What is Technical SEO?

Introduction

Technical Search Engine Optimization refers to the processes and tricks involved in creating and optimizing the website to crawl and index. SEO is like a puzzle, and technical SEO is just a piece. Marketers and business owners focus on technical SEO to improve their chances of ranking high in the search engine. 

We use the term "technical" because this part of SEO has nothing to do with your content and web promotion. The aim of technical SEO is the optimization of website structure. We will start discussing technical SEO with simple terminologies to understand it better.

Why Optimize your Site Technically?

Search engines want to present the results of a query in the best possible way. Therefore Google's robots analyze the website on a number of factors. Some factors based on user experience such as how much time a site takes to load a page. Other factors help Google robots analyze what the page is about. So, by improving your technical SEO, you help search engines to understand and crawl your website well. 

If you successfully handle your technical SEO, it will help you rank your site in the search engine.

Characteristics of Technically Optimized Website

A technically optimized website is fast for users and can easily be crawled by Google robots. A proper technical setup of your website will help search engines understand what your website is about and help you prevent misconceptions regarding duplicate content. Moreover, it understands if a page is not working, it doesn't send the visitors to that page. 

Here are a few characteristics of a technically optimized website. 

It is Fast

A web page needs to load fast, as people are impatient and don't want to wait for a page to load. According to research in 2016, 53% of website visitors using mobile phones quit the page if it doesn't load in three seconds. If your page takes time to load, people get frustrated and prefer to look for another site delivering the same content, and you will miss out on your traffic. You need to check your website speed, and you can use ETTVI Website Speed Checker for it. 

The search engine knows that a slow site offers a bad experience. Therefore search engines prefer fast-loading web pages or sites. So, a slow-loading site will automatically decrease your page visitors.   

Crawlable for Search Engines

You may wonder how a search engine analyses your site; it uses robots to spider or crawl your website. The robots discover your site content through the links. Here the site's internal linking structure matters; if your site has a good linking structure, robots will understand the most important content on your site. 

However, robots can be guided in other ways as well. You can block them if you don't want them to crawl certain content. It is also possible to let them crawl a page but instruct them not to display the results for that page or not to follow its links. You can check the crawlability of your website using Crawlability Checker. 

No Dead Links

As we already discussed, websites with slow load speed are frustrating. What could be more annoying for page visitors than slow loading speed or loading for a page that doesn't even exist? If a link refers to a non-existing page on your website, people may see 404 errors. 

Furthermore, search engines dislike finding these error pages as well. In addition, they are more likely to stumble upon dead links since they follow every link they encounter, even if it has no apparent purpose.

In reality, most sites have some dead links since websites are constantly being improved: new features are added, and old ones are removed. There are tools available to help you retrieve dead links from your website.

 The URL of a page should always be redirected when you delete or move it to avoid unnecessary dead links. Redirecting it to a new page would be ideal. Redirects can be easily made with Yoast SEO Premium. There is no need for a developer.

Does Not Contain Duplicate Content

Having the same content on different pages of your site or other websites can confuse search engines. In this case, which pages should rank higher if they have the same content? This could lead to lower rankings for all pages with the same content.

You may have duplicate content on your web page and don't know about it. Different URLs can show the same content due to some technical reasons. It is totally fine for a visitor but not for a search engine. It is not good seeing the same content on different URLs.

There is a technical solution to solve this technical issue: use canonical link elements. This is how to show your original page or the page you want to rank for. Using ETTVI's Canonical tag generator, you can achieve your goal. 

It is Secure

The technical optimization of a website ensures its security. Today, making your website safe for users to ensure their privacy is essential. Implementing HTTPS is one of the most crucial things you can do to make your (WordPress) site secure.

Data sent between the browser and the website is protected by HTTPS, ensuring no one can intercept it. Therefore, their credentials are secure when people log in to your site. You can quickly check whether your website is secure or not. A website is secure if you see a lock on the browser's left side of the search bar. You have to do some work if you see the words "not secure." You can use tools like Suspicious Domain Checker to check the security of your site. 

It has Structured Data

Structured data aids search engines in better understanding your content, website, or business. It provides a clear picture of your content or your website's products. It also allows you to describe your services and products in detail. 

Search engines can easily find and understand this information because you use a specific format each time you provide information regarding your products or services. Structured data, in return, give you shiny results. 

It has an XML Sitemap

In simple words, an XML sitemap is a list of all the pages on your site. For your website, it is like a roadmap in search engines. It ensures that search engines won't miss any vital information on your site. This sitemap can be categorized into pages, posts, and tags and contain information about the number of images on each page and the last modified date. 

If a site has a solid internal linking structure and all the pages are well connected, it does not need an XML sitemap. But not all the websites have a good linking structure, so it's better to have an XML sitemap. You can use ETTVI's XML sitemap Generator if you think that your site needs a sitemap.

Final Thoughts

Technical SEO is not something that you can master in days. It needs a lot of effort and trials. But the good thing is that you don't need to do it alone. ETTVI is the best platform that provides you with all the required technical SEO tools if you want to work on the technical SEO of your website.