The ‘Technical SEO’ Chatter

There is growing chatter out there about “technical SEO”. Some would say that it is the big winner for a business when it comes to being visible in search engine results.  Technical SEO can include and/or mean a lot of different things, depending on who you are speaking with, but mostly it is centered on good website markup or codebase.

Any competitive SEO signal (believed to be as many as 200) a search engine looks for can matter competitively, but in some cases “technical SEO‘ is used as a ‘scare tactic’. There are those digital marketing companies choosing “fear” as their sales & marketing strategy, for instance maybe, when trying to sell new website projects or SEO Service.

The web’s various standards are always evolving! Search Engines do evaluate website health based on the average person’s ability to access its pages, but keep in mind that content is still king! Also, keep in mind that the level of competition varies for every type of business in every target area. If a ‘walking tour business’ in Biloxi MS has little to no competition then the search engines will have no other option but to default to the pages it can find on ‘Walking Tours in Biloxi MS’ … regardless of whether or not there has been an investment in ‘technical SEO’.

What is Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to a website’s markup or codebase. It can include things like lighter code or pages better suited for mobile device support; it can be a more easily crawled XML sitemap, better page title & title tags, metadata, 301 redirects, website speed, page loads, and more.

There are lots of ‘audit websites’ out there set up to evaluate a website’s ‘technical SEO’ performance. A question one should always ask is, “who’s standard is this evaluation based upon?” The answer might expose those literally set up to support the very ‘scare tactics’ mentioned above; an audit result being tuned more to create fear than to evaluate the overall health of the business website versus its actual competition.

Also, know that most small to medium-sized business competition is neither investing in nor do they know anything about, ‘technical SEO’. What’s more, every potential consumer connects to the web with different local connections, device types, device settings, and various other potential interference. It is never an ‘apples to apples’ experience for the public. It is never as simple as ‘enter your website URL’ and know where you will rest versus the specific competition.

Still, any SEO signal a search engine looks for – matters. A business should want to know that its website is functioning well & competitively! Given the sheer volume of traffic that ‘Google Search’ sees, search engine optimization must be a priority for every business wanting to be found!

What Can Hurt Competitive SEO?

Ultimately, a business should operate with care or hire the necessary support. What a business should look for is a modern website theme with markup to address all of those items mentioned above. Before adding the newest & greatest plugin application, have someone evaluate it for any potential negatives. Free anything, logically, is probably not the best choice. Don’t add too many apps’, be conservative with home page video roll. Compress images and PDFs when adding them; name and tag all files appropriately. Consider what modern browsers want, etc., etc.

The idea is to make load times better; to make all visual or interactive website components work well with as many devices and connections as is possible. The idea is also to make search engine crawling and consumption easier.

Better Website Solutions For Business

Not all website solutions are created equal! Not all website solutions evolve to meet new challenges, like for instance ‘technical SEO’. All considered it may be time for a website update?!

WordPress is considered one of the best content management systems for SEO, but install an SEO-friendly theme and plugins supporting the best results possible. WordPress not only evolves at the speed of the web but there are always themes and plugin applications that show up to meet the evolving challenge. And yes, there are new WordPress themes that not only support the lovely design of a unique brand but a great user experience! Responsive design, clean code, and quick load speeds!