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Technical SEO: A Guide to Site Speed, Indexing, and More

  • Writer: Jonathan Eyres
    Jonathan Eyres
  • May 27
  • 2 min read

Updated: Jun 3

technical seo photo

When most people think about SEO, they focus on keywords and content—but without a solid technical foundation, even the best content can go unseen. Technical SEO ensures your website is structured in a way that search engines can easily crawl, index, and rank your content. In this article, we’ll break down the key components of technical SEO and how to optimize them.

Why Technical SEO Matters

Search engines use bots (also known as crawlers) to scan websites and determine what pages to index and how to rank them. If your website has technical errors—slow load times, broken links, poor mobile design—it may never rank, regardless of content quality.

Key Elements of Technical SEO

1. Site Speed

  • A slow-loading site leads to higher bounce rates and lower rankings.

  • Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Lighthouse to evaluate speed.

  • Tips to improve:

    • Compress images and use next-gen formats (e.g., WebP)

    • Enable browser caching

    • Minimize JavaScript and CSS

    • Use a reliable hosting service

      F18 jet armed with missiles

2. Mobile Optimization

  • Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily evaluates the mobile version of your site.

  • Ensure your site uses responsive design and displays correctly on all screen sizes.

  • Avoid mobile popups and intrusive interstitials.

3. Crawlability and Indexing

  • Create and submit an XML sitemap to Google Search Console.

  • Use a robots.txt file to guide crawlers away from non-essential pages.

  • Avoid duplicate content by using canonical tags.

4. Structured Data (Schema Markup)

  • Help search engines understand your content better.

  • Use schema for:

    • Articles

    • Reviews

    • FAQs

    • Local business info

  • Test your implementation with Google’s Rich Results Test.

5. Secure Website (HTTPS)

  • Google considers HTTPS a ranking signal.

  • Make sure your site has an SSL certificate and redirects HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

6. URL Structure and Site Architecture

  • Use clean, readable URLs (e.g., /blog/technical-seo-guide)

  • Organize content logically with clear parent/child relationships

  • Avoid deep nesting (e.g., /folder1/folder2/folder3/page)

7. Fixing Errors and Broken Links

How to Monitor Technical SEO

  • Google Search Console: Tracks indexing, page experience, and crawl errors.

  • Google Analytics: Helps measure the impact of speed and mobile experience.

  • SEO Auditing Tools: Use platforms like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to get regular technical audits.

Final Thoughts

Technical SEO isn’t glamorous, but it’s foundational. Think of it as the scaffolding that holds up your entire SEO strategy. Without it, everything else falls apart.

Make it a habit to check your technical health regularly, especially after launching new pages or redesigns. It’s not just about pleasing algorithms—it's about providing a faster, smoother experience for your users.

Next Up: In our next article, we’ll explore how to build and execute a long-term Content Marketing Strategy that fuels your SEO engine with high-value content that converts. View our The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing: Strategies, Trends, and Best Practices for continued weekly articles.

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