How to do Technical SEO in Digital Marketing?

Business whether they are small business or large business while doing there SEO needs to consider Technical SEO as core. Its like the infrastructure which keep in track of crawling, indexing and rendering of search engines.

In this post, you’ll learn the fundamentals and best practices to optimize your website for technical SEO.

Let’s dive in.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website infrastructure so search engine can crawl, index and render your content easily.

It also involves user experience factors. Such as making your website faster and easier to use on mobile devices.

Unlike on-page SEO, which enhances content relevance, and off-page SEO, which emphasizes external trust signals like backlinks, technical SEO optimization validates the website’s server configurations, resource management, and structured data to support search engine efficienc

Why technical SEO matters more than ever now?

SEO has changed a lot from what it use to happen. Many things do not work which used to work earlier.

Many Factors have reshaped Technical SEO

AI-powered ranking systems change everything

In the Age of AI algorithms Like BERT, MUM, and their successors don’t simply analyze content; they evaluate how well your technical implementation support.

Search Engine relies on machine learning to understand and evaluate content.

• AI system needs structured data to understand your content’s context.
• Search intent matching requires proper indexing and rendering to be evaluated. Without proper indexing, your content never enters the race. Without proper rendering, search engines can’t see what users see.

JavaScript dependency

• A high dependency on Javascript causes site to break more.
• Single Page Application create indexing challenges.
• Client-side rendering often produces empty initial HTML for crawlers.

Mobile User Experience

• A good mobile experience is must for ranking in today’s era.
• Touch-target size, viewport configuration, and text readability are now ranking factors

How Google actually processes your website?

Any page before ranking on Google goes through following processing pipeline:

• Discovery : Google finds the URL through sitemaps, internal links, backlinks, or manual submissions.
• Crawling: Google bots requests the page and reads the initial HTML.
• Rendering: It is the process of turning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code into an interactive page that website visitors expect to see when clicking on a link.
• Indexing: The page’s content and signals are stored in Google’s index.
• Ranking: Google evaluates the indexed page against other results for a query.

What Are the Most Important Technical SEO Ranking Factors?

1. Crawlability : It determine the ease with which search engine discover your pages. Some of the common Crawlability issues include :
   • Orphaned pages with no internal linking.
   • Robots.txt accidentally blocking critical resources.
   • Sitemap not properly structured.
   • Javscript navigation that hide links from crawlers.
   • Creation of multiple URLs pointing to the same content.
2. Indexability: Search has discovered your page but their might be possible, the pages are not getting index. Some reason pages are not getting indexed include:
   • The content itself is very low and it’s duplicate.
   • No Index tag present via meta tag or HTTP header).
   • Canonical tag point to another page.
   • There are some Conflicts exist between robots directives and metadata.
3. Site Structure: It refers to how content is organized, linked, and categorized within a website. A well-optimized site structure improves indexation efficiency, helping search engines understand website topics and their context for better ranking.
4. HTTPS (SSL/TLS Certificate): It uses SSL/TLS encryption to protect data integrity between users and servers. Non-secure websites face indexing challenges and a lack of trust from search engines and users.
5. HTTP Status Codes: Proper handling of 301 redirects, 404 errors, and 5xx server response codes prevents crawl inefficiencies and ensures uninterrupted content retrieval and ranking stability.
6. Page Speed: Google’s Core Web Vitals, such as Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), First Input Delay (FID), and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), are the factors that determine a website’s loading speed and interactivity.
7. Mobile-Friendliness: If your mobile experience is broken, your entire SEO strategy is broken. Google’s Mobile-First Indexing prioritizes websites that feature adaptive layouts, touch-friendly navigation, and optimized mobile interactions, as mobile usability directly correlates with search rankings and user retention.

What Are the Technical SEO Best Practices?

1. Create an SEO-Friendly Site Architecture: A well-structured site helps users and search engines navigate your pages. This organization can improve your SEO and rankings. A strong site architecture follows a clear hierarchy, logical internal linking, consistent URL structures, and minimal crawl depth
   • Clear hierarchy. Homepage → Category Pages → Subcategories → Individual Pages.
   • Logical internal linking. Enhances discoverability and indexation.
   • Consistent URL structures. E.g. Home / Category / Sub-Category / Sub Sub-Category
   • Minimal crawl depth. Warrants that key pages remain accessible within a few clicks.
2. Use Proper Semantic HTML Tags: A well-structured page should use semantic elements to define each section’s role. Run a Google Lighthouse audit (Chrome DevTools) under the “Best Practices” and “Accessibility” categories. This highlights the incorrect use of HTML elements and missing landmark tags. Once you’ve implemented semantic HTML, test it using Google’s Rich Results Test to see how search engines interpret your structured content.
3. Use Top-Level Site Security: Site security involves using HTTPS encryption, setting secure HTTP headers, and regularly monitoring for vulnerabilities. Acquire an SSL certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) or use free services like Let’s Encrypt. Install it on your web server to enable HTTPS. Use tools like the Search Atlas Site Audit Tool and navigate to the Page Explorer feature to confirm all pages are served over HTTPS and to identify any mixed content issues. Utilize SecurityHeaders.com to scan your website and receive a report on your HTTP header configurations. To monitor for malware, employ services like Google Search Console’s Security Issues Report to identify and address any malware or security issues flagged by Google.
4. Submit Your XML Sitemap to Google Search: An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap is a file that lists all the direct URLs on your website, helping search engines discover, crawl, and index your content promptly. Submitting a proper XML sitemap provides metadata such as last modified dates and priority levels for pages. Tools like Yoast SEO can generate an XML sitemap automatically if using WordPress. For custom websites, create a sitemap using free generators like XML-Sitemaps.com.
5. Ensure Proper Robots.txt File Guidelines: The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages or directories they are allowed or disallowed from crawling. A properly configured robots.txt file prevents search engines from wasting crawl budget on unimportant pages
6. Ensure Proper Meta Robot Tags Implementation: Appropriate meta robot tags, give instructions to search engines on whether a page should be indexed, followed, or excluded from search results. We can identify the current meta robot tags in HTML source code. Open the HTML source code and check the page for meta name <meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”> In Google Search Console, go to the URL Inspection Tool to check if Google is indexing the page as expected.
7. Use Pagination Correctly: Proper pagination guarantees that all paginated pages are discoverable and indexed properly, preventing ranking dilution and improving the user experience for multi-page content.
8. Address Internal Linking Errors: Internal linking errors occur when links within your website lead to incorrect, redirected, or orphaned pages, disrupting navigation and SEO. Once identified, fix internal linking errors by updating outdated or broken links to point to the correct URLs and eliminating redirect chains by linking directly to the final destination page.
9. Find and Fix Broken Link Issues : Broken links occur when a web page links to a URL that no longer exists, resulting in a 404 error. The technical SEO strategy to fix broken links is listed below.
   • For internal links → Update them to point to an existing page or apply a 301 redirect if the page was permanently moved.
   • For external links → Find and link to an alternative resource, or remove the broken link if no suitable replacement exists.
   • For deleted pages with backlinks → Implement a 301 redirect to a relevant page to preserve SEO value.
10. Use Structured Breadcrumb Navigation: Breadcrumb navigation is a hierarchical navigation system that helps users and search engines understand the structure of your website. To implement structured breadcrumb navigation, make sure that each page follows a logical site hierarchy. Breadcrumbs should follow the site structure (e.g. Home > Category > Sub Category > Page).
11. Improve Page Speed: Page speed is core component of web performance metrics.It enhance user experience. To optimize page speed, analyze your site using Google PageSpeed Insights to identify performance bottlenecks. Common issues include unoptimized images, render-blocking JavaScript, and excessive server requests. Implement the page speed improvements listed below.
    • Enable browser caching to store static files locally and reduce repeated load times.
    • Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to eliminate unnecessary code.
    • Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve static assets from geographically distributed servers.
    • Optimize server response times by upgrading hosting and reducing HTTP requests.
12. Optimize Google Core Web Vitals : Google Core Web Vitals are key performance metrics that measure real-world user experience based on loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. The three key metrics to improve are Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), First Input Delay (FID), and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). The tips for improving Core Web Vitals metrics are below.
    1. Cumulative Layout Shift. Measures visual stability during page load.
    • Set explicit width and height attributes for images and ads to prevent layout shifts.
    • Use CSS to reserve space for dynamic content.
    1. First Input Delay. Measures responsiveness and interactivity.
    • Reduce JavaScript execution time and defer non-essential scripts.<script async src="script.js"></script>
    1. Largest Contentful Paint. Measures the loading speed of the largest visible element.
    • Optimize hero images and background media.
    • Enable lazy loading for offscreen images.<img src="image.avif" loading="lazy" alt="Optimized LCP image">
    1. Use a CDN to speed up content delivery.
13. Ensure Your Website Is Responsive on All Devices: A responsive website automatically adapts to different screen sizes, ensuring a seamless experience on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, meaning a poorly optimized mobile site can negatively impact rankings.
14. Ensure Your Website Is Accessible to Everyone: Website accessibility secures that all users, including those with disabilities and different language preferences, can navigate and interact with your site. Google prioritizes accessibility as part of its Page Experience signals, and compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is critical for usability.
15. Monitor Technical SEO Continuously: Technical SEO requires ongoing monitoring to guarantee that search engines can crawl, index, and rank your content effectively. As websites evolve, new errors such as broken links and slow-loading pages can appear, affecting rankings.