10 Technical SEO Fixes to Boost Website Rankings

Want higher search rankings? Start with technical SEO. It ensures your site is crawlable, indexable, and user-friendly, forming the backbone of your SEO strategy. Here’s a quick rundown of the essentials:

• Fix site architecture: Ensure all pages are reachable within 3 clicks.
• Improve Core Web Vitals: Optimize for faster load times and better user experience.
• Use HTTPS: Secure your site for trust and rankings.
• Ensure mobile responsiveness: Adapt your site for all devices.
• Maintain clean sitemaps and accurate robots.txt files.
• Address duplicate content with canonical tags.
• Resolve XML sitemap errors and blocked resources.

Quick tip: Regular audits and tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and GTmetrix can help you spot and fix issues fast. Start today to improve your rankings and user experience.

A Basic (Yet Powerful) Technical SEO Audit for Beginners

Technical SEO Fundamentals

Technical SEO forms the backbone of search engine rankings. By understanding its key elements and addressing frequent issues, you can ensure your site is optimized for both search engines and users.

Main Technical SEO Components

Here are the essential elements of technical SEO:

• Site architecture and crawlability: Make sure all pages are accessible within three clicks from the homepage.
• Security and performance: Use HTTPS for secure connections and focus on improving metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
• Mobile responsiveness: Ensure your website adapts seamlessly to different devices with fluid layouts.
• Sitemaps and robots.txt: Use these tools to guide search engine crawlers efficiently through your site.
• Structured data and hreflang: Help search engines understand your content and its relationships, especially for multilingual sites.

With these elements in place, let’s dive into the common technical issues that can disrupt your SEO efforts.

Top Technical SEO Issues

Even well-optimized sites can encounter these common problems:

Multiple Homepage Versions
Having your homepage accessible through example.com, www.example.com, and /index.html can split your site’s authority. Use 301 redirects and canonical tags to consolidate to a single preferred version.

Resource Blocking
If your robots.txt file blocks JavaScript, CSS, or images, it can prevent proper rendering of your pages. Regularly audit and adjust these directives to allow crawlers full access.

XML Sitemap Errors
Including error pages, noindex content, or blocked URLs in your sitemap can confuse search engines. Keep your sitemaps clean and up to date to avoid such issues.

Technical Duplication
Duplicate content can occur due to parameterized URLs, mixed HTTP/HTTPS content, or session IDs. Address this by using canonical tags and maintaining a consistent URL structure.

Core Web Vitals Failures
Metrics like LCP, FID, and CLS are critical for both rankings and user experience. Regularly test your site’s performance and make updates to improve these metrics.

Frequent audits are essential for identifying and addressing these technical challenges. Prioritize fixes based on their potential impact and the importance of the affected pages.

10 Technical SEO Fixes for Better Rankings

Leverage the findings from your audit to implement these 10 focused technical improvements. They can help enhance your site’s crawlability, loading speed, mobile performance, and overall security.

sbb-itb-d805edb

Technical SEO Tools Guide

After completing your audit, you’ll need the right tools to diagnose and keep track of technical SEO issues.

Essential SEO Tools

A solid technical SEO toolkit includes software designed for crawling, performance tracking, and problem detection. Google provides a range of free tools to get you started:

• Google Search Console: Keep an eye on indexing errors, rankings, and backlinks.
• Google Analytics 4: Measure user behavior, like bounce rate and dwell time.
• PageSpeed Insights: Pinpoint loading speed problems.
• Lighthouse: Audit performance, accessibility, and SEO factors.

For more in-depth analysis, tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider are invaluable. It can help you find:

• Broken links and redirect chains
• Duplicate content
• Missing meta descriptions
• Oversized image files
• URL structure issues
• Canonical tag errors

Tools Used at Tarun Gehani SEO Consulting

At Tarun Gehani SEO Consulting, we rely on a variety of tools to tackle technical SEO challenges effectively:

Site Structure Analysis
We leverage Screaming Frog SEO Spider’s advanced capabilities, such as crawling JavaScript-rendered content and mapping site architecture, to identify technical issues that simpler tools might overlook.

Performance Optimization
For speed and performance improvements, we use GTmetrix (starting at $4.25/month). It offers detailed speed tests, waterfall charts, and custom scoring to address performance bottlenecks.

Data Validation
We rely on specific tools for precise checks, including:

• Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool to validate structured data
• Siteliner for quick detection of duplicate content
• W3C Validator to ensure HTML complies with standards

With these tools, we can efficiently diagnose and resolve technical SEO issues, ensuring your site stays optimized.

Up next: learn how to measure SEO success using key metrics and clear reporting.

Track Your SEO Progress

To keep your technical SEO on track, use the tools mentioned earlier and focus on these key metrics and tasks.

Key Metrics and Maintenance

Here are the main areas to monitor and maintain:

• Core Technical Health
  • Check Core Web Vitals and crawl coverage using Google Search Console.
  • Ensure your XML sitemap is accurate, listing only canonical and indexable URLs.
  • Confirm that HTTPS is properly implemented on every page of your site.
• Automated Monitoring
  • Use tools like SEO Site Checkup to automate audits, flag technical issues, and produce reports.
  • Schedule monthly site audits to catch any new problems.
  • Set up alerts for urgent technical issues to address them quickly.
• Regular Assessments
  • Perform in-depth performance reviews every quarter.
  • Log and prioritize any issues you find during these reviews.
  • Keep track of how issues are resolved and their impact on your SEO performance.

Wrapping Up

The 10 technical SEO fixes discussed here can help set the stage for long-term search success. By applying these fixes and using the tools from our Technical SEO Tools Guide, you can improve your site’s crawlability, indexability, and overall user experience. Keep an eye on key metrics with the tools mentioned earlier to ensure your site stays secure, fast, and mobile-friendly while maintaining strong rankings.

At Tarun Gehani SEO Consulting, we specialize in detailed technical SEO audits and tailored solutions. From addressing Core Web Vitals to fixing duplicate content issues or enhancing crawlability, we can help strengthen your website’s technical setup and turn it into a valuable part of your online strategy.