Technical SEO is an important part of ranking your site in Google's search results, but it's also one of the most challenging aspects of SEO. Here is a comprehensive list of all technical SEO factors that you should focus on in order to improve your ranking, increase traffic, and increase conversions.
You must get into the flesh of SEO to properly understand how it works and why it is so important. We're not talking about backlinks or keywords. It's all about technical SEO here. The code and improvements that assist search engines scan and indexing your website are at the heart of search engine optimization. It's also one of the most important facets of boosting your website's ranking considerations.
The IT industry is a constantly moving checkerboard that needs talent and strategy to progress. Google has recently shifted its focus on user experience when ranking content, thus successfully managing technical SEO to reflect this aim should be a top priority on any brand's SEO checklist.
What is Technical SEO & Why does it matter?
Technical SEO is all of the information behind your website. To name a few, it's your sitemaps, alt text, and data markups. Technical SEO looks at your website's structure to see if it can easily send the necessary information to search engine crawlers, in addition to your content.
Technical SEO converts your website's features into a language that search engines can understand. Spiders will have an easier time indexing your site, scanning for relevant keywords or structures, and placing your URL at the top of SERPs as a result of this.
However, because optimising is challenging, we've decided to assist you. This technical SEO tutorial covers some of the most important parts of technically optimising your site so that it can communicate with search engines easily. Here is the technical SEO checklist for better ranking.
1. Check mobile friendliness.
How many times a day do you use your smartphone to look for information? I'm sure there are more than you can recall off the top of your head. You're not alone, to be sure. In fact, more people are using their smartphones as their primary source of information these days, therefore your website must adapt to meet them there.
Google has acknowledged that it is moving toward a mobile-first indexing model, which implies that its algorithms prioritise mobile versions of websites above desktop ones. As a result, being mobile-friendly is much more important in terms of SEO rankings. So, if your website isn't already mobile-friendly, now is the time to get on board.
This can be accomplished in one of two ways:
Create a responsive website that transitions easily from desktop to mobile.
By using responsive design features, you can create a website that works on both mobile and desktop. Your website will have a single URL and HTML, and there will be less chances of SEO possibilities being lost. It's also easier to maintain because changes are automatically reflected on both versions of the site.
Create a distinct mobile site from your desktop site.
This method allows you to optimize content for mobile devices without having to make changes to your desktop site. It can assist you in more successfully targeting your mobile audience and optimizing for mobile requirements. However, our team recommends developing a single responsive site that can transition between mobile and desktop so that you don't miss out on material that was loaded on one version but not the other.
If you're unsure if your site measures up to this criterion, use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to see where it ranks.
2. Improve Website Speed
Last year, Google revealed a new approach to track the health of a website. It's called Core Web Vitals, and it's a set of measures for determining how well your website works in terms of user experience. The content loading speed is one of the three key areas that these vitals are based on.
The significance of speed in a user context is straightforward: the faster individuals can get into your website, the more likely they are to stay. What do you do if you try to access a page and it doesn't load within a few seconds? Most likely sigh angrily hit the back button, and attempt the next search result. On your website, so don't encourage customers to use the back button.
Let's look at some SEMRush statistics to see how big of an advantage you may obtain with quick load times:
A website that loads in 5 seconds is faster than 25% of the web.
A website that loads in 2.9 seconds is faster than 50% of the web.
A website that loads 1.7 seconds is faster than 75% of the web.
A website that loads in less than 0.8 seconds is faster than 94% of the web.
At these rates, a fast website may be able to outperform the bulk of its competitors just by reducing load times. Here are a few options for increasing your speed:
Google Analytics is one area to check for information about how your page speed is performing, but you can also use their Page Speed Insights tool for more detailed information.
3. Use the Right and clean URL Structure
Your URL gives search engines a lot of information about what your website is about and what kind of content it's taking the user to. As a result, you'll want to make sure it's optimized for those search engines to locate value in your content. That's how they pick you to "come on down" to the top of the search results page.
The goal is to end up with a good, clear, direct URL that contains your keyword. There are, however, a few measures you must do to get there. To begin, creating a site hierarchy can assist you in keeping material structured and your URLs simple and sensible. This means you may use tags to separate areas of your website into independent pages. The URL reflects this by using a backslash to separate each level.
For Example https://www.axattechnologies.com/blog/what-should-one-expect-from-SEO-and-SEM-services
That link also demonstrates a shallow hierarchy, which is beneficial to users. It only has three layers of the organization, so customers may rest assured that they'll locate exactly what they need. (When individuals find what they're seeking, Google is ecstatic.) The more backslashes and descriptive information you provide in your URL, the more difficult it is for people to figure out where they're heading and whether or not it's related to their search.
To summarise, you want clean links that incorporate your keyword and originate from a site hierarchy with a shallow navigation structure to produce SEO-friendly URLs.
4. Secure Your Website with HTTPS
Users are wary of cybercrime and cyberattacks, and the last thing they want is for an insecure site to allow someone to destroy their machine. Furthermore, you probably don't want anyone looking at your data. Google has stepped up its game in the previous seven years to favor safe sites, and we've put up a list of the finest website security best practices to get you started.
The Best Practice of Website Security
Increase the security of your website by using an SSL certificate and the HTTPS protocol.
Use a secure sockets layer (SSL), which encrypts the link between a browser and your server, to improve the security of your site. It'll be far more difficult for someone to get access your backend data this way. Most web hosting providers offer SSL by default, but you may also add an SSL certificate to an existing website if you don't have one.
5. Address Redirect Issues
Redirects keep your pages up to date with all those adjustments since your website is like a living entity that develops and grows over time. A redirect is an important part of technical SEO since it informs search engines about changes to your website. It enables the search engine and users to evaluate your fresh material and index it in accordance with the most recent version.
Correctly use 301 and 302 redirects
Redirects are divided into two categories: 301 and 302. The key difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect is that a 301 redirect is permanent and a 302 redirect is temporary. Furthermore, you should use caution while implementing redirects on your website.
A redirect, when implemented incorrectly, might result in a loss of visitors to your website. When utilizing a 302 redirect, for example, Google will continue to index the original page and transfer no value to the new URL. However, because a 301 redirect is considered a permanent replacement, Google will not index the original page and will instead transfer that equity to the page to which it is pointed.
It is advisable to utilize a 301 redirect unless you plan on forwarding your website to another URL for a brief duration. After you've finished making your adjustments, double-check that you've resolved all of the temporary redirection. Those redirects should be deleted or replaced with 301 redirects that route visitors to new, relevant material. When relocating two web pages, moving your site to a new domain name, or switching from HTTP to HTTPS, you should always employ a 301 redirect.
6. Add Structured Data
Structured data helps search engines in determining the purpose of your website. It's the equivalent of a teacher explaining the notes on the board rather than relying on learners to read and comprehend for themselves. When most people think about metadata, they think of meta descriptions and alt text, both of which are significant. However, there is another form of structured data that may be extremely useful when trying to improve your site's SERPS rankings. This is referred to as schema markup.
To encourage Google to display relevant information to users in the form of rich snippets, you may add Schema markup code to your site. Star ratings, thumbnail photos, product prices, and other rich snippets are examples. Additionally, these SERP elements encourage people to interact with your link, increasing your click-through rates (CTR). Websites with greater CTRs are preferred in the SERPs, as we know from SEO.
Final Thoughts
Technical SEO may be intimidating, but hopefully, this article can remove some of the mystery around website optimization. We'd be happy to assist you if you have any questions. Our team has a solid understanding of technical SEO. Hire Dedicated SEO Experts to do SEO on your Website to evaluate chances to help you rank better in the SERPs.