What Is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to several website characteristics that Google and other search engines give weight to. Search algorithms favor websites that have undergone technical SEO. Read on to find out what technical SEO includes and why it’s important for your dental website.
What Does Technical SEO Include?
Technical SEO includes security, accessibility, and speed features and tweaks. All of these contribute in one way or another to the overall experience that visitors have on your website. Let’s take a closer look at the key aspects of technical SEO.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
This is an encryption technology that secures connections to your website. To enable SSL, you have to install an SSL certificate on your website if you don’t have one already. SSL makes your website safer to use and helps prevent data passing between a web browser and your site from being intercepted by hackers.
Site Speed
The faster your website is, the better—search engines will decrease your ranking if your site is slow. To speed up your website, you have to use a fast web hosting provider, avoid overusing plugins and scripts, use a domain name system (DNS), optimize images, and have a cleanly coded website and theme. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a great resource to make suggestions on how to make your dental website faster.
Mobile-Friendly (Responsive) Design
A mobile-friendly website looks and navigates smoothly on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Today, when many web searchers are carried on out mobile devices, it’s crucial to ensure your website is mobile-friendly. If you are using a website builder or content management platform, making your website mobile-friendly is as easy as choosing a responsive theme.
Having an XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap makes it easier for Google and other search engines to understand where your web pages are located and other important information about them. Depending on the platform your website is built on, XML sitemaps may be generated automatically. Otherwise, you have to use a sitemap generator to create them.
Duplicate Pages and Content
Another important aspect of technical SEO is avoiding duplicate content. Search engines don’t like duplicate content, not even if it’s created by accident.
The problem is that some content management systems may automatically create different versions of a web page which can confuse search engines. Depending on your website platform of choice, read on about Session IDs and other features that may generate duplicate content. And, of course, avoid publishing very similar content on different pages.
Structured Data Markup
This is code that you can add to your web pages to highlight useful information and help search engines understand your content and display it directly on the search results page.
For example, you can use structured data markup to highlight that a part of your web page text is a step-by-step guide or a frequently asked questions section. You can add structured data markup manually or using plugins built into your content management system.
Technical SEO Important—Don’t Neglect It!
Technical SEO is not a substitute for having good content and a good web page design. But it’s a way to make your web pages easy to understand by Google and send positive signals to all search engines. At the end of the day, technical SEO is a way to both keep your web pages tidy and provide a better user experience.
Technical SEO is not as technical as it sounds and often boils down to making the right choices—whether we’re talking about a website platform, a theme, or an SSL certificate.
Carrying out a technical SEO audit every once in a while can help you rank better in the search results or maintain a top ranking if you already rank well. Today, technical SEO is not an option but a must. So make sure to add it to your SEO checklist!
