Learn what technical SEO entails and how you can perform an SEO audit on your website to check performance.
In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) plays a critical role in increasing your website’s visibility, driving organic traffic, and improving search engine rankings. But to truly succeed in today’s competitive environment, you need to go beyond on-page and off-page SEO efforts. This is where technical SEO comes into play.
Technical SEO involves optimising the technical aspects of your website so that search engines can efficiently crawl, index, and rank your site. It focuses on the foundation of your website—everything from site speed and architecture to structured data and mobile performance. Implementing sound technical SEO practices ensures that your site is search engine-friendly and optimised for performance, ultimately helping you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to optimising your website’s infrastructure and backend processes to improve search engine visibility and user experience. While on-page SEO focuses on keyword optimisation, meta descriptions, and content quality, technical SEO works behind the scenes to ensure your website’s code, architecture, and overall performance meet the technical standards that search engines like Google and other search engines require for optimal crawling and indexing.
Technical SEO serves as the foundation upon which all other SEO efforts are built. If your website isn’t technically sound, even the best content and link-building efforts won’t help it rank well. Some of the core components of technical SEO include ensuring your website is crawlable, improving page speed, securing your site with HTTPS, optimising for mobile-first indexing, and implementing structured data.
Importance of Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the backbone of any successful online strategy. It ensures that your website is not only visible to search engines but also provides a seamless user experience. By focusing on the technical aspects of your site, you help search engines like Google understand its structure and content, making it easier for them to crawl, index, and rank your pages.
A well-optimised website can significantly improve its search engine rankings, drive more traffic, and increase conversions. Conversely, a site plagued with technical SEO issues can struggle to gain visibility, attract visitors, and convert them into customers. Prioritising technical SEO means ensuring your website is accessible, user-friendly, and optimised for search engines, which can lead to greater online success.
Key Components of Technical SEO
Several technical aspects contribute to your website’s overall SEO performance. Here are the most critical elements that define technical SEO:
1. Crawlability and Indexability
One of the most important aspects of technical SEO is ensuring that search engines can easily crawl and index your website. Crawlability refers to a search engine’s ability to navigate through your site’s pages, while indexability determines whether or not those pages can be stored in a search engine’s database and retrieved when needed. Additionally, managing duplicate content is crucial as it can affect your site’s ranking and crawl budget. Use noindex tags and canonical URLs to help search engines properly index unique pages.
To optimise for crawlability and indexability:
- Use a robots.txt file to control which pages you want search engines to crawl or block search engines from crawling certain pages.
- Create and submit an XML sitemap to help search engines find your most important pages.
- Monitor and fix crawl errors through tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
2. Site Architecture and Internal Linking
A well-structured site architecture ensures that both users and search engines can easily navigate through your site. Internal links between pages help distribute link equity and guide search engines in understanding the relationship between different pages on your site. By adding internal links pointing to relevant content, you enhance the crawlability and SEO value of your website. Ensure that your internal links are pointing to relevant content and not to broken pages (4XX status codes) to maintain a healthy internal linking structure.
- Use clear and logical site structure, with a hierarchy that makes it easy for users and search engines to find relevant information.
- Ensure that your internal linking strategy allows important pages to gain authority from high-traffic pages by using internal links pointing to them from multiple pages.
3. URL Structure
SEO-friendly URLs are important for both user experience and search engine crawling. Clean, concise, and descriptive URLs help search engines understand the content of your page at a glance. A good URL structure will:
- Use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_).
- Avoid unnecessary parameters in the URL.
- Incorporate relevant keywords that reflect the content of the page.
4. Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Page speed is a crucial ranking factor that directly affects user experience. Slow websites often result in higher bounce rates and lower rankings in search results. Google introduced Core Web Vitals as a set of metrics to measure page speed, visual stability, and interactivity, all of which impact your SEO.
To improve page speed and address page speed issues:
- Compress and optimise images to reduce file sizes without compromising quality.
- Minimise the use of heavy JavaScript and CSS files.
- Leverage browser caching and content delivery networks (CDNs) to ensure faster loading times.
5. Mobile Optimisation
With the advent of mobile-first indexing, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. A mobile-friendly site adapts to various screen sizes and provides a seamless user experience across all mobile devices.
To optimise for mobile:
- Ensure your website has a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
- Improve site speed on mobile devices, as slow-loading mobile pages can result in a drop in mobile SEO rankings.
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to assess how well your site performs on mobile devices.
6. HTTPS and Security
Security is a fundamental component of technical SEO. Google gives preference to websites that use HTTPS, which encrypts data and secures your users’ information. Without HTTPS, your site may be flagged as “Not Secure” in browsers, which can deter users and negatively impact your rankings.
Make sure your website:
- Has a valid SSL certificate for HTTPS encryption.
- Keeps all security measures up-to-date to avoid vulnerabilities.
7. Structured Data and Schema Markup
Structured data provides search engines with additional information about the content on your website. By implementing schema markup, you help search engines understand your content more effectively, allowing it to be featured in rich results like featured snippets, reviews, or FAQs.
Structured data also plays a key role in voice search optimisation, as it helps search engines interpret and relay information more accurately. Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper and Structured Data Testing Tool to ensure your schema markup is correctly implemented.
Do You Need a Technical SEO Audit?
Now that you understand what technical SEO entails, the question arises: do you need a technical SEO audit for your website? The answer is a resounding yes—if you want to stay ahead in search engine rankings, regularly auditing your website’s technical performance is essential.
A technical SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis that assesses your website’s ability to perform well in search engine results by evaluating its technical aspects. It serves as a “health check” for your site, identifying technical SEO issues that could be negatively impacting your rankings and preventing you from getting more organic traffic.
Why a Technical SEO Audit is Crucial
Identify and Fix Crawlability Issues An audit helps uncover issues that may be preventing search engine crawlers from properly indexing your site. Broken links, blocked pages, or a poorly optimised robots.txt file can hinder crawlability. An audit ensures all key pages are discoverable by search engines.
Improve Site Speed and Performance Slow site speed not only frustrates users but also negatively impacts your rankings. An audit highlights areas where you can improve page speed, such as image compression, caching, or script minimisation.
Ensure Mobile-Friendliness With the rise of mobile-first indexing, ensuring your website is optimised for mobile devices is crucial. A technical site audit, also known as a technical SEO audit, is a comprehensive analysis that assesses your website’s ability to perform well in search engine results by evaluating its technical aspects. It evaluates your mobile responsiveness, loading times, and overall user experience on smartphones and tablets.
Enhance Security with HTTPS A technical SEO audit ensures that your website uses HTTPS and that your SSL certificate is functioning correctly. Failing to secure your website could lead to a loss in rankings and user trust.
Optimise Structured Data A technical SEO audit evaluates your use of structured data and schema markup, ensuring that your content is better understood by search engines and optimised for rich results like featured snippets.
Fix Broken Links and Redirects Broken internal links can create a poor user experience and harm your SEO efforts. An audit helps identify broken internal links and ensures that appropriate redirects are in place to guide both users and search engines to the right pages.
Pre-Audit Checklist
Before diving into a technical SEO audit, it’s crucial to have a checklist to guide your review process. Here’s a comprehensive pre-audit checklist to help you get started:
Google Search Console: Verify that your website is set up in Google Search Console and that you have access to the account.
Website Crawl: Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to crawl your website and identify any technical issues.
Technical SEO Tools: Familiarise yourself with essential technical SEO tools such as Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.
Website Structure: Review your website’s structure to ensure it is organised and easy to navigate.
Internal Links: Check your internal links to ensure they are functioning correctly and not leading to broken pages.
Broken Links: Identify and fix any broken links on your website.
Structured Data: Review your website’s structured data to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date.
Site Speed: Assess your website’s site speed and ensure it loads quickly.
Mobile-Friendliness: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive.
Technical SEO Issues: Identify and address any technical SEO issues that could be impacting your website’s performance.
How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit
A technical SEO audit involves using various tools and processes to assess different components of your website. Here’s how to approach a comprehensive site audit:
Start with Google Search Console Google Search Console is an invaluable tool for identifying issues related to indexing, crawling, and mobile usability. It can help you track your website’s performance and identify issues that need to be addressed.
Use Screaming Frog for Crawlability Screaming Frog SEO Spider allows you to perform a thorough audit of your website’s crawlability. It identifies missing meta tags, broken links, and other key SEO issues that may be hindering your site’s performance.
Test Page Speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights Google PageSpeed Insights provides detailed information on how fast your website loads and offers suggestions for improving load times. Make sure to test both desktop and mobile versions of your site.
Check Mobile Usability Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to assess whether your website is optimised for mobile devices. This tool highlights any issues with responsiveness and mobile UX that may be hurting your rankings.
Audit Security with SSL Tools Ensure your SSL certificate is properly configured by using tools like SSL Labs to test the security of your website. Make sure your site is fully HTTPS compliant.
Evaluate Structured Data with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool Make sure your structured data is properly implemented by using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. This tool helps identify any errors in your schema markup that could be preventing rich snippets from displaying in search results.
Tools for Technical SEO
A variety of tools are available to help you perform a thorough technical SEO audit. Here are some of the most effective ones:
Google Search Console: A free tool that helps you monitor and maintain your website’s presence in Google Search results.
Screaming Frog: A powerful tool that crawls your website to identify technical issues.
Ahrefs: A comprehensive tool that provides technical SEO audits and identifies issues with your website’s structure and content.
SEMrush: Another robust tool that offers technical SEO audits and insights into your website’s structure and content.
Google PageSpeed Insights: Analyses your website’s site speed and provides recommendations for improvement.
GTmetrix: Offers detailed analysis of your website’s site speed and suggestions for optimisation.
Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer: Helps you understand crawl bot behaviour and identify potential crawl issues.
Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets: Useful for manipulating and analysing data from other technical SEO tools.
Large-scale CSV Manipulation Applications: Assist in handling large data volumes from various technical SEO tools.
Chrome DevTools: Provides insights into your website’s performance and helps identify technical issues.
By leveraging these tools, you can perform a comprehensive technical SEO audit, identify areas for improvement, and ensure your website is optimised for both search engines and users.
Conclusion: The Importance of Regular Technical SEO Audits
Regularly conducting a technical SEO audit is essential to maintaining your website’s health, performance, and visibility in search engine results. By addressing technical SEO issues related to crawlability, page speed, mobile responsiveness, and security, you improve both the user experience and your website’s ability to rank well in search engines.
If you haven’t conducted a technical SEO audit recently, now is the time. Identifying and fixing technical SEO issues early on can have a significant impact on your search engine rankings and overall online success.
Need help with your technical SEO audit? Contact us today to ensure your website is technically sound and performing at its best.
