15 Technical SEO Checklist for Better Ranking

We all know that great content is important for SEO. But content alone won’t unlock your online traffic. SEO helps search engines identify and comprehend your site content and users navigate your web pages. Make sure you have a technical SEO checklist.

Technical SEO involves improving your website’s infrastructure so search engine spiders can correctly explore, index, and comprehend it. Achieve higher ranks in relevant search engine results pages (SERPs), so your target audience can discover your material online.

Technical SEO is all about improving your website’s ranking. Technical SEO covers various topics, from site performance to metatags to security. Therefore, keeping a technical SEO checklist can be essential.

Search engines help improve rank by providing relevant, responsive, and navigable websites. Through technical SEO optimization, search engines can assess your website’s worth.

Technical SEO checklist helps you swiftly solve or investigate problems with your technical SEO aspects.

Go to a web design service for website improvement. However, you should also be aware of these 15 Technical SEO Checklist checklists to ensure a better ranking of your site.

15 Checklist for Technical SEO

  1. Metadata

Metadata describes fundamental web page information in the HTML text. It is included in your website to help web spiders comprehend your page content and show snippets in search results.

Metadata is vital in WordPress and ecommerce technical SEO because it acts as a relevancy indicator. Other SEO-relevant information exists; however, these are the most widely utilized. These are meta titles, meta descriptions, title tags, canonical tags, Google structured data, and keywords.

  1. Keywords & Text

Keywords help internet people locate your content on search engines. Using relevant, high-performing keywords on your web pages can assist search engines to link you to internet visitors.

On-page SEO usually includes keyword research and content creation. However, it would help if you did not ignore them in your technical SEO assessment. To prevent Google penalties, make sure your web pages are optimized using relevant search phrases and LSI keywords. Your website should also have extensive, up-to-date material to attract qualified leads.

  1. Site Design

Website architecture organizes your site’s parts. A decent navigation structure is vital for ecommerce and WordPress technical SEO since it improves user experience and searches rankings.

Smooth internet navigation helps consumers discover information fast. It encourages users to connect to your website and spend more time there. Your site design also allows search engines to effectively index your site. A valuable brand provides material for its audience.

Thrives technical SEO specialists recommend the following site architectural improvements:

  • Create SEO-friendly URLs.
  • Remove redundant stuff.
  • Plan your website.
  • Use keyword data to organize content.
  • Make your site mobile-friendly.
  • Boost your site’s Speed.
  • Test with users.
  1. Title Tags

A title tag is an HTML component that displays a page’s title. The title tag is the blue text that appears on SERPs.

  1. Site Speed

For better search results, make sure your website opens quickly and has functional pages, says Thrives demand generation senior SEO specialist Ronnel Viloria.

Site speed optimization is a need, not a choice. More importantly, slower loading websites increase bounce rates and lose prospective customers. Google claims that a one-second delay in mobile website loading reduces conversion rates by 20%.

Site speed affects online engagement and site performance. It impacts your site’s visibility, conversions, bounce rate, and page views. That’s why when your target audience clicks on your link in the SERPs, your website should load quickly.

A webpage should load in 1-2 seconds—a website that takes longer than this loses 53% of its visitors. To improve user experience, Google aspires for a half-second load time.

Also, Read: Technical SEO Errors

  1. Search Console Coverage

Tracking faults or alerts that might lower your impressions is part of SEO website needs. To help website owners monitor their online performance, Google created Google Search Console (GSC).

Coverage reports from Google Search Console group URLs by status:

Due to server problems, 401 unauthorized HTTP responses, or redirect errors, it is not indexed.

  • Valid with Warnings: indexed but with problems
  • Valid: indexed
  • Excluded: the domain includes directives that prevent search engines from indexing the page.

Recognize and resolve the URL errors indicated in the report to guarantee your web pages are indexed.

  1. Mobile-Friendly

Mobile use is surging. Approximately 50.33 percent of internet searches are done on mobile devices. Google introduced mobile-first indexing and mobile optimization to accommodate the growing number of mobile users.

That implies Google will increasingly utilize your website’s mobile version to index and rank it. Search bots will struggle to access and display your content without responsive web design.

Responsive web design improves site usability, page performance, and search rankings. This blog article examined technical SEO considerations and other site features to optimize the responsive web design.

  1. Robots.txt

You know what structured data is. Next, learn about robots.txt and why it should be included in your technical SEO audit.

This file contains instructions that inform search engines which pages or portions of your website to crawl and index. A robots.txt file is required to restrict non-public sites, such as login pages. Robots.txt also helps you save money by not indexing PDFs and pictures.

Ensure that your robots.txt file is easily accessible to prevent technical SEO concerns.

Your title tags must be catchy and keyword-rich so that consumers don’t pass over your content on SERPs.

Technical SEO specialists say title tags should be no more than 60 characters. Search engines will truncate if your title is longer than the display length. Use apps like Spotibo and Mangools to preview search results to circumvent this.

  1. H1 tags

H1 tags are among the most important SEO factors. The initial header on a web page or blog post informs search engines and readers about the content.

Search spiders look for header tags in the HTML code when exploring web pages. To assist search engines, comprehend your website content, you must:

Headings with keywords

  • Avoid prolonged H1s
  • One H1 per page
  • Match H1 tags to user intent and page content.
  • Use headers to organize page content (i.e., H1, H2, H3, etc.)
  1. XML sitemap

This is a list of all significant pages and files on your website. “This helps search engines identify and index your site quickly,” Visser says.

An XML sitemap is recommended if:

  • Your website is big.
  • Your website contains plenty of rich media.

This site contains vast archives.

This is a new site with external connections.

  1. HTTPS

Secure HTTPS is the principal protocol for data transfer between a browser and a website. HTTPS encrypts data sent to a website. It encrypts communications between two parties using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.

“If you don’t have an SSL certificate, Chrome will flag your sites as insecure,” Visser added. “Search engines will punish your website, and visitors will lose trust.”

Moving a website to HTTPS improves online security.12

  1. Internal Links

Links to other websites help search engines locate your material. Internal links are the greatest approach to connect your web pages and construct a hierarchy. Internal linking is important for technical SEO in WordPress since it helps search crawlers recognize which pages to crawl.

Garcia advised website owners to remove dead links, which might harm their website’s authority. Dead links are broken links that connect to a removed web page. Broken links may seriously harm your ecommerce technical SEO.

  1. Google Analytics

Along with GSC, you must set up Google Analytics to gather on-page interactions and other metrics.

Intuitive Google Analytics gives statistics on how internet consumers engage with your website. Data from Google Analytics includes page views, users and sessions, and average time on page and bounce rate. These measurements show your website’s performance over time. Google Analytics data informs on-page, off-page, and technical SEO methods.

Work with a professional SEO firm that offers Google Analytics to monitor your site’s performance and reach your conversion objectives.

  1. Calls to Action (CTAs)

Calls-to-action is vital in ecommerce and WordPress technical SEO. CTAs encourage site visitors to do something, like sign up for a subscription or call.

Travis McGinnis found that CTAs outperform Google advertisements, averaging 4.23 percent CTR across sectors. Some tips for crafting a great CTA:

  • Add urgency.

Signify an activity, such as a click, signup, or download.

  • Use graphics and bright colors to attract viewers.
  • Make sure your CTAs work.
  • Distribute CTAs around the webpage.
  1. Core Web Vitals Optimization

Interactivity, visual stability, and page loading speed are three new UX metrics introduced by Google. In 2021, these main web ranking elements will impact page experience updates and online ranks.

Conclusion

Technical SEO is all about improving your website’s crawlability. This will help search engines identify and comprehend your site content and users navigate your web pages. 15 Technical SEO for WordPress will help you swiftly solve or investigate problems with your technical SEO aspects. A webpage should load in 1-2 seconds. A website that takes longer loses 53% of its visitors.

Google claims that a one-second delay in mobile website loading reduces conversion rates by 20%. Site speed affects your site’s visibility, conversions, bounce rate, and page views. A robots.txt file contains instructions that inform search engines which pages or portions of your website to crawl and index. Responsive web design improves site usability, page performance, and search rankings. H1 tags are among the most important SEO factors for a successful website.

Internal links are the greatest approach to connect your web pages and construct a hierarchy. Dead links are broken links that connect to a removed web page. Google Analytics gives statistics on how internet consumers engage with your website. These measurements show your website’s performance over time.