In an increasingly digital world, it seems that almost everyone has tried their hand at designing a website, a common venture for self-starters and businesses alike. We get it, the internet offers individuals a powerful platform to gain recognition and promote their unique voice to new audiences.
However, with the ever-growing competition in every niche, how can you make sure that your website stands out and captivates people in a meaningful way? This is where technical search engine optimization (SEO) comes in, playing a vital role in enhancing user experience (UX) and propelling the success of any website.
If you are new to the world of technical SEO, don't fret. Here at VG, we know the struggle and are here to tell you that you can improve your website's functionality by following some basic steps. Plus, understanding the significance of technical SEO can help you create a website that not only attracts visitors but also provides a user experience that your customers will not soon forget.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to the practice of optimising your website in a way that helps search engines like Google to understand, crawl, and index the pages effectively.
Think of your website like a puzzle, with each piece standing to represent a different component such as content, design and site structure. Now, imagine technical SEO as the person who completes the puzzle, working to ensure that every jumbled piece fits in its place to form a complete, unified result. While each piece of the puzzle is essential, technical SEO is primarily focused on the website's infrastructure and backend elements, helping to improve its visibility in search engine results.
Essentially, technical SEO ensures that your website runs smoothly and is easily accessible to both search engines and visitors. By solving the technical puzzle, technical SEO essentially helps your website stand out, attracting more visitors and leading to higher rankings in search results. It has the dual benefits of improving user experience (UX) and improving your rankings on search engines.
Some common technical SEO tasks include:
- Monitoring and optimising website navigation and site architecture to ensure it is both intuitive and search engine-friendly.
- Creating an XML sitemap to facilitate easier crawling and indexing of web pages, ensuring that search engines can discover and rank your content more effectively.
- Conducting comprehensive audits of the website to identify technical issues and areas for improvement.
- Introducing structured data practices to improve user experience and offer search engines valuable insights into your content.
Why is technical SEO so important?
Think of it like this; you are a fresh face in the game, working to project your voice to new customers across the web. It's clear, you're great at what you do — you know this because your content speaks for itself. But here's the issue: your website isn't getting the visibility it deserves, and you're struggling to understand why. Well, this is where technical SEO comes in.
Essentially, the content on your website could be totally unmatched, but the fact still remains; if search engines aren't able to properly access or understand your pages, you aren't going to rank properly and your site will struggle as a result. In fact, poor technical SEO practices can sometimes be so damaging that your web pages may not be found by search engines at all.
For this reason, understanding that your content needs to be readable, not just to humans, but to bots as well, can help set you above your competitors, ensuring that your content is accessed by more people. Think of technical SEO as behind-the-scenes orchestration that makes your website more appealing to search engines, helping it perform better and gain online visibility.
What is user experience?
User experience (UX) is primarily concerned with the user journey, understanding how a website is designed and the ways in which people might interact with it to accomplish their goals. UX also focuses on creating intuitive, user-friendly interfaces, anticipating user needs and optimising them to ensure a smooth and straightforward experience.
UX design considers factors such as information architecture, visual design, usability, and accessibility to create a seamless and satisfying user journey from start to finish. By prioritising UX, websites can effectively engage users, build trust, and leave a lasting positive impression.
Why should I care about UX?
You should care about UX because it is going to have a very clear and direct impact on the success of your website. Just a few of the advantages that come from a well-crafted UX include:
- A competitive edge: Customers who find it easy and seamless to navigate your site are more likely to stick around instead of switching to your competitors’ sites.
- Improved conversion rates: Potential customers who can easily find your sales pages and make purchases without having to wade through confusing pages and site structures are far more likely to complete the conversion.
- Happy, loyal customers: A well-crafted UX builds trust, enhances brand reputation, and fosters customer advocacy.
Essentially, by prioritising UX, you are investing in the long-term success of your business, crafting an experience that attracts and retains customers, ultimately driving growth and achieving your business objectives.
Tips for improving technical SEO on your website
While there are a variety of different methods you can use to improve technical SEO on your website, we have listed some of the most effective strategies below.
Tip #1: Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
Let's face it. Our society is becoming increasingly digital, and more and more people are becoming reliant on their mobile devices to feed them information and keep them connected. In fact, it has been predicted that, by 2025, 95% (that's roughly 65 million people) of the UK population will be using a smartphone. This means that having a mobile-friendly website is no longer an option, but a necessity.
For your site to be mobile friendly, it essentially means your website is able to display different versions of the site depending on which devices your audience is using. By taking steps to ensure your site is mobile-friendly, this will ensure that, whatever device your audience is using, they are guaranteed a smooth and seamless reading experience. Some of these steps could include:
- Implementing responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes.
- Reducing file sizes and compressing images.
- Testing your website on different mobile devices to stay informed about mobile usability.
Tip #2: Ensure your website is accessible.
This is a big one! Making your website accessible is a crucial aspect of user experience, as it guarantees that all your site's visitors (including those with disabilities), can access and command your website with ease.
Technical SEO practices like adding alt tags to images, providing descriptive text for audio and video content, and optimising for assistive technologies (such as screen readers) all contribute to improved website accessibility.
Improving your website's accessibility means you can create an inclusive environment that caters to a wider audience, prompting better user satisfaction and engagement as a result.
Tip #3: Regularly monitor the performance of your website.
To keep your website up with current trends and practices, ensure you are regularly analysing the performance of your site using tools like Google Analytics. By keeping track of important metrics like organic search traffic, bounce rate, and average time spent on a page, you can gain crucial insights into user behaviour and identify areas for improvement, allowing you to continually optimise your website for a good user experience.
Benefits of technical SEO for improving UX
Some benefits of utilising technical SEO for an improved user experience include:
1. Improved website speed
In a world of consistent technological growth, it is safe to say that people are having information fed to them at an increasingly fast rate. For this reason, if you run a slow website with poor loading times, it is unlikely that your visitors are going to stick around to view your content — however good it might be.
Not to mention, slow-loading web pages can frustrate the visitors you already have, a fact that can lead to a high bounce rate, which may be a Google ranking factor that can bring down your search engine ranking. Fast-loading websites, on the other hand, contribute to lower bounce rates, higher user engagement, and increased satisfaction.
For this reason, optimising page load times, reducing server response time, and compressing images can greatly enhance UX, leading to a more seamless and efficient browsing experience.
2. Increased user engagement
When users have a positive experience on your website, they are more likely to engage with your content, share it with others, and interact with your brand, leading to higher user engagement and prolonged site visits.
3. Better accessibility
As discussed above, web accessibility is a huge benefit of technical SEO because it ensures that websites are designed to be inclusive and accessible to all users. By implementing technical SEO practices that value accessibility, websites become more user-friendly and provide a positive experience for a wider range of people.
This inclusivity not only improves the overall user experience but can also help websites comply with accessibility standards and guidelines, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Ultimately, improved accessibility through technical SEO benefits both users and website owners by creating an inclusive online environment and attracting a larger audience.
Remember, technical SEO is an ongoing process, and it is crucial you stay up to date with the latest practices and algorithm changes to guarantee a great user experience. However, by taking steps to continuously optimise your website's technical aspects, you keep yourself ahead of the curve, improving your search engine rankings to enhance UX and drive more organic traffic to your site.
4. Improved security
First-rate technical SEO practices will involve implementing security measures such as SSL certificates (HTTPS) to establish a secure connection between the website and its users. As a result, this helps to enhance user trust by safeguarding personal information and protecting against data breaches.
A secure and trustworthy website is vital for a positive user experience, as it inspires confidence and encourages users to engage with the site without fear that their data is going to be compromised.
5. Structured data implementation
Adding structured data markup to web pages provides additional context to search engines about the content on the site. This enables search engines to display rich snippets in search results, such as star ratings, reviews, prices, and other relevant information. These enhanced search results help to attract user attention and provide valuable information upfront, improving the user experience as a whole.
6. Prevents duplicate content
Think of it this way; if multiple versions of the same content exist, search engines can have a hard time determining the most relevant version to display in search results. However, technical SEO involves using canonical tags to specify the preferred version of a web page when there are multiple versions available (e.g. www and non-www versions, HTTP and HTTPS).
By implementing canonical tags, however, website owners can specify the preferred version of a webpage, consolidating ranking signals and preventing search engines from indexing duplicate content. This helps to avoid confusing users with multiple variations of the same content and ensures that the desired page appears in search results, improving user experience and reducing the risk of diluted search visibility.
7. Improves website crawling and indexing
As part of technical SEO, XML sitemaps can be created which serve as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, guiding them to discover and index all the important pages on a website. By including a comprehensive XML sitemap, website owners can ensure that search engines are aware of the entire website structure and can easily find and index all relevant content. This helps to improve the visibility of web pages in search engine results, allowing users to discover and access the desired content more efficiently. Users can benefit from this, giving them the ability to find relevant information quickly and easily, enhancing their overall user experience.
XML sitemaps also allow website owners to provide additional information to search engines, such as the last modification date of a page or its priority level. This can further assist search engines in understanding the importance and freshness of the content, potentially leading to better rankings and improved user experience.
By incorporating XML sitemaps as part of technical SEO, website owners can ensure that search engines effectively crawl and index their content. This, in turn, helps users easily discover and access the desired information, improving the overall user experience on the website.
Get in touch
As a mission-led SEO agency, we at Viaduct Generation understand just how daunting it can be to bring your technical SEO practices up to par in such a competitive online space. For this reason, we have made it our goal to help under-represented and allied businesses thrive, utilising holistic search strategies to help boost website rankings, drive organic traffic, and fuel conversions.
If you are looking to implement a top-notch SEO strategy for your own website, contact us today or book your free video audit to get you started on your journey. We also have a more comprehensive technical audit available to our customers, giving them a fully comprehensive in-depth report of website technicals. So, what are you waiting for? Get your site the visibility it deserves and get in touch today!
