Navigating the vast concept of SEO can be difficult and tiring. There are numerous terms and algorithms to understand and master. Technical SEO is just one of the many methods and approaches that make up SEO.
Many website owners and marketers shy away from it because it requires technical know-how. But doing so means missing out on a lot of opportunities. Compared to other forms of marketing, technical search engine optimisation can yield a 117% return on investment.
As a result, technical SEO requires special attention. To help you improve your overall SEO efforts, we’re providing you with an SEO technical audit checklist.
What is Technical SEO?
The primary goal of technical SEO is to improve the technical features of a website to enhance performance and user experience. By strengthening the website’s infrastructure, it increases its search engine ranking and attracts high-quality visitors. For any Web Development company UK, implementing strong technical SEO practices is essential to deliver high-performing, search-optimized websites to their clients.
In the past, the main goal of technical SEO was to improve the performance of search engine bot crawling and indexing. The ability of search engines to access a web page is known as crawling, while the ability to review a page and add it to a database is known as indexing.
Page speed, site architecture, SSL certificates, URL structure, navigation, security, duplicate content, user experience, and more are now included in a better SEO technical checklist.
To increase the performance of a website and rank higher in search results, SEO experts review and improve its technical aspects.
Technical SEO Checklist
Optimising a website involves several difficult tasks and strategies. It is an ongoing process that requires skill and concentration. This is a technical checklist for SEO techniques that will improve a website's search engine rankings while offering a smooth user experience.
1. Searchability Analysis
You can use searchability analysis to determine how easy it is for users and search engines to find information on a website. This selection, which may be the most important on your SEO audit checklist, can help you decide where to place content that is easy for users to rank and understand.
Indexing status, or how many pages on your website are indexed by search bots, is one of the most important things to look for. Issues like low domain authority (DA) scores or lack of linking can lead to poor indexing rates. Fixing these issues can improve rankings and performance. You can visit the Google Search Console platform to see how well your website is organized.
2. Improve website navigation
Navigating through a tangle of menus and links will quickly frustrate users. If you want to improve the user experience, the ease of navigation of your website should be considered. Are the menus clearly laid out and easy to use?
Minimise menu options to make your website easier to navigate. Your website users may find it overwhelming, so limit it to about six or seven. Consider whether a drop-down menu would be a better way to display certain pages.
A “sticky” navigation bar is also a good idea to prevent users from getting lost. This ensures that the navigation bar will follow the user as they scroll down the page. To help people navigate to subcategories, you can also add a footer at the bottom of the screen.
3. Make your website mobile-friendly
Mobile users now account for up to 58% of all online traffic. Google has prioritised mobile experiences to address this. Websites that are not mobile-friendly will lose ground in search results.
If you want to create landing pages that convert well and maintain user satisfaction, you need to address this issue. For this reason, it’s beneficial to conduct a comprehensive mobile audit of your website.
Think about your user interface. Does it adjust for users on the go? CTAs, links, and buttons should all be carefully positioned and scaled. Since people absorb information in an “F” pattern, it is generally recommended that buttons be placed in the bottom left corner of the screen. This will likely grab users’ attention.
4. Improve the XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a blueprint of a website that helps search engines understand the structure of the website, facilitating more effective content discovery, crawling, and indexing. An XML sitemap is a critical component of any technical SEO plan that many website owners overlook. On the other hand, if done correctly, it can be a useful and powerful tool.
You should provide essential information in an XML format, such as last modified dates, relationships between key pages on your website, URLs, and priority levels, so that search engine bots can find your page. By defining the structure of your website, XML guides spiders.
Make sure to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console as you create it using the Sitemap Generator so that it can crawl and index your website correctly. To increase effectiveness and reduce clutter, eliminate any banned URLs, pages with bad SEO, and unnecessary redirects. Also, for better optimization, avoid using long redirects.
5. Check for Duplicate Content
Duplicate content, as the name suggests, is defined as two or more similar or identical pieces of content with different URLs. This can be on the same website or on two different websites. Any website can be attacked by duplicate content, which can also lower rankings, especially if the website is an e-commerce platform that sells comparable goods.
Duplicate content never appears on search engine results pages. Your article will not appear in the SERPs even if it is excellent and helpful.
Therefore, 301 redirecting duplicate pages to the original page is the best way to solve the problem of duplicate content on your website. To solve this problem, you can alternatively use the canonical tag. For search engines to index content, a canonical tag indicates which content is original.
Duplicate pages can also be removed, but make sure to redirect their URLs back to the original page.
6. Fix Broken Pages
Additionally, the crawl should reveal any broken links or links that point to non-existent pages. A 404 page is the result of these pages and/or broken links. Fixing these 404 errors should be a top priority. Not only is it annoying for people to try to click on a page and be notified that it is no longer available, but it is also bad for your website's rankings if Google sees too many broken links and users quickly abandon your site. More information about 404 errors and other issues, as well as how to fix them, can be found on Google.
Conclusion
You’re always working on your website. Updating, growing, and managing your website takes a lot of work. Bravo if you’ve made it this far! While we appreciate your efforts, we also understand that the technical work of SEO can be difficult and time-consuming. Marketing firms like ours are here to ease your burden, provide answers to complex problems, and help you grow your website. If you need help with content and SEO, contact a reputable SEO agency, these people have the guts to improve your website's visibility with SEO.