Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing a website’s technical aspects in order to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes optimizing the website’s code and structure, as well as ensuring that it is fast, secure, and easy to use.
Technical SEO is an essential part of any successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, as it helps search engines understand and index a website’s content more effectively. This, in turn, can lead to higher rankings, more traffic, and ultimately, more revenue for the website owner.
In this article, we will take a look at the top 10 technical SEO techniques for 2023. By implementing these techniques, you can help improve your website’s visibility and ranking in the SERPs and stay ahead of the competition.
Which are the Top 10 technical SEO Techniques for 2023?
1. Proper use of headings and tags
Headings (H1-H6) are an important element of on-page SEO, as they help structure the content on a webpage and give context to search engines. The H1 heading is typically the most important, as it is often used as the title of the page. It is important to use headings appropriately and ensure that they accurately reflect the content on the page.
In addition to headings, tags such as title tags and meta tags are also important for SEO. The title tag appears in the SERPs and should accurately reflect the content of the page, while the meta description provides a brief summary of the page’s content. Read this article on 10 ways to write good title tags and get clicks on search engines
Best practices for using headings and tags include:
- Using unique and relevant headings and tags on each page
- Keeping headings and tags concise (around 50-60 characters for title tags and 155-160 characters for meta descriptions)
- Using primary keywords in headings and tags, but avoiding keyword stuffing
2. Optimizing website speed and performance
Website speed and performance are important factors for SEO, as they can impact the user experience and influence a website’s ranking in the SERPs. A slow-loading website can lead to higher bounce rates and lower engagement, which can negatively impact its ranking.
Some techniques that can be used to improve website speed and performance, include:
- Optimizing images by compressing and resizing them
- Minimizing redirects, which can slow down the loading process
- Enabling browser caching, which allows the website to load faster for repeat visitors
- Leveraging a content delivery network (CDN), which can help distribute content more efficiently and improve loading times
Related topic: Negative SEO: how to protect yourself from it?
3. Ensuring mobile-friendliness
With the increasing number of people accessing the internet from their mobile devices, it is more important than ever to ensure that a website is mobile-friendly. Google has stated that it favors mobile-friendly websites in its search rankings, so it is important to optimize a website for mobile devices in order to improve its ranking in the SERPs.
Among the techniques that can be used to optimize a website for mobile devices are:
- Using responsive web design, which allows a website to adjust its layout and design based on the size of the device it is being viewed on
- Optimizing images and content for mobile devices, including using smaller images and shorter, more concise content
- Testing and monitoring mobile performance, including using tools such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights
4. Creating and optimizing XML sitemaps
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of the pages on a website, along with important information about each page. This information includes the page’s URL, when it was last updated, and how often it is updated.
XML sitemaps are important for SEO because they help search engines discover and crawl the pages on a website. By providing search engines with an XML sitemap, you can increase the likelihood that all of your website’s pages will be included in the SERPs.
Best practices for creating and submitting XML sitemaps include:
- Creating an XML sitemap for your website using a tool such as XML Sitemaps Generator
- Submitting the sitemap to Google Search Console and other search engines
- Regularly updating the sitemap to reflect any changes or additions to your website’s pages
You may like to read: Negative SEO: how to protect yourself from it?
5. Structuring data with schema markup
Schema markup is a type of code that is added to a website’s HTML in order to provide search engines with more context and information about the website’s content. There are many different types of schema markup, including product, event, and recipe markup, to name a few.
Using schema markup can benefit SEO in several ways, including:
- Providing search engines with more information about the website’s content can help improve its ranking in the SERPs
- Enabling rich snippets, which are enhanced search results that include additional information and visuals, to appear in the SERPs
- Increasing the likelihood of your website appearing in voice search results, as schema markup can help improve the context and relevancy of the content for voice search queries
- To implement schema markup, you can use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or a similar tool.
Related topic: Negative SEO: how to protect yourself from it?
6. Utilizing social metadata
Social media has become an important part of SEO, as it can help increase the visibility and reach of a website’s content. By optimizing your social media profiles and content for SEO, you can increase the chances of your website appearing in the SERPs when people search for relevant terms on social media platforms.
Some techniques for optimizing social media for SEO include:
- Using relevant and unique titles and descriptions for your social media profiles
- Adding links to your website on your social media profiles
- Using hashtags and keywords in your social media posts to make them more discoverable
- Encouraging social media followers to share your content, as this can help increase its visibility and reach
7. Fixing broken links and 404 errors
Broken links, also known as 404 errors, occur when a link on a website leads to a page that no longer exists or cannot be found. These errors can negatively impact SEO, as they can confuse search engines and lead to a poor user experience.
To fix broken links and 404 errors, you can use tools such as Google Search Console or Screaming Frog to identify and locate the broken links on your website. You can then either remove the broken links or redirect them to a relevant and functioning page on your website.
Read also: White Hat SEO versus Black Hat SEO – Definitions & Differences
8. Using keyword research and analysis
Keyword research and analysis is an important aspect of SEO, as it helps you understand what terms and phrases people are using to search for the products or services that you offer. By incorporating relevant keywords into your website’s content, you can improve its ranking in the SERPs for those specific terms.
There are several techniques that can be used to conduct keyword research and analysis, including:
- Using tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords and phrases
- Analyzing the keywords and phrases that your competitors are using
- Conducting user research to understand the language and terms that your target audience uses when searching for your products or services
- Analyzing the performance of your keywords over time to understand which ones are driving the most traffic and conversions
Related topic: 21 Tips To Generate More Traffic To Your WordPress Site
9. Ensuring website security
Website security is an important factor for SEO, as search engines may penalize websites that are not secure. In addition to the potential SEO consequences, a security breach can also have serious consequences for a website’s users and the website owner.
To ensure website security, you can implement the following techniques:
- Enable SSL/HTTPS, which encrypts the data transmitted between the website and the user’s browser and helps protect against cyber attacks
- Implement strong passwords and regularly update them to prevent unauthorized access
- Regularly update the website’s software and plugins to ensure that the website is using the most up-to-date security measures
- Monitor the website for any security threats or vulnerabilities and take immediate action to address them
Read also: Backlinks: How To Find Sites That Will Link To Your Content
10. Utilizing Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that allows website owners to monitor and maintain their website’s presence in the SERPs. It provides valuable insights and information that can help improve a website’s ranking and visibility.
Some common features and functions of Google Search Console include:
- Submitting sitemaps and individual URLs to be crawled by Google
- Identifying and fixing crawl errors, which can occur when Google is unable to access or crawl a website’s pages
- Monitoring website traffic and performance, including clicks, impressions, and average position in the SERPs
- Receiving alerts for any security issues or manual actions taken by Google
Conclusion
In conclusion, the top 10 technical SEO techniques for 2023 include
- proper use of headings and tags,
- optimizing website speed and performance,
- ensuring mobile-friendliness,
- creating and optimizing XML sitemaps,
- structuring data with schema markup,
- utilizing social metadata,
- fixing broken links and 404 errors,
- using keyword research and analysis,
- ensuring website security,
- and utilizing Google Search Console.
By implementing these techniques, you can improve your website’s visibility and ranking in the SERPs and stay ahead of the competition. However, it is important to regularly monitor and update your technical SEO efforts in order to ensure long-term success.