Welcome to the fifth chapter of IMG’s SEO 101 course! In the fifth part of our series, we’re teaching you everything you need to know about technical SEO — from what it is to site architecture and the elements of great website content. Keep reading to find out more!
What Is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index, with the end-goal being to improve your site’s organic ranking. Some examples of technical SEO elements include structured data, site speed, and mobile readiness. Search engines like Google use three main factors to rank your website: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.
- On-page SEO Elements: Content that tells search engines what your page is all about. Examples mage alt text, keywords, meta descriptions, H1 tags, and more.
- Off page SEO Elements: Informs to search engines how popular and valuable your page is.
- Technical SEO: Refers to elements that optimize how well search engines can crawl and index your site.
However, it’s important to note that these three categories often overlap. Technical SEO works in tandem with other forms of SEO in addition to link building strategies to help increase your site’s ranking so that you appear higher up on search engine result pages (SERP).
Here’s an SEO inspired rendition of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to help you visually understand the hierarchy of the 5 categories of technical SEO.
Source
Why is on-page SEO important?
57% of marketing executives say on-page content development was the most effective SEO tactic. Meaning that crafting relevant, well-written content is only half of the process. Getting your content in front of the eyes of audience members requires optimizing various page elements so bots can easily crawl and index your site.
Break Down of On-Page SEO Elements
Content elements
This refers to the content on your website. Crafting high-quality page content such as blogs demonstrates your site’s value to search engines and visitors.
Selecting high-performing keywords is paramount to increasing your content’s visibility in search engines. Research shows that searches for long-tail keywords have a click-through rate of 3% to 5% higher than generic searches.
Here are a few best practices for writing high-quality page content:
- Include short and long-tail keywords (without resorting to black hat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing)
- Incorporate engaging and relevant visual content.
- Cover trending and relevant topics hitting your industry
- Write for your target audience
- Answer the most pressing questions your audience might have.
- Create digestible content people will want to share and link to.
- Increase conversions with visible CTAs to offers and product pages.
HTML elements
Page Titles
Page titles reign take the top spot on our list for on-page SEO. When creating page titles, try adhering to these best practices:
- Keep it under 70 characters.
- Avoid stuffing keywords into the title (search engines can intuitively pick up on disingenuous content).
- Keep it relevant to the page.
- Don’t use all caps.
- Include your brand name in the title
Headers
Headers or body tags keep content organized for readers, and they let search engines know what parts of your content are the most relevant based on a users’ search intent. Ensure that you include keywords in your headers, incorporating the most critical keywords in the <h1> and <h2>.
Tags help organize content to ensure ideas flow seamlessly, making it easy for readers to follow along. They also help search engines distinguish which parts of your content are the most important and relevant based on search intent.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are short descriptions that appear under the title in search results. They provide a quick synopsis of what your content is about. Meta descriptions can influence whether a user clicks on your page and can also be copied over to social media to boost click-through rates from various platforms.
Best Practices when writing meta description:
- Keep it under 160 characters, although Google allows you to go up to 220 characters. When optimizing for mobile devices, the cut of is at 120 characters.
- Include your entire keyword
- Avoid alphanumeric characters like —, &, or +
- Stick with one or two concise sentences
Image Alt-text
Image Alt-text is short captions used to describe images in your content on webpages, blogs, and more. These descriptions inform search engines what your images are about—which is becoming exceedingly critical now that 27.9% of results on search queries on Google are images (Source: Moz).
Best Practices to keep in mind when adding image alt-text:
- Make it descriptive and specific.
- Make relevant to your page’s content.
- Keep it shorter than 125 characters.
- Don’t go overboard on keywords.
Structured Markup
Structured data or structured markup is any data set that’s structured and tagged with specific text groups on a website. Structured data helps Google easily find and read different elements of your content. Although invisible to the human eye, structured data influences how Google SERPs displays data. Carousels, videos, featured snippets, and knowledge panels rely on structured markup.
Cultivate an award-winning on-page experience and increase click-through rates by optimizing the following:
- Articles
- Videos
- Reviews
- Events
- How-Tos
- FAQs (“People Also Ask” boxes)
- Images
- Local Business Listings
- Products
- Sitelinks
Site architecture elements
Refer to the elements that make up your website and site pages. How you structure your website can help Google and other search engines easily crawl the pages and page content.
Page Speed
Site loading time is one of the most significant determiners Google uses when ranking your website. Google values user experience and users don’t have the attention span or time to wait around for a painfully slow website to load. For brands, load times equates to their load time Research shows that 53% of mobile website visitors will leave if a webpage doesn’t open within three seconds.
Your site’s speed not only impacts whether or not customers will stay and browse but whether they decide to buy from your brand. According to Unbounce, nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to purchase from an online retailer. Follow these quick tips to improve your page’s loading time:
- Compress files: This includes images and CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files.
- Cut down on Code: Long, unorganized code can slow down your site. Code written concisely equals a faster loading time.
- Use a content distribution network (CDN): Or distributed web servers, refers to a geographically distributed network of proxy servers that stores and delivers copies of your website based on a user’s location. It optimizes your site’s loading time because information between servers has a shorter distance to travel.
- Limit the number of Plugins: Outdated 3rd-party plugins can jeopardize site security. To minimize your risk, make sure plugins stay updated or opt for a custom-made theme and avoid the unnecessary code that comes with pre-made website themes.