Most people who have a website for their business will have some awareness of SEO, what it is and how it works.
When you delve deeper into the subject, however, there’s a whole new set of concepts and terms that can seem confusing.
Good SEO takes account of a range of different factors that can help turn basic SEO into something much more sharply focused and potentially very powerful.
One aspect of SEO, often overlooked but critical to website success, is technical SEO. What exactly is it, how do you use it and what benefits can it bring?
What does technical SEO mean?
Put simply, technical SEO, or on-site SEO, refers to fine-tuning the technical aspects of a website in order to increase the ranking of its pages on search engines.
It’s sometimes known as ‘technical optimisation,’ and as with other optimisation strategies, it’s all about making it easier for search engines to crawl your website and understand what it finds. It’s the part of SEO which focuses on improving technical elements on your website to achieve higher rankings in the search results.
This contrasts with off-page SEO, which is about generating exposure for your website through other channels.
This might consist of links from other websites, social media posts and marketing activities away from your website.
Why is technical SEO important?
Quite simply, Technical SEO makes it easier for search engines to find, crawl and index your website. This is important because it typically leads to increased traffic, and increased internet traffic means a greater likelihood of enquiries, leads and sales.
The correct technical set-up on your page helps search engines understand exactly what your site is all about.
It lets them know that this is a website of high-value that will be useful to its users and that the content is clear, valuable and arranged in a way to help people find what they are looking for.
If your website loads quickly, isn’t stuffed full of dead links and is secure to use, then Google’s crawlers are likely to give it an extra boost in the search listings.
Attention to detail when it comes to the technicalities of your website will make it easier to find, more likely to feature prominently in the search engines and be easier for your users to negotiate.
All of these things will ultimately help your business.