Technical SEO is done to improve a website’s technical aspects, making it faster, easier to crawl, and more understandable by search engines thereby improving its ranking and performance.
In this article, we will discuss the key components of Technical SEO and what you should be aware of or ask your developer to focus on when working on the technical foundation of your website.
Search engine robots, also known as crawlers, can be guided to crawl or not to crawl certain content on a website. By blocking them from accessing specific pages, you can ensure that they won’t index or display that content in search results. Additionally, you can allow them to crawl a page but instruct them not to follow any links on that page.
Now let’s look into the components of Technical SEO;
Robots.txt file
This is where you can direct Google robots on what to crawl or not to crawl on your site. However, it’s important to exercise caution while using this file. Avoid blocking your site’s CSS and JS files because these files contain code that determines how your website should appear and function on browsers.
Robots.txt file is made up of
I) User agent: This is the crawler. It can be Google search engine crawlers, Bing, Yahoo, or any other search engine crawlers.
When User agent has ”*” symbol, it means any search engine can crawl it, no specific or preferred search engine.
II) Disallow directive: Here, you can write what the search engine is not permitted to crawl.
III) Allow directive: What the search engine is permitted to crawl.
To check if you are not accidentally blocking access to important pages that Google search engine should crawl via the disallow directive
Type, ”yourwebsite.com/robots.txt”
Example: realclickseo.com/robots.txt
Robots meta tag
This can be found in the source code of a webpage. It helps Google robots to understand the content of the page and how to handle it. With the Robots meta tag, you can also instruct the robots to crawl the page but not follow the links on it. The Noindex robots meta tag is used to prevent Google robots from indexing or crawling your page.
Dead links
Refers to the links on your website that lead to a page that no longer exists, usually displayed as a 404 error page. To avoid having dead links, always redirect the URL of a deleted or moved page to a replacement page. It is important to regularly audit all redirects and ensure that they are set up correctly. This will help improve the user experience on your website and prevent unnecessary frustration.
Duplicate Content
It’s important to avoid having duplicate content on your website, where different URLs display the same content. This can negatively impact your search engine ranking. To avoid this, set a canonical URL to indicate which page is the original or the one you want to rank. A canonical URL tells Google’s search engine bots which URL is the best representation of the content and should be chosen for ranking purposes.
HTTPS
Stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. It is a protocol used to secure data and information transmitted between a web browser and a website. The use of HTTPS is critical for protecting users’ personal and sensitive information. It is also a ranking signal for search engines. To implement HTTPS on your website, you need to obtain an SSL certificate.
SSL ( Secure Sockets Layer)
Creates a layer of protection between the web server (the software responsible for fulfilling an online request) and a browser, making your site secure.
The easiest way to check if your website is HTTPS is to enter your website address into a web browser. If the website address starts with “https://” and has a lock symbol, then your website is secure.
Sites with “http://” and no lock symbol is not secured.
XML Sitemap
This is a collection of all pages on your website. It guides search engines and ensures important content isn’t missed by Google robots.
To submit your Sitemap to Google;
I) Type ”yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml”
Once you locate it, copy and submit it to Google through Google Search Engine Console (GSC)
You can do this;
I) Go to GSC and click ”Indexing”
II) Then, click ”Sitemaps”
III) Paste your sitemap URL in the blank field and click ”Submit”
You will see a confirmation message after Google is done processing your sitemap.
You can check if your website or pages have been indexed
For website
Type, ”Site:yourwebsite.com” into the Google search engine box
Example,”Site:realclickseo.com”
For individual pages
Type, ”Site:the page”
Example, ”Site:realclickseo.com/seo-for-websites/
Site Structure
Refers to the arrangement of the site’s pages in a manner that facilitates easy crawling and indexing by search engines. Pages that are related should be grouped and prioritized according to their importance. This approach helps search engines understand the content of your website and the relationship between your pages.
Hreflang tag
This tag can be implemented for an international website that has multiple versions of the same page in different languages for specific countries or users.
Hreflang can be placed in three places
HTML markup on the page
The HTTP header
The XML Sitemap
Site Speed
Use essential plugins and keep them up-to-date. Having too many unnecessary or outdated plugins can slow down your site.
Cache plugins save a static version of your site which is sent to returning users. This decreases the loading time of the site during repeat visits
Wish you the best!