What Is Technical SEO?
Technical search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the tactics involved in creating and optimizing a website so that search engines can readily crawl, index, and render it. Technical SEO is just one piece of the whole SEO puzzle.
Search engines give preferential treatment in search results to websites that display certain technical characteristics — for example, a secure connection, a responsive design, or a fast-loading time — and technical SEO is the work you need to do to ensure your website does so.
Setting Up Your Website
The first major step in establishing a technical SEO strategy is setting up your website correctly so every page functions as it should.
Purchase a domain name:
There are tons of domain registrars (businesses that organize and manage taken and available domain names) out there. Wix, GoDaddy, and Domain.com are some of the most popular registrars out there.
Link up your domain name to an IP address:
Internet protocol addresses (IPs) are a set of numbers that help the internet translate a domain name like “semrush.com” into something it can catalog and organize. A domain name server (DNS) organizes these IP addresses into an intricate map across the web.
URL Structure
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) structure describes the appearance of a URL. This structure gives important information about the web page to both search engines and searchers. For example, you’ve probably seen many URLs that start with “HTTPS.”
This group of letters refers to a URL structure that combines Hypertext Transfer Protocol and the Secure Socket Layer (SSL). That “S” at the end refers to a security protocol that many sites use to keep the contents of the webpage (and information users enter into the page) secure.
Let’s take a look at a structured URL example:
You can see from the content that this is a blog post about Off-Page winning Techniques | SEO. The URL structure also reflects this with “/off-page-winning-techniques-seo/.”
You can also see an SSL certificate at the top, indicated by the “S” at the end of “HTTPS” and the little lock icon in the left-hand corner of the search bar.
HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
If it feels like learning Latin to you, don’t worry; HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are all programming languages many individuals can learn with a lot of patience, practice, and support.
Let’s use the house example again to go over each programming language.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is like a house’s foundation and load-bearing walls. This language provides the essential structure (code) browsers need to display your web content. When you see written content on a site, including headers and listicles, that’s HTML.
CSS
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the house’s exterior in this analogy. This programming is responsible for the colors, fonts, and overall look of your site. Without it, things would look very blank and boring on a webpage.
JavaScript
This language is like the plumbing and electrical elements of the house. JavaScript provides the code that makes the functional parts of a site usable when searchers come to it. JavaScript makes elements of a website dynamic and flashy. With JavaScript, the options are essentially endless. For example, if you wanted to create a click-through quiz on one of your web pages, you could do that with JavaScript
Implementing Structured Data
As a recap: building structured data is the act of helping Google understand your website content through creating a detailed site description in a language (code) that Google can readily understand.
Your structured data might include the title of the article or content, the description, and other elements baked into a code (schema) that Google likes.
Google even has a Structured Data Markup Helper if you’re struggling with figuring out how it all works.
The tool helps by walking you through building structured data to a sample web page. An example of the URL you entered will be rendered on the left. You tag items by clicking on them and providing context as to what that element of the page is about.
Page Speed
Now, through the power of JavaScript and CSS, so many more things are possible for web developers. As web content becomes more rich and dynamic, page speed becomes a more critical factor in user experience (and in how well your content ranks in the SERPs).
Typically, the more JavaScript you have on your site (especially complex elements), the harder it is for that page to load. Because page speed is a ranking factor, you’ll want to make sure you pay close attention to how long it takes for content to load once a user requests it.
Crawlability Checklist
Crawlability is the foundation of your technical SEO strategy. Search bots will crawl your pages to gather information about your site.
If these bots are somehow blocked from crawling, they can’t index or rank your pages. The first step to implementing technical SEO is to ensure that all of your important pages are accessible and easy to navigate.
Crawlability Checklist
- Create an XML sitemap.
- Maximize your crawl budget.
- Optimize your site architecture.
- Set a URL structure.
- Utilize robots.txt.
- Add breadcrumb menus.
- Use pagination.
- Check your SEO log files.
Clickability Checklist
While click-through rate (CTR) has everything to do with searcher behavior, there are things you can do to improve your clickability on the SERPs. While meta descriptions and page titles with keywords do impact CTR, we’re going to focus on the technical elements because that’s why you’re here.
Clickability Checklist
- Use structured data.
- Win SERP features.
- Optimize for Featured Snippets.
- Consider Google Discover.
The Perfect Trio
Technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO work together to unlock the door to organic traffic. While on-page and off-page techniques are often the first to be deployed, technical SEO plays a critical role in getting your site to the top of the search results and your content in front of your ideal audience. Use these technical tactics to round out your SEO strategy and watch the results unfold.
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