Posting content in a way that keeps your site fresh with new info related to focus keywords is the more glamorous side of an organic SEO campaign. Identifying valuable keywords and creating engaging material gets most of the attention when developing an SEO plan but there’s a technical aspect as well.
Improving your site so the technical aspects align with your SEO goals is an essential part of on-page SEO. There’s a lot that goes on under the hood of any website. Making sure it loads fast and is easy for search bots to index is a must for new content to impact organic rankings as much as possible.
Here are a few ways to improve technical SEO on your site to improve page rankings as much as possible.
Improve Site Speed
Google knows that people want to get to the info they’re searching for fast on the web and isn’t likely to send someone to your site if it loads slowly. Over 60% of web traffic comes from mobile devices in 2022 so page speed is more important now than ever. Many site visitors will move on to something else if a site doesn’t load in less than 3 seconds so it’s important to make sure engaging content loads quickly.
The Google Page Speed Insights Tool is an easy way to see how fast your site loads and identify areas that can be improved.
Mobile-Friendly
More and more people are searching the web from their mobile devices so your site needs to be mobile-friendly for the best organic rankings. Google announced mobile first indexing for the whole web in 2020. Utilizing responsive web design so your site can be displayed on a variety of screen sizes is the best way to make sure your site is mobile-friendly for SEO.
Optimize Site Structure for Google Indexing
Search bots like sites that are easy to navigate so optimizing your site structure for your target audience is important. Including clearly labeled menu items in the main navigation is a good way to add links to important pages to every page on your site and make sure pages are never more than a few clicks away from each other. The site structure (how many menu items, dropdown, primary menu/secondary menu) can also serve as a way to let site visitors know what your site is about.
Generating a sitemap that will be updated whenever a new piece of content is published on your site is another way to make sure search bots can see everything you have available.
No Duplicate Content or Broken Links
Having multiple pages with similar or duplicate content can confuse search engines when crawling your site. It can be difficult for search engines to determine which piece of content is most important if there’s multiple items with similar titles/text included so pages with duplicate content often rank lower as a result.
Broken links can be even more problematic for search engines because it’s clear something isn’t working how it should. It’s important to set up redirects to working urls if you ever need to remove a page from your site to retain as much SEO value as possible.
Secure with SSL Certificate
Installing an SSL certificate is a crucial part of getting any site up and running these days. An SSL will implement the HTTPS protocol and encrypt data that’s sent between a browser and your site. Many people are hesitant to send enter info on a site that’s not secure and Google will be less likely to give pages high rankings.
Unique Post Types with Structured Data
Structured data is info added to the code used for a page or post that makes it easier for search engines to determine what type of content each item is. The fixed format available on Schema.org was developed to make it easier for search engines to understand how content fits with your site and should be indexed. Popular types of content structured data can be used for include events, FAQs, job listings, recipes, etc.
Optimize Site with Technical SEO
Technical SEO is an important part of any SEO plan and is something that can constantly be improved. Monitoring your site to make sure pages continue to load quickly and content is easy to index is a must for any SEO campaign. Keeping up with the latest SEO trends and upgrades to help with site speed is essential.