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Best technical SEO practices for achieving higher ranking
Do you know which part of SEO you should implement at first?
Technical SEO, yes, you’re reading right.
It doesn’t matter what you have done to optimize your site. If you failed to implement technical SEO, there is a greater chance that your effort will fail.
So, to keep that in mind, here, I will provide the best technical SEO practices. If you follow these technical SEO practices, you will get your desired results from the SEO campaign.
Best practices for technical SEO
WWW Vs. Non-WWW Which one is right for you?
When you set up your website, you have to decide on www and non-www versions.
Why is this an important fact?
Your site is www or non-www; it doesn’t matter for users. Users don’t pay much attention to this matter.
So, why should I take it seriously?
If you do not select a preferred domain version, it can be accessed by both www and non-www versions of your domain. Here the problem begins. Search engines view these two versions as separate websites.
Therefore, it can cause many problems, such as duplicate content issues, indexing problems, etc.
To solve the duplicate content issue and indexing problems, you must go with the www or non-www version of your website.
Which is better, www, or non-www?
There is no SEO benefit in terms of choosing the www or non-www version. It depends on you which version you want to choose. If you have plan to make a large website, then you should go with the www version. Otherwise, you can choose the non-www version.
Make sure that your website pages are Crawlable and Indexable
Ensuring site crawlability and indexability is the most important technical SEO fact. Everyone should check it carefully.
If every page of your site is crawlable and indexable, that means search engine bots can easily crawl your website pages and index them without any hassle.
Who doesn’t want to index their website pages?
Everyone wants to make their website 100% crawlable and indexable. To make your website crawlable and indexable, create XML sitemap, use clean site structure, and remove orphan pages.
What if I want to block a page?
Website owners want to hide some pages of their website. That’s why the robot txt file comes into the game.
So, what is the robot txt file?
Robot txt file is an instruction manual for search engines. It contains a few lines of code. These few lines of code instruct search engines which pages should not be indexed.
Usually, robot txt file is used for blocking search engines from indexing the specific page or category of your website. Here is how a robot text file looks;
Create XML sitemap
XML sitemap is one of the most talked topics in the SEO world.
So, what is XML sitemap exactly?
XML sitemap is a file that contains important pages of a website. It tells search engines that these pages are essential, and they should crawl and index these pages.
XML sitemap is a way to send signals to search engines about essential pages of your website. It helps search engines to crawl a website easily.
When XML sitemap plays an important role?
If your website is small, then you don’t need to worry about XML sitemap. When it comes to giant websites with thousands of pages and categories, XML sitemap is a must for them.
Websites which doesn’t practice internal linking then XML sitemap can work as a discovery tool for them.
If your website is new and doesn’t have incoming links, then XML sitemap is the best option to tell search engine crawler about pages.
You can generate XML sitemap in different ways. You should choose automatic ways to generate XML site map because it’s not static as it updates from time to time.
Here is a site called xml-sitemaps.com. You can use this site to generate XML sitemap in few clicks.
Structure URL in the right way
Do I need to tell you what URL is? I guess no!
URL is one of few things you can use to send relevance signal to search engines about your page. But to do this, you need to structure URL in the right way.
Let’s look at two URLs
Example of bad URL: www.yoursite.com/2020-10-9-seo-make-url-structure-right-way-19548455
Example of good URL: www.yoursite.com/url-structure
The first URL looks like jungle. On the other hand, the second one looks clean, short, and readable.
Why is URL structure an important fact for SEO?
URL is a direct ranking factor.
URL improves user experience.
So, how can I structure URL in the right way?
To structure URL properly, you need to take care of a few things.
Keyword? Yes, keyword, you should use your main target keyword in the URL.
Keep URL length within three to four words.
Never use stop words, special characters within URL.
Anything else!
Yes, make sure that URL is readable.
Make sure that your visitors can find their desired content within 3 to 4 clicks.
Website navigation is a process through which users access different parts of a website.
It is impossible to improve user experience without better navigation. Website navigation and user experience go hand to hand.
Proper navigation on your website can help your site to perform better in search results. As a result, traffic to your site will increase.
It doesn’t matter how much traffic you generate; your success depends on conversion. Better website navigation is a guaranty for conversion.
Make sure that your website menus are descriptive. Avoid using traditional words on the menu. Let’s say you’re selling handmade shoes on your website, then use handmade shoes as a menu instead of just products.
Don’t use a format-based menu like photos, videos, infographics. For example, if you have a website on cat and publish cat photos and videos, then use cat photos, cat videos as a menu instead of just photos, videos.
Dropdown menus are common on many websites, but they are harmful to SEO and user experience. So, avoid using dropdown menus.
How many menus should I include on my website? Seven, yes, you should not use more than seven menus on your website.
Website Structure – Your Website shouldn’t be like a jungle
Website structure is the way how a website is designed. In other words, how pages of a website are connected is known to be website structure.
Does website structure matter?
Yes, a lot.
A better website structure provides a better user experience. User experience directly links to SEO ranking factors. If your website has hassle-free navigation, it means visitors can navigate different pages easily. As a result, visitors will browse more pages, and dwell time will increase. It helps to decrease the bounce rate. Bounce rate is one of the important ranking factors.
Who doesn’t like to see site links on the SERP? Site links are excellent for many ways; it shows essential pages of your website in the SERP. Thus, the CTR of your website in the SERP increases. Moreover, site links also help to increase your brand reputation. Search engines award this trophy to well-structured sites.
As I already told you, site crawlability is most crucial for any website. A well-structured site ensures better crawlability.
What are the best practices for site structure?
You should plan your site hierarchy before developing your site. You can draw site hierarchy on paper, whiteboard, drawing software, etc. After that, execute according to your plan.
URL structure should flow site structure.
Breadcrumb menu is known as secondary menu. It helps users to understand their exact location within a website. Here is how it looks like on a website;
Off course!
When someone lands on a page, if he/she doesn’t like the page, he/she will bounce back. But if you have breadcrumb menu, then he could get back to the category or main section of that page and may find interest in other pages. So, breadcrumb is directly helping to decrease bounce rate.
These days, Google shows URL in the SERP. If you have breadcrumb menu on your site, then your site’s URLs will be shown properly on Google.
You must show the whole path of the visiting page in the breadcrumb menu. At the last point, add the home page.
Use ‘>’ as a separator. Some people used ‘: ‘but different studies prove that ‘>’ better than ‘: ‘.
As breadcrumb works as a secondary menu, that’s why you should put it on the upper side of your website.
And don’t forget to boldface the last item.
Is your website fast or too slow?
Would you like to visit a slow website?
I guess no!
Nobody loves to visit a slow website. And Google loves fast webpage when it comes to ranking as website loading speed is a direct ranking factor.
You can test your website speed through different tools. Here is the loading speed of Asian Virtual Solutions;
What if my website is slow?
Few things can change your website loading speed dramatically.
Everyone uses images in their post. It is the reason for increasing page size. To eliminate this problem, you can use image compression tools or plugin to reduce page size significantly.
Cache plugin is another effective way to increase site loading speed. If your site is based on WordPress, you can use the WP Rocket plugin.
Moreover, you can use CDN to improve website loading speed.
Now it’s your turn
Technical SEO consists of different settings and optimization. You will need some skills to perform technical SEO. But you must do it because it essential for every website.
Unlike off-page SEO, if you implement technical SEO, there is a little chance you will need to do it again.
Above I have provided the most important issues of technical SEO. If I missed any part of technical SEO, feel free to tell me about that.
A really thorough article about technical SEO. You could maybe do another post on website speed and how to interpret the functions and how to speed your website up?