Technical SEO
At a high level Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be looked at in these three categories.
Technical SEO is all the stuff you do to help search engines crawl and index your digital experience.
On-page SEO is all the stuff you do to help search engines rank your content, like using keywords effectively in the Titles tags, H1 tags, internal linking, etc.
Off-page SEO also helps with ranking, and it’s made up of tactics like backlinking.
Another way to think of SEO is kind of like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — the SEO hierarchy of needs.
When it comes to implementing SEO there are a couple of common scenarios:
Starting fresh. If you’re designing and developing a new digital experience, this is the time to focus on technical SEO — before the on-page SEO. Lay a solid foundation, and then build the on-page SEO and content marketing on that foundation.
Improving an existing site. In this scenario do you start with technical or on-page SEO? It’s really going to depend. You’ll first need to determine how well the digital experience is doing and where it’s underperforming — start with an SEO audit. A proper SEO audit will look at technical and on-page SEO opportunities.
Generally, here are some things to consider when evaluating where to focus your SEO.
Is the digital experience struggling site-wide with ranking? This is generally a result of underlying technical issues. Focus on technical SEO. Fix the issues that are hindering search engines from crawling the site. When search engines can effectively index a website they can more effectively make sense of your content and then rank it.
Do you have multiple pages fighting to rank for the same search terms? Internal cannibalization of ranking can dilute your SEO efforts. Run a ranking report to identify pages that are ranking for the same terms, and edit the content on these pages.
Technical SEO or On-page SEO?
At the end of the day what we want is higher ranking and more organic search traffic. It’s not about if technical SEO, or on-page SEO will get you there fastest — it's about getting there. If the digital experience has a solid technical foundation, then your focus should be on-page SEO. However, if your technical SEO is deficient, then pouring resources into content is like putting the horse before the cart. Here are some other great resources:
Technical SEO: Why It’s Becoming More Important Than Any Other SEO Tactic
For more understanding on the importance of technical SEO read this article from kissmetrics.
Technical SEO: seven tweaks to give you an edge.
The following tweaks will give you the edge, help your search visibility when it comes to technical SEO, and are very straightforward to implement.
Not sure where you should start? Talk with our SEO expert today and get a clearer view of where your website is in terms of SEO.
Main Photo by Robin Pierre on Unsplash
