What is technical SEO? – TechnicalSEO.io

Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing the infrastructure of your website to help search engine spiders crawl and index your site more effectively. It involves improving the technical aspects of a site to increase its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Technical SEO encompasses a wide array of concerns, including:

Site Performance
- Page Speed
  - Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
  - PageSpeed Insights: A tool by Google to assess the speed and performance of a webpage.
- Site Speed Monitoring
  - Real User Monitoring (RUM): Tools like Google Analytics to monitor real user experiences.
  - Synthetic Monitoring: Scripted tests from various locations.
- Caching
  - Browser Caching: Leverage cache-control headers.
  - CDNs: Content Delivery Networks to distribute assets and optimize performance.
  - Server-Side Caching: Page caching and database caching.
- Mobile Optimization
  - Responsive Design: Creating mobile-friendly layouts.
  - Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Fast-loading pages for mobile.
  - Mobile Usability: Touch targets, readability, low bandwidth usage.
- Image Optimization
  - Compression: Reduce file size without losing quality.
  - Resizing: Serving properly sized images.
  - Lazy Loading: Defer offscreen image loading.
  - Next-gen Formats: AVIF, WebP.
- JavaScript/CSS Optimization
  - Minification: Removing whitespace and comments.
  - Concatenation: Combining files.
  - Asynchronous Loading: Deferred loading of non-critical files.
  - Tree Shaking: Eliminate unused code.
- Third-Party Performance
  - Eliminate unnecessary plugins.
  - Async tag managers.
  - Efficient ads/tracking code.
Crawlability & Indexability
- Indexation
  - Allowing/preventing pages from being indexed via meta robots tags.
  - Submitting sitemaps.
  - Fetch as Google: Test how Googlebot sees your page.
  - Search Console index coverage report.
- Duplicate Content
  - Canonical tags to specify preferred URL.
  - 301 redirects to consolidate pages.
  - rel=”prev/next” for pagination.
  - Vary content across similar pages.
- Crawl Budget
  - Limiting crawl rate via robots.txt or meta tag.
  - Prioritizing important pages via sitemap.
- Redirects
  - 301 permanent redirects for moved or merged pages.
  - 302 temporary redirects.
- Structured Data
  - Schema.org markup to enhance listings.
  - Testing with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
- Rendering
  - Dynamic rendering or static snapshotting for JS sites.
  - Follow Google’s AJAX crawling scheme.
- Mobile-first Indexing
  - Testing with Mobile-Friendly Test.
  - Prefer mobile version of pages.
- International SEO
  - hreflang tags for country/language targeting.
  - Localized content, URLs, and markup.
Site Architecture
- Site Structure
  - Simple, logical URL structure and site architecture.
  - Reflect important content hierarchy in URLs.
- Internal Linking
  - Link to related and useful content on site.
  - Use descriptive anchor text for links.
- Navigation
  - Intuitive menus and navigation scheme.
  - Strong information architecture.
  - XML sitemaps to list all pages.
  - Breadcrumb trails to show page hierarchy.
Security
- HTTPS
  - Obtain SSL certificate and switch to HTTPS.
  - Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
- Data Safety
  - Sanitization against XSS attacks.
  - CSRF prevention.
  - SQL injection protection.
- Mobile Security
  - Validate apps before publish to app stores.
  - Assess vulnerabilities with mobile app security testing.
- Privacy
  - GDPR, CCPA compliance for data collection.
  - Proper use of cookies and tracking pixels.
- Server Security
  - Update software regularly.
  - Harden stack against common attacks.
  - Monitoring for threats.
Structured Data
- Schema.org Markup
  - Product schema for ecommerce sites.
  - Recipe schema for food sites.
  - Article schema for blogs.
  - Breadcrumbs for site hierarchy.
- Testing
  - Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
  - Search Console Rich Results report.
  - Schema Markup Validator.
- Implementation
  - JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa formats.
  - Place markup directly in page source code.
Site Health
- Technical SEO Audits
  - Crawlability, indexability, site speed.
  - Security and site architecture.
  - Structured data validation.
  - Competitor benchmarking.
- SEO Monitoring
  - Rank tracking and keyword ranking reports.
  - Site traffic analytics.
  - Search query analysis.
- Migration Planning
  - URL redirects from old to new site.
  - New sitemaps for changed pages.
  - Re-indexation of renamed pages.
  - User communication about changes.
- Search Appearance
  - Submit new or updated site to search engines.
  - Monitor search presence and keywords.
  - Optimize title tags, meta data, content.
JavaScript & SEO
- Crawling & Indexing
  - Server-side rendering for search bots.
  - Dynamic rendering via endpoints.
  - Evaluate with Fetch as Google.
  - Follow Google’s AJAX guidelines.
- Performance
  - Code splitting to download needed JS only.
  - Preload key requests.
  - Lazy load non-critical JS.
- React-specific
  - Static site generation (SSG).
  - Server-side rendering (SSR).
  - Progressive hydration.
- Angular-specific
  - Server-side rendering.
  - Pre-rendering.
  - Lazy loading.
- Vue-specific
  - Server-side rendering (SSR).
  - Generate static site output.
  - Prefetch/preload links.
- SPA Considerations
  - PushState for URL routing.
  - Pagination/infinite scroll for crawler-accessible content.
  - Sitemaps for JS pages.
Search Console
- Index Coverage Report
  - Lists indexed and excluded pages.
  - Diagnose and fix indexing issues.
- Crawl Stats
  - Pages crawled per day.
  - Server errors affecting crawling.
- Manual Actions
  - Warnings or penalties from Google.
  - Steps to correct and request reinclusion.
- Links Report
  - Number of external links to site.
  - Linking root domains.
- Enhancements
  - Structured data validation.
  - Impression share metrics.
  - Site performance insights.
User Experience
- Page Experience Signals
  - Core Web Vitals metrics.
  - Mobile friendliness.
  - Safe browsing.
  - HTTPS security.
- Interstitials & Dialogs
  - Avoid intrusive popups.
  - Follow Google guidelines for overlays.
- Personalization
  - Tailor content to user interests.
  - Attribute customization to increase engagement.
- Accessibility
  - Follow WCAG standards.
  - Proper HTML semantics and ARIA roles.
  - Screen reader testing.
Technical SEO Best Practices
- Regular Audits & Monitoring
  - Crawlability, indexability, page speed.
  - Security, site architecture.
  - User experience signals.
- Optimize Page Speed
  - Image compression, caching, deferred loading.
- Mobile-First Indexing
  - Responsive design, accelerated mobile pages.
- Structured Data
  - Product schema, breadcrumbs, FAQ markup.

Author

Joey Burzynski

Joey Burzynski is the founder and CTO at MarketKarma, an SEO agency based in Miami Beach. Florida. He has over two decades of experience in SEO, e-commerce, and software development.

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