Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the basis of ranking any website on search engines. It is a complex process composed of different components. All these components combine to determine the rank of any website. If we divide SEO into three main blocks, we get on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. While on-page and off-page SEO is commonly discussed, many people have questions about technical SEO. Before we get into the details of technical SEO, it is important to understand that all three blocks of SEO collectively play a role in ranking your website on Google and other search engines.
Over the years, Google continued to update its search engine algorithms. Each major update demanded a change in the ranking practices for web pages. Any web user that failed to keep up lost existing rank on search engine result pages. To make sure your website continues to retain its rank and only improves, you may need to stay up-to-date with all the latest algorithm updates.
Today, we will look into the details of technical SEO. This article will highlight the primary details of technical SEO. It will also cover some of the key factors that may affect your website’s rankings.
Let’s get started.
What is Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to specific parts of your website that play a crucial role in ranking. It mostly covers the back-end factors including crawling. indexing, migrations, site structure, page speeds, and more. All these factors can greatly affect your website’s position on search engines.
Importance of Technical SEO
The importance of technical SEO can be well understood by the following common mistakes. These issues can directly affect the rank of your website on Google.
Duplication of Content
We have talked about it many times before, and we will continue to emphasize its importance. The uniqueness of content is one of the basic barriers that can hinder your efforts for ranking your website. If your website contains duplicate content, you may land into trouble. Google likes to index unique content. If you are taking content from another high-ranking domain and publishing it on your website to gain a higher rank, you may end up losing it all.
This also applies to images. If you are using the same alt tags for images used in multiple blog posts, Google may detect it and count it as a negative factor. You may use unique but relevant keywords to incorporate into your text and images.
Canonical Tag Problems
In the process of optimizing your web pages, you can use rel=canonical to associate a page with another one. Canonical tags are used to boost the credibility of a web page and limit its duplication to avoid effects on your website’s ranking. Any web page that uses rel=canonical is indexed by Google as the correct page. While this may be true, it is vitally important to place the canonical tags in the right places. You may not want to lose the rank of a page you wanted to retain by placing the wrong tag.
To make sure your website has canonical tags placed correctly, you can go through the source code of all your web pages to locate rel=canonical. You may need to seek the services of a professional SEO company to verify the accuracy of your pages.
Title Tag Problems
Title tags refer to a list of elements that define your web pages. From page title to description, everything can be counted as title tags. It is important to remember that title tags should be placed correctly. They are important for both, readers and search engines. The basic guideline for the correct title is to add 50-60 characters in the title. You may also need to check for duplicate titles. Many websites face the trouble of indexing two different web pages with the same title.
If you want to create a catchy title that engages more traffic, you need to ensure capitalization, numbers, separators, and curiosity.
Missing Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are vitally important for both, your readers and search engines. If you have a perfectly written page title but no meta description, you may have trouble ranking your website and engaging users. A meta description is the brief description of the web page listed under the page title in the search engine result pages. You may need to use relevant keywords in the meta description for better optimization.
Ideally, a meta description should be ranging between 150-160 characters. It is important to remember that your meta description should include information that attracts more clicks.
Low Word Count
One of the many factors that affect search engine rankings is low word count. If your web page has fewer words to display, search engine bots may not take it seriously. This means that you may need to add an appropriate amount of words to your page for gaining higher ranks. Google ranks those web pages that have a considerable amount of word count.
Although there is no limit to how long your web page content should be, an ideal number to target lies between 1200-4000 words. However, the word count may not add value to your website’s SEO if proper keywords are not incorporated in the text.
The factors mentioned above highlight the key issues related to technical SEO. These problems can directly affect the rank of your website on Google and other search engines. Apart from these factors, you may also need to focus on mobile SEO and website speed problems. To save yourself from any problems, you may need to seek professional SEO services in your area. An internet marketing company can offer you practical solutions to rank your website. Technical SEO experts can also work on the site structure of your business website to increase the number of conversions.
If you need expert SEO services at affordable costs, feel free to search for technical SEO companies online. You can compare the portfolio and services of different companies to choose the best fit for your business website.