Here at Venerate Media Group, we specialize in digital marketing, and one of the most frequent questions we get usually revolves around SEO. SEO is a short form for “Search engine optimization”. It is a long-term marketing strategy employed in order to improve a website’s visibility and organic search results in google and other global search engines. The main aim of SEO is to attract more visitors to a site by improving its visibility on SERPs (search engine result pages). Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing a website for the search engines with the goal of improving its organic search results.
Technical SEO is one of the most important aspects of a successful SEO campaign. It’s the foundation on which your optimization efforts are built. If your website isn’t technically optimized, you won’t be able to rank in Google no matter how many links you build. In this blog post, we will discuss what technical SEO is and the five benefits of good technical SEO. Then, we will walk you through doing a technical SEO audit in 5 steps!
What is technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website for search engines. It’s a broad term that covers everything from your site’s architecture to your internal linking structure. Good technical SEO makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index your content. As a result, you will rank higher in the SERPs and get more traffic to your website.
Benefits of well-optimized websites
There are many benefits of good technical SEO. Here are five of them:
-Improved crawlability and indexation: If your website is well-optimized, the search engines will have an easier time crawling and indexing your content. As a result, you’ll rank higher in the SERPs.
-Faster loading times: Technical optimization can help reduce your site’s loading times. This is important because users are unlikely to wait more than a few seconds for a page to load.
-Increased mobile-friendliness: More and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
-Improved user experience: A well-optimized website is easier to use and navigate. This leads to a better user experience, which can result in more conversions and sales.
-Better search engine rankings: Ultimately, the goal of technical SEO is to improve your search engine rankings. By making your site easier to crawl and index, you’ll be rewarded with higher rankings and more traffic.
How To Do a Technical SEO Audit
Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of good technical SEO, let’s walk through an SEO audit in five steps.
Step One: Check Your Site’s Crawlability
The first step in any technical SEO audit is to check your site’s crawlability. This means making sure that the search engines can easily access and index your content. There are a few ways to do this:
-Check your robots.txt file: This file tells the search engines which pages on your site they should and shouldn’t crawl. You want to make sure that there aren’t any errors in this file that could be preventing the search engines from accessing your content.
-Check for broken links: Broken links can prevent the search engines from crawling your site. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your site and identify any broken links.
-Check your sitemap: Your sitemap is an XML file that contains all of the pages on your website. You want to make sure that this file is up-to-date and free of errors.
Step Two: Analyze Your Site’s Architecture
The next step in your technical SEO audit is to analyze your site’s architecture. This includes things like your URL structure, internal linking, and navigation. You want to make sure that everything is easy for both users and search engines to understand.
Here are a few things to look for:
-Is your URL structure clean and concise?
-Do your internal links make sense?
-Is your navigation easy to use?
Step Three: Optimize Your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Your title tags and meta descriptions are important elements of your website’s technical SEO. These are the pieces of text that appear in the SERPs when someone searches for a keyword related to your website. You want to make sure that these are optimized to draw clicks from the searchers.
Here are a few tips for optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions:
-Include keywords: Make sure that your target keywords are included in both your title tags and meta descriptions. This will help you rank higher in the SERPs for those keywords.
-Make them unique: Each page on your website should have its own unique title tag and meta description. This helps the search engines understand what each page is about and prevents duplicate content issues.
-Make them interesting: Your title tags and meta descriptions are your opportunity to make a good first impression on the searchers. Make sure that they’re interesting and engaging, or you risk losing clicks to your competitors.
Step Four: Analyze Your Site’s Content
Your site’s content is another important element of technical SEO. You want to make sure that your content is high-quality and relevant to your target keywords. Here are a few things to look for:
-Is your content well-written?
-Does it provide value to the reader?
-Is it keyword-rich?
-Is it unique?
Step Five: Check Your Site’s Technical SEO Health
The last step in your technical SEO audit is to check your site’s technical SEO health. This includes things like your website’s speed, security, and uptime. You want to make sure that everything is up to par so that you can avoid any issues that could hurt your rankings or user experience.
Here are a few things to look for:
-Website speed: Use a tool like Pingdom or GTmetrix to test your website’s speed and identify any areas for improvement. -Security: Make sure that your website is secure by installing an SSL certificate.
-Uptime: Use a tool like Pingdom or Uptime Robot to monitor your website’s uptime and identify any issues.
By following these five steps, you can be sure that your website is in good technical SEO health. This will help you improve your rankings in the SERPs and draw more organic traffic to your site.
Contact VMG today!
If you want to learn more about technical SEO or if you need help with your audit, contact an experienced SEO company. Our SEO experts can help you identify any areas that need improvement and provide guidance on how to fix them. With our help, you can ensure that your website is optimized for the search engines and ready to rank higher in the SERPs. Contact us today to get started.
