What is Technical SEO? Steps and Best Practices

Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website’s architecture and backend components to ensure it performs well in search engines. This form of SEO focuses on ensuring that search engine bots can efficiently crawl, index, and understand the website’s structure and content. Unlike content or on-page SEO, technical SEO requires more attention to a website’s infrastructure, often necessitating collaboration between technical SEO experts and web developers—especially for large and complex websites.

Why Technical SEO is Important?

Technical SEO is important because it ensures that your website is accessible, fast, and free from errors that may block search engines from crawling or ranking your site. Proper implementation of technical SEO helps increase organic traffic, leading to more conversions and business growth. It lays the foundation for improving website performance, user experience, and overall visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).

Best Practices for Technical SEO

1. 1. Site Architecture

A well-structured website architecture is key for search engine optimization. SEO-friendly URLs are concise and descriptive and contain relevant keywords. These URLs help both users and search engines understand a page’s content before even visiting it. By creating a logical site structure and linking hierarchy, search engines can easily crawl and index your pages, which in turn improves rankings.

1. 2. Optimize Crawlability for Search Engines

Improving a website’s crawlability makes it easier for search engines like Google to explore and understand your site’s content. This can be achieved primarily through a well-configured robots.txt file, instructing search engines on which pages they can or cannot crawl. Properly setting up this file ensures that your most important pages are accessible to search engines, while pages you don’t want to be indexed, like admin panels, are excluded.

1. 3. Optimize Website Security

Website security is critical to technical SEO, and search engines, especially Google, prioritize secure websites. One essential step is implementing HTTPS through an SSL certificate. Not only does this secure communication between users and the website, but it also signals to search engines that your website is trustworthy, which can improve rankings.

1. 4. Optimize Website Speed

Page load time directly impacts both user experience and SEO performance. A slow-loading website frustrates users and increases bounce rates, negatively impacting rankings. Optimizing website speed includes compressing images, using faster servers, and enabling browser caching. Improving speed, particularly on mobile devices, is vital for maintaining a strong SEO presence.

1. 5. Add XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap serves as a roadmap for search engines, helping them understand your website’s structure and ensuring all your important pages are indexed. Including a well-structured XML sitemap in your website’s root directory enables search engines to find and crawl pages efficiently, enhancing overall visibility.

1. 6. Optimize URL Structure

A clean and optimized URL structure is essential for search engine rankings. URLs should be concise, easy to understand, and contain targeted keywords. A good URL structure improves user experience and helps search engines crawl and index your site more efficiently.

1. 7. Optimize 404 Pages

A well-designed 404 error page (the page users see when a link is broken or a page doesn’t exist) can minimize user frustration and provide helpful navigation options. Search engines also monitor the frequency of 404 errors, so regularly auditing and improving these pages can prevent negative SEO impacts.

1. 8. Fix Broken Backlinks

Broken backlinks can harm your SEO efforts by creating a poor user experience and reducing the website’s credibility. It’s essential to regularly audit and fix any broken backlinks, ensuring that they point to valid, relevant pages. This keeps the user experience intact and signals to search engines that your site is well-maintained.

1. 9. Have Access to Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is an invaluable tool for monitoring your website’s performance in search. It provides data on how Google crawls and indexes your site, and reports on issues like crawl errors, indexing problems, and penalties. Regular use of GSC helps you keep a finger on the pulse of your site’s health, making it easier to address technical SEO issues quickly.

Best Technical SEO Tools to Crawl Your Website

1. 1. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is one of the most widely used tools for technical SEO audits. It crawls websites and provides insights into issues like broken links, duplicate content, and redirect loops. The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, while the paid version offers unlimited crawling.

1. 2. Lumar (Formerly DeepCrawl)

Lumar offers comprehensive crawling capabilities with a focus on larger websites. It provides detailed insights into site structure, broken pages, and other technical issues. Lumar offers a paid version, but its detailed reporting is ideal for enterprise-level sites.

1. 3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is known for its powerful backlink analysis, but it also provides a robust site audit feature. It helps identify technical SEO issues related to on-page elements, crawlability, and more. Ahrefs is a paid tool but offers extensive insights for SEO optimization.

1. 4. Semrush

Semrush offers a suite of SEO tools, including a site audit feature. It can detect various technical issues like crawl errors, broken links, and speed problems. Semrush is a paid tool, but it’s highly versatile and caters to small and large enterprises.

Steps to Perform a Technical SEO Analysis

1. 1. Check Google Search Console

Begin your technical SEO audit by reviewing the Google Search Console. Check the crawl status report, address any 404 errors, and ensure that your sitemap is correctly configured and submitted.

1. 2. Crawl Your Website

Use crawling tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush to conduct a thorough audit of your site. Using more than one tool is recommended to ensure a comprehensive analysis, as different tools may catch different issues.

1. 3. Analyze the Crawl Report and Identify Issues

Once the crawl is complete, analyze the report to identify issues such as broken links, duplicate content, or missing meta tags. These issues can negatively affect your website’s SEO performance if not addressed.

1. 4. Export and Prioritize the Issues

After identifying issues, export the data into a report. Prioritize fixing the issues based on their severity, starting with those that have the most significant impact on your website’s performance, such as broken links or site speed problems.

1. 5. Implement and Monitor the Fixes

Once the issues are prioritized, begin implementing the necessary fixes. Regularly monitor your site to ensure the changes are successful, and continue using tools like Google Search Console to track performance and detect any new issues.