What requirements should a site meet at a basic level so that search engines distinguish it from similar queries and raise it in the search results, and what technical SEO should be aimed at – read on.
Table of Contents
What Is Technical Website Optimization?
Technical SEO optimization implies a set of measures that will improve the site’s interaction with search engine algorithms.
For a site to get high positions in the SERP, more is needed to have high-quality content filled with keywords and anchor links relevant to queries in search engines. It is important to work out the site on the key elements that make up technical optimization:
- scanning;
- indexing;
- visualization;
- Site structure.
Bringing these indicators to perfection will improve the quality and speed of crawling and indexing site pages by search engines, improve user experience, and increase conversions and site authority.
Why Do You Need To Optimize Your Site Technically?
The work of search engines is configured in such a way as to show users the most useful content, in their opinion. There is a whole algorithm by which Yandex, Google, and other systems search for sites that are relevant to the query, pre-scanning and evaluating web pages according to certain parameters. The better the technical settings are debugged, the more convenient it is for the search engine to evaluate the site. As a result of excellent optimization – getting into the TOP-10 in search results.
Technical optimization aims to improve the user experience while browsing the web; its main goal is to make the website fast, reliable, and simple. Neglect, as well as excessive fanaticism, can be costly. It is better to stick to the golden mean and focus on the user’s needs and the search engine’s criteria.
Site Quality Criteria
The main criteria for the technical quality of the site are:
- site loading speed;
- site adaptability;
- site security
- sitemap and indexing;
- structure optimization;
- site content optimization;
Next, we will analyse these criteria in more detail.
Download Speed
Page loading speed is one of the first significant components that affect a site’s ranking. This parameter is part of the recently published Google Core Web Vitals ranking factor. It is believed that this parameter is similar to the face-to-face communication of people, and the delay in loading is equivalent to a long pause in the conversation. Users lose interest if a page takes up to three seconds to load. For most sites, this is a clear loss of customers and a decrease in profits.
Nevertheless, this indicator remains a “sore spot” for optimizers since the abundance of pictures or the presence of developer errors can lead to a critical loss in site speed. Before adjusting this indicator, it is important to understand what factors affect the page loading speed. First of all, it is:
- server response speed;
- time of arrival of the first byte (TTFB);
- page code processing time and content loading;
- start of rendering (appearance of page visibility).
These indicators depend on various criteria (cleanliness of the page code, correct site structure, layout, and file weight) and directly affect the ranking. So, the lower the TTFB, the higher the page in Google issuance. When choosing a hosting, you should choose the option with the best access speed to the site and the shortest period of resource unavailability due to technical problems.
You can determine the loading speed of a site using the free Google Page speed Insights tool.
Adaptability For Mobile Devices
Most users value their time and prefer access to sites from any device. Therefore, the mobile version is another important criterion for maintaining positions in the TOP. If the page interface is “lame” when loaded from a mobile device or is inconvenient to read, the user will most likely prefer to leave it.
Special programs, such as Yandex. Metrika and Google Search Console allow you to calculate and compare the percentage of “leaves” from a page from desktop PCs and mobile devices. If there are more of the latter, this is a signal that you need to come to grips with the adaptation of the site.
But even with excellent adaptability, download speed remains an important indicator. It may differ significantly from the PC version and affect the ranking result. Therefore, when launching a site, it must be tested on popular mobile browsers.
At the same time, the search results for mobile and desktop versions of the site in different browsers are different. So, Yandex has a general issue, so the need for a mobile version can completely pessimize the resource (lowering its position in the search engine). Google shares the search results, but the mobile version is the priority. Its absence will affect the ranking.
Safety
In 2014, Google identified using the SSL protocol as a ranking factor. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a certificate that verifies the authenticity of a website. It confirms that your domain has an individual key, with which information between the server and the user is encrypted, which establishes a secure connection.
Determining the use of a secure protocol is quite simple; for this, you need to pay attention to the URL string. An SSL certificate is identified by a domain that starts with “https://” and a padlock symbol in the URL string.
Also Read: Crawling And Indexing: Basic Principles And Influence On The Optimization Result
