Introduction
- Hook: Did you know 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine? (Source) That’s why a search-engine-friendly website is crucial for businesses of all sizes.
- Problem: Simply having a website isn’t enough. If search engines can’t find, understand, or navigate your site, it’ll be buried in the search results.
- Solution: This comprehensive technical SEO checklist empowers you to optimise your website for search engines, attracting more organic traffic and boosting your online presence.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can provide businesses of all sizes a competitive edge online. A strong presence online is vitally important, yet simply having a website alone won’t do. In order to attract visitors and convert them to customers, your website needs to be easily discoverable in search engine results – this is where SEO comes into play.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to various techniques designed to increase the rankings of relevant keywords on search results pages. Technical SEO is a fundamental aspect of SEO, focused on maintaining the technical health of a website so search engines can crawl, index, and understand it more efficiently.
This comprehensive technical SEO checklist will walk you through all of the essential steps necessary to make sure that your website is search engine-friendly.
Set Up Google Search Console
Establishing Google Search Console (GSC) is your first step toward SEO success. This free tool from Google can give invaluable insights into how well your website performs in search results, including:
- Submitting your sitemaps for faster for indexing
- Resubmitting existing sitemaps that were rejected due to duplicate content issues.
- Locate crawl errors and address them so search engines can access all your pages,
- Monitoring mobile usability and page experience on your website are two more areas worth monitoring.
- Gain visibility of backlinks that point back to your site, which are essential for SEO.
Webmaster tools from other search engines like Bing Webmaster Tools offer similar insights into your website’s performance across platforms.
Ensure Mobile-Friendliness
Google prioritises websites that offer seamless user experiences on smartphones and tablets, making mobile-friendliness one of their core priorities. Here is how you can ensure your site is mobile-friendly:
- Responsive Design: With responsive web design, websites automatically adjust their layout according to different screen sizes for optimal user experiences. Google Mobile-Friendly Test can help assess whether your website meets this standard.
- Optimise Your Mobile Load Speed: Mobile users tend to be impatient. Ensure your website can load quickly on mobile devices by compressing images, minifying code and taking advantage of browser caching – tools like Google Page Speed Insights are useful tools in measuring and improving mobile load times.
- Provide Large Tap Targets: Make sure all buttons, links and other interactive elements can easily be tapped with touchscreen devices.
- Core Web Vitals: They are considered to be important ranking factors for search engine optimization (SEO), and improving them can help your website rank higher in search results and provide a better user experience.
CWV measures real-world user experience for loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of the page so make sure all these run well.
Secure Your Site with HTTPS
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) encrypts communication between your website and visitors’ browsers, protecting sensitive information. Google has confirmed HTTPS as a ranking factor, making it essential for SEO. If your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate, obtain one from your web hosting provider and enable HTTPS.
Optimise Site Architecture and URL Structure
A well-organised website structure with clear navigation is crucial for both search engines and users. Here’s how to optimise it:
- Flat Hierarchy: Aim for a flat website structure where important pages are only a few clicks away from the homepage. This helps search engines understand your website’s content hierarchy.
- SEO-Friendly URLs: Use descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords for the page content. Avoid using complex characters or excessive parameters.
Leverage Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup provides search engines with additional information about your website’s content, allowing them to display richer snippets in search results. This can lead to improved click-through rates (CTR). You can use schema.org to find the appropriate markup for your website’s content type, such as products, articles, or events.
Enhance Crawling and Indexing
Search engines rely on crawlers to discover and index your website’s content, so here’s how you can enhance their crawling and indexing:
- Sitemap Creation: Create an XML sitemap listing all of your essential website pages, then submit it to Google Search Console so that search engines can better index and discover them. This helps search engines discover your content quickly.
- Robots.txt File: Use a Robots.txt file to instruct search engines which pages of your website they should and shouldn’t index.
- Internal Linking: Create an effective internal linking structure where relevant pages link directly with each other, so search engines can understand how they relate and navigate your website effectively. This also assists visitors who visit it via search engines in accessing it effectively.
Optimise Site Navigation and Internal Linking
An easy-to-navigate website makes it simpler for both visitors and search engines to easily find relevant content.
- Create a User-Friendly Navigation Menu: Provide visitors with an interactive menu so that they can quickly locate information they require.
- Breadcrumbs: Use breadcrumbs to provide users with information about where they currently stand in your website hierarchy.
- Internal Linking Strategy: Link relevant internal pages throughout your content to distribute link juice (ranking power) and increase user engagement.
Conclusion:
By following this comprehensive technical SEO checklist, you have equipped your website with all the tools it needs to excel in today’s competitive search engine landscape. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so revisit this checklist often and use the free tools provided here to monitor your website’s health and make adjustments as necessary. As you optimise its technical foundation, you will experience increases in search rankings, organic traffic, and ultimately conversions. Take charge of your online visibility now and see it grow!
Additional Tips:
Target the Right Keywords: While technical SEO is crucial, don’t forget about keyword research! Integrate relevant keywords throughout your website, considering On-Page SEO aspects.