The backbone of your search engine optimisation

Technical SEO is a crucial onder part of search engine optimisation that is often overlooked. While content and link building are important for attracting traffic, technical SEO is the foundation that ensures search engines can effectively crawl, index and rank your website. Zonder a solid technical SEO structure can negate all your other SEO efforts. This article explores what technical SEO is, why it is important and how you can technically optimise your website for better search engine performance.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to the optimisation of the technical aspects of a website to improve its visibility and performance in search engines. This includes elements such as website architecture, loading speed, mobile friendliness, security, and resolving crawl and indexing issues. The goal is to create a solid technical foundation that helps search engines easily understand and value your website.

Improved crawling and indexing

Search engines like Google use crawlers to discover and index websites. If your website has technical problems, such as broken links or inconsistent site structure, search engines may struggle to find and index your content. A well-optimised website allows crawlers to search your entire site efficiently and index all relevant pages.

Faster loading times

Page load speed is an important ranking factor for search engines. Slow websites offer a poor user experience, which can lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversions. By technically optimising your website for speed, you can not only improve your search engine rankings, but also improve the user experience.

Mobile friendliness

With the growth of mobile internet usage, mobile-friendliness is a crucial factor for both SEO and user experience. Google uses mobile-friendly websites as a ranking factor. By applying technical SEO, you can ensure that your website is responsive and works well on all devices.

Security

Website security is an essential aspect of technical SEO. HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) is now a standard ranking factor for Google. By securing your website with an SSL certificate, you can both improve your search engine rankings and increase your users' trust.

Website architecture

A well-organised website architecture helps search engines understand and rank your content. Use a clear and logical hierarchy, with structured URLs and clear navigation. XML sitemaps and robots.txt files can also help search engines navigate your site.

Load speed optimisation

There are several techniques to improve the loading speed of your website, such as optimising images, using browser caching, and minimising CSS, JavaScript and HTML. Tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights can help identify performance issues and provide suggestions for improvement.

Mobile optimisation

Make sure your website is responsive, meaning the design adapts to different screen sizes and devices. Test your website for mobile performance and use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure your website meets mobile guidelines.

SSL certificate

Install an SSL certificate to activate HTTPS on your website. This secures data transfer between the server and users, which not only improves your SEO performance but also increases your visitors' trust.

Crawl errors and indexing problems

Use tools like Google Search Console to identify and fix crawl errors and indexing problems. This includes checking for broken links, 404 errors, and ensuring correct canonical tags to avoid duplicate content.

Practical tips for technical SEO

Use of structured data

Structured data helps search engines better understand the content of your pages. By implementing schema markup, you can increase the chances of your pages being displayed with rich snippets in search results, which can improve your CTR (Click-Through Rate).

Optimise your Robots.txt file

The robots.txt file gives search engines instructions on which pages they can and cannot crawl. Make sure your robots.txt file is configured correctly to index important pages and exclude irrelevant or sensitive content.

Make use of a CDN

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps to improve the load time of your website by distributing content across different geographical locations. This ensures that users can always access your website quickly, regardless of their location.

Conduct regular technical audits

Technical SEO is not a one-off task. Perform regular technical audits to make sure your website is performing well. Use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to scan your website and identify technical issues.

Technical SEO forms the backbone of an effective search engine optimisation strategy. By ensuring a solid technical foundation, search engines can crawl and index your website more efficiently, resulting in better rankings and more organic traffic. Through regular audits and continuous optimisations, you can keep your website in top shape and stay ahead of the competition. Investing in technical SEO is essential for any business striving for sustainable online growth and success.