Fast loading pages

One of the most important technical SEO best practices is to make sure your website loads quickly. This means having a fast-loading page, avoiding pop-ups and interstitials, removing unnecessary plugins (especially heavy ones like flash), etc. Everyone knows that speed matters when it comes to ranking in SERPs; Google has confirmed this multiple times over the years, including in their 2017 Web Performance Update.

A fast-loading page is not only good for Google; it's also beneficial to your visitors. No one likes waiting around on a website that takes forever to load (especially if they're using mobile devices). If you want people to stick with your site and engage with the content, then make sure it's fast and easy to access.

Have clean code

Not only that, technical SEO is about more than just speed; having clean code can help improve your rankings as well. Any content or scripts you remove from the page will not be indexed by Google (and this includes ads). It's important to keep technical aspects of sites like HTML tags in mind when designing or writing content.

If you want technical SEO to be effective, one of the best things you can do is use Google Search Console. It's a great way to see how your website performs from an on-site perspective (and it provides tons of info about technical errors). You'll also learn what keywords are driving traffic and which ones aren't doing so well. You can use this info to see what technical SEO changes are needed in order for your site to rank higher.

Read here more about implementing search console in your SEO strategy

Having quality backlinks

Another great technical SEO best practice is making sure you have quality backlinks. While links will probably always be important when it comes to ranking, the Google Penguin update made them even more critical. This means that poor linking strategies will not be as effective. You need to make sure your link profile is clean, and you should avoid using automated tools for building links (like directories).

Optimize URLs

You'll also want to optimize the URLs of every page on your site. The words in these pages shouldn't be random; they should match the keywords you're targeting. This will make it easier for search engines to interpret the content on each page, and it'll also help with your rankings if done properly.

No broken links or images

Another technical SEO best practice is making sure there are no broken pages or images on your website. There should be nothing that points back to an error 404 screen; this can hurt your rankings. This technical SEO best practice is especially important if you're losing traffic due to broken links or any other technical errors.

Make sure every page on your site is mobile responsive

Google has made it clear that mobile-friendly websites are going to do better in SERPs, and this also applies to technical SEO (mobile sites tend to load faster too). Keep this technical SEO best practice in mind when designing or updating your website's technical aspects.

Keep your content unique for each page

Technical SEO is an integral part of your site, and technical aspects need to be updated constantly. If you want a successful website that ranks high in search engines, technical best practices are essential. One way of doing this is by using Google Search Console; it's the perfect tool for understanding what technical errors are hurting your rankings. With all these technical SEO tips at your disposal, there should never be any reason for broken links or other technical issues on your site again!

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Do you want to learn more? Read my other article about technical SEO consulting