Technical SEO might sound like a fancy and complicated word, but it’s not as scary as it seems! Think of it as making sure your website is built in a way that search engines like Google can easily find, understand, and show it to people looking for what your site offers.
If you want your website to show up high on the search results when people search for things, you need technical SEO. Let’s dive into it and understand why it’s so important and how it works!
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is making sure that search engines can easily crawl, understand, and index your website.
- Crawl: This is like a robot going through your website to read and understand it.
- Index: Once the robot has read your website, it saves it in its memory. This is called indexing.
- Rank: After indexing, the robot decides where to rank your website when someone searches for something related.
If your website has technical issues, it can be hard for search engines to crawl and index it properly. This means your website might not show up in search results, and you don’t want that!
if you are new to SEO read (What is SEO?)
if you already know about SEO than read (How Many Types of SEO Are There?)
Key Parts of Technical SEO 🛠️
There are a few important things that make up Technical SEO. Let’s explore them one by one!
1. Website Speed (How Fast the Website Loads)
- Think about the last time you waited for a slow website to load. Annoying, right? 🐢 Search engines prefer fast websites because they know people like fast pages.
- Tip: Make sure your website loads in 3 seconds or less!
How to Improve Speed:
- Compress images to make them smaller.
- Use less code or cleaner code.
- Use a fast hosting service.
2. Mobile-Friendliness (How Well Your Website Works on Phones)
- Most people use their phones to browse the web, so your website needs to look and work great on a small screen. 📱
- Google checks if your website works well on mobile. If it doesn’t, it might not show up in searches.
Checklist for Mobile-Friendly Websites:
- Is the text big enough to read without zooming?
- Are the buttons easy to click on a small screen?
- Does the page load quickly on mobile?
3. Crawling and Indexing (How Search Engines Find and Store Your Website)
- Remember those search engine bots I mentioned? They crawl your website by following links to find pages.
- Once they find the pages, they store them in an index (like a giant library). This is called indexing.
- If your website has any broken links or if a page is hidden, the bot might not be able to find it. That’s why it’s important to make your site easy to crawl.
Tools for Crawling and Indexing:
- Google Search Console: Helps you see how Google is crawling your website and if there are any problems.
4. Sitemaps (The Website’s Blueprint)
- A sitemap is like a map of your website. It tells search engines what pages you have and how to find them. 🗺️
- Sitemaps are especially helpful if your website is big, with lots of pages. It helps the search engine bots understand the structure of your site.
Example of Sitemap:
| URL | Last Modified Date |
|---|---|
/home | 2024-09-12 |
/about-us | 2024-09-10 |
/services | 2024-09-08 |
5. HTTPS (Website Security)
- HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. It’s like locking your website with a key so no one can steal important information. 🔐
- Search engines like secure websites. If your website doesn’t use HTTPS, it might not show up in search results as often.
How to Get HTTPS:
- You need to install something called an SSL certificate on your website. It’s like adding a lock to your door.
6. Fixing Broken Links
- A broken link is like clicking a door that leads nowhere. 🚪❌
- If there are too many broken links on your site, search engines might get confused or frustrated, and so will your visitors!
How to Find Broken Links:
- Use tools like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to find and fix broken links.
Why is Technical SEO Important? 🤔
Search engines use bots (like little robots) to “crawl” or visit websites. They look at every page and store all that information so that when someone searches, the search engine knows which websites to show. Technical SEO makes sure these bots can find and understand your website.
How Does Technical SEO Affect Rankings?
The better your website performs technically, the easier it is for search engines to crawl and index your pages. This leads to:
- Better rankings in search results.
- More visitors to your site.
- Happier users, because everything works smoothly!
How to Improve Technical SEO
Here are some simple steps to improve your website’s technical SEO:
1. Check Your Website’s Speed 🏃♂️
- Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check your website’s speed.
- Optimize images so they load faster.
- Reduce large files that slow down the website.
2. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly 📲
- Use a responsive design that adjusts to fit any screen.
- Test your website on mobile devices to see if everything works well.
3. Use HTTPS 🔐
- Make sure your website has an SSL certificate. This is what changes the “HTTP” to “HTTPS” in your website’s address.
4. Fix Crawl Errors 🔧
- Use Google Search Console to find any crawl errors.
- Fix broken links or pages that can’t be found (404 errors).
5. Create a Sitemap 📍
- Generate an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines like Google using Google Search Console.
Tools for Technical SEO 🛠️
Here are some tools that can help you with your technical SEO:
- Google Search Console: Helps you monitor your website’s performance and fix crawl errors.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: A tool that helps you audit your website.
- GTmetrix: Checks your website’s speed and provides tips to improve it.
- Mobile-Friendly Test: Google’s tool to check how your site performs on mobile.
Technical SEO Checklist ✔️
Here’s a handy checklist to keep your technical SEO in top shape:
| Technical SEO Task | Status |
|---|---|
| Fast Page Speed | ✅ or ❌ |
| Mobile-Friendly Design | ✅ or ❌ |
| HTTPS Security | ✅ or ❌ |
| Fixed Crawl Errors | ✅ or ❌ |
| Structured Data Setup | ✅ or ❌ |
| XML Sitemap Submitted | ✅ or ❌ |
Final Thoughts
Technical SEO might sound like a lot, but once you break it down, it’s not so bad! It’s all about making sure your website is fast, secure, easy to crawl, and mobile-friendly so that search engines can find and rank it properly.
By following these steps, you’ll help your website rank higher and attract more visitors. And the best part? You don’t need to be a coding genius to get started!
