SEO freelancer Sami Asafi has emphasised how technical SEO isn’t an option anymore, especially not for bigger sites. On page SEO still is equally important however without the technical backing, that may not translate into as big a ranking boost as it should.
Here are a few insights into technical SEO basics.
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How is technical SEO different from on page SEO?
When most people talk of SEO, they’re talking of on page SEO. The other side of the coin being technical SEO. Something that’s often ignored and is slightly more complex than on page SEO.
So, on page SEO primarily consists of the elements on the page you’re trying to optimise. This may be keywords, backlinks, headings and so on.
Technical SEO, as the name suggests, focuses more on the “technical” aspects of a site. These optimizations help search engine understand, crawl, index your site better. In simpler words, these optimizations are more for the search engines rather than humans.
What aspects does technical SEO focus on?
So, what aspects exactly does technical SEO consist of?
- Speed
- Fixing broken and error links
- Mobile optimization
- Optimising indexations
- URL structures, schema markup etc.
Let’s discuss briefly how these impact your website then?
Speed
Speed is something that has both a direct, as well as indirect impact on your SEO. Your website’s loading time can make or break its success. The direct impact being Google has iterated multiple times how it likes websites that load <2 seconds.
The indirect impact being visitors get to your site faster, get exposed to more content and have a higher chance of returning. This leads to reduced bounce rates which further impacts your SEO.
Broken links and errors
If you’ve a large number of broken or error links, search engine bots may get confused. Not to mention it’s not a pleasant sight even for humans. You can use tools & plugins or simply manual browsing to come across links that aren’t working and fix them.
Mobile Optimization
Google has been pretty upfront about its priority for sites optimised for mobile. Your site needs to be mobile responsive and just overall mobile-friendly. Mobile responsiveness means the website will automatically adjust its size and frames to display within a mobile phone’s screen size without them having to zoom in/out.
Optimising indexations
Search engines do use bots to crawl and index your website but you can make their job easier. You can start with manually submitting posts to crawlers. Updating sitemap is another great way to get good indexations. And then there’s tweaking the robots.txt file.
Specialised expertise and custom methods like the Sami Asafi approach
As mentioned earlier, technical SEO is well, a bit more technical than on page. Hence, it needs a bit more of an expert or at least experienced touch. SEO experts such as Sami Asafi have developed methods and workflows over the years that helps them get more things done in shorter span of time, without making mistakes.
Final words
That’s it folks. I’m sure many of you may have by now realised the things you were missing out on. Go on then, get to fixing a few of those. Do note that this list isn’t “ultimate”. There are quite a few other things that you may need to work on to get that perfect blend of technical and on-page SEO right.
Of course, you can do it all on your own, use third-party tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, or hire a SEO professional like Sami Asafi.
