technical seo

Technical SEO: Crawl, Index & Rank Better Actionable Checklist

Technical SEO acts as the foundation of any successful website. Although great content and backlinks will create buzz, a website does not perform well until search engines can properly crawl, index, and understand it. 

In simple terms, technical SEO deals with on-site back-end aspects such as site speed, site structure, security, and mobile-friendliness. These things help search engines discover your pages and rank them effectively. 

Even the best content finds it challenging to reach its audience without good technical SEO.

Why Is Technical SEO Important?

Visualize your site like a car. Content is the exterior paint, keywords are the fuel, and technical SEO is the engine that keeps it moving. 

Without it, your site may look great on the outside, but not run well in the search results section of Google.

Here’s why technical SEO matters so much.

Improves Crawlability

improves crawlability

Image Source: searchenginejournal.com

Search engines use crawlers (bots) to find your website’s content. Those crawlers can’t discover all your pages if your site is not technically sound. 

  • Ensures Proper Indexing

Even if Google finds your pages, it still needs to index them. Technical SEO helps ensure that your pages are indexed for the right keyword or audience.

  • Improves User Experience

Visitors appreciate the page speed, mobile optimization, and secure connections as much as Google does. 

  • Improves Rank

A tech-friendly website sends all the right signals to search engines about your content, driving up your ranking.

  • Reduces Errors

Addressing issues such as duplicate content, broken links, and slow performance can save you from penalties and ranking loss, which is why technical SEO is essential.

Understanding Crawling and Indexing

  • Crawling

Crawling occurs when search engine bots visit your website for newly published or updated content. They crawl your site through links from another page, similar to how a user would, to create a map of your entire site.

If there are pages that are difficult to find or improperly linked, crawlers may skip those pages altogether. This is why it is important to have a clean site architecture, proper internal linking, and an XML sitemap.

  • Indexing

After your pages have been crawled, they enter the indexing phase, where search engines review and store your pages in their database for future retrieval in the SERPs. 

Essentially, they are allowing your content to be available to users when they search for queries related to the keywords. 

A page can be blocked (by a robots.txt file, for example) or otherwise have no quality signals to warrant indexing. This is why your most important pages must be crawlable and indexable.

Technical SEO Checklist

1. Site Architecture

A well-designed website serves as an organized library: inviting to users and easy for search engines to crawl.

Your website architecture should be set up in a logical hierarchy with distinct categories, subcategories, and internal links. In a perfect world, all of your important pages are just three clicks away from your homepage.

Having good architecture will help distribute link equity across your website and let search engines understand how pages are related.

2. URL Structure

A clean and descriptive URL structure enhances both SEO and user experience.

Keep URLs short and relevant. Use hyphens (-) to separate words, not underscores. Include target keyword(s). Avoid unnecessary parameters and/or session IDs.

Example: It should be www.example.com/blog/technical-seo-guide

It should not be www.example.com/blog?id=1234&cat=seo

3. Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumbs are small navigation tools that let users know where they are located in your website’s hierarchy.  

For example:  Home > Blog > SEO > Technical SEO Guide    

They are beneficial for user experience and for search engines to understand the structure of your website.

When you add structured data markup to breadcrumbs, Google can display them in search results, which enhances your listing and makes it more interesting.

4. Canonical Tag

canonical tag

Image Source: infidigit.com

Duplicated content may leave search engines confused about which version of a page they should index. The canonical tag indicates to search engines which version is the “master” page.

For example, if your website has several URLs displaying the same content:

  • https://example.com

  • https://www.example.com

  • https://example.com/index.html

You can use the canonical tag to tell Google which version is preferred.

5. Broken Pages (404 Errors)

Having broken pages is frustrating for a user and is a waste of your crawl budget. You should check for 404 errors or broken internal/external links regularly. 

Check tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog to find need-to-fix pages. 

You can redirect broken pages to relevant alternatives with 301 redirects; however, avoid redirect chains (too many redirects in a row) so that it doesn’t slow down the crawl.

6. XML Sitemap

xml sitemap

Image Source: 10seos.com

An XML sitemap is a file that contains a list of all the important pages on your site. It serves as a guide, helping search engines find your content faster.

When creating your sitemap, ensure that it only includes indexable pages. It is auto-updated when new content is added and submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

7. Robots.txt File

The robots.txt file instructs search engine crawlers about which pages or sections are and aren’t available to crawl. 

You can use it to: block duplicate or non-valuable pages (like admin panels or confirmation pages) and allow access to your main content on the site.

Be careful: blocking the wrong sections could potentially remove that page from Google altogether. Furthermore, always test your robots.txt file before you launch it live.

8. Pagination

If your website contains more than one page of products, posts, or categories, pagination will help search engines understand the order.

Use  <link rel=”next”> and <link rel=”prev”>  tags to connect pagination pages. This will indicate to Google that the pages are part of a series, not separate or unrelated.

9. Mobile-First & Responsive Design

Google now employs mobile-first indexing, which means it will begin by examining your site’s mobile version for considerations related to ranking.

Make sure your site:

  • Adapts to different screen sizes. 
  • Uses readable text without zooming. 
  • Has buttons or links that are easy to tap. Avoids intrusive pop-ups.  

Google provides tools such as its mobile-friendly test that can determine whether your site meets these criteria.

10. Page Speed & Performance (Core Web Vitals)

Site speed is one of the most significant factors at play when it comes to ranking your site. Slow-loading sites push users away and hurt your bounce rate. 

Google’s Core Web Vitals looks at the performance of your site, measuring:

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), which is how quickly the primary content loads. 
  • FID (First Input Delay): How quickly the site responds to user input. 
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): How stable the visual layout of the site is during loading.

To speed up your site:

  • Compress your images, 
  • Take advantage of browser caching, 
  • Minify your CSS and JavaScript, and 
  • Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

11. Secure Connection (HTTPS)

Security is necessary for both SEO and user trust. Google favors HTTPS sites over plain HTTPS.

Confirm that your SSL certificate is valid and installed properly. If you move from HTTP to HTTPS, remember to use 301 redirects to prevent two versions of your site from appearing.

12. Structured Data / Schema Markup

Structured data aids search engines in better understanding your content. With schema markup, your site can be eligible for rich results, such as star ratings, FAQs, and event information. 

Examples of some common schema types are:

  • Article, 
  • Product, Review,
  • FAQ, and 
  • Organization.

Google has a Structured Data Markup Helper, or you can find some at Schema.org, to create and test your code.

13. Hreflang for Content in Multiple Languages

hreflang for content in multiple languages

Image Source: backlinko.com

When your website has users from different languages or regions, you will want to implement hreflang tags. 

The hreflang tag specifies to Google what language and country version the page should display. 

For example:

<link rel=”alternate” href=”https://example.com/es/” hreflang=”es”>

This keeps duplicate content from appearing in the search engine and helps visitors see the appropriate version for their location.

Technical SEO Audit Tools

  • Google Search Console

google search console

It is a free tool for checking indexing, crawl errors, Core Web Vitals, and sitemaps. 

  • Screaming Frog SEO Spider

This tool is a desktop crawler that helps in reviewing technical elements, including meta tags, response codes, and broken links. 

  • Ahrefs Site Audit

It identifies SEO issues, like slow pages, missing tags, and duplicate content. 

  • SEMrush Site Audit

It offers a robust health score and specific recommendations for technical fixes. 

  • Google PageSpeed Insights

This ingenious tool assesses Core Web Vitals and provides improvement tips. 

  • GTmetrix

This tool evaluates site performance and offers suggestions for optimization. 

  • Sitebulb

It is great for viewing site architecture and identifying crawl issues.

Wrapping It Up

While technical SEO may not seem as exciting as writing content or engaging in link building, it is what keeps your site working properly in the background. This is what separates a site that “looks good” from a site that performs well in the search results.

In SEO, it’s all in the details. Conduct a technical audit, address your technical foundation, and establish a pattern of continuous improvement. 

When your technical SEO is in a strong spot, everything else, including your content, keywords, and links, will begin to operate much better.