What is Technical SEO?
To the uninitiated, technical SEO-speak may sound like a lot of gibberish. Schema markup, 404 errors, crawl speed, canonical tags, robots.txt…huh? If you feel like you need a translator to decode the secret language of tech SEO, you’re not alone. Luckily, a great SEO agency will have tech SEO experts (basically, wizards) on hand to interpret the complicated language of tech SEO and make recommendations and adjustments that will give your pages a lift in SERPs (search engine results pages).
First though, a technical breakdown of how SEO works:
There are many facets to an overall SEO strategy, including the content you create, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. However, technical SEO should be foundational to your entire approach to search engine optimization.
Technical SEO is built around three distinct actions of search engines: crawling, rendering, and indexing.
- Crawling: Every search engine has bots that they deploy to crawl your pages. How and what is crawled on your site can be managed by using a robots.txt file.
- Rendering: This is what happens when the coding used on your pages is rendered by a browser and delivered to the user in a format that is easy to view and understand. Every web page you visit has been rendered to look and function the way it does because of its coding.
- Indexing: After a page has been crawled and rendered, it is then indexed and the information it contains is stored for future use. Managing indexing is usually seen as a priority over managing what is crawled, as it contributes more to how your pages perform in search results.
A technical SEO expert will understand how your pages will be crawled, rendered, and indexed and can make adjustments and resolve errors to improve your search rankings.
Why Partner with a Technical SEO Agency?
If this all sounds very complex or, at the very least, incredibly time-consuming, it might be time to bring a trusted technical SEO partner on board. Here’s why:
Improve Search Experience
When a user finds your page in their search results, they want information…and they want it now. When it comes to technical SEO and page speed, every second counts. Literally. With every extra second it takes your page to load, the bounce rate increases and user satisfaction declines. Pages that have been optimized by a qualified tech SEO expert deliver a better experience.
Increase Organic Traffic
Improving the technical performance of your website will bring in more organic traffic. A tech SEO makes this happen by optimizing the metadata on your site, which leads to better ranking for more relevant keywords. Ultimately, this means the right audience will find your content when they need it, meaning not just more traffic, but better traffic.
Improve Quality of Click Throughs
As mentioned above, you don’t just want more visitors to your site — you want visitors whose search intent aligns with the content you’re offering. These visitors are more likely to click through to your site and more likely to convert. This is where paring technical SEO with on-page and off-page SEO really pays off.
Boost Conversion
You’re offering killer content that fulfills your visitors’ search intent, right? But if they can’t find you (or they don’t have a good experience), they aren’t going to convert. Technical SEO is your first step in ramping up conversions by ensuring your pages are error-free and easy to find.
Optimize for Mobile Devices
Mobile search is the future, but it’s also the here-and-now. Around half of all searches today are conducted on mobile devices, so it’s never been more important to ensure your pages are optimized for efficient and easy mobile browsing.
Improve SEO Results
There’s little point in focusing on keyword optimization if your site is full of broken links, loads sluggishly, or doesn’t even appear in the top search results. Technical SEO should be the cornerstone of your SEO strategy and, when used in conjunction with on-page and off-page SEO, will set you up for better ROI and better long-term results.
Features to Look for in a Tech SEO Company
So you’re thinking now that technical SEO is maybe more important than you first thought. What’s next? In order to maximize your SEO strategy and get the results you’re looking for, you’ll need to find a tech SEO company, agency, or consultant. BOLO for these qualities:
Comprehensive SEO Program
Sure, you might find an agency with more expertise in on-page SEO or one that has glowing reviews for their keyword research. But what you actually want is a company that offers top-to-bottom, end-to-end SEO, starting with technical SEO and continuing with on-page and off-page SEO. Make sure your SEO agency outlines every step of the SEO process, from comprehensive audits to keyword research, content optimization to KPI tracking, and beyond.
Impressive Client Portfolio
Your chosen SEO agency should be well-versed in your industry, and they should have the case studies and testimonials to back it up. You wouldn’t go through the burger joint drive-thru when what you really want is a quality steak, right? Similarly, avoid budget SEO companies with a slim portfolio of clients you’ve never heard of.
Thought Leadership
Yes, you want a tech SEO company that understands the intricacies involved in actually executing their work. But you also want a company with a voice that’s heard and respected in their industry. Look for a partner that’s vocal about the latest evolutions in technical SEO, as you can be sure they’ll be on the leading edge of new innovations and best practices.
Trackable Results
The great thing about technical SEO is that it produces a lot of data. These fixes, when implemented, either work or they don’t. And a reputable and reliable tech SEO company will be able to offer proof that they do.
Diverse Team
There’s nothing wrong with hiring an individual SEO consultant…if that’s what you need. But if you’re looking for an overall lift in SEO from search to content to conversion, you’re going to need more. A lot more. Look for a team that’s made up of experts in different areas of SEO — and even different areas of marketing. You’ll want knowledgeable people in tech SEO, on-page and off-page, content, analytics, and possibly more.
What Technical Services Can I Expect from First Page Strategy?
We’re glad you asked! If you’re in search of a tech SEO company with all the qualities we listed above, you’re in luck. FPS has a full team of experts schooled and experienced in every aspect of SEO. When you work with FPS, you can expect:
Tech SEO Consulting
At FPS, we’re a full-service SEO agency with a big-picture perspective on how to move your brand from Google’s black hole all the way to the first page (what can we say, it’s in the name). That includes consultation with a tech SEO expert who understands how to prioritize, tweak, and adjust your technical SEO to deliver the best results.
Tech SEO Audit
Technical SEO issues are often invisible. Our audits go through your site with a fine-tooth comb, detecting broken pages, crawl issues, and other site errors. On their own, these problems may seem like a minor hassle. But when there are multiple issues, they could stand in the way of your SEO success.
Competitor Analysis
Are your competitors outperforming you in search? It could be that they have fewer technical SEO obstacles standing in their way. We’ll uncover exactly what they’re doing and how it’s working and craft a strategy that will put you ahead of the pack.
Image Optimization
Visual content is critical for high-performing brands. But when done incorrectly, it can be more of a hassle than a help. Our team will optimize image alt attributes, resize files, and implement sitemaps and plugins to ensure your images add value to your site and to your SEO strategy.
Speed Optimization
Slow page speed is the kiss of death when it comes to tech SEO. But when you’ve got FPS on your team, you won’t need to worry. We’ll work to compress files, optimize coding, and eliminate redirects to ensure your visitors have a positive experience and your site ranks higher.
Metadata Analysis
Meta tags tell visitors and search engines what your content is about. Using the right metadata will get you more traffic and higher visibility, including title tags, alt attribution, robot tags, and more. We’ll get to work to make sure all your metadata is working for you.
Sitemaps and Crawl Budget
Crawl errors lead to less of the content you want out in the world being indexed. And that means it can’t be found. We’ll implement sitemaps to ensure your important pages are always crawled, indexed, and ranked appropriately to boost your overall SEO performance.
Website Architecture and Structural Review
The way your website is structured is every bit as important as the information that’s on it. Part of our auditing process will look at your site’s architecture and our experts will make recommendations on where and how you can restructure to ensure better organic search results.
Structured Data Markup
Structured data adds tags to your content that helps search engines understand the information you’re sharing. Structured data leads to better interpretation of your website, which leads to better crawling and indexing. And all of that leads to — you guessed it — better results for your brand.
Schema Markup
Schema markup is a particular vocabulary used in structured data. It defines the content on your website to ensure search engines are interpreting it correctly and ranking it appropriately. It sounds like a different language, but trust us, it works.
Backlink Analysis
Backlinks improve your website’s authority, and they are vital to your SEO performance. Our experts take a deep dive into your backlink profile to better understand referring domains and ensure your backlinks come from high-quality, reputable sites.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the underpinning of on-page SEO, but tech SEO experts understand how they influence your performance at every level. At FPS, our on-page and tech SEO experts work in tandem to ensure you’re using the right keywords in the right places and that your priority and long-tail keywords are aligned with search intent.
Website Migration
If and when there comes a time you need to move your website to a new hosting platform or domain, you’ll want a team of experts at the ready to make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible. Enter FPS. We’ve been through this before, and we know exactly how to migrate your site while ensuring your traffic doesn’t tank. We’ll map every URL, fix 404 errors, update internal links, and weed out duplicate content so your visitors will never even notice the slightest hiccup.
Prevent Penalty
Google algorithms can throw a major wrench into even the most carefully laid plans. However, you don’t have to put your website at risk of penalties which could cost you organic traffic and sink your SERP ranking. We’ll be keeping an eye out for possible issues, and we always (always) practice white hat SEO to ensure you don’t get hit with a surprise penalty.
Penalty Recovery
*Bleep* happens, but penalties don’t have to. And if they do, recovery is possible. You may have been penalized due to a search engine algorithm or because a previous SEO agency engaged in black hat practices. Whatever the reason, our experts are standing by to mitigate the damage and get you back to pre-penalty performance.
Core Web Vitals
Core web vitals are comprised of three pillars: largest contentful paint (LCP), first input delay (FID), and cumulative layout shift (CLS). These are the technical SEO factors that Google measures to determine how effective your site is at maintaining user experience. Good CWVs usually mean your site runs faster, adapts across different devices, and offers an intuitive experience.
Why Choose First Page Strategy
For all the reasons mentioned above. When you go with FPS, you’re going to get a team of the leading SEO experts in the industry. Our talent pool extends around the globe, so you can always be sure you’re working with the best and brightest minds. There are other reasons FPS should be your top pick for technical SEO, including:
Full-Service Tech SEO
We aren’t a one-and-done kind of agency. We take a holistic approach to SEO, with technical services guiding your brand to a comprehensive SEO strategy that takes into account all of the following:
Detailed Audits and Recommendations
To know where you’re going (and how to get you there), we have to first understand where you are. Our technical SEO audits take an in-depth look at how your website is currently performing and extract insights on what could be changed to make improvements. All along the way, we’ll be closely monitoring and adapting our approach to maximize results.
Web Strategies Based on Established Goals
We’re all about setting goals (SMART goals, obvi). But we’re even more about achieving them. We’ll look at your current performance from a big-picture perspective and recommend ways to work your way up the hierarchy of SEO needs.
Access to Tech SEO Specialists
Tech SEO experts…or mad scientists? You decide. Most growth marketing (of which SEO is a part) is focused on experimentation. Our experts need to be ready to hypothesize, test, and analyze the outcome to make the best decisions for your brand.
Track Record of Result with Past and Present Clients
We deliver results, and we’ve got the numbers to prove it. In just six months, we were able to get one client a 400 percent boost in organic traffic and a 300 percent increase in revenue. We’re confident we can do the same (or even better) for you.
Tech SEO Process at First Page Strategy
When you get on board with FPS, you get a lot. Our SEO packages cover a lot of the standard services you’d expect from a great SEO agency, but we offer completely customizable packages as well — so you always get exactly what you need. Our process follows our four growth engines: strategic, visibility, conversion, and expansion.
Strategic Engine
This is our planning and onboarding phase. We’ll get to know your brand, conduct in-depth audits and develop a detailed strategy designed to deliver impressive results.
Visibility Engine
This phase is dedicated to growing your traffic and getting your brand out there for the world to see. Here, we’ll design pillar pages, optimize landing pages, create a content strategy, and analyze your traffic to find out what’s working and where we can improve.
Conversion Engine
All the traffic in the world won’t move the needle unless those visitors click and convert. Here, we’ll go hard at A/B testing, conversion optimization, demand gen content, and more — all while keeping a close eye on your KPIs.
Expansion Engine
More traffic. More revenue. More to love. Here’s where we get down into the nitty-gritty and explore various content formats, multimedia, ads, and partnerships to grow your brand and deliver sustainable results.
Technical SEO Success Stories at First Page Strategy
Let’s set the scene: Brand A (at their request for anonymity) came to us fresh off a bad breakup with another SEO agency. Even with piles of content, their traffic had shuddered to a halt. We knew we could do better for their brand, and we set out to prove it. After extensive audits, we were able to build and implement a strategy that included:
- 7 landing pages a month
- 5-10 links built every month
- 8 blogs a month
Ultimately, our client saw a 400 percent increase in organic traffic and a 300 percent increase in revenue. Numbers that are nothing to sneeze at!
But best of all? We can do the same (and maybe even better) for your brand.
A Tech SEO Team to Match Your Vision of Success
You’ve got big dreams. We’ve got big power to make them a reality. Trust our tech SEO experts to catch even the most minor errors and improve your site’s performance. We’re here to make sure you get not only more traffic, but better traffic. And we’ll make sure those visitors are primed and ready with the information and experience they need to convert.
Ready to learn more? Get in touch with us today to schedule your technical SEO consultation!
