Ticking The Technical SEO Box
The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your website is important, in this article we discuss the technical SEO aspect of a site. The good news: Most of your SEO can be done by yourself so it is cost-effective. The bad news: It’s not a once-off thing. But the best news is, that if you keep at it, your organic ranking will improve and customers who are looking for something that you sell will find you more easily.
If you have the budget for an SEO specialist – go for it – because SEO can get very technical. The following tips are ideal for beginners, our Site Builder customers, or website owners that want to ensure they are covering the basics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Three Types of SEO
On Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to things you can do on your website itself to ensure that Google and other Search Engines understand where and how to classify you. This is meta descriptions, title tags etc.
For on-page SEO tips, please read our article: Top On-page SEO Factors to Include when Building your Website.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO – which is essentially all the hard work you do to refer your website on other platforms and pages.
For more information, refer to our blog: Tips to Get Started with Off-Site SEO for your Small Business Website for more information.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is all the behind the scenes technical aspects about improving your website to make it easier for search engines to understand.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO covers the foundational aspects of your website like web hosting, security, and backend coding etc. It makes a website easier for search engines to find your site, analyse the data and present it in their search results. It is optimisation for better user experiences as well. Customers return to websites that they expect relevant, safe, and quality results from.
Improve your Technical SEO
1. Invest in a secure connection
Install a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) on your website. An SSL will encrypt communication between your website and the visiting browser. When you have an SSL installed your URL will display as ‘https’ with a green padlock icon. Some SSLs also offer a Site Badge, or Seal to display on your website and give visitors that extra peace of mind.
Also ensure your plugins are updated to prevent vulnerabilities.
2. Make sure your site is responsive
A Responsive Design, is website design that adjusts its display to fit all mobile devices, whether its a smartphone, tablet, or laptop screen. Did you know Google has a Mobile-First approach to indexing results? This means if your website isn’t responsive, irrespective of how well it scores on all other SEO tactics, your website will forfeit on ranking results.
3. Improve page loading speeds
Is your page loading fast enough? If it takes longer than 2 seconds to load it is too slow. Check your speed with Google’s Page Speed tool.
You can improve your loading speed by:
- ensuring that all your image files are reduced for web,
- enabling Browser Caching,
- choosing a hosting provider with fast DNS (domain name server),
- scaling up your Web Hosting needs or choosing a reliable web hosting provider.
Did you know Domains.co.za is DNS Geo-Redundant? This means we have multiple domain name servers (DNSs) in various other geographic locations, which ensures that in the unlikely event that a server fails, the system will Failover (automatically switch over) to the next DNS location. This limits downtime and business interruptions.
4. Run weekly audits for on-page SEO issues
Things go wrong online all the time; luckily, they can be fixed! Use tools like Semrush, Sitechecker, Moz and Google Search Console to do a weekly audit of your on-page SEO and repair any broken links and other issues that may be discovered on your website.
Good luck!
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Chantél Venter is a creative writer, strategic thinker, and a serious gesticulator. She’s passionate about storytelling, small businesses and bringing color to the world – be it through her words or wardrobe.
She holds a four-year degree in Business and Mass Media Communication and Journalism. She’s been a copywriter and editor for the technology, insurance and architecture industries since 2007 and believes anybody can run a small business successfully. She therefore enjoys finding and sharing the best and most practical tips for this purpose.