What does technical SEO even mean?

 

Introduction

Ask most business owners what they think of SEO in general and they are bound to describe the whole process as being rather technical.

So when just one strand of SEO is being described as being “technical” well this may cause some confusion, as people may just start wondering well what does technical seo even mean?

Business owners may start to think backlinks are technical, aren’t they? And content marketing, that’s technical right?

Well these are parts of the SEO process for sure, yet technical seo is something different it relates to how your website functions, i.e are the foundations in place for an SEO strategy to be built from this.

So for example can Googlebot even read your website, or to be more precise and accurately describe this process in SEO language, can Google “crawl and index” your website.

So normally you can find someone or a group of people at a digital marketing agency that have the title “technical seo consultant”- so we thought it would be a mighty good idea to explain some of the tasks that technical seo consultants do for their clients.

Implement Schema

Your company website may well be full to the brim of interesting information, such as introducing each team member and explaining how the business blossomed into this large corporate business that it is today.

And this is all well and good, as us SEO’s would refer to this as “content marketing”- it explains what your business is about and what your business can offer.

Yet within all that text will be some really crucial bits of information that your SEO agency will need to know to improve your organic or local seo, such as your businesses NAP information.

So you guessed it, instead of having Googlebot search for this information, instead Schema is kind of like sticking big neon lights which say hey! The information you are looking for is here.

So if you know a thing or two about local seo, well you will know that an important part of the local seo process is have your businesses NAP details on your website, but with that said if you mark-up this information using Schema, well you are making the information standout, so Googlebot can find it easier.

Can your website be indexed?

Its all well and good having a website that looks impressive, but if the website can not be indexed, well its about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot.

So, do make sure that your website can be indexed, for example the website designers may have simply switched on the “no-index” tab, which means that your website can’t now be indexed, so work with your website developers plus your seo agency to make sure that your website can be crawled and indexed.

Reduce 404 errors and don’t kill off pages that have SEO value

You may have spent thousands of pounds on SEO over the years, and your seo agency may have been busy building high-quality backlinks to certain pages on your website.

So, if you then suddenly delete those pages, perhaps because you have a new range of products, or possibly because the website is getting redesigned, well you may lose the seo value that your seo company has been working on.

So let’s say for example you sell electric bikes online, and there’s a brand of bike that sells particularly well.

Yet, that manufacturer has brought out a new range of bikes, so you decide to delete the old page that sells electric bikes, and replace it with a new one, that has a new url.

Hmm, this wouldn’t be a good idea, as all the backlinks that were once directed at that page would be lost.

So if your thinking of deleting pages, well we would say contact your seo agency first.

Also, another think is 404 errors are annoying for visitors to your website, for example they may wish to have a look at an electric bike, but there now looking at a 404 error instead, so it’s a good idea to work with your seo agency to reduce your businesses 404 errors.

Thin content and also duplicated content

Here’s another top tip, if your website has pages that could be deemed as having thin content or duplicated content then you will need to change this in order to improve your businesses seo.

So what’s thin content we hear you ask.

Well, thin content is simply a page that doesn’t have much to say, so for example let’s say you sell electric toothbrushes online.

The page may simply read “Brand of toothbrush + model number + price”.

Hmm this isn’t going to cut it, instead you need a product description that offers more detail about that tooth brush.

Also, your customers are bound to have questions about the product that they do not have an answer to.

Such as does the business sell replacement brush heads?

So if your business does not want to have pages on your website that have a sky-high bounce rate, then we would highly recommend that you replace content thin pages, with pages that offer more detail on the product or service that your business offers.

Also your website shouldn’t have any duplicated work, for example if the product description was taken directly from the toothbrush manufactures website, then is likely to damage that websites seo that has copied it.

So here’s the thing, do not copy text from another businesses website as this can damage your businesses seo, for example a Google Panda penalty could be triggered.

If your business requires help with its seo then why not give us a call?