Technical SEO Guide: Improve your site using technical SEO (2023)

Search engine optimization (SEO) comes in many forms. You can improve on-page content (making headlines more persuasive) and off-page content (usually with backlinks). The goal remains the same. You want to get that coveted spot at the top of the search engine results page, if not number one. But there is his third form of SEO that needs to be optimized: technical SEO. Read about technical search engine optimization basics.

What is technical SEO?

Technical search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the functionality of a website to improve its ranking in the results generated by search engines. Technical SEO typically involves improving the user experience of a website by making it faster, more accessible, and easier to navigate.

Technical SEO is closely related to on-page SEO, which focuses on improving the content on your website, such as keywords, meta descriptions, H1 tags (web page titles), URL naming, and links. Conversely, technical SEO is in contrast to off-page SEO, which generates website exposure through other channels such as backlinks.

Search engines rank pages on your site by crawling and indexing them. When you publish content to your site, search engine bots, or “spiders,” crawl your site, discover your content, and verify your pages. Search engines store some of your content in their search index, a huge database containing billions of pages. If a page meets the ranking criteria (resulting from a combination of on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO), it will appear in search results.

Your website must meet several criteria for technical optimization. First, it needs to be fast. You also need a proper site structure so that search engines can crawl it. Each page should have unique content, as duplicate content can negatively impact page rankings. Additionally, your site's internal links must work. Finally, technically optimized sites use HTTPS security structures.

The importance of technical SEO in e-commerce business

Technical SEO affects a website's performance on search engines. If your site is inaccessible, it won't show up in search engines and won't rank well. This is harmful to your e-commerce business and can lead to loss of traffic and therefore potential customers.

E-commerce websites typically have many product pages, category pages, and filters. Technical SEO helps e-commerce companies optimize this content so that search engines can crawl and index these pages. A well-optimized product page uses structured data to ensure your products appear in Google Shopping results.

Google also ranks sites based on page speed and mobile friendliness, which is important for e-commerce businesses. If your site takes a long time to load, customers may leave your site, you may lose traffic, and your conversion rate may drop. Since most online shopping is now done on mobile devices, it's also important that your site is responsive and content displays well on a variety of screen sizes and device types.

Technical SEO basics

1. Site architecture
2. site speed
3. mobile friendly
4. Security (HTTPS)

There are many things you can do with technical SEO for your e-commerce website. Here are four categories where improvements can have a real impact on your site.

Site architecture

Site architecture, or site structure, describes how a site organizes its pages and links them together. An effective site structure uses a consistent URL structure, so crawlers can quickly and easily find her website's content. Organize your site logically and make sure all your pages are just a few clicks away from your home page. This makes it easier for crawlers (and customers) to navigate your site and find what they need quickly. After you create your site structure, submit your XML sitemap to Google to make it easier for search engines to crawl your website.

site speed

We want your site to load as fast as possible on mobile and desktop. To do this you can:

Compress images

Images are the largest files on a web page. Reducing the size of your image files will make your site load faster.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

CDNs store copies of web pages on servers around the world. Connects visitors to the nearest server, reducing the distance files have to travel.

Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files

Minifying removes unnecessary characters and whitespace from your code, reducing file size and increasing page speed.

Audit redirects

Broken pages will not load. Replace broken links and redirect to the actual relevant page on your site.

mobile friendliness

Google uses mobile-first indexing, which looks at mobile versions of web pages to index and rank content. Your website should be fast, responsive, and easy to navigate, and content and design elements such as text, buttons, and links should be visible on a variety of screen sizes, devices, and orientations.

Security (HTTPS)

HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or the way data is transferred on the web). This added layer of security prevents sensitive user information such as passwords and credit card details from being compromised. To improve the security of your site, you can install an SSL certificate that authenticates your website's identity and establishes a secure connection. Most website hosting platforms, such as Shopify, automatically provide new websites with their SSL certificates.

Technical SEO Tips for Ecommerce Businesses

1. Product page optimization
2. Category page optimization
3. Faceted navigation optimization
4. structured data

You can boost technical SEO for your e-commerce business in four ways:

Product page optimization

Product pages convert browsers into buyers. A great product page includes unique visual content with high-quality images to highlight the product's features. Make sure your product pages link to other pages on your website to avoid orphan pages (pages that don't link to other pages).

Category page optimization

Category pages list the products you sell, such as “shoes,” “accessories,” and “women's clothing.” Optimizing these pages adds context for crawlers and increases traffic to your e-commerce site. Category pages are typically high up in an e-commerce site's hierarchy, cover a broad range of topics, and are logically organized.

Faceted navigation optimization

Faceted navigation (or faceted search) is a type of navigation found on category pages on sites with many listings. Its purpose is to allow users to perform custom searches to find what they are looking for using filters based on list attributes. These filters include brand, size, color, and more to help narrow your product search.

structured data

Structured data provides additional context and meaning to web page content. This is useful for enhanced search results, such as rich snippets (search results with additional data) used by search engines to display product listings. For e-commerce businesses, structured data is useful because it provides search engines with information about products, reviews, ratings, prices, and more. This makes your listing more appealing to potential buyers looking for your products.

Technical SEO tools for e-commerce businesses

1. Google's PageSpeed ​​Insights
2. Google's Mobile Friendly Test
3. Google Search Console
4. schema markup generator
5. Semlash or Alephs

From website speed to crawlability analysis, here are some technical SEO tools that e-commerce companies can use.

Google's PageSpeed ​​Insights

Google's PageSpeed ​​Insights test measures your site's speed on both desktop and mobile and provides suggestions to improve the user experience. Faster pages are easier to navigate, which can have a positive impact on search rankings.

Google's Mobile Friendly Test

Google's Mobile Friendly Test evaluates your site's mobile usability and makes recommendations for improvement.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you monitor your site's appearance in Google search results. This gives you insight into how your site appears to crawlers, warns you about indexing issues, and provides suggestions to improve your site's performance. The Core Web Vitals report within Search Console measures the actual user experience in terms of page load performance, interactivity, and visual stability.

schema markup generator

Schema markup generators like Schema.org can help you create the correct structured data markup for products, reviews, and other e-commerce related content to enhance search results. Use Google's rich results test to check if your page supports rich results.

Semlash or Alephs

You can use SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs to perform a technical SEO audit of your site. A site audit helps you find and fix technical SEO issues that affect your site's performance, crawlability, and indexability.