Nearly 90% of online shoppers won’t return to a website after having a bad user experience (UX). If your site offers a bad UX, it’s likely you’re neglecting your technical search engine optimization (SEO) strategy as well. Without technical SEO, your search engine rankings won’t improve.
Here are seven components of technical search engine optimization you should consider when updating your website. After reviewing this guide, you can improve the UX to boost your rankings.
Higher rankings will help you reach new customers, leading to more sales! Read on to learn how to optimize for technical SEO today.
1. Speed
The probability of a bounce increases by 32% when your page load times go from one to three seconds. A bounce occurs when someone visits your website, only to leave without exploring additional pages. A high bounce rate can indicate a negative UX, which could encourage Google to drop your rankings.
Most consumers don’t look beyond the first search engine results page (SERP). If you don’t appear on the first page of a relevant search, consumers might never find your business. They’ll encounter your competitors instead.
Consumers are impatient. They won’t want to wait around for a web page to load.
Make sure your site is fast on your desktop and mobile devices. Neglecting mobile users could cost you leads and sales. Google also uses mobile-first indexing to determine rankings by checking your mobile website first.
You can run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insights to determine why your pages are lagging behind.
For example, you might need to compress heavy image files. You might need to remove unnecessary plugins from your site as well.
Google prefers pages that load faster because they offer a better user experience. As a result, slower websites appear lower on SERPs, costing you potential website traffic.
If your website is lagging behind, consider consulting an experienced SEO marketing agency. They can help you make the necessary improvements before you lose any more potential customers.
2. Crawlability
As part of your technical optimization strategy, you’ll also need to make sure search engine robots can crawl (or spider) your site.
Search engine bots follow links to discover page content on your website. They’ll review your internal linking structure to gain a better understanding of your content, too.
To improve your internal linking strategy, add links to other website pages or posts within your content.
You can learn how to guide bots as part of your SEO strategy, too. For example, you can block bots from crawling content you don’t want them to index. You can also prompt them to crawl a page but tell it not to display it on SERPs.
To give bots directions on your site, use the robots.txt file.
Avoid unintentionally blocking your site’s CSS and JS files in the robots.txt file, though. Otherwise, you could lose your existing search engine ranking. If your site doesn’t appear on search engine result pages, talk to an SEO agency right away.
3. Dead Links
Dead links can have a negative impact on the user experience as well.
A visitor might try to explore a web page, only to come across a 404 error page instead. Maybe they continue getting rerouted to your website’s homepage. Either way, dead links can frustrate visitors into leaving your site.
You’ll miss the chance to convert those visitors into leads or sales. Meanwhile, they might tell others about their frustrating experience on your site. Your brand’s reputation could plummet as a result.
Before that happens, determine if there are any dead links on your website. Create an eye-catching, engaging redirect page.
You can use a plugin like Yoast SEO Premium to create redirects if you’ve deleted or moved old pages.
Otherwise, a number of dead links could hurt your search engine rankings.
4. Duplicate Content
While auditing your website, make sure to check for duplicate pages and content as well.
Google prioritizes fresh, unique content. If you have multiple pages of the same content on your site, you could confuse Google. It won’t know which page to rank above the other.
As a result, Google might decide to give both pages a low ranking.
You can indicate which page is the original by using the canonical link element. This process can help you indicate which page you want to display on SERPs.
5. Security
In addition to making sure your site is mobile-optimized and fast, it’s also important to make sure it’s secure. Otherwise, consumers might not trust you with their private information. They might not feel comfortable making a purchase on your site.
Improve your site’s security with an SSL certificate. You should see “HTTPS” in your website’s URL if you have one already.
HTTPS ensures no one can intercept data sent between your website and the user’s browser. When a user logs into your site, their credentials will remain safe.
Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal; it prioritizes websites that are safe and secure.
6. Structured Data
Structured data can further help Google understand your website, business, and content. You’ve likely seen featured snippets on SERPs. They’re formatted as summaries, video snippets, Q&As, and more.
Using structured data with Schema markup can help you appear for featured snippets. Users will have an easier time finding the information they need from SERPs. Meanwhile, you’ll appear at the top of the page to generate more brand awareness and website traffic.
Implementing structured data can help your content stand out.
7. Sitemaps
An XML sitemap lists the pages across your site. It can provide Google with a roadmap to your content. Creating an XML sitemap will ensure Google doesn’t miss any important content on your site.
It’s often categorized with pages, posts, tags, or custom post types.
Make sure you have an XML site map on your site if you want to improve your rankings.
Talk to an SEO Marketing Agency About Technical SEO Today
Don’t miss the opportunity to improve your search engine ranking this year. Instead, talk to an SEO agency about applying these components of technical SEO across your site. With a strong strategy, you can improve your rankings to reach new customers online.
Eager to get started? We’re here to help.
Contact our team today to learn more.
