Search engine optimisation is a process of making websites visible on search engine result pages. The process consists of various elements such as on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. Usually, people are more aware of on-page and off-page SEO and do not have much idea about what is technical SEO and how it is a useful feature of the optimisation process.
In this blog, we will get to know what a technical SEO is, its importance, and best practices for robust behind-the-scenes optimisation services.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is all about improving your website performance better so search engine bots can easily find it and crawl it, hence, helping to rank your content in a well-deserved position on SERPs. The technical SEO involves very crucial factors that help in generating leads such as improving user experience on mobile and other devices.
In simple words, technical SEO refers to all behind-the-scenes elements of your website that can speed up organic growth. For instance, site structure, page speed, optimisation for mobile, etc. The aspects might not look appealing, but they hold crucial importance.
Suppose you have put your best efforts into content creation and building backlinks, but the website is not accessible to search engines. How will it appear in SERPs? All your hard work will go to waste if it does not exist on SERPs.
What is the Importance of Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is quite crucial as it can break or make your web optimisation performance. A no-index site is like running a ghost business online that nobody can find. Results?
- Loss of traffic and potential revenue to your business.
Moreover, mobile-friendliness and high web speed are confirmed ranking factors that are ensured by technical SEO only. A page’s slow loading means users might get annoyed and leave the site quickly. It increases bounce back rate and your site might not rank well on search engine result pages. For a better understanding of technical SEO, it is important to know the crucial elements of Indexing and crawling. Let’s have a look
What is Crawling?
Web crawling is one of the basic and important elements on which search engine bots work. It happens when search engines follow the link of web pages that they already know exist but have not visited them before.
For instance, whenever we publish a new blog or add some page, we add them to our main blog or home page. So, search engines like Google already know that your blog page exists and it has a new post. Thus, it will discover a new addition
Here are a few ways to ensure that the search engine knows about your page’s existence.
Optimised Site Structure:
Optimised site structure or website architecture is an authentic way that tells the page is rightly linked within your site. It helps the crawlers to find your website content easily and quickly. So make sure that:
- All pages are organised in a systematic hierarchy.
- The homepage links to secondary or category pages. Moreover, the secondary or category pages are linked to individual subpages on the website. The optimised site structure also minimises the orphan page number.
Submit Sitemap:
To ensure your page’s existence, you can submit the XML sitemap to Google. An XML sitemap is a coded file that consists of all crucial pages of your website.
- The practice also helps search engines know where to find the new page.
- It is helpful for SEO especially when the web pages are not properly linked in hierarchical order.
What is Indexing?
When the search engine crawls pages, it tries to analyse and understand its data. Once done, it stores the pieces of content in a search index with a database of billions of web pages. Therefore, to stand out in competition make sure that your website is indexed by the search engines and it appears in SERPs. It can be checked by following the simplest way, i.e., perform a “site” operator search.
For instance, if you want to check the index status of SEOSyrup.co.uk you will type “site:www.seosyrup.co.uk” into Google’s search box. It will give you a rough estimate of how many pages from your site are indexed on Google. Make sure nothing is troubling your pages from getting indexed such as;
Use Noindex Tag:
The “noindex” tag is HTML code that keeps pages out from indexing. It looks like this:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>
Use Canonical Tags when necessary:
If there are any similar pages on your site the search engine will show scattered results. Here you can use canonical tags
The canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) refers to the link of the original version and tells the search engine which page should be ranked. It looks like this:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://xyz.com/original-page/” />
Best Practices for Technical SEO:
Here are a few of the best practices that are used by search engine optimisation experts while working on technical SEO.
- Use HTTPs:
- Fix any issue related to duplicate content
- Ensure only one version of your website is available for crawlers to index
- Optimise loading speed
- Make sure the website is mobile-friendly
- Use more breadcrumbs navigations
- Focus on Pagination
- Fix broken links
- Run audits from time to time to identify any emerging issues and fix them.
Conclusion:
So that’s all about technical SEO. Understanding what is technical SEO is important for boosting your website’s visibility and performance on search engine result pages. Unlike on-page and off-page SEO, technical SEO focuses on the behind-the-scenes aspects that significantly impact your site’s ability to be crawled and indexed by search engines. With help of optimised site structure, high page speed, mobile-friendliness, and using practices like submitting sitemaps and using canonical tags, you pave the way for better ranking and increased traffic.
