduce server strain.
• Manage URL parameters to display specific content.
• Optimize for user intent and personalization to ensure the content remains crawlable and indexed by search engines.

4. Handling Large-Scale Site Migrations

If not handled properly, migrating a website, whether changing domains, rebranding, or overhauling your platform, can significantly impact your search engine rankings.

Here’s how to handle large-scale site migrations effectively for SEO:

• Outline every step of the migration process, including creating a full site backup, mapping old URLs to new ones, and setting up 301 redirects to ensure seamless traffic flow.
• Update all internal links on your website to reflect the new URL structure.
• Once the migration is complete, submit updated sitemaps.

Final Word

Technical SEO is an ongoing process that requires consistent attention. It’s about optimizing your website’s elements for both users and search engines.

To make the most of your technical audit, pair it with an SEO and content optimization tool like SEOBoost.

Remember, prioritizing technical SEO will improve your rankings, enhance user experience, and ensure your site’s long-term success in an ever-evolving digital world.

FAQs

1. What is a factor in technical SEO?

A factor in technical SEO refers to any element that affects how search engines crawl, index, and rank your site, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, or structured data.

2. What is the difference between technical SEO and on-site SEO?

Technical SEO focuses on the backend structure like crawlability, site speed and indexing, while on-site SEO directly deals with optimizing content, keywords, and meta tags on web pages.

3. What is technical content in SEO?

Technical content in SEO refers to the backend optimizations, like schema markup or metadata, that help search engines understand the structure and context of your website’s content.

Alina Zahid Content Writer

Alina is an SEO professional with specialized knowledge of content marketing. When she’s not busy researching and creating awesome content for SEOBoost, she can be found practicing piano, writing fiction and traveling.

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