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Technical SEO

Technical SEO

Owned by debbie.m (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Oct 07, 2021 by Tom Mulhern (Deactivated)
3 min read

What is Technical SEO? 

Technical search engine optimization is “any sufficient technical action undertaken with the intent to improve search results,” stated Ross Jones at the TechSEO Boost conference. This action traditionally includes optimizing a site for indexing and crawling and search visibility. But it can also include linking keyword research, meta tags, sitemaps, and more.

If you’re not familiar with these terms, here are a few definitions. 

Crawling and indexing are two elements of technical SEO that happen in the background when search engines discover and store web content to help users find the information they need after they enter a search query.  

  • Crawling

    • Crawling happens when a search engine sends out crawlers (also called spiders) to scan the web for new or updated content. This information is then indexed and plays a part in showing up in organic search results.  

  • Indexing

    • When web content information is collected by the search engine, it’s stored in a database, this is called indexing.  

Why should you care about these two elements? Crawling and indexing help determine organic rankings of web pages.  

Why is Technical SEO important? 

One of the main goals of a company applying technical SEO to their web pages is to rank a web page high on the SERPs. If your page doesn’t appear in the top 10 results of the results page, it’s unlikely people will see it. People don’t often go beyond page 1 of the results page.  

Effective technical SEO will lead users to find what they want after they enter their search query into Google or another search engine. In your SEO process, you should also look at what value you’re offering to the search engine. 

Besides learning about how search engines compile information, what can brokerages do to improve their chances of winning the sought-after Page 1 spot. 

Other technical SEO elements to work on include: 

  • Keyword research 

  • Writing great meta tag descriptions 

  • Creating sitemaps 

It may take a SEO manager, a specialist, copywriter or more roles in your organization to get to where you want to go to achieve the rankings you want, or you may outsource your SEO needs.  

If you’re undertaking SEO on your own, a good first measure would be to ask if your brokerage’s website hits these three areas below. 

Can you tick off the boxes below when you consider your website? 

  • Site speed is fast. 

  • Web images are optimized. 

  • Website content is regularly updated.  

While there are more ranking factors to propel your web page to the top of the Google pile, the three factors above are a great place to start to look for improvements.  

 

The importance of dashboard monitoring and regular site audits

As well as keeping a website as error-free as possible and keeping up with Google’s algorithms, a site audit is essential.  

If you’ve guessed that SEO is a huge undertaking that requires multiple roles, you would be right. It’s not a one-and-done project. Search engine optimization is a long and continual process that changes over time. 

If you do not have an in-house SEO team, be patient, do your homework and hire one or more experts.  

 

Site audit tools

It’s key for a brokerage or insurance company to have a variety of tools in their site-audit toolkit. Below we cover a few popular site audit tools.  

While most people are bored at the thought of an audit, once you see the audit outcomes, you’ll see why we suggest using these tools.  

Let’s begin! 

Ahrefs, SEMrush, Sitebulb, Moz Pro Tools, SpyFu are some of the most sought-after site audit tools that are used to detect technical issues (like 404 Error pages) and duplicate meta tags, among many other website problems that should be fixed right away. 

Site audit tools can: 

  • Find broken links (internal, external) 

  • Page crawl depths going beyond 3 

  • Identify missing sitemaps 

  • And more 

 

Core web vitals in Google Search Console

In May 2021, Core Web Vitals were introduced to highlight the importance of the user experience in SEO. Google’s Search Console now offers a report that measures a website’s Core Web Vitals. 

While site speed is still important for ranking and included in the metrics for the Core Web Vitals, the user experience and responsiveness are key to keeping your users on the page and converting.  

Search Engine Journal provides a glimpse into how the report works here: Google Search Console Updated With Core Web Vitals Report  
 

[show screenshot of how Google Search Console report looks like]