Defining Technical SEO: Why You Need It

Technical SEO refers to the methods used to create and optimize a website so search engines can crawl it and index the pages. It is one part of the SEO component that allows you to rank better in the SERPs.

While the creation of valuable and informational content is important, it won’t do you much good if you don’t approach SEO from a technical angle. If you can’t get a search engine to browse your site and index it, all your postings will be in vain. That is why you need to make technical SEO a priority.

You can liken the use of technical search engine optimization to your site’s basic structure and design. While you may feature good content, you may not have the proper programming in place to attract traffic. 

For example, maybe you have broken links, which prevent people from visiting your site. If that is the case, the Google Bots will bypass your site. As a result, you will not rank well enough in the SERPs to attract organic traffic to your site.

Auditing Your Website for Technical SEO

To find out how your site is doing then, you need to have an SEO audit performed. Doing so will give you the information needed to improve your SEO’s technical strategy.

Semrush emphasizes that you need to check the following to ensure that Google and other search engines can crawl and index your site.

• The site’s subdomains
• The pages that have been indexed instead of submitted
• The site audit tool
• The robots.txt file
• Sitemaps

Plus, you also need to check the meta robots tag and canonical tags to ensure everything works properly.

How Using a Site Audit Tool Helps

A site audit tool allows you to scan a website and learn more about its pages. It can show you how many of the pages have problems or feature redirects. It also details blocked pages, crawlability, and overall website performance. 

Using an auditing tool will help you discover and fix technical issues involving your SEO plans.

Checking the robots.txt File

Check the robots.txt file to check if the file is blocking pages that should be crawled. You can find it in its root folder at https://domain.com/robots.txt.

Reviewing Site Maps

You can find sitemaps in two types – XML and HTML. The XML sitemap is designed for search engines, as it ensures that bots crawl a site properly. 

HTML sitemaps enable people to better understand a site’s architecture so they can conveniently locate pages.

Make sure the XML sitemap can receive indexable pages on your site. If you experience indexing mistakes, review the XML sitemap to ensure it is working. You can find the XML sitemap in the following folder: https://domain.com/sitemap.xml. If you cannot find it there, you can use a browser extension. 

In addition, you can see if a sitemap has been added by checking the Sitemap Report in Google Search Console. Doing so will help you determine when it was last examined and the status of a crawl or submission. 

When you see the status read, “Success,” you know you’ve succeeded. Naturally, the idea is to ensure your report does not include the words, “Has errors.”

Subdomains

When checking domains, find out if pages under the subdomains are similar or like the pages on your main domain. Some subdomain pages may not need indexing.

Indexed and Submitted Pages

The number of indexed pages should be close to or equal to the submitted pages on your site map.

Describing Your Website for Technical SEO

Describing your website in a way that a search engine can recognize it is also part of technical SEO. Therefore, you need to standardize the structure of your website so it is manageable and orderly. This will help the search engines give searchers the most relevant information and results

Building an XML Sitemap

The use of technical SEO may also include building an XML sitemap. This will help you set up your site properly so each page is functional, which will also allow Google to crawl the file and learn more about your site.

Ensuring Website Functionality

To ensure the functionality of your website, you need to set your site up so it includes the following:

• A registered domain name: and
• An Internet Protocol (IP) address for your domain name. A domain server or DNS organizes IP addresses within the web’s mapping network.

How an IP Address and Domain Name Attract Traffic

You need the above components in technical-based SEO applications so the following can happen:

• After a search, the web browser can contact the DNS to convert the domain name and IP address as well as request data about your site’s coding and programming.
• After the request is made to the DNS, files appear in the browser.
• In response,  the browser builds the requested web page. This activity is called rendering. It enables a user to see the website without getting immersed in complicated code.
• The website is displayed in the browser.