What’s technical SEO? 8 technical aspects everyone should know

In this post, we’ll spell into the basics of method SEO. Now, discussing the basics of method SEO mightiness look similar a contradiction successful terms. Nevertheless, immoderate basal cognition astir the much method broadside of SEO tin mean the quality betwixt a high-ranking tract and a tract that doesn’t fertile astatine all. Technical SEO isn’t easy, but we’ll explicate – successful layman’s connection – which aspects you should (ask your developer to) wage attraction to erstwhile moving connected the method instauration of your website.

What is method SEO?

Technical SEO is each astir improving the method aspects of a website successful bid to summation the ranking of its pages successful the hunt engines. Making a website faster, easier to crawl, and much understandable for hunt engines are the pillars of method optimization. Technical SEO is portion of on-page SEO, which focuses connected improving elements on your website to get higher rankings. It’s the other of off-page SEO, which is astir generating vulnerability for a website done different channels.

Why should you optimize your tract technically?

Google and different hunt engines privation to contiguous their users with the champion imaginable results for their queries. Therefore, Google’s robots crawl and measure web pages connected a multitude of factors. Some factors are based connected the user’s experience, similar however accelerated a leafage loads. Other factors assistance hunt motor robots grasp what your pages are about. This is what, among others, structured information does. So, by improving method aspects, you assistance hunt engines crawl and recognize your site. If you bash this well, you mightiness beryllium rewarded with higher rankings. Or adjacent gain yourself immoderate rich results!

It besides works the different mode around: if you marque superior method mistakes connected your site, they tin outgo you. You wouldn’t beryllium the archetypal to artifact hunt engines wholly from crawling your tract by accidentally adding a trailing slash successful the incorrect spot successful your robots.txt file.

But don’t deliberation you should absorption connected the method details of a website conscionable to delight hunt engines. A website should enactment good – beryllium fast, clear, and casual to usage – for your users successful the archetypal place. Fortunately, creating a beardown method instauration often coincides with a amended acquisition for some users and hunt engines.

What are the characteristics of a technically optimized website?

A technically dependable website is accelerated for users and casual to crawl for hunt motor robots. A due method setup helps hunt engines to recognize what a tract is about. It besides prevents disorder caused by, for instance, duplicate content. Moreover, it doesn’t nonstop visitors, nor hunt engines, to dead-ends caused by non-working links. Here, we’ll soon spell into immoderate important characteristics of a technically optimized website.

1. It’s fast

Nowadays, web pages request to load fast. People are impatient and don’t privation to hold for a leafage to open. In 2016 already, probe showed that 53% of mobile website visitors volition leave if a webpage doesn’t unfastened wrong 3 seconds. And the inclination hasn’t gone distant – probe from 2022 suggests ecommerce conversion rates drop by astir 0.3% for each other 2nd it takes for a leafage to load. So if your website is slow, radical get frustrated and determination connected to different website, and you’ll miss retired connected each that traffic.

Google knows dilatory web pages connection a little than optimal experience. Therefore they similar web pages that load faster. So, a dilatory web leafage besides ends up further down the hunt results than its faster equivalent, resulting successful adjacent little traffic. Since 2021, Page experience (how accelerated radical acquisition a web leafage to be) has officially go a Google ranking factor. So having pages that load rapidly capable is much important present than ever.

Wondering if your website is accelerated enough? Read however to easily trial your tract speed. Most tests volition besides springiness you pointers connected what to improve. You tin besides instrumentality a look astatine the Core Web vitals – Google uses these to bespeak Page experience. And, we’ll usher you done communal site velocity optimization tips here.

2. It’s crawlable for hunt engines

Search engines usage robots to crawl, oregon spider, your website. The robots travel links to observe contented connected your site. A great interior linking structure volition marque definite that they’ll recognize what the astir important contented connected your tract is.

But determination are much ways to usher robots. You can, for instance, artifact them from crawling definite contented if you don’t privation them to spell there. You tin besides fto them crawl a page, but archer them not to amusement this leafage successful the hunt results oregon not to travel the links connected that page.

Robots.txt file

You tin springiness robots directions connected your tract by utilizing the robots.txt file. It’s a almighty tool, which should beryllium handled carefully. As we mentioned successful the beginning, a tiny mistake mightiness forestall robots from crawling (important parts of) your site. Sometimes, radical unintentionally block their site’s CSS and JS files successful the robots.txt file. These files incorporate codification that tells browsers what your tract should look similar and however it works. If those files are blocked, hunt engines can’t find retired if your tract works properly.

All successful all, we urge to truly dive into robots.txt if you privation to larn however it works. Or, possibly adjacent better, fto a developer grip it for you!

The meta robots tag

The robots meta tag is simply a portion of codification that you won’t spot connected the leafage arsenic a visitor. It’s successful the root codification successful the alleged caput conception of a page. Robots work this conception erstwhile uncovering a page. In it, they’ll observe accusation astir what they’ll find connected the leafage oregon what they request to bash with it.

If you privation hunt motor robots to crawl a page, but to support it retired of the hunt results for immoderate reason, you tin archer them with the robots meta tag. With the robots meta tag, you tin besides instruct them to crawl a page, but not to travel the links connected the page. With Yoast SEO it’s easy to noindex oregon nofollow a station oregon page. Learn for which pages you’d privation to bash that.

Read more: What is crawlability? »

3. It doesn’t person (many) dormant links

We’ve discussed that dilatory websites are frustrating. What mightiness beryllium adjacent much annoying for visitors than a dilatory page, is landing connected a leafage that doesn’t beryllium astatine all. If a nexus leads to a non-existing leafage connected your site, radical volition brushwood a 404 mistake page. There goes your cautiously crafted idiosyncratic experience!

What’s more, hunt engines don’t similar to find these mistake pages either. And, they thin to find adjacent much dormant links than visitors brushwood due to the fact that they travel each nexus they bump into, adjacent if it’s hidden.

Unfortunately, astir sites person (at slightest some) dormant links, due to the fact that a website is simply a continuous enactment successful progress: radical marque things and interruption things. Fortunately, determination are tools that tin assistance you retrieve dormant links connected your site. Read astir those tools and however to lick 404 errors.

To forestall unnecessary dormant links, you should ever redirect the URL of a leafage erstwhile you delete it oregon determination it. Ideally, you’d redirect it to a leafage that replaces the aged page. With Yoast SEO Premium, you tin easy marque redirects yourself. No request for a developer!

Keep reading: What is simply a redirect? »

4. It doesn’t confuse hunt engines with duplicate content

If you person the aforesaid contented connected aggregate pages of your tract – oregon adjacent connected different sites – hunt engines mightiness get confused. Because, if these pages amusement the aforesaid content, which 1 should they fertile highest? As a result, they mightiness springiness each pages with the aforesaid contented a little ranking.

Unfortunately, you mightiness person duplicate contented issues without adjacent knowing it. Because of method reasons, antithetic URLs tin amusement the aforesaid content. For a visitor, this doesn’t marque immoderate difference, but for a hunt motor it does; it’ll spot the aforesaid contented connected a antithetic URL.

Luckily, there’s a method solution to this issue. With the alleged canonical nexus element, you tin bespeak what the archetypal leafage – oregon the leafage you’d similar to fertile successful the hunt engines – is. In Yoast SEO you tin easy acceptable a canonical URL for a page. And, to marque it casual for you, Yoast SEO adds self-referencing canonical links to each your pages. This volition assistance forestall duplicate contented issues that you mightiness not adjacent beryllium alert of.

5. It’s secure

A technically optimized website is simply a unafraid website. Making your website harmless for users to warrant their privateness is simply a basal request nowadays. There are many things you tin bash to marque your (WordPress) website secure, and 1 of the astir important things is implementing HTTPS.

HTTPS makes definite that cipher tin intercept the information that’s sent implicit betwixt the browser and the site. So, for instance, if radical log successful to your site, their credentials are safe. You’ll request thing called an SSL certificate to instrumentality HTTPS connected your site. Google acknowledges the value of information and truthful made HTTPS a ranking signal: unafraid websites fertile higher than unsafe equivalents.

You tin easy cheque if your website is HTTPS successful astir browsers. On the left-hand broadside of the hunt barroom of your browser, you’ll spot a fastener if it’s safe. If you spot the words “not secure” you (or your developer) person immoderate enactment to do!

Read on: What is HTTPS? »

6. Plus: it has structured data

Structured information helps hunt engines amended recognize your website, content, oregon adjacent your business. With structured data you tin archer hunt engines what benignant of merchandise you sell, oregon which recipes you person connected your site. Plus, it volition springiness you the accidental to supply each kinds of details astir those products oregon recipes.

There’s a fixed format (described connected Schema.org) successful which you should supply this information, truthful hunt engines tin easy find and recognize it. It helps them to spot your contented successful a bigger picture. Here, you tin work a communicative astir however it works and however Yoast SEO helps you with that. For instance, Yoast SEO creates a Schema graph for your site and has structured information contented blocks for your How-to and FAQ content.

Implementing structured information tin bring you much than conscionable a amended knowing by hunt engines. It besides makes your contented eligible for affluent results; those shiny results with stars oregon details that basal retired successful the hunt results.

7. Plus: It has an XML sitemap

Simply put, an XML sitemap is simply a database of each pages of your site. It serves arsenic a roadmap for hunt engines connected your site. With it, you’ll marque definite hunt engines won’t miss immoderate important contented connected your site. The XML sitemap is often categorized successful posts, pages, tags, oregon different customized station types, and includes the fig of images and the past modified day for each page.

Ideally, a website doesn’t request an XML sitemap. If it has an interior linking operation that connects each contented nicely, robots won’t request it. However, not each sites person a large structure, and having an XML sitemap won’t bash immoderate harm. So we’d ever counsel having an XML tract map connected your site.

8. Plus: International websites usage hreflang

If your tract targets much than 1 state oregon aggregate countries wherever the aforesaid connection is spoken, hunt engines request a small assistance to recognize which countries oregon languages you’re trying to reach. If you assistance them, they tin amusement radical the close website for their country successful the hunt results.

Hreflang tags assistance you bash conscionable that. You tin usage them to specify which state and connection each leafage is intended to serve. This besides solves a imaginable duplicate contented problem: adjacent if your US and UK sites amusement the aforesaid content, Google volition cognize they’re written for antithetic regions.

Optimizing planetary websites is rather a specialism. If you’d similar to larn however to marque your planetary sites rank, we’d counsel taking a look astatine our Multilingual SEO training.

Want to larn much astir this?

So this is what method SEO is, successful a nutshell. It’s rather a batch already, portion we’ve lone scratched the aboveground here. There’s truthful overmuch much to archer astir the method broadside of SEO!

Want to larn more? We person a large postulation of SEO grooming courses successful Yoast SEO academy, including Structured information for beginners. Plus we’ve conscionable added a caller Technical SEO grooming course covering Hosting and server configuration (for WordPress), and Crawlability and indexability.

Want to larn everything? Get Yoast SEO Premium and bask afloat entree to each of our grooming courses!

Keep connected reading: How to larn SEO: A usher for each backgrounds »

Take our method SEO quiz

There’s more! You tin besides instrumentality our technical SEO fittingness quiz if you privation to cognize however acceptable your site’s method SEO is. This quiz helps you fig retired what you request to enactment connected and points you successful the close absorption to commencement improving your site.

Read more: WordPress SEO: the definitive usher »