WordPress plugins and themes are already SEO friendly though you should know some schemes for technical SEO to enrich your website.
By implementing effective Technical SEO techniques, you can quickly increase your chances of capturing valuable clicks by up to 85%.
From schema markup to XML sitemaps and canonical tags to structured data, we’ll delve into the key elements that play a vital role in boosting your site’s search engine rankings. By the end, you’ll have a solid foundation of knowledge to navigate the intricacies of Technical SEO in WordPress and drive organic traffic to your website. Let’s dive in and unlock the power of these essential schemes!
What is the Term “Technical SEO” and What are its Capabilities?
Technical SEO refers to the actions taken to optimize a website for the crawling and indexing phase. It involves improving the technical aspects of a website to increase its visibility in search engines.
Unlike on-page and off-page SEO, which focus on a site’s content and external linking strategies, technical SEO focuses on enhancing a website infrastructure. It has some key aspects that define its meanings and working areas.
a) Crawlability
Search engines send out crawlers (or “bots” or “spiders”) to discover publicly available web pages. Crawlability refers to a search engine’s ability to access and crawl your site’s content.
b) Indexing
Once a webpage is crawled, it is indexed. That means it’s processed and added to the search engine’s database. Proper index management ensures that only the web pages you want to be discovered are indexed by search engines.
c) Mobile-friendliness
As more and more people use mobile devices to browse the internet, search engines prefer mobile-friendly sites. This aspect of technical SEO involves optimizing your website to be easily navigable and readable on mobile devices.
d) Website speed
The time it takes for your web pages to load affects how easily users can interact with your content, and thus, it impacts your search engine rankings. Speed optimization can involve many steps, such as optimizing image sizes, leveraging browser caching, reducing server response time, etc.
e) SSL Certificate
Search engines prioritize secure websites. An SSL certificate for your website protects visitors’ information and increases rankings.
f) XML Sitemap
A sitemap is a file where you provide information about your site’s pages, videos, and other files and the relationships between them. This helps search engines understand your website’s structure and crawl it more intelligently.
g) Structured Data
Implementing structured data (Schema.org) can help search engines understand your content better, enhancing your visibility in search results.
h) URL Structure
Clean and descriptive URLs that reflect a page’s content and hierarchy can help better crawl your pages.
i) 404 Errors
Frequent 404 errors can harm your website’s search engine ranking, so regular monitoring and fixing of these errors is an important part of technical SEO.
j) Canonical Tags
These are used to tell search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page, to prevent duplicate content issues.
10 Foremost Technical SEO WordPress Schemes for 2023
The number of websites is increasing daily, making ranking incredibly tough. With these tips, you can establish perfect SEO for your website.
#1 Conduct a comprehensive site audit
When conducting an SEO site audit, you should consider several important factors and evaluate changes.
Firstly, analyze your website’s structure and navigation. Evaluate if it is logical and user-friendly, with clear navigation menus and proper internal linking. This ensures that both users and search engines can navigate your site effectively,
In a site audit, you can ask several questions like,
- Is the website mobile-friendly and responsive? Does it provide a seamless user experience across different devices and screen sizes?
- How is the website’s loading speed? Is it optimized for quick page load times, or are there areas that need improvement?
- Do search engines properly index the website? Are all pages being crawled and indexed correctly, or are there any crawling or indexing issues?
- Are the URLs SEO-friendly, descriptive, and properly structured? Do they include relevant keywords and provide clear indications of page content?
- Are the title tags and meta descriptions optimized for each page? Do they accurately represent the content and entice users to click?
#2 Optimize your images
Image optimization is crucial for technical SEO because it affects your website’s loading speed.
You can compress and resize your images to reduce their file sizes without compromising quality. Compressing images can significantly reduce file sizes by up to 80%. Use tools like JPEG Optimizer or TinyPNG to compress your images before uploading them to your website.
Next, select the appropriate file format for each image. JPEG is ideal for photographs, while PNG suits images with transparent backgrounds or graphics. Consider using the modern WebP format, which offers superior compression and is widely supported by modern browsers.
Best sizes for Images are,
Optimize the names of your image files by using descriptive names incorporating relevant keywords. Avoid generic names like “IMG123.jpg” and instead choose names like “blue-widget-product.jpg” that provide meaningful information about the image.
#3 Create article structures with headers
Creating page structures with headers is an important aspect of optimizing your website for search engines and improving user experience.
Organizing your content with headers provides a clear hierarchy that helps search engines understand your page and users navigate through it easily.
Headers, represented by H1, H2, H3, and so on, serve as signposts for both search engines and users. They help search engines determine your page’s main topics, allowing users to scan and comprehend your content quickly.
Remember to maintain consistency in your header hierarchy throughout your website. Consistent header usage not only improves user experience but also helps search engines understand the structure of your website.
According to a study, 80% of people only skim through content, emphasizing the importance of well-structured headers. So, follow the H1 header with subheadings, such as H2, H3, and so on, to break down your content into sections. These subheadings should introduce specific topics within your page and provide a logical flow to guide readers.
Best flow for headers are, H1 > H2 > H3 (Limiting headers with H3 is a best SEO practice)
#4 Focus on website speed
Focusing on website speed is crucial for delivering an optimal user experience and achieving better search engine rankings. Several factors connect with website speed.
- Compress and resize images to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality. Choose the appropriate file format (JPEG, PNG, WebP) based on the image content. A great image compression tool can be TinyPNG.
- Implement browser caching to store static resources, enabling faster subsequent page loads. Utilize server-side caching mechanisms, such as opcode or object caching, to reduce database queries and improve performance.
- Remove unnecessary characters, whitespace, and comments from CSS and JavaScript files to reduce their file sizes and improve loading speed.
- Distribute your website’s content across multiple servers geographically to reduce latency and improve loading speed for visitors worldwide.
- Use web font formats that load quickly, and consider using system fonts or font subsets to minimize the impact on loading speed.
- Limit the use of redirects, as they add extra HTTP requests and increase page load times. Ensure that any redirects are necessary and optimized.
- Optimize the critical rendering path by eliminating or deferring render-blocking CSS and JavaScript to allow the page to load and render faster.
- Monitor your server response time and optimize server configurations, database queries, and caching mechanisms to reduce response times.
- Load and display above-the-fold content quickly to provide a faster initial user experience while other elements load in the background.
- Continuously monitor website speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or WebPageTest. Regularly test and optimize your website to maintain fast loading times.
Implementing these specific website speed improvement techniques will help optimize your site’s performance, enhance user experience, and contribute to better search engine rankings.
#5 Ignore AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
Recent reports against AMP pages state that they brought 40% less revenue to publishers. AMP benefits Google, more than publishers because it hinders non-AMP ads and delays them by 1 second, giving Google AMPs the perfect boost.
Some other disadvantages you might receive is,
- Limited design flexibility: AMP imposes strict design constraints to prioritize speed and performance. This can limit customization options, resulting in a standardized look and feel across AMP-enabled websites. The restricted design flexibility may not align with some businesses’ branding and visual identity.
- Complicated implementation: Implementing AMP can be complex and time-consuming. It often requires creating separate AMP versions of web pages or converting existing pages, which can be a significant undertaking, especially for large websites.
- Duplicate content challenges: Maintaining separate AMP versions of web pages can lead to duplicate content issues. Search engines may need help to determine the preferred version of a page, potentially impacting search rankings and organic traffic.
- Analytics and tracking challenges: Implementing AMP can introduce challenges with analytics and tracking. Integrating analytics tools may require additional configuration or result in limited data availability compared to traditional tracking methods.
- Dependency on third-party hosts: To benefit from AMP’s performance optimizations, web pages need to be hosted on the AMP cache or served through specific AMP CDN providers. This dependency on external hosting can introduce additional complexities and potential limitations.
#6 Optimize your content for voice search
Recently, voice searching with keywords is one typical thing that became extremely popular within days.
According to a recent study, nearly 40% of all internet users (USA) utilize voice search monthly on mobile devices. This number is estimated to rise and reach 200 million within the upcoming years.
You can use different strategies to use voice search and modify your content to boost your rankings,
- Understand user intent: Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and consider the questions they may ask when using voice search. Voice searches are often more conversational, so focus on providing direct, concise answers to commonly asked questions.
- Use natural language and long-tail keywords: Optimize your content with long-tail keywords and phrases that reflect how people speak and ask questions. Voice searches tend to be more conversational, so incorporating natural language into your content can increase its relevance for voice search queries.
- Provide clear and concise answers: Structure your content to provide clear and concise answers to common questions. Featured snippets are often used as voice search responses, so aim to provide information in a concise format that voice assistants can easily read aloud.
- Monitor analytics and refine: Regularly analyze your website analytics and monitor voice search performance. Identify which queries are driving traffic and conversions, and adjust your content and optimization strategies accordingly.
- Optimize for local queries: Voice searches are often location-based, so optimize your content for local questions by including relevant information such as your business address, operating hours, and nearby landmarks.
#7 Add alt attribute for all content images
The alt attribute, short for “alternative text,” is an HTML attribute that provides a text description for an image in a blog or webpage. It serves as an alternative for users who cannot see the idea due to technical issues, slow internet connections, or visual impairments.
A simple tip for using alt attributes in a content image is to copy-paste the main keyword of the content. This ensures less space and better chances to boost your content ranking in the SERP.
#8 Generate XML sitemaps
By enhancing crawling and indexing, XML sitemaps significantly improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
You can start by selecting a reliable sitemap generator tool or plugin that suits your website platform. These tools automate the process of crawling your website and generating XML sitemaps.
Include all the relevant URLs on your website in the XML sitemap. Ensure to cover essential pages such as your main content pages, blog posts, product pages, and significant sections.
Give priority to high-quality URLs that are well-optimized, receive substantial traffic, or contain valuable content. Including them in your XML sitemap enhances their visibility and increases their chances of being indexed by search engines.
Specify the frequency at which your web pages are updated using the “changefreq” attribute. This attribute indicates how often the content on your pages changes. Choose appropriate values like “always,” “hourly,” “daily,” “weekly,” or “monthly” based on the frequency of content updates.
#9 Focus on .htaccess file optimization
Proper use of .htaccess files can positively impact your website’s SEO and unlock many benefits with it.
- URL Redirection: With .htaccess files, you can implement URL redirections, such as 301 redirects, to redirect old or outdated URLs to new ones. This helps maintain the SEO value of the old URLs by transferring it to the new URLs, ensuring that search engines and users are directed to the correct pages.
- Canonicalization: By using .htaccess files, you can enforce canonical URLs for your web pages. Canonicalization helps prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the preferred version of a page when multiple URLs can access the same content. This ensures that search engines index and rank the desired URL, consolidating SEO efforts.
- Customize Error Pages: .htaccess files allow you to create customized error pages with consistent design and branding, such as 404 error pages. Providing informative and user-friendly error pages enhances the user experience and reduces the negative impact of broken or missing pages on your SEO.
- Page Speed Optimization: These files enable various optimization techniques to enhance your website’s loading speed. For example, you can enable gzip compression, leverage browser caching, and set expired headers to improve page loading times. Faster-loading websites tend to have better user experiences and are favored by search engines in terms of SEO rankings.
- Directory Access Control: These files can restrict access to certain directories on your website. This is useful for protecting sensitive files, preventing unauthorized access, and maintaining the security of your website. Search engines value a secure website and contribute to better SEO rankings.
#10 Implement pagination
Pagination refers to the practice of dividing content or search results into multiple pages to improve usability and navigation. Implementing pagination on your website is crucial for enhancing user experience and facilitating the navigation of content spread across multiple pages.
It’s best to use a custom premade free pagination tool to add paginations to your site. You can add pagination to your pages using plugins like WP-PageNavi, Simple Pagination, Infinite Scroll, and Jquery Pagination.
How to Establish a 4-Step Technical SEO Framework?
Before starting everything, it’s crucial to establish a technical SEO framework that will align with your website and create any future working strategy.
Step-1: Start by taking an overall SEO analysis.
You can take a technical SEO analysis and create a roadmap for further improvements. You can use the Al-in-one SEO tool to thoroughly analyze and mark out issues like indexed contents, missing robots.txt files, or not having schema.org data for a website.
To start an analysis, go to the all-in-one SEO tool admin panel, and click the “SEO Audit Checklist”. In that panel, click on the “SEO analysis” option to check your website.
Step-2: Consider these points and evaluate your website settings
Enter your website’s URL and configure the required settings with this tool. You should focus on the changes and mistakes you can fix or improve any existing SEO preferences, like specifying your target keywords, selecting the search engines and regions to focus on, and setting up any additional preferences related to your SEO analysis.
Step-3: Analyze keyword performance
Utilize the tool’s keyword analysis feature to evaluate your target keywords’ performance. Assess their search volume, competition level, and current rankings. Identify keyword opportunities and areas where you may need to refine your keyword strategy.
Step-4: Generate regular reports
Generate comprehensive reports using the reporting and analytics features of the tool. Customize the reports to include the metrics and insights you want to share with your staff members.
Make Your Website More Visible in Search Engines
By completing the above schemes, you have 90% perfected your website SEO and future-proof your site’s performance.
You can follow best practices, and by utilizing the available tools and plugins, you can streamline your technical SEO efforts. Conducting regular site audits, monitoring website speed, and ensuring proper indexing and crawlability are crucial for maintaining an optimized WordPress website.
However, remember that SEO is always modifying, so monitor your website performance regularly to keep a good SEO score.
Have a nice day!