Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to be an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. Keyword strategy is an obvious and vital step in your marketing strategy, but how important is technical SEO?
Rise Through the Rankings
When technical SEO is done right, it tells search engines, such as Google, that you are a website of high value. We are a SEO Agency in Los Angeles, with a passion for bringing results. Google wants to present the very best to its users, so if your site is easily understood and checks all the boxes, Google wants to help you help them provide the right quality content to its users.
How is Technical SEO done?
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
HTTP is the protocol that governs traffic on the World Wide Web, and SSL is a security protocol that encrypts communication between web servers and browsers. Using HTTP and SSL, websites can ensure that their traffic is encrypted and secure.
Breadcrumb navigation
It helps search engines understand the structure of your website and find the pages most relevant to a user’s query. Breadcrumb navigation also makes it easier for users to navigate your website, which can help reduce bounce rates and improve conversion rates. While breadcrumb navigation is not required for all websites, it is particularly important for eCommerce websites and websites with complex structures.
HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
Using these languages correctly can create a stunning web design with UX at the forefront.
- HTML is the foundational code for your site.
- JavaScript adds interactive elements to your web pages.
- CSS makes everything look great.
Crawling
Google bots scour the web for content. Make sure your website isn’t blocking Googlebots from crawling your files. JavaScript files can sometimes be too complicated for Google to render your web content correctly.
Indexing (Sitemaps)
Google indexes your site and stores it to show relevant search engine results that match a searcher query the best. Be sure to use Google Search Console to make sure Google has crawled and indexed your website. Also, you can submit sitemaps that benefit your SEO strategy. We prefer using Semrush to do any site audits.
Rendering
Finally, your website has been crawled and indexed. Now it’s rendered and appearing in SERPs. The more JavaScript and CSS, the more difficulty Google has in rendering your website as intended.
Structured Data
When you help Google understand your website content via code, your SEO strategy is rewarded. Use Google structured data markup helper if you are trying to understand structured data more. Again, Semrush is excellent at helping with this as well.
Page Speed
You already know how vital this juggle of design and load times is. Even though Javascript and CSS are great for rich and dynamic web design, page speed is all the more critical factor in UX and how well your website and SEO-focused content can rank in SERPs. You can use Semrush, GTX Metrix, Google Pagespeed, and Lighthouse to check your speed and improve it.
Mobile-First Indexing
Mobile is everything. Focus on mobile UX heavily. Also, check if your site is crawled mobile-first via the Google Search Console. Let us know if you would like to learn more about our Responsive Web Design Los Angeles. If you see “Googlebot smartphone” has crawled your page first, you know you’re all set.
Accelerated Mobile Pages
This open-source HTML framework created by Google is a mobile-first prioritized web experience. Therefore, Google is undoubtedly giving preferential ranking to anyone that implements this framework to build their website.
Thin/Duplicate Content
A thin content example would be content on a page that doesn’t link to any other page and doesn’t have relative content on its webpage.
Duplicate content is anywhere on your website that shares the same or similar content. Don’t do this.
Canonical Tags
These markers appear in the section a pages HTML code. They inform SERPs that the URL you specified is a page’s original and true copy. Use PageImprove to make on-page changes to canonical tags directly from your browser and make sure you point to relevant content.
Hreflang
Congrats, you built a website that is ranking well in SERPs. What about getting your content out to other languages? Hreflang is an HTML tag that identifies the language used on that specific page. If someone is visiting from an IP address from a specific country, Google will serve up the right language for your website to the user. Again, Semrush sites audit can provide a report with any issues.
By focusing on technical SEO, businesses can make sure that their website is easy for search engines to crawl and index and that it is able to deliver a high-quality user experience. As a result, technical SEO can have a significant impact on a website’s search visibility and traffic levels. With so many potential benefits, it’s no wonder that technical SEO is an essential part of any successful online marketing strategy.
