Getting Technical SEO Right with This 5-Step Checklist 

You must stay ahead of the competition as search engine optimization (SEO) evolves. Getting your Technical SEO strategy right from the beginning can ensure that your site ranks, competes in your niche, and drives leads and conversions. 

Technical SEO is one of the most vital aspects of your strategy. Here’s a simple checklist of the essentials that can help you to make it in your market. 

1. Hierarchy and Navigation on Technical SEO

Focus on site architecture first, and you’ll find it easier to expand, optimize, and evolve as you go. 

• Hierarchy matters. Content should progress logically through site navigation and folder structure that’s consistent with your products and services. 
• Optimize your URLs with a relevant target keyword while keeping them informative and descriptive. It helps identify and manage pages internally while also enhancing the user experience. 
• Follow the concept of breadcrumb navigation. It’s intuitive for users and ensures search engine robots can crawl and index your content. 
• Carefully manage your internal links for navigation. Incorporate them naturally into your content to enhance the user experience. 

We can assist you with planning and implementing a logical, manageable, and scalable site architecture. 

2. Improve Speed and Mobile Optimization on Technical SEO

Responsive design adapts to different devices and screen sizes. The layout remains consistent and navigable, no matter the browser or hardware. 

Every site you publish must follow a responsive design philosophy. Search engines actively punish sites that don’t scale to different screen sizes. 

Minimize code size and page load times to enhance speed for the user. Faster pages rank better with Google and other search providers. 

There are countless ways to optimize pages. It’s easier when speed is considered from the ground up. 

• Optimize code across HTML and scripting languages to reduce page size and load time. 
• Compress images to reduce file sizes. PNG is ideal for complex images, while JPEG is best for simple images. You can achieve a good balance of performance and quality when you combine these formats. 
• Consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to cache your content across different servers if you target an audience in several countries and continents. 

3. Make it Crawlable on Technical SEO

Keep your site crawlable so it ranks in search engines. You could do every part of technical SEO right, but if you ignore crawlability, you won’t compete with other sites in your niche. 

• Build an XML sitemap for submission to search engines. It lists your pages and structure. 
• Configure your robots.txt file to ensure search engine robots know which content to index. 
• Remove duplicate content. It can hurt your ranking. Every page must be unique. Working with an SEO company allows you to develop high-quality brand-specific content rapidly and affordably. 

Optimizing crawlability is challenging without the right tools and experience. We can assist you to ensure a crawlable technical back end based on industry-standard techniques. 

4. Make it Secure on Technical SEO

Secure sites rank better. Invest in secure SSL certificates to boost your search presence and add legitimacy to your brand. Some browser and OS security settings can prevent users from viewing unsecured sites. HTTPS is essential for the modern internet. 

Ensure that your cookie and privacy policy is updated for all your target markets. GDPR nations require opt-in cookie notices and compliant privacy policies. The requirements vary between borders. 

• It’s best practice to inform users when and why cookies are stored. 
• Publish your privacy policy and make it accessible to any interested user. 
• Ensure that your business activities are consistent with the privacy policy. 

Taking some time to focus on privacy, security, and compliance can enhance user experience while protecting your brand. 

5. Optimize for Users

A lot of the work that goes into SEO focuses on search algorithms. It’s vital that you keep the user experience in mind. Many of the technical sides of SEO have direct user benefits. 

• Use descriptive title tags to inform and compel the user while staying relevant to search engines. 
• Meta descriptions help search engines index your content. They’re also the first thing users see below your search listings. 
• Optimize headers throughout every page to reflect the content. 
• Use alt-text for images to aid search engines and users. These provide more context for images. 

Holistic optimization focuses on the ranking and user experience without compromise. An experienced SEO company can help you implement technical SEO that’s functional for algorithms and helpful for humans. 

SEO Done Right with Captive Web Media

Our team is available to design, implement, and manage an SEO strategy that works. Whether you have a single site or several projects, we can take you from initial SEO planning to content delivery and digital marketing in simple, affordable steps. 

Talk to us today, and we’ll ensure your online presence delivers a return on investment and long-term growth for your brand.