As marketers, we all spend much of our time and effort creating thoughtful content for our website users. But all of that content could amount to nothing without proper technical SEO.
So what is Technical SEO? Technical SEO is a part of on-page SEO and refers to the process of improving the technical aspects of a website to help boost its positioning within search engine results page rankings, or SERP.
The primary function of technical SEO is to make websites faster, easier to navigate for users, and more understandable for search engines. When executed properly, technical SEO can be the key to enhancing a website’s online visibility, which can help increase traffic to websites and decrease bounce rates, making it easier to draw in visitors and convince them to perform whatever action you would like them to take.
Why is Technical SEO Important?
Technical SEO is important because it helps search engines like Google easily crawl your site, know what each page is about, and identify it as high-value – meaning that it’s not slow or buggy and likely to satisfy the wants and needs of users. And while it’s important to please search engines, it’s even more important to provide a great experience for your users – and technical SEO will accomplish both!
What is Technical SEO? What Are the 8 Components?
The 8 technical components of SEO include:
- Improving page load time – Improving the load speed of webpages is an extremely essential component of technical SEO. According to Marketing Dive, 53% of mobile users will leave a site if it takes over 3 seconds to load. Slow web pages create friction for users, and because of the poor user experience, your ranking within a search engine will drop, decreasing your online visibility.
- SSL and security – SSL (HTTPS://) stands for Secure Sockets Layer and refers to security technology that creates an encrypted connection between a browser and a web server. While most website builders come equipped with SSL, if you are developing a custom website, the SSL certificate can be installed. Secure websites mean your site can be trusted, which can help boost your positioning on results pages.
- Mobile Friendly – A mobile-friendly website implies your website functions just as efficiently as your site does on a desktop or any other device. Google has made it clear that responsive websites are considered a significant ranking indicator by its algorithm. And, with the unveiling of Google’s ‘mobile-first‘ approach to processing and cataloging content, the importance of a responsive website has never been greater.
- Scan for broken links – The only thing worse than a slow website is a website that doesn’t work or exist at all. When a user goes to a link that is broken, they will encounter a 404 error page and will assume there is an issue and go elsewhere. If users are seeing that 404 error message, rest assured search engines are as well, and to avoid the possibility of more users seeing that message, search engines will push your site down the rankings. To mitigate this issue, routinely scan your site for broken links, so you can take the necessary steps to correct the error in a timely manner.
- Duplicate content – Duplicate content refers to very similar content or the same content existing on multiple pages of a website. It can harm your SEO performance because it gives no additional value to users and confuses search engines.
- XML sitemap – An XML sitemap refers to all the pages of your website. It essentially serves as a guide for search engines to crawl your site, making it easier for them to find important pages or content. XML sitemaps are ideal for poorly structured websites, but all sites, regardless of the build-quality stand to benefit from its inclusion.
- Robots Txt File – A robots.txt file refers to a text file that tells search engine robots (aka spiders or crawlers) which pages or files they can request from a website. When a search engine robot arrives at a website with a predetermined allowance of resources that can be spent crawling, it’s known as the crawl budget. Site owners can use crawl budgets to their advantage by preventing search engine robots from accessing pages that require SEO clean up and redirect them to sections where SEO’s best practices have been implemented.
- Google Search Console – Google Search Console is a free service provided by Google that helps troubleshoot and monitor the appearance of a website in search results. It helps boost a site’s SEO performance by enabling owners of websites to find and fix technical errors, see backlinks, submit sitemaps, and much more.
Who Performs Technical SEO?
While there are DIY tools to perform some of the basic tasks of technical SEO, the best results can be achieved by an experienced web development agency such as Brainstorm, that is well-versed in the top CMS’s, like WordPress and HubSpot, as well as HTML coding.
About Brainstorm
Brainstorm is a full-service digital marketing agency, specializing in smart, data-driven campaigns and tactics that help increase brand awareness, generate qualified leads, and grow your business in ways that are measurable and scalable.
Contact us today to schedule a Free SEO Audit for your website to learn how your site grades for metrics like performance, mobile readiness, SEO, and security.