Technical SEO Basics

Elevate your SEO beyond keywords and content—master technical aspects for higher rankings in the SERPs.

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Almost every SEO will work around the lines of keyword research, content, and backlinks. Of these, very few will push beyond the usual and go into the technical aspects. Improving the technical aspects of our website also falls under the umbrella of our overall SEO strategy. SEOs often categorize technical SEO as an extended part of on-page SEO as it deals with optimizing elements on the website to raise search engine rankings. It is different from off-page SEO, which covers optimizing elements outside the scope of the website to improve rankings.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing the technical aspects of a website aimed at improving the following:

  • Crawlability

  • Indexability

  • Renderability

  • Performance

The bigger goal of technical SEO, in combination with on-page and off-page SEO, is to improve the ranking of the website in search engines.

Important elements of technical SEO include website architecture, page speed, and mobile optimization.

Why is technical SEO important?

Even when we have one of the most engaging contents on our website, if the search engine can’t crawl, index, and render it effectively, it’s a lost battle. By upgrading the technical foundation of our website, we make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand our website and present it to users.

However, technical SEO goes beyond crawling, indexing, and rendering. It also optimizes page experience, which is one of Google’s ranking factors [30]. Page experience encompasses multiple factors, including mobile optimization, loading speeds, and website security.

The end result of our technical SEO efforts is the possibility of a higher ranking in search results and a chance to secure rich results.

Elements of technical SEO

To create a website with a sound technical SEO, there are multiple elements that we need to look into. Some popular ones include:

  • Site Structure

  • XML Sitemaps

  • Duplicate Content

  • Structured Data

  • Redirects

  • Broken Links

  • Site Speed

  • Safe Browsing

  • Mobile Friendliness

  • Hreflang

  • Crawl Budget

Optimizing these technical elements of the website is what we’ll learn.

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