Technical SEO is based on a set of strategies that allow optimize indexing from a website Y maximize user experience . We talk about technical issues that go further than incorporating keywords, links, etc. We introduce ourselves to the source code of the website, with the aim of making it more agile, intuitive, navigable and predictable for the crawlers of the most relevant search engines. In this case, the most popular is still Google and it is an indispensable requirement convince this search engine before users , if we want to get a optimal positioning for the interests of our business In Internet. We are going to talk to you about technical SEO, to help you assess if you need to get to work with your website.
How to convince Google with your website
As we have already said, search engine crawlers like Google take care of crawl and index the websites new and to perform periodic reviews looking for updates. The really relevant thing about technical SEO in this sense is to make sure that the Site Map Y robots.txt . are correctly configured, without locks, etc.
Technical SEO also takes care of optimize links leading to the website and check redirect chains . It is about the search engine understanding the routes to follow and avoiding broken links, excessive links to reach the content, etc. All these aspects must be analyzed and corrected if necessary, before starting the optimization of website content .
It is the turn of make us understand Y structure the information so that search engines like Google understand us. The tags, meta descriptions and attributes that we provide in the content come into play. All these elements need to be incorporated where necessary, such as page and post titles, headings, attributes Alt for images, use of appropriate paragraphs, subtitles, bold, etc.
To the structuring of the contents, the correct one must be added keyword density and utilization and its variants, to position and be found by our target audiences . Properly structured content and the use of appropriate terms and keywords will allow search engines to understand what we want to convey. In this way, we will appear in advantageous positions to reach an audience according to our interests.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is one of the basic areas of web optimization in a positioning strategy. It is based on a set of tasks that allow optimizing the indexing of a website and maximizing the user experience. We talk about technical issues that go beyond incorporating keywords, links, etc. In short, it is about making improvements to the server and the structure of the page to make it more agile, intuitive, navigable and predictable for the crawlers of the most relevant search engines.
Currently the most popular search engine is still Google and it is an essential requirement to convince it before the users. In this way, an optimal positioning is achieved for the interests of our business on the Internet. This is one of the main benefits of technical SEO.
Main factors of a good technical SEO
Search engine crawlers like Google are responsible for crawling and indexing new websites and regularly checking for updates. As we have already seen, technical SEO has the purpose of optimizing a website so that the content is easily accessible by crawlers and, at the same time, facilitates the user experience. But, what factors to take into account to achieve it?
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- XML Sitemap: It is about creating a map of the web page in which the organization of the contents is reflected to facilitate Google indexing it and tracking new content. It is sent to Google through the Search Console and is essential to detect any crawl errors that may impair the correct indexing of each page on the web.
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- Robots.txt file: It is a simple text file that allows us to indicate instructions to the robots about directories that we are not interested in crawling and indexing, or to indicate the path of our XML Sitemap, which will facilitate the crawling of new content on the site.
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- 404 / 50x errors: It is important to prevent our website from containing pages that return page not found errors (404) or server response errors (50x). In addition to causing a bad user experience, the confidence of the search engine towards updating the content of our site may be affected.
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- HTML: Having knowledge of HTML can be of great help when it comes to improving the SEO of the web. In addition to the tags referring to the meta title and meta description of the page, there are others that you should pay attention to such as the heading tags (H1, H2, H3 …), the nofollow / follow attributes, the anchor text or anchor text and canonical labels, among others.
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- Image optimization: Sometimes images can have metadata that takes up a lot of space, so they need to be compressed. Also, alt tags must be included, which include a short description of the image and must include the keyword.
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- Loading speed and Core Web Vitals: it is one of the main factors to take into account when optimizing technical SEO. A Google study showed that 53% of mobile users leave a site that does not load in less than three seconds. A slow load means a worse user experience and, therefore, a worse rating by search engines. Google has communicated the importance of improving what are called Core Web Vitals, metrics extracted from the Lighthouse tool among others, which allows us to measure and assess how the browser loads and renders each of the elements of our page. The free tool of Google Page Speed Insights allows us to measure the valuation of these factors in any url on our website, and other speed measurement tools such as GT Metrix have also adopted Core Web Vitals metrics to assess recommendations for improving the performance of our web pages.
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- SSL certificate: Using a security certificate in our domain (https: //) is important no longer from a search engine assessment point of view (because it probably does not have direct weight in the ranking), but because it provides security for the user who visits the site and their trust, which will improve the bounce rate and interaction, indirectly improving the valuation of the site by search engines.
- Broken links: Broken or non-working links should be avoided. To avoid those unnecessary inactive links, you have to redirect the URL of the page when you delete or move it. Ideally, you should be redirected to a page that replaces the previous page.
To all this we must add the correct use and relevance of keywords and their variants on each page, to position and be found by our target audiences. Properly structured content and the use of appropriate terms and keywords will allow search engines to understand what we want to convey. In this way, we will appear in advantageous positions to reach an audience according to our interests.
Benefits of technical SEO
Technical SEO basically serves to make your website faster and easier to understand for users and search engines.
- Offer a good user experience: a good experience allows the user to stay longer on the web and explore in more detail what it can offer. Thus, the bounce rate decreases. In addition, it helps to retain the customer since he recommends your products or services to third parties. Technical SEO allows us to create an agile, intuitive, usable space, easy to navigate and adapted for all navigation devices.
- Get a good search engine positioning: a good technical SEO will guarantee good results in search engines, which translates into a greater number of visits. Google rewards those websites that work to satisfy the needs of Internet users, placing them in advantageous positions compared to the competition. In addition, good positioning also affects credibility and reputation on the internet.
All aspects of technical SEO that we have mentioned will directly affect the positioning of your website . What we have achieved is create an optimized platform to be understood by search engines like Google, but at the same time we have created an agile, intuitive, usable space, easy to navigate and adapted for all navigation devices.
Why is it important to have technical knowledge for web positioning?
For many years SEO was a part of online marketing in which only keywords and links were dealt with, but currently and increasingly due to changes and updates to the Google algorithm, the starting point of SEO on any website is the code optimization of it and its performance.
It is true that there are a multitude of tools that indicate which points of the web it is necessary to optimize and for them to be carried out, and the technical team knows perfectly how to do it. But, what happens when, for reasons related to the structure of the web, some or all of these changes are not possible or the development cost is too high? The problem is exacerbated if it is necessary to coordinate an external technical team: how do you know if the budgeted development time is adequate? Are the inconveniences that they are posing us real?
On the other hand, improving the performance of the web, especially in terms of loading times, also requires that the person who directs the SEO process not only limit himself to indicating that the loading speed of the site should be improved, but it can indicate how it should be approached and even evaluate and recommend a change of server. Obviously this cannot (should) be done by someone who does not have sufficient knowledge, since Badly planned changes can jeopardize the entire SEO of the web.
At Trazada, as a digital marketing agency specialized in attracting business on the Internet, we help you achieve it. We take care of improving your traffic and generating more business. If you want position your website and achieve success , it is time to work on optimizing the Technical SEO .