Technical SEO terrifies many, but it doesn’t need to. This term simply refers to any SEO steps that are taken, which don’t directly relate to the content. This portion of the search engine optimization process forms the foundation on which a website is built and allows the site to rank higher in the search engines. With the help of this process, it becomes easier for the search engines to crawl the website and index the content. What factors play a role in technical SEO?
Site Speed
Internet users have a very limited attention span. If a site doesn’t load quickly, they will probably leave and look for the desired information elsewhere. If the page doesn’t load within two seconds, a large portion of the viewing audience will be lost. They hit the back button and try another page.
Also, conversions drop by seven percent for every second the page delays in loading. Numerous steps may be taken to avoid a decrease in site speed, such as optimizing images and using HTTP compression for content. Do this across the site to improve the site’s search engine ranking.
Mobile-Friendly Sites
Men and women now turn to their mobile devices first when they need information. The search engines consider this when ranking a site. For this reason, every business needs to make sure their website appears the same across all devices. Responsive design ensures the page expands and shrinks to fit the parameters of the device on which it is being viewed.
Site Architecture
Search engine spiders crawl sites regularly. Nevertheless, they may overlook any pages that are new on the site and ones that have been updated. A simple and clear site architecture will be of great help in having these pages indexed and boosting the site’s ranking.
Sitemaps are needed to direct the spiders. More significant sites might find they need more than one sitemap to ensure the site is indexed correctly. Different sitemaps are required for distinct types of content. Be sure to include the location of the sitemaps in the robots.txt file, so the spiders know where to find it.
Faceted navigation, siloing pages, and other techniques also help when creating the site architecture. Crawl errors need to be eliminated as they can interfere with proper crawling of the site. Sadly, a large site may have thousands of these errors, but often they can be resolved with just a few clicks. Never overlook this task, as doing so could negatively affect the site’s search engine ranking.
Redirects
While redirects are essential in ensuring a site remains up to date, they must be appropriately handled. The wrong code hurts not only the visitor but also the site’s search engine ranking. Redirects are ideal for identifying updated versions of a page or maintaining link juice for a topic that is no longer covered and may either be permanent or temporary. Use the redirect function when a page has been moved, when an incorrect URL has been linked to, or when a page has been deleted.
Duplicate and Thin Content
Duplicate content or content that may be found on many sites isn’t beneficial to a site’s search engine ranking. The same is true when content is added to a site but doesn’t provide the reader with helpful information. Search engines penalize these sites, and a website with numerous pages containing thin or duplicate content will find they move down in the rankings quickly and significantly.
Duplicate content is of concern because visitors may find multiple sites that contain the same information and choose to return to the most original one. Additionally, search engines see this type of content to be confusing, as they cannot determine which page offers the most relevancy.
Structured Data
While search engine crawlers are sophisticated enough to determine what a page is about merely by viewing the content, behind the webpage, webmasters can make the process easier by incorporating structured data markup. It’s easier than most people imagine.
Schema is nothing more than a way for a person to describe the content found on their site to the search engines. The engines then use this information to determine which category a page falls under and to produce rich snippets, such as star ratings. These rich snippets do have an impact on the site’s search engine ranking because they boost the click-through rate.
While this does not cover all aspects of technical SEO, it gives readers a better understanding of what is involved with this task. To begin incorporating these techniques, pick one or two elements to try. Apply them to the site and monitor the results. Fix any issues that arise, and try another one or two. The more a person focuses on technical SEO, the better the site’s search engine ranking will be.