Beginners Guide to Technical SEO

Let's talk about technical SEO and how it plays a vital role in enhancing the performance of your website in terms of search engine results. If you are a business owner, this might not be the most exciting subject to read, but we promise you it is essential and something you need to get done. If you are working with a marketing agency, ensure they take care of these items. That said, there are times when business owners want a second opinion, and we are more than happy to assist with that audit process.

So, what is technical SEO? In simple terms, technical SEO optimizes your site's foundation, ensuring search engines can easily navigate and index your content. Alterior Digital has put together this beginner's guide that will walk you through the essential aspects of technical SEO, which we hope helps you implement what is here so you can boost your site's visibility and start ranking. Technical SEO is a critical aspect of your overall SEO strategy...so let's get right into it.

Improving Website Crawlability with Structured Data

Importance of a Sitemap

Helps search engines discover and index new pages

A sitemap is a roadmap for search engines, enabling them to quickly find and index new or updated content. By listing all your site's URLs in a structured format, a sitemap facilitates a comprehensive crawl, ensuring no page is left behind. So this is probably one, if not, the MOST IMPORTANT things you should do when you deploy a new website...why? Because it lets Google know your website exists right away, rather than waiting for Google to index your content weeks or even months down the line.

Improves crawl budget efficiency

By highlighting the essential pages that need to be crawled, a sitemap helps optimize your crawl budget, ensuring that search engines focus their efforts on indexing the most relevant sections of your site without wasting resources on low-priority pages. Another way to further enhance search engine crawl is to do internal linking to let them know which sites are most important on your website. This also further reinforces the relationship of how your website's structure is set up.

Robots.txt File

Controls which parts of your site are accessible to web crawlers

The robots.txt file is pivotal in directing search engines to your site's essential areas while restricting access to parts you don't want to be indexed. This file tells crawlers which pages to avoid, ensuring that only the most relevant content is considered for indexing. For example, you wouldn't want your thank you page to be indexed, right? Typically, there isn't any valuable content on that page, and really, it only has one purpose, and that is thanking your customer for either subscribing to your newsletter or booking an appointment, etc.

Structured data

Ensures that sensitive or redundant pages are not indexed, improving the overall quality of your crawl. By preventing search engines from accessing certain sections, the robots.txt file maintains your site's confidentiality and removes unnecessary content from search results, enhancing user experience.

Prevents server overload by limiting crawl requests

Managing the rate at which search engines crawl your site is crucial for server performance. The robots.txt file helps distribute the crawl load evenly, preventing server overload and ensuring that your site remains operational and efficient. We believe that the robots.txt file merits its own article, so we will be writing one soon so you can get a better understanding of why a server overload is bad and why adding crawl delays is important.

Enhancing Site Speed with Core Web Vitals

Importance of Fast Loading Times

Improves user experience and reduces bounce rates

Fast loading times are critical for user satisfaction. When pages load quickly, visitors are more likely to stay and engage with your content. Google really does not like high bounce rates as that is an indicator that your page speed is slow or simply that you do not have relevant content; either way, it is bad. So, fast loading times enhance user experience and reduce bounce rates, as users are less likely to abandon slow-loading pages in frustration.

Positively impacts search engine rankings

Page speed is a significant ranking factor now more than ever for search engines like Google. Faster websites are often rewarded with higher search engine rankings, as they provide a better user experience. Adhering to Core Web Vitals metrics can further optimize your site's search results performance.

Enhances mobile accessibility and performance

In an era dominated by mobile browsing, fast-loading mobile pages are non-negotiable. Ensuring that your site loads quickly on mobile devices not only enhances accessibility but also aligns with Google's mobile-first indexing, improving your site's mobile search ranking and user experience.

Tools to Measure Site Speed

Google PageSpeed Insights for comprehensive performance analysis

This tool offers valuable insights into your site's performance across both desktop and mobile devices. By providing detailed suggestions for optimization, Google PageSpeed Insights helps you address issues affecting site speed, enhancing your overall technical SEO. If you are a business owner reading this...well, this is probably going to be the most confusing thing you will see because PageSpeed Insights is really all technical with code language. We strongly recommend outsourcing this to a professional you can trust.

Pingdom for detailed speed test reports

Pingdom is another excellent tool for testing your site's speed. It offers in-depth reports that highlight performance bottlenecks, enabling you to implement targeted improvements and enhance your site's loading times. Now, this one is a bit user-friendly in terms of the code language they use, but we still recommend reaching out to a professional.

GTmetrix for actionable recommendations on speed improvement

GTmetrix analyzes your webpage and offers actionable recommendations to improve speed and performance. Its comprehensive waterfall charts and performance scores make it easier to identify and rectify issues, ensuring that your site meets optimal speed standards.

Enhancing Mobile Friendliness for Better Rankings

Importance of Responsive Design

Ensures a seamless experience across all devices

A responsive design adapts your website's layout and content based on the screen size and platform, ensuring users have a positive experience whether they are on a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. This adaptability is crucial as it removes the need for multiple versions of your site, providing a consistent experience for all users. For the most part, most users are on their cell phones, so making sure your website is optimized for mobile users is important.

Improves user engagement and retention rates

When a website is easy to navigate and visually appealing on all devices, visitors are more likely to stay longer and engage with the content. High user engagement and retention rates signal to search engines that the site offers valuable content, which has a correlation of impacting search ranking positively.

Mobile Optimization Tools

Google's Mobile-Friendly Test for Usability Insights

Google's Mobile-Friendly Test is a free tool that quickly determines if your website meets the criteria for mobile usability. By simply entering your URL, the tool will analyze your site and provide detailed feedback on areas that need improvement to enhance mobile user experience. This is particularly useful for identifying and fixing any mobile usability issues affecting your search rankings. Make sure to let your marketing team or marketing agency know this so they can optimize the website.

BrowserStack for testing on real mobile devices

BrowserStack provides a robust platform for testing your website on real mobile devices rather than just simulators. This ensures that you get accurate insights into how your site performs across various operating systems and devices, helping you make necessary adjustments to optimize user experience across the board.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for faster mobile pages

AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, is an open-source initiative by Google aimed at improving the performance of web content and ads on mobile devices. By creating optimized, fast-loading versions of your pages, AMP can significantly enhance the mobile browsing experience, reduce load times, and potentially improve your site's mobile search ranking.

Keyword Cannibalization: Ensuring Unique Content for Mobile

Keyword cannibalization refers to the phenomenon where multiple pages on your website are competing for the same keyword, leading to potential conflicts in search engine rankings. It's essential to monitor and manage your mobile content to prevent this issue. Tools like Google's Search Console can help you identify and correct keyword cannibalization, ensuring each page is unique and optimized for different search queries. This practice is especially vital for mobile optimization, where user intent and search behavior can vary significantly from desktop searches.

Ok, let's do a recap

Embracing the fundamentals of technical SEO is paramount for the success of your website. From ensuring optimal crawlability through sitemaps and robots.txt files to prioritizing site speed and mobile friendliness, every aspect plays a crucial role in enhancing your site's visibility and ranking on search engines. By implementing best practices and utilizing tools to measure performance, you can create a seamless user experience and stay ahead in the digital landscape. Remember, technical SEO is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and optimization to stay competitive. So, invest time and effort in mastering these elements to unlock the full potential of your website and make sure it stands out in the vast online ecosystem. If you are a business owner, we know this could be daunting, so if you are looking for a technical SEO agency or a technical SEO expert, there is no need to look further. I welcome you to fill out this form to get a free SEO Audit. Let's get started.