Technical SEO: What Is It? An Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

What is technical SEO? It’s the process of optimizing your website for search engines. When you’re working with a search engine optimization company Singapore like us, we’ll look at all of your current websites to see what areas need to be improved.…and where do you start?

 

What is Technical SEO?

The term “technical search engine optimization” (SEO) is used to describe the strategies involved in creating and optimizing the website to ensure that search engines can easily browse, index, and display it. Technical SEO is only one part of the SEO puzzle.

Many business owners and marketers utilize technical SEO to increase the likelihood of their site ranking high on search engine result pages (SERPs).

Why is Technical SEO Important?

You could be producing the most captivating and thoughtful content for your site -it’s the kind that instantly transforms casual visitors into customers. However, if search engine crawlers cannot properly browse your site to index your site, all your efforts are unproductive. 

This is why SEO, for technical reasons, is crucial. Imagine trying to sell your house. You may have an inside (content) that is worthy of being featured in “Architectural Digest”, But if you’re siding’s falling apart (bad software) or your home is filled with wires that lead nowhere (broken links), Your house won’t be inspected (Google bots) It’s likely that it won’t sell (rank sufficient for searchers to search for).

To determine how your current website performs in terms of technical SEO, you’ll need to conduct an exhaustive SEO audit for technical aspects.

 

What is an example of Technical SEO?

A good instance of technical SEO is the creation of structured data. We’ll go over this in the future, but it is a process of describing your site in a form that search engines can recognize. The most well-known kind of vocabulary for structured data can be described as schema markup.

Major search engines depend on a common structure for web pages. This structure must be organized to ensure that search engines give users the most precise and complete results. This is why structured data is a crucial aspect of technical SEO.

Another instance of technical SEO could be creating the XML web map of your website. The initial step to developing a technical SEO strategy is configuring your site correctly to ensure that every page works just as it should. Google (and the other engines) scans the file to learn about your website more effectively.

Making Your Website Ready

The first step to creating a technological SEO strategy is to set up your site correctly to ensure each page works just as it should. Let’s review some SEO fundamentals and the steps for beginners to set up a website starting from scratch by as per the experts at the best SEO company in Singapore.

• Buy a domain: Many domain registrars (businesses who manage and organize domain names that are taken and accessible) are available. Wix, GoDaddy, and Domain.com are among the most popular domain registrars.
• Link your domain name with an IP address. Internet Protocol addresses (IPs) are numbers that allow the internet to translate domain names such as “semrush.com” to something the internet can store and arrange. A DNS (DNS) manages IP addresses in an intricate map on the internet.

After you have those two elements in place, you’re ready to prepare your site for the web search engines of users. There are several ways that this might occur:

1. A user seeks your site (for example, A user wants to know how to optimize their search engine, so they type “semrush.com” into Chrome, the browser’s Search bar).
2. The user’s web browser will begin communicating with the DNS to convert the domain name to an IP address. It will also request details regarding your website’s programming or programming.
3. When the DNS receives the request, it will start building the files for the website, which will be displayed in the user’s internet browser.
4. The main event begins with rendering. Once the DNS has provided the proper data to the internet browser, it will begin to create the website page requested. This is known in the context of “rendering.” The process lets normal users view the polished site without going through the complexities of code.
5. The browser conducts the final check by sending any code requests not fulfilled at the server.
6. Your website appears well on the internet browser.

That’s the essence of a website’s process, from its inception to being ready for browsers.

• URL Structure

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) structure defines the look and feel of URLs. It provides crucial information about the page for both search engines and users. For example, you’ve encountered many URLs that begin in “HTTPS.”

The letters in this group refer to an URL structure that incorporates Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Secure Socket Layer (SSL). 

The “S” in the last of the URL refers to the security protocol that many websites employ to keep the content of their webpage (and the information that users input into the webpage) safe.

Let’s look at a structure-based URL example:

• It is evident from the article’s content that it is a blog article about hiring an agency to market your company. This is also reflected in the URL structure, which reads “/blog/hire-a-marketing-agency.”
• You will also find an SSL certificate in the upper right of the page, which is indicated with “HTTPS” and the “S” in the middle of “HTTPS”, as well as the small lock icon located in the left area of the bar.
• You can also monitor HTTPS use on your website using this Site Audit Tool. This tool is useful for identifying the technical issues that affect SEO.

 

• Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumb Navigation refers to the user’s “trail” while navigating a specific site. It is easy for users to navigate back to a previous page or to take a few steps back to begin their journey on an online site.

This kind of navigation is great for ensuring a clean and orderly website infrastructure and also provides an additional level of user accessibility.

This image shows a particular page on the Target website. The navigation for breadcrumbs appears in purple near high-up on the site. In this case, the user can go back to either the “beauty” site or Target’s homepage by clicking or two, depending on their 

preference.

HTML, JavaScript, and CSS

You’ve probably heard about HTML, JavaScript, and CSS utilized in SEO technical areas or on the web.

If it’s similar to the process of learning Latin for you, do not fret; HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are all programming languages that people can master with lots of patience, training, practice, and assistance.

Let’s take the house example for a second time to cover every programming language.

• HTML Hyper Text Markup Language works like a house’s foundation and walls supporting loads. 

The language is the primary format (code) browsers require to display your website’s content. If you can see written content on your sites, such as headers and listicles, this is HTML.

• JavaScript: This language is similar to the electrical and plumbing elements that make up the structure. JavaScript is the software source that makes a website’s practical elements usable when users search for it. 

JavaScript creates elements of a website that are more dynamic and exciting. With JavaScript, the possibilities are virtually limitless. For instance, if you want to make an interactive test within one of the website pages, you can do this using JavaScript.

• CSS: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the exterior of a house using this metaphor. The program is responsible for your website’s colour, fonts and overall design. Without it, your site appears bare and dull on a web page.

Top review by SEO company in Singapore:

• HTML:  It is the code that provides the base for your website
• JavaScript: Adds interactivity elements on web pages.
• CSS: Can make everything look amazing

 

Indexing, Crawling and rendering

When you’ve got your website linked to an IP number and incorporated HTML, JavaScript, and CSS programming to it, what happens next? To ensure that your website shows up in the search results, you’ll need to know what Google is doing while indexing, crawling, and rendering your site.

The more you are aware of each step, The more you can modify your technical SEO strategy to satisfy the needs of search engines and users. The better you can satisfy search engines’ requirements, the more you will rank highly on the SERPs.

• Crawling:

When you visit a website you like, do you go through multiple pages and follow the breadcrumbs to explore everything the website offers? If so, you know what the Google crawlers (bots) navigate through public websites.

When these Google bots start scouring the web, they head to public websites and move from link to hyperlink just as one would. It is important to note that be sure your site doesn’t block Googlebot in crawling your website’s files. 

Your website won’t appear in search results if it’s blocked. It is also important to remember that JavaScript files which are complicated could cause it to be nearly impossible to Google to display your website’s content properly.

• Indexing (and why Sitemaps are important):

Indexing is similar to Google’s cabinet of filing. When the Googlebot explores a site, it will store the information and (when it’s done indexing) the site will show in the results of a search engine that best matches the searcher’s query.

One method of ensuring that Google has correctly crawled your site and then indexed your website is to use a no-cost Google tool known as Google Search Console.

When you sign up for your account for free, you can do a variety of things, such as track whether a new website you’ve created is indexable. You may also submit sitemaps to make your site easier to Google to recognize and accurately catalogue your website’s content.

A sitemap is crucial because it simplifies Google’s job (and yours). Instead of wasting time searching for your site, you’ll be able to inform Google where your most important content is located and when you make changes to it.

Tips:

• Ensure that your navigational features are the simplest code you can (HTML). If you use more complex JavaScript to create a navigational menu, be aware that Google isn’t as proficient at indexing complicated navigational structures.
• Check that the desktop and mobile versions of your website ensure that they are identical. Different content on both could prevent Google from properly indexing your website.
• A lack of navigation (like the absence of a vital contact page) can stop Googlebot from hopping across links.
• Start the Crawlability report within Site Audit to find out more about any problems or errors on your website.

 

• Rendering:

The rendering process takes place after Google has completed scanning and indexing your website’s contents into its filing cabinet. If everything goes as planned and your website content starts appearing in search results, Google wants to ensure that people can view and engage with your website’s content in the way you intended.

In the beginning days of the web, sites did not have JavaScript. It made them easy to render since they were using HTML, a basic programming language. With JavaScript and vibrant CSS, Google’s work has become much more complicated.

More JavaScript and other coding elements you incorporate into your site, the greater 

chance Google will have trouble rendering your site in the way you intended.

Implementing Structured Data

Structured data was discussed briefly in the earlier part of this guide. In short, building the structure of your data is aiding Google in understanding the content on your website by creating a thorough website description written in the written language (code) in a language that Google can easily understand.

For instance, your structured data could contain the name of your article or the content as well as the description and other information embedded in the code (schema), which Google enjoys.

If you’re interested in learning how to make structured data or want some examples to work from, look up Google’s Code labs for examples and detailed explanations. Google even offers a structured data Markup Helper if you’re having trouble understanding how this works.

You enter the URL you want to start tagging along with the category that best characterizes the page using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. We’ve entered “Products” and “veganshoes.com” here as samples. Image courtesy of Google.

The tool will guide you through the process of creating structured data into an example web page. A sample URL you typed in will be displayed to the right. Tag items by clicking them and providing context on the particular element of the page’s contents.

We must mark these shoes as “Offer” before giving them a cost. Image courtesy of Google.

After you have labelled every page element, Google will render the structured information.

Another way to verify particular marking issues is to go into the Crawled Pages report on the main Site Audit page.

Filter particular problems (Markup in the example below) or hover your mouse over various markups listed below to determine what kind of markup that page uses).

If there are any problems, Semrush will inform you of what pages are at fault and how to resolve them.

 

Page Speed

In its infancy, web pages were much easier for search engines to display. Programming was easy, and the elements of a website were basic. 

Today, with the help of JavaScript and CSS, many things are now possible for web developers. As web content gets more complex and dynamic, the speed of pages becomes an increasingly crucial aspect of users’ experience (and how your site’s content is ranked in SERPs).

The more JavaScript you’ve included on your website (especially complicated elements), the more difficult it is to load your site. Since the speed of loading is a factor that determines rank, you should ensure that you’re paying close attention to the amount of time it takes for the content to load after a user has requested it.

 

The Core Web Vitals

One way to check the speed at which content loads on your site is by using Our Website Audit Software’s Core Web Vitals metric. The Web Vitals Core is broken into three categories:

• Largest Contentful Painting (LCP): This describes the time required to get the primary portion of the content on a website page to load for the users.
• First Input Delay (FID): FID determines the page’s response time when a user engages with the site for the first time. This can be done using links to click and tap buttons and other specific JavaScript actions.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures the number of unintentional shifts in a layout that affect the page’s primary content.

Google also offers these measures through the Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Reports.

A Google Core Web Vitals report looks like this. Image courtesy of Google. Best Status Metrics to use for Core Web Vitals:

• LCP Below 2.5 seconds
• FID: Under 100 milliseconds
• CLS A score of .1 or less

 

User-friendly sites

User-friendly websites are optimized to put users first. This doesn’t mean that you ignore or do not consider the requirements of search engines; it’s just that you realize that users are the most important thing to you (Something even Google recognizes!).

There are a variety of methods to create an easy-to-use website which we’ll explore several of them later.

1. Mobile-First Indexing

As the name suggests, Mobile-first indexing is the process where search engines (and consequently website developers) prioritize indexing mobile-friendly versions of websites to index.

This means you must consider putting a lot of focus on your mobile website’s user design and experience. 

By logging on through Google Search Console, you can determine whether your website is in mobile-first indexing. Google Search Console and look at the most recent list of crawls for the latest page added to your website.

You’re in good shape if you can see that “Googlebot phone” has accessed your page first. You may have received an email stating informing you that your site was transferred to Google.

 

2. Accelerated Mobile Pages

Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) can be described as an open-source HTML structure that Google has developed in order to aid web designers in making web pages that are mobile-friendly to users.

This type of code lets users put mobile experience; this is something to consider in case you’re not already. Mobile internet browsing has exploded over the past decade, with more than 50 per cent of internet traffic coming from smartphones.

Thus, you should create the type of content that is accessible via a smartphone or tablet. In fact, you may already have these kinds of pages on your site. You can verify the status of your site by logging into the Site Audit tool and navigating to the “Statistics” tab. 

From there, you’ll be able to find out how many of your pages have AMP links. This snapshot demonstrates that there are no AMP links on this example website.

Google will likely give preference to sites that make use of this framework for the creation of their website content. Google recognizes that the majority of visitors will be on mobile devices, so you’ll want to focus on their experience.

Other benefits of creating web pages using this open-source HTML framework, also known as AMP, are:

• A load of AMP can be completed almost instantaneously
• It is much easier to construct than other frameworks
• Major platforms have AMP support. AMP
• Developers are still able to implement CSS within AMP (though it won’t get as intricate)
• The components that make up the foundation for AMP are already in place; it’s just a matter of developing them

 

Content that is thin or duplicates

Two of the dangers that web content creators might face are weak or duplicate content or duplicate. The term “thin content” refers to articles, blogs or web pages that don’t provide Googlebot crawlers with many options. 

Perhaps there’s no internal link on the page that can guide crawlers to other areas of your website. Also, it could be that the content on your page does not properly target the searcher’s intent.

A prime example of thin content could be a page on services that don’t hyperlink to any other web page and doesn’t even describe the services you provide. Instead, it merely mentions your employees’ names or extension codes.

“Duplicate content” refers to articles, blogs or web pages that have the same content elsewhere on your website. Don’t let the title make you believe that it’s not true close-to-identical content (like changing only the brand name to a product’s description) could also be covered under the term “duplicate material.”

A prime instance of duplicate content could be that you have two pages dedicated to dog food for dogs that aren’t different from one another’s language or appearance of the page.

Tips:

• If you find another site using your content and not crediting it, Contact the webmaster and ask them to either credit your work or take it down
• Utilize the canonical labels (more on this later) on brand new content to determine if it’s the source of information.

 

Canonical Tags

You might have heard of canonical tags and have seen them described as rel=”canonical.” For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, canonical tags are markers that inform web crawlers that the address you have entered is the authentic and genuine replica of a page.

Canonical tags are used in the page’s HTML code. They may refer back to the URL of a page (self-referencing) or could even combine signals by referencing another’s URL.

Tips:

• Do not canonicalize (or indicate) to any URL that contains a “301” redirect (i.e. it’s a page that redirects to a different webpage)
• Check that the content you canonicalize are pertinent

 

Hreflang

Let’s say you’ve developed your website that is ranked well on the SERPs of Google. You’re happy with your work and would like to allow users who can read and speak different languages to access your site and the content. What is the most effective strategy to accomplish this? Utilizing the Hreflang attribute or tag.

Hreflang refers to an HTML tag that informs the search engines of the language you’re using on a particular page. This lets you illustrate the connection between web pages that are written in various languages.

This is crucial in the event that you intend to target specific audience groups by geographical location. Let’s take an example. You run a German company that is opening a location for service in France. 

You’ll want to ensure that visitors to your website from France are able to learn more about your new branch. A Hreflang tag “hreflang=fr” will notify Google that when someone visits your site using an IP address likely to be coming from France, the site should show your site’s French Version of your page.

Hreflang enhances not just the user experience but accessibility as well. This is beneficial for traffic, users, and businesses in general. Site Audit also includes an International SEO report that lets you know if your website is having any issues with hreflang.

 

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed reading this blog; now, if you want to read more, check out our previous blog Video Marketing: Create A Compelling Video Marketing Strategy to Boost Your SEO.