Technical SEO is specific requirements, so search engines can navigate and access your website, improving organic ranking and visibility.
Many technical factors can hinder your website from showing in search engines, so you must read the following to learn how to correct issues with your website.
Straightforward Navigation: Mega menus are a thing of the past. Combining your services or products into silos navigation can help Google and other search engines discover important ranking pages. The fewer pages you have in your navigation, the more authority over the pages you have within your main website navigation. Silos also provide a clear relationship between pages.
Internal Linking: Properly internally linking pages with common associations to each other guides search engines to crawl through your website. Take advantage of changing anchor text with your content as you link to pages. Use brand terms, learn more, and search queries related to the page you are internally linking to.
URL Structure: Google does state the keyword in URL structure has no impact on ranking. However, they do state having an organized URL structure using keywords makes it easier for search engines and users to navigate your site. Avoid long URLs, capitalized words, and strange characters with the structure.
Why Speed Matters: Speed matters because Google and other search engines tell us so. Now, is it a ranking factor? No speed is not. It is a signal that informs search engines whether your website provides a good user experience. Enhance why core websites are available to access in the search console. Google Analytics, or GA4, now tracks engagement signals and visitors’ actions on your website based on events and scrolling patterns.
Mobile-First Indexing: It started back in 2020 when Google began indexing all websites based on mobile experience. When you build a website or new page, Google and other search engines base ranking and visibility on mobile search. Why is it so important your website is responsive and can be accessed on any mobile, tablet, or desktop?
What an XML Sitemap is: XML sitemap is a file that hosts all your website pages. Now, there is the proper way to set up your sitemap based on best practices. Not every page needs to be in your sitemap. Only top-ranking pages should be added to your sitemap. Lager website should consider adding multiple sitemaps based on each section of the website. For example, posts, pages, and images should be in separate sitemaps. Once you have done this, upload your sitemaps into the search console and Bing webmaster tools.
The purpose of Robots.txt is that the Robots file allows you to block or give access to crawlers and search engines. Google has stated that they don’t always obey the robots.txt file, so it is essential to remember that if you block specific URLs or folders within your website, ensure that section also has noindex tags or proper rel canonical setup. The same can be said for pages you want to index. Make sure you are not blocking search engines from accessing those pages.
Check robots.txt:
Verify XML Sitemap:
Internal Linking:
404 Errors:
Page Speed Issues
Minimize Redirects:
Caching:
Optimize Code:
Mobile-First Design:
Touch Target Size:
Text Readability:
Duplicate Content:
Structured Data:
HTTPS:
Google Search Console:
Considering technical SEO issues when dealing with ranking drops or starting a new website is essential. If search engines like Google can’t access your website or have a bad user experience based on their data, it can drastically decrease traffic to your website. Make sure to perform a technical audit every few months and take care of all warnings and errors found in the search console to help maintain your traffic. If you need further help, reach out to a technical expert like myself who can help identify issues that will improve your organic traffic.