In today’s digital landscape, having a website is not enough. To drive traffic and reach your target audience, your website needs to be optimised for search engines. Technical SEO, which involves optimizing the technical aspects of a website to improve its search engine visibility, is an essential part of any SEO strategy. By implementing technical SEO best practices, you can improve your website’s ranking in search results, attract more traffic to your website, and ultimately, increase conversions.
Technical SEO is a complex and ever-evolving field, as search engines are constantly updating their algorithms to deliver the best possible results to users. As such, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest technical SEO best practices to ensure your website remains optimised for search engines. From site speed optimisation to URL structure, XML sitemaps to HTTPS encryption, there are many technical SEO best practices you can implement to improve your website’s ranking in search results.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the world of technical SEO and explore the best practices you can implement to achieve higher rankings in search results. We’ll cover everything from site speed optimisation to internal linking, and provide tips and tricks to help you stay ahead of the competition. Whether you’re a seasoned SEO professional or just starting out, this guide will provide valuable insights and actionable advice to help you improve the performance of your website in search results.
10 technical SEO best practices
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Site Speed Optimisation
Site speed is one of the most critical factors that determine the success of your website. A slow website not only negatively impacts user experience but also affects your search engine rankings. Google has made it clear that website speed is one of the ranking factors that affect a website’s position in SERPs. To improve your website’s speed, you can use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify the elements that are slowing down your website. You can optimise images, minify CSS and JavaScript files, and leverage browser caching to improve your site speed.
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Mobile Optimisation
Mobile optimisation is another crucial factor in technical SEO. With the increasing number of mobile users, search engines now prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their search results. If your website is not optimised for mobile devices, you are losing a significant number of potential visitors. Google has also introduced mobile-first indexing, which means that Google now primarily uses the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking. To optimise your website for mobile, you can use responsive design, optimise images, and reduce page load times.
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URL Structure
The structure of your website’s URLs plays a vital role in technical SEO. A clear and concise URL structure can help search engines understand the content of your website better. Your URL structure should be descriptive, including relevant keywords that explain the content of the page. You should also use hyphens to separate words in your URL instead of underscores or spaces. This will make it easier for search engines to read and index your URLs.
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XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website and helps search engines understand the structure of your website. A sitemap can help search engines discover pages that may not be linked from other pages on your site. You can create an XML sitemap using various tools, including Google Search Console. Once you have created your sitemap, you can submit it to Google and other search engines to ensure that your website is crawled and indexed correctly.
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Robots.txt
A robots.txt file is a text file that instructs search engine crawlers on which pages they can or cannot crawl and index. The robots.txt file is located in the root directory of your website and is used to control the behavior of search engine bots. It is essential to ensure that you have a robots.txt file on your website and that it is correctly configured. An incorrectly configured robots.txt file can cause search engines to overlook essential pages on your website.
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Canonicalization
Canonicalization is the process of selecting a preferred URL when multiple URLs point to the same content. This can occur when multiple versions of a page exist, such as when a page can be accessed through HTTP or HTTPS. Canonicalization is essential to ensure that search engines index the correct page and do not penalize your website for duplicate content. You can use the rel=canonical tag to specify the preferred URL for search engines to index.
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HTTPS Encryption
HTTPS encryption is an essential factor in technical SEO. HTTPS is a secure protocol that encrypts data between a website and a user’s browser. Google has made it clear that HTTPS is a ranking factor and has also started flagging websites that do not use HTTPS as “not secure.” To ensure that your website is secure, you should install an SSL/TLS certificate and configure your website to use HTTPS. This will not only improve your website’s security but also help your website rank higher in search results.
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Structured Data
Structured data is a type of code that helps search engines understand the content of a website better. Structured data can be used to add rich snippets, such as star ratings, prices, and images, to search results. This can improve the click-through rates (CTR) of your website in search results and increase traffic to your website. You can use various structured data formats, including JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa, to markup your website’s content.
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Site Architecture
Site architecture refers to the structure of your website and how pages are organized and linked to each other. A well-organized site architecture can help search engines understand the hierarchy and relationship between pages on your website. This can also help users navigate your website more easily and find the information they need. You can use a logical structure for your website, including categories, subcategories, and tags, to create a clear hierarchy of pages.
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Internal Linking
Internal linking is the practice of linking to other pages on your website from within your content. Internal linking can help search engines understand the relationship between pages on your website and how they relate to each other. It can also help distribute link equity throughout your website, which can improve the rankings of your pages in search results. You can use anchor text that includes relevant keywords to help search engines understand the content of your pages.
Conclusion
Technical SEO is a crucial aspect of search engine optimisation that can help your website rank higher in search results. By optimizing your website for site speed, mobile devices, URL structure, XML sitemap, robots.txt, canonicalization, HTTPS encryption, structured data, site architecture, and internal linking, you can improve your website’s visibility in search results and attract more traffic to your website. These best practices for technical SEO require ongoing monitoring and optimisation to ensure that your website remains optimised for search engines. By staying up-to-date with the latest technical SEO trends and best practices, you can stay ahead of your competition and improve the performance of your website in search results.
