[Do you like this? Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel and then share it for me!]
Video Summary
Google uses certain metrics to test the quality of your website, and this algorithm impacts your rank in the search results.
If your site doesn’t score high enough, it’s not likely to show up on the first page, and almost no one goes to the second page! First and foremost, you have to make sure your website provides the kind of user experience that satisfies Google and its users. Besides the user experience, technical optimization also helps search engines crawl and comprehend your website, potentially leading to higher rankings and better visibility within the search results.
Basic SEO is often not enough for long-term results. So, in this video, I’m talking about improving the technical aspects of your website to make its pages rank higher in the search engines. That’s why this is called Technical SEO.
So, let’s look at some of those important technical aspects…
Video Transcript
Hello, my name is Jeffrey Kirk. Do you ever wonder how search engines work?
Imagine, for a moment, that search engines are like a nosy detective, always trying to solve the mystery of your website. They’re like a stereotypical detective with a magnifying glass, inspecting every nook and cranny of your site. But here’s the twist: instead of solving crimes, they’re on a mission to find the perfect match between user queries and your content.
That’s where technical SEO comes in. It’s like the secret code that helps the detectives uncover your website’s hidden treasures. So, grab your detective hat, and your magnifying glass, and let’s dig into the world of technical SEO!
Let’s start with a search query. When you type something into the search box, the search engine scours all available resources to provide you with an answer. This is accomplished through a process called crawling and indexing. And the results you get are presented based on how well they match your query.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is about analyzing what people are looking for online, what questions they have, what words they’re using, and what they want to see. By understanding these things, you gain the advantage because you can influence how well your business matches the search queries of your potential audience.
And, your main goal is to increase the quality and quantity of your site’s search traffic, giving exposure to your business by appearing at the top of the search results. That sounds like a good idea, right? The problem is, basic SEO is often not enough for long-term results. So, in this video, I’m talking about improving the technical aspects of your website to make its pages rank higher in the search engines. That’s why this is called Technical SEO.
Technical SEO includes making the website faster and easier for search engines to understand, and it includes making it more accessible for crawling. It focuses on optimizing elements within your website to improve rankings. And it is different from off-site SEO, which involves promoting a website through other channels. I’ve got a separate video that talks about that.
Why is Technical SEO important?
Google uses certain metrics to test the quality of your website, and this algorithm impacts your rank in the search results.
If your site doesn’t score high enough, it’s not likely to show up on the first page, and almost no one goes to the second page! First and foremost, you have to make sure your website provides the kind of user experience that satisfies Google and its users.
According to Google, a key consideration to how well your website shows up in the search results is user experience. And that makes sense. If Google sent you to a site you that didn’t like, you’d stop using Google. So Google wants to deliver a good user experience. And that means your site has to provide the type of content and experience that your audience wants to have.
Besides the user experience, technical optimization also helps search engines crawl and comprehend your website, potentially leading to higher rankings and better visibility within the search results. So, let’s look at some of those important technical aspects…
#1 – Increase your site loading speed
When you visit a website and it loads super slowly, do you get frustrated and leave?
The reality is people don’t want to wait. Which means slow-loading web pages result in lower rankings and decreased traffic. So if your website is slow, you don’t stand a chance. Web pages must load quickly to prevent user frustration and abandonment.
Google prioritizes fast-loading pages, which means page speed is an official ranking factor. Speed is vital for your business online. If your website is not fast enough, customers will leave even before they notice what your page offers.
A study from Google also reveals that your website’s speed and loading time directly relates to leads. That’s why it’s essential to focus on improving your website’s performance. One of the tools you can use to optimize your website and learn what’s causing it to be slow is called PageSpeed Insights. This tool analyzes your website’s performance and makes recommendations on how to increase the speed.
To use the tool, simply paste your URL in the search box, like I’m doing here, and then hit the analyze button. You will see a thorough report of your website and what might be slowing down its performance. Identifying the problems is the first step to fixing them.
Related to fast loading speed is something called the Core Web Vitals. I did a video series on this topic. Look for the link here.
#2 – Improve site crawlability
Search engine robots, often called bots, crawl websites to discover content. These bots crawl through a site looking for links and following them to find the pages to index. And these robots are guided by a text file called robots.txt. This optional file contains instructions on how to crawl parts of a website. It basically tells a search engine which parts of a certain website they can or cannot visit. Individual pages can also direct the bots with a robots meta tag.
Besides giving or blocking access to files, these instructions also tell search engines whether pages should be included in the index or not. If not indexed, then a page will not appear in the search results. And that’s good because not all website pages need to be crawled and indexed. For example, login pages, privacy policy pages, and thank-you pages.
You need these pages in your website, but you don’t want people randomly finding them as the first page they see for your business when they do a search. So by preventing the search engines from looking at these pages, they can get to your important pages faster.
If you want to learn more about robots.txt files, I have a separate video with more details. The link is here for easy access.
#3 – Eliminate dead links
What’s more frustrating than slow loading websites? Links that don’t work!
You see something you like, you click, and then you get an error page. What the heck! That’s not a good user experience. Broken and dead links negatively impact your website’s credibility. When you delete or move a page, be sure to use proper redirection to help prevent dead links.
And be sure to test the links on your website before and after you publish them, just to make sure they work. And then test the links from time to time to be sure they continue working properly. If you find an error, change it, replace it, or delete it.
#4 – Avoid duplicate content
Having the same content on multiple pages of your site can confuse search engines. It’s called duplicate content when you have the same or very similar words in more than one location. In other words, roughly the same content appearing on different URLs.
When multiple versions of your content appear, search engines don’t know which version to index and which ones they should show in the search results. And, since Google only ranks pages that are unique and of quality, duplicate content may remain, or become, invisible. How will people find you if your site is invisible?
If you must keep duplicate content around for some reason, then it’s important to use what’s called a “canonical link element” or sometimes called a “canonical tag”. This indicates the original page, or the page you want to rank highest.
If you need more ways to handle duplicate content, check out my video on that topic. Yep, the link is here.
#5 – Make sure your site is secure
A technically optimized website prioritizes security to protect user privacy. Website security is a top priority for Google and counts as one of the vital factors to appear in the search results. Google wants to make sure the websites people find, using Google search, are secure, and therefore, Google gives secure websites higher rankings.
So, how do you make sure your website is secure?
First, consider installing security plug-ins to avoid malware security breaches which can lead to data loss.
Next, use strong passwords and ensure that your website gets constantly updated.
And finally, install an SSL Certificate. Implementing HTTPS with an SSL certificate ensures data transmitted between the user’s browser and your website remains secure.
#6 – Use structured data
Implementing structured data helps search engines better understand website content, your products, and other business information. It provides additional details about products, services, and other content, potentially leading to rich results with enhanced visibility in the search results. Plus, it helps improve user experience. And that’s our number one goal here.
Also make sure your blog posts are aligned with the correct categories, and your categories match what your business offers. On the other hand, if your site is not well organized, and contains no structured data, then search engines have to make more guesses about your content and pages.
What if those guesses are wrong? All your hard work up to this point would go to waste.
#7 – Implement an XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is a list of all pages on a website, serving as a roadmap for search engines. It helps ensure search engines don’t miss any important content. So instead of search engines going through all the internal links to reach your content, an XML sitemap makes it easier and faster for the bots to crawl and index your site.
While XML sitemaps are optional, submitting one is a good indication that your URLs contain quality content, and this might increase your chance of getting indexed and ranked. Since XML sitemaps help search engines find your URLs easily, it helps you with your search results ranking as well.
The faster Google finds your updated content, the faster your page appears in the search results, and the more users see your content. And, yes, I’ve got a video about XML sitemaps.
Bonus
And now, here’s a bonus technical element – Use Hreflang for international websites.
For websites targeting multiple countries or regions with different languages, the hreflang attribute helps search engines understand the intended audience for each page. If you have multiple versions of the same page in different languages, you can use hreflang to tell search engines about the variations. This helps avoid duplicate content issues and ensures the correct version of the website is shown to users based on their locations.
With all these technical SEO elements, the goal is to help your website improve its visibility, user experience, and overall performance in the search results.
You want to make sure you’re applying these tips to your website to make sure Google sees your business and includes it in the search results. This way you get higher rankings and drive more quality traffic to your business.
Now, if you haven’t already done so, please join me on an upcoming training. I want to show you another way to get your business showing in the search results. This method requires no technical skills, no changes to your website, no ads, and no search engine optimization!
Go to upatdawn.biz/webinar for more info and to register. And it’s free.
Your business deserves to be seen online, and I will help you get there.
Thanks for watching and have a great day!
