What is technical SEO?
The technical side of search engine optimization, technical SEO, focuses on optimizing your website’s infrastructure to make it easier for search engines to find, crawl, and understand your content, and rank your website’s web pages. In short, it aims to improve your website’s visibility within search engines like Google by addressing technical aspects. It also includes tools that support a broader E-E-A-T-based SEO strategy. For example, technical SEO assesses your website’s security to ensure both users and search engines trust that the site is secure.
With technical SEO encompassing so many aspects of a website, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. The following checklist provides an overview of some of the most important elements to review when conducting a technical review of your website.
Website security
Simply put, in order for search engines and users to trust a website it must be secured. Looking at this from a user’s perspective, would you want to input your email address to a contact form on a website with security vulnerabilities? Or would you input your credit card information to an e-commerce site if the website security leaves it vulnerable to hackers taking that information? The answer is no, and search engines like Google know this and actively try not to show unsecured websites in their search results.
Though there are a few different security vulnerabilities to look for when reviewing the security of your website, you should start by looking for two common issues. First, look for outdated links whether user-facing or in the backend code that use the older HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol). In 2024 and beyond all links should use HTTPS. The second issue to check for is Mixed Content. This is when secured pages pull in unsecured resources like images or JS/CSS files.
Duplicate content issues
Search engines like Google believe each webpage should add value to the web. This means they actively try to remove duplicate content from search results. Duplicate content is taken so seriously by search engines that Google even gives websites manual penalties for having duplicate content on their website. A manual penalty means some or all the website is removed from search results until the issue is corrected. A manual penalty can tank your keyword rankings for years if not addressed.
To avoid duplicate content issues first ensure all primary versions of a web page have a self-referencing canonical tag. A canonical tag tells search engines what the primary version of a webpage is. This ensures that duplicate or near duplicate content is not indexed. Duplicate and near duplicate pages should then have a canonical tag that points to the primary version.
Once you know all your canonical tags are properly set, use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website for duplicate and near duplicate content. Takes steps to edit and rewrite near duplicate content or determine if it’s best to canonical back to another page.
Website crawling and indexing
Ensuring that search engines can access and crawl the right pages on your site is a crucial aspect of technical SEO. It’s important not only to make sure that search engines can reach your most valuable pages but also to ensure that low-value pages are excluded from crawling, optimizing your crawl budget.
Start by reviewing the configuration of your robots.txt file. This file allows you to add directives to disallow search engines from crawling specific pages or sections of your site. For example, Google’s SEO documentation advises blocking search engines from crawling duplicate content or irrelevant resources. However, it’s important to note that search engines now render JavaScript and CSS files, so blocking these resources is no longer necessary. Instead, use robots.txt to manage crawling, and use a noindex meta tag in the HTML code to prevent indexing.
Next, check all your primary pages to ensure that none are unintentionally set to noindex. Sometimes, a minor setting in the backend of your site can accidentally apply a noindex tag. Verify that any noindex tags are intentionally set.
Additionally, review and optimize your XML sitemap. While the robots.txt file is used to prevent crawling of low-value pages, the XML sitemap lists the most important pages that should be crawled. Make sure your sitemap does not include non-indexable URLs, orphan pages, or low-value pages.
Finally, ensure that all indexable pages are free of broken links. A broken link returns a 404 status code when clicked and can negatively impact search engine rankings. Address any broken links immediately to maintain a healthy site structure.
Mobile optimization and site speed
Google reports that 60% of users visited websites using mobile devices in 2023. Additionally, a study by Research.com showed that the proportion of mobile users compared to desktop users has been increasing annually since 2016. Given this shift towards mobile devices, it’s no surprise that Google emphasizes the importance of making websites mobile-friendly. Google also uses the mobile version of pages to review and index content. This means that a poorly optimized mobile page can negatively impact the rankings of the desktop version, even if the desktop version is well-optimized.
Among the many factors to consider for mobile-friendly design, one of the most important is having a “responsive layout.” A responsive layout ensures that the page scales appropriately to fit the user’s device, providing a better overall experience.
One important aspect of mobile and desktop optimization is site speed. Site speed encompasses many different metrics, but your primary focus should be on the Core Web Vitals. These consist of three key speed metrics: Longest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These three metrics are also part of Google’s ranking algorithm. Prioritize these metrics before addressing other page speed issues.
A common issue affecting site speed is oversized images, which are a major contributor to slow loading times. Ensure that all images are 100 KB or smaller in size to improve your site’s performance.
Structured data
Structured data consists of small scripts in JSON-LD format that are added to the <head> or <body> of a webpage to convey important information about the page or organization to search engines. For example, Organization Structured Data communicates key details about an organization, such as its name and associated properties like social media profiles. Structured data can also enhance the visibility of your blogs or articles.
According to Google’s Structured Data documentation, structured data helps “show better title text, images, and date information for the article in search results.” Other types of structured data, like FAQ Structured Data and Video Structured Data, can also benefit your site, but they depend on having specific content on your page. Ensure that pages are not using structured data for features not present on the page.
Final thoughts
Technical SEO is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization that focuses on the infrastructure of your website to improve its visibility within search engines like Google. By addressing technical elements such as website security, duplicate content issues, crawlability, mobile optimizations, site speed, and structured data, you can ensure that search engines can effectively find, crawl, understand, and rank your web pages
Starting with a technical SEO audit can seem overwhelming due to the many factors involved, but breaking it down into manageable steps can make the process more approachable. Ensuring your website is secure builds trust with both users and search engines. Addressing duplicate content prevents penalties that could severely impact your rankings. Optimizing for crawlability and indexability helps search engines find your most important pages, while mobile optimization and site speed improvements cater to the growing number of mobile users. Finally, implementing structured data enhances how your content appears in search results, providing more informative and attractive listings.
Systematically reviewing and improving these technical aspects lay a strong foundation for your overall SEO strategy, ensuring your website is well-prepared to perform well in search engine rankings.
At Redefine, SEO is our bread and butter, and we’re well versed in the ins and outs of technical SEO. If you’d like to learn more or are interested in a free, no-obligation SEO audit of your website, contact us today.
