Is your website’s technical basis for search engine optimization solid?
This technical SEO checklist includes the best practices and most important technical SEO variables you’ll need to create digital success in 2024!
The internet marketing landscape has altered dramatically during the last decade. Furthermore, due to the economic slump and global trade slowdown, 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year for market participants and business owners.
We’ve witnessed a slew of obstacles that have kept marketers on edge. Changed customer behavior and needs, shifting market trends, tougher industry laws, and unanticipated algorithm upgrades constitute the obstacles.
Have you seen a decrease in your search rankings or a big decrease in page visitors? If this is the case, your technical SEO efforts may be lacking. Make sure you have your technical SEO checklist ready to reclaim your lost search traffic and return to the top of the search results.
Our technical SEO specialists at Google Rank Check have selected the top technical SEO components you should focus on to develop a solid website foundation.
What is Technical SEO?
We already know that having high-quality content is essential for achieving high search rankings. However, content alone will not unlock your online potential.
To help search engines identify and comprehend your site content, as well as to aid users in navigating your web pages, you need a robust SEO foundation.
Technical SEO refers to all of the information on your website. It includes your sitemaps, alt text, and data markups, to mention a few. Technical SEO looks beyond your content to see if the structure of your website can easily send the necessary information to search engine crawlers.
Technical SEO is the process of translating aspects of your website into a language that search engines can comprehend. This makes it easy for spiders to index your site, search for relevant keywords or structures, and rank your URL at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Technical SEO Checklist For Today’s Marketers
Any digital marketer may benefit from a technical SEO checklist. It can aid in the identification of prospective areas for improvement.
The following are the most crucial technical SEO factors to include on your checklist:
- Mobile Friendly
Mobile devices are being used by an increasing number of users to access the internet. As a result, Google has adopted a mobile-first indexing strategy. Make certain that your website is mobile-friendly and has a responsive design.
Google has acknowledged shifting toward a mobile-first indexing methodology, which implies that the algorithms prioritize mobile versions of websites above desktop ones. This makes being mobile-friendly even more crucial in terms of SEO ranking. So, if you haven’t previously optimized for mobile, now is the time.
You may accomplish this in one of two ways:
- Create a distinct mobile site from your desktop site
This method enables you to optimize content for mobile without changing your desktop site. It can assist you in more successfully targeting your mobile audience and optimizing for mobile requirements.
However, we propose building a single responsive site that can transition between mobile and desktop so that you don’t risk missing anything on one version that was loaded on the other.
- Create a responsive website that can effortlessly go from desktop to mobile
By developing a website with responsive design components, you can optimize it for both mobile and desktop users. This way, your website has a single URL and HTML, and you have fewer chances of missing out on SEO prospects. It’s also easier to handle because changes are automatically reflected on both versions of the site. It also doesn’t hurt that this is what Google suggests.
- URL Structure
Since it is user-friendly and easy to read and comprehend, users are more likely to click on a well-structured URL in search results.
For instance, see how to use rank tracker? Anyone looking at this understands it’s going to our website, then to our blog, and finally to that precise piece. This is an orderly hierarchy.
That connection also exemplifies a shallow hierarchy, which is great for consumers. It only has three layers of organization, so consumers may be confident that they will find what they are searching for. (Google enjoys it when users find what they’re looking for.)
The more backslashes and descriptive information you provide in your URL, the more difficult it is for people to figure out where they’re heading and if it’s related to their search.
- Site Speed
Fast loading speeds improve the user experience and are an important ranking factor for search engines. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to evaluate and enhance the performance of your website.
Google checks the health of a website using Core Web Vitals, which are measurements that show how well your site operates in terms of user experience.
One of the categories divides these vitals, and it encompasses the loading speed of the material.
You risk losing visitors if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load on a mobile device or more than 2 seconds to load on a desktop.
Users are more likely to remain on a site that loads quickly and to return to a fast site. As a result, quick sites tend to convert better than slow sites.
- Add Structured Data
You can add structured data to your website to provide search engines with a roadmap of your site.This can help them index your site better and make your pages appear in rich results.
Structured data, particularly schema markup, assists search engines in better understanding the content of your site.
You may use the Schema markup code to urge Google to show relevant information to consumers in the form of rich snippets on your site. Rich snippets feature things like star ratings, thumbnail photos, product prices, and more.
Furthermore, these SERP elements drive link engagement, which increases your click-through rates (CTR). We know one thing about SEO: websites with greater CTRs are favored in SERPs.
- Security
Website security reduces the likelihood of being hacked and is a significant priority for search engines. Encrypt your website’s data with HTTPS to avoid security concerns.
Security and SEO may appear to be two unrelated concerns, but they are not. Users and search engines are more likely to trust a website that is secure and less likely to be hacked.
A secure website also provides a better user experience by loading faster.
- Crawl Errors
Crawl mistakes impede internet users from obtaining the necessary information from your website. According to Doman, having 404 pages on your website might tarnish your trust and diminish the number of visitors sent to your domain. That is why 301 redirects are so important.
Employ 301 redirects when a web page is no longer relevant to the search query or the content has been deleted. Use 301 redirects to eliminate 404 pages and route internet users to the new landing page.
When: Our technical SEO gurus advise converting 404 pages to 301 redirects.
1. Changing domains
2.Cleaning up dynamic URLs
3. Avoiding duplicate content issues
Final Thoughts
Technical SEO specialists with a vast understanding of SEO not only address your technical SEO difficulties but also ensure you rank higher on different search engines.
Technical SEO may be difficult, but perhaps this article removes some of the mystique around website optimization. Our various skill sets and industry-specific knowledge enable us to quickly identify, test, and resolve technical SEO issues.
If you’d like to learn more, please contact us! Let’s talk about your company and how we can help you establish a stronger web presence. Contact a digital marketing specialist today to get started!