What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is an important aspect of search engine optimization, which primarily focuses on making a website crawlable and indexable by search engines like Google and Bing. The objective is to eliminate any technical obstacles that may hinder a website’s performance in organic search results. Technical SEO is not a “set it and forget it” strategy, rather it is an ongoing strategy that includes many related actions.
Related Terms and Concepts
- Crawlability
- Indexation
- Schema markup
- Off-page SEO
The Importance of Technical SEO
Technical SEO is critical for a site’s visibility and ranking in search engine results. A technically sound website provides a better user experience, resulting in lower bounce rates, higher engagement, and increased conversions. While content and backlinks are important, technical SEO forms the foundation upon which these factors operate. Without technical SEO strategies, all other SEO efforts may not yield the desired results.
Technical SEO vs On-Page SEO
Technical SEO focuses on the backend infrastructure and website architecture. By contrast, on-page SEO focuses on optimizing the actual content and HTML elements that users see on individual pages, such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, keyword optimization, internal linking within content, and ensuring content quality and relevance. Both strategies work together to ensure the best opportunity for your optimized content to rank well. Technical issues prevent search engines from crawling and indexing it effectively, which can hinder its performance.
Key Elements of Technical SEO
Here is a list of items you can use to develop a thorough technical SEO strategy.
- Response codes – HTTP status codes (like 200, 301, 404) that tell search engines whether a page loaded successfully, was redirected, or encountered an error.
- Canonical tags – HTML elements that specify the preferred version of a page when multiple URLs contain similar or duplicate content, preventing SEO penalties.
- Structured data – Code markup (like Schema.org) that helps search engines understand page content and can enable rich snippets in search results.
- Sitemaps – XML files that list all important pages on a website, helping search engines discover and crawl content more efficiently.
- Page speed – How quickly a webpage loads and becomes interactive, which affects both user experience and search rankings.
- Crawl optimizations – Techniques to help search engine bots efficiently discover, access, and index website content without wasting crawl budget.
- Robots.txt – A text file that instructs search engine crawlers which pages or sections of a site they should or shouldn’t access.
- Internal links – Links between pages within the same website that help distribute page authority and guide both users and crawlers through the site.
- HTTPS – Secure HTTP protocol that encrypts data between browsers and servers, now considered a ranking factor by search engines.
- JavaScript – A Programming language that can create dynamic content but may present challenges for search engine crawling and indexing.
- Site architecture – The organizational structure and hierarchy of a website’s pages affect how easily users and search engines can navigate content.
- URL structure – The format and organization of web addresses, which should be clean, descriptive, and logically structured for optimal SEO.
- Thin and/or duplicate content – Pages with insufficient unique content or identical content across multiple URLs that harm search rankings.
- Hreflang – HTML attributes that tell search engines which language and regional version of a page to show users in different locations.
Technical SEO Best Practices
One of the best ways to ensure your site is optimized is to run a Technical SEO audit. For those who don’t have access to fancy SEO tools or technical know-how, don’t worry. This is easier than it seems. Here are detailed instructions to ensure your site and its pages are clean from technical errors.
Lay a Strong SEO Foundation
When executing a technical SEO audit for the first time, it’s important to complete tasks in a specific order. For example, if you file a site map before connecting GA4, you will receive an error message. Here are the initial steps you will need to take before beginning your audit.
1. Set Up Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is a free analytics tool. You can connect your GSC to GA to view helpful SEO information inside your GA account.
2. Set Up Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a tool that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s performance in Google search results. You can learn how to set up this tool here.
3. Install and Configure an SEO Plugin
If you use WordPress, you’ll want to install and configure an SEO plugin. This makes optimizing your site for search engine crawlers easy and helps with a few technical SEO elements.
A few of our favorite SEO plugins include:
4. Create and Submit a Sitemap
A sitemap is an important file that helps search engines find, crawl, and index your website’s content.
If you’re using WordPress, a sitemap will be automatically created for your site.
If you’re not using WordPress, you can easily create a sitemap with a sitemap generator tool.
Once you have your sitemap, submit it to Google Search Console.
Alt text: Google Search Console Sitemap
5. Create a Robots.txt File
Robots.txt is a file that tells search engines which pages and files they should or shouldn’t crawl. Robots.txt files are a super important technical SEO element.
You can view your robots.txt file by typing your homepage URL and adding /robots.txt.
For example, https://www.smamarketing.net/robots.txt
Learn more about creating one and Google’s best practices here.
Now you’re ready to use the Technical SEO Checklist to ensure each page on your website is fully optimized!
Technical SEO Checklist
We created a quick checklist you can use to ensure you don’t skip any steps when completing your next audit. Let’s explore each action item in detail.
Make Sure Your Web Page is Indexable
An important part of your overall SEO strategy is to ensure Google can index the pages on your website. When reviewing your site for technical SEO, this is an absolutely vital step. If Google can’t crawl and index your pages, all the other work you’ve done is thrown out the window.
You can check to see if your web page is indexable by using the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console. Watch the video below to learn more. https://youtu.be/Pe_-TkdbXN0
You can also check your site for indexability issues by using a free crawling tool like Screaming Frog or SERanking.
If you find that your page is not indexable, there are a few things you can do.
1. Review the potential issues preventing your page from being indexed in Search Console. Address each issue and request indexing on that URL again in Search Console. Check back in a few days to see if the URL is indexable.
2. Check if your webpage is using a noindex tag using this test. If it is, you’ll need to remove the noindex meta tag from your HTML code. Request indexing on that URL again in Search Console. Check back in a few days to see if the URL is indexable.
3. Check your page’s settings using your SEO plugin. Your page may be no indexed due to a selection made in your SEO plugin settings. Request indexing on that URL again in Search Console. Check back in a few days to see if the URL is indexable.
Sometimes, indexability can be a site-wide issue. If your entire site is not indexable, you’ll want to address this promptly; otherwise, none of your content will be seen. If you’re having issues getting your entire site indexed, see this article here.
Ensure Your Web Page is Mobile-Friendly
Having a mobile-responsive site is crucial to your SEO strategy. In fact, in 2018, Google transitioned to mobile-first indexing. This means it now focuses primarily on using the mobile version of a site’s content for indexing and ranking.
To ensure your web page is mobile-friendly, run a scan using Google’s free mobile-friendly test. If the page is mobile-friendly, you’re good to go! If it’s not, the tool will provide you with some recommendations like the example below:
Check Your Web Page’s Loading Speed
Run a quick scan of your webpage using Google’s PageSpeed Insights. This tool will help diagnose issues on your site that may contribute to slow page speeds. Address issues as needed and scan your site again when you’re finished to ensure your speed has improved. Note: Some of the issues identified in a PageSpeed Insights test may require assistance from your web developer.
Make Sure Your URL is Using HTTPS
HTTPS has been a ranking signal since 2014.
You can easily confirm that your site utilizes HTTPS by looking at your browser’s URL bar.
If you see a padlock to the left of the URL, you’re using HTTPS. If you don’t, you’re not, and your site’s security may be at risk.
Identify and Fix Broken Links
Broken links can create a poor user experience and negatively impact your site’s SEO. To identify broken links, you’ll need to run a crawl on your site using a tool like Screaming Frog or SERanking, which offer crawls to help identify high-priority issues like broken links.
Broken links need to be addressed promptly. There are various ways you can fix broken links on your site, depending on the type you have.
Use an SEO-friendly URL Structure
SEO-friendly URL structures make it easier for search engines to crawl your pages and understand the content on them. Your URLs should be simple, descriptive, and concise. They should include hyphens between each word and no underscores.
Here’s an example of a not-so-SEO-friendly URL:
https://www.smamarketing.net/category.php?id=77
Here’s an example of a properly structured URL:
https://www.smamarketing.net/blog/seo-geo-aeo-strategy-guide
Add Structured Data
Increase your page’s odds of earning rich snippets (or rich results) for your target keywords and search queries by adding structured data. Some structured data markup types are often implemented automatically by a site’s template. You can check to see if your page has structured data by using the Schema Validator tool. If your page isn’t utilizing any structured data, you can easily implement some basic schema markup with the help of an SEO plugin.
Identify and Address Crawl Errors
To identify potential errors that may be impacting your site’s SEO, you’ll need to run a crawl on your site using a tool like Screaming Frog or SERanking. Various on-page and technical issues can be identified with the help of a crawling tool. Here are a few examples:
- Duplicate content issues
- Dead links and 404s
- Indexing issues
- Speed issues
- Mixed content issues
- Title tag and meta issues
Watch the video below to learn how to run a quick SEO crawl and audit in Screaming Frog and Google Sheets:
Check Search Console for Manual Actions
Black-hat SEO tactics that attempt to manipulate Google’s guidelines may cause penalties, such as manual actions. If your site has a manual action, some pages (or your entire site) won’t appear in Google’s search results.
It may not be fully apparent that your site has been impacted by a manual action which is why double-checking is a quick step worth taking. You can easily check this information under the “Security & Manual Actions” menu option in Search Console.
Check Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are three specific page experience metrics that Google uses as ranking factors:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – measures loading performance
- First Input Delay (FID) – measures interactivity (being replaced by Interaction to Next Paint in 2024)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – measures visual stability
There are several tools that measure core web vitals; however, the easiest is Search Console
What to Look For When Reviewing CWV:
Check a representative sample of page types (homepage, category pages, product pages, blog posts) rather than every single page. Focus on high-traffic pages first, and document both the current scores and specific recommendations for improvement. Track changes over time since Core Web Vitals can fluctuate based on real user data.
Thresholds to meet:
- LCP: under 2.5 seconds
- FID: under 100 milliseconds
- CLS: under 0.1
Mobile vs. desktop performance – Google prioritizes mobile metrics, so ensure mobile scores meet thresholds.
Field data vs. lab data – Field data (real user experiences) carries more weight than lab data for rankings.
Common Issues to Identify
- Large images or videos affecting LCP
- Render-blocking JavaScript/CSS
- Layout shifts from ads, embeds, or dynamically loaded content
- Slow server response times
- Third-party scripts impacting performance
By incorporating these Technical SEO best practices into your monthly health checks you will improve searchability.
Technical SEO Tools
Throughout this article, we have listed many tools that you can use to complete a technical SEO audit. Here is a summary of the tools.
- Google Analytics
- Search Console
- Screaming Frog
- SERanking
- Google’s PageSpeed Insights
- Schema Validator
- Google’s free mobile-friendly test
- An SEO plugin such as:
- And of course, our Technical SEO Checklist is also a helpful tool.
Ultimately, to generate more traffic and better engage your visitors, having a fully optimized website is key. Take the time needed to review your site, fix any errors, and optimize it to its full potential. The easier you make it for search engines, the better chance your web pages have to rank in organic search.
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