Building a Website Without Technical SEO is Like Baking a Cake with Air: Fluffy, but Forgotten. Imagine pouring your heart into crafting the perfect website: stunning design, engaging content, a treasure trove of valuable information. But without technical SEO, it's like baking a cake with air—beautiful to behold, yet invisible to everyone except you. It might win you local baking awards, but it won't attract hungry customers or climb the ranks of online dessert destinations.
Technical SEO is the secret ingredient that transforms a website from a lonely storefront to a bustling online bakery, luring in search engines like moths to a flame. It's the flour, eggs, and magic spell that ensures your virtual creation rises to the top of the search engine oven, filling the digital landscape with the aroma of success.
So, why settle for an airy puff in the vast internet marketplace? Foremost Media is your expert pastry chef, ready to knead, fold, and optimize your website for peak deliciousness. We'll streamline your code, banish duplicate content, and whip up a mobile-friendly masterpiece that loads faster than a hot oven door slamming shut.
Let’s talk a little bit about strategy and what’s most important about technical SEO:
The need for speed
On a desktop, tablet or mobile device, your site must load quickly. How fast? The answer is – as fast as you can get it. As your page load time goes up, your viewers bounce off. And statistics bear that out – loading past three seconds, you’ve lost 32% of the people who wanted to view your site; load times exceeding 5 seconds cause your bounce rate reach 90%; more than six seconds and your potential buyer is back at the search engine page looking for the next entry on the list. Google calls this “pogo-sticking.” Google dislikes pogo-sticking and punishes your site by dropping it down in the search engine results.
Now you might be thinking, "Who cares what Google thinks? There are lots of search engines!" Your personal preference may not be to use Google, but you are in the minority. Google has 93% of the search engine market, so your website needs to play nice with Google. Foremost is happy to play nice with Google if it pumps up your search engine results.
How Fast Is Your Website? Test It Here!
You need a responsive site
Having a responsive site is like having super customer service if you’ve got a brick and mortar site. It loads fast on a desktop, it loads fast on a tablet and it loads fast and adjusts to screen size on a mobile device. Google likes mobile device responsiveness. Google started chatting up mobile devices and responsiveness in 2015 when it announced a mobile related algorithm change and then reinforced that the next year when it announced mobile first indexing.
Mobile device surfing and buying is now more popular than desktop surfing. The office worker of yesterday that kept a surfing window open on their desktop at work has replaced that with their cell phone. Instead of opening a window on their desktop, they make a couple of taps on the phone, there’s your site, and it loads in two seconds. They already know what they want to buy, their credit card info loads up, and boom, they're done. Back to work.
Your website has to look professional on a mobile device. Image and text need to be properly sized and adjustable to fit on the screen. Visitors shouldn't have to keep flipping their device around to get a horizontal view to check a menu.
Is your website responsive? Test it here.
Now for the technical stuff
Your site needs crawlability. Crawlability is the amount of time the Google bots want to spend traveling around on your site. You want crawlability because more crawling moves up your site in the search engine rankings. The technical stuff is where you really need Foremost.
We can clean up the code, get rid of those extra URLs, identify duplicate content, and infinite spaces. You may have a lot of infinite space and not know it. For instance, do you have an event calendar and it goes back three years? Why? Tighten that up. We can help tweak your content so Google can successfully extract the information it needs.
For optimal search engine results, your content should be phrased in such a way to answer a question. That’s how people search or ask their voice services these days. They say or type in “where can I buy a hot pink widget?” Your site needs to “say” we sell hot pink widgets. And it needs to say it right away – not at the end of a big block of verbiage that talks about the benefits of a hot pink widget and the technical specs. You need to say that right away, and then repeat it when you get to the technical specs and repeat it again – but differently so Google doesn’t flag it as duplicate content.
Don't Let the Bots Get Lost: The Importance of robots.txt for Technical SEO
In the bustling metropolis of the internet, search engine crawlers are like tireless delivery drivers, constantly navigating websites to deliver content to hungry searchers. But just like any good city needs a map, your website needs a way to guide these crawlers to the right places (and keep them out of the wrong ones). That's where the unsung hero of technical SEO, robots.txt, comes in.
Imagine robots.txt as a bouncer at your website's nightclub. It politely tells crawlers which pages are open for business (like your stunning product pages and informative blog posts) and which areas are VIP-only or closed for renovations (like internal test servers or temporary files). This not only keeps your site running smoothly but also plays a crucial role in several key aspects of technical SEO:
1. Search Engine Visibility:
Think of search engines like high-profile guests seeking the best parts of your club. A well-maintained robots.txt ensures they don't get lost in the back alleys of irrelevant pages, but are instead directed to the main stage - your most important content. This helps search engines understand your website structure and prioritize indexing the pages that matter most, potentially boosting your rankings for valuable keywords.
2. Resource Optimization:
Crawling can be demanding, like a crowd of partygoers flooding the dance floor. A well-defined robots.txt acts as a crowd control measure, preventing crawlers from wasting their energy (and your server resources) on unnecessary pages. This keeps your website performing at its peak, ensuring a smooth and speedy experience for both crawlers and human visitors.
3. Content Control & Security:
Just like you wouldn't let random strangers into your VIP lounge, robots.txt lets you restrict access to sensitive areas of your website, like databases or admin panels. This keeps your private information safe from prying eyes and ensures that only authorized users can access certain areas.
4. Site Presentation Perfection:
Imagine if your nightclub's kitchen area or messy storage room accidentally ended up on the party flyer. Not a good look! Robots.txt lets you block crawlers from indexing these internal or unfinished pages, preventing them from appearing in search results and maintaining a professional and consistent online presence.
By understanding the importance of robots.txt and using it effectively, you can transform it from a silent bouncer to a valuable asset in your technical SEO toolbox. So, take some time to craft a clear and concise robots.txt file, and watch your website become the hottest destination on the internet for both search engines and human visitors alike!
Beyond the Bouncer: Sitemaps - Guiding Search Engines to the Golden Nugget
Robots.txt acts as the vigilant bouncer for your website, guiding crawlers away from restricted areas. But imagine your website as a sprawling underground city, with hidden treasures and secret pathways lurking beneath the surface. How do you ensure search engines discover all these gems, not just the main entrance? That's where your sitemap comes in, serving as the detailed treasure map for online explorers.
Think of a sitemap as a beautifully drawn map, highlighting all the crucial locations on your website: the bustling marketplaces (your product pages), the hidden alleyways (deeper blog posts), and even the scenic overlooks (informative landing pages). By providing this clear layout, you're not just showing off your digital domain, you're actively helping search engines understand its structure and efficiently crawl every valuable page.
The King of Duplicates: Why Canonicalization Matters for Your SEO Kingdom
Have you ever found yourself wandering through a labyrinth of identical hallways in a video game? Frustrating, right? Imagine that's how search engines feel when they stumble upon duplicate content on your website. Multiple URLs with the same or near-identical content confuse them, diluting your SEO power and leaving them unsure which version to crown the "king" of search results. Enter canonicalization – your valiant knight in shining code, ready to conquer the realm of duplicates and bring order to your online kingdom.
Think of canonicalization as a royal decree, clearly declaring which version of a page is the original "master copy." This tells search engines, "Hey, this is the one and only true heir to the SEO throne, the others are mere imposters!" By eliminating confusion and consolidating signals, canonicalization helps you:
1. Claim Your Rightful Ranking: No more splitting your SEO power among duplicate pages. Canonicalization focuses your rankings on the chosen URL, potentially boosting its visibility and organic traffic.
2. Avoid the Pitfalls of Panda: Google's Panda algorithm penalizes websites with duplicate content. Canonicalization acts as a shield, protecting your website from these SEO-crushing penalties.
3. Maximize Your Crawl Budget: Search engines have limited resources, and crawling duplicate content is a waste. Canonicalization helps them crawl your most important pages first, ensuring your valuable content gets the attention it deserves.
4. Maintain a Consistent User Experience: Duplicate content can be confusing for users, bouncing them between similar pages. Canonicalization keeps things clear and consistent, leading to a smoother and more satisfying user journey.
But how do you wield this powerful tool? Implementing canonical tags is the key. These are like tiny scrolls attached to your duplicate pages, whispering "Not the king! Follow the real one!" to search engines. Adding the correct rel="canonical" link attribute to your duplicate pages points them towards the chosen master copy, ensuring your kingdom remains free from content clones.
Remember, canonicalization is like any great tool – used wisely, it can build a flourishing SEO kingdom. But be mindful of your strategy. Choose your canonical URLs carefully, avoid overly complex structures, and keep your tags consistent. With a well-implemented canonicalization plan, you can reign supreme over the realm of search, guiding your visitors and search engines alike to the true gems of your online domain.
So, grab your trusty canonical tag, wield it with wisdom, and watch your website rise to the top of the search engine food chain!
Let’s recap
Google = necessary. Technical SEO = very important. Website optimized for mobile = very important. Website tweaking, dusting and cleaning = also important. Getting a professional at Foremost to review your site (or take care of this while we are building it) = also important.
Get your free website audit, and:
- Uncover hidden roadblocks: Our comprehensive analysis pinpoints technical glitches, duplicate content, and slow loading times holding your website back.
- Optimize your climbing gear: We'll identify areas for improvement, like mobile responsiveness and site structure, so your website can navigate the search engine ladder with ease.
- Discover your SEO Everest: Learn your true ranking potential and how Foremost Media can help you reach the peak of online visibility.
No obligation, just pure SEO insight. Don't let another day pass with your website languishing in the search engine wilderness. Book your free audit today and let's climb the mountain together!
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