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Almost every digital marketing plan heavily depends on search engine optimization or SEO. It is the technique that helps websites rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs) and thus improves visibility on the Internet.
In the past, SEO only needed website owners to place keywords on every site page to achieve a good ranking on SERPS. However, in recent years, the search ranking procedure has become more complicated and demanding. Today, “SEO” represents a mix of more interdependent marketing tactics.
This complex web of tactics includes On-Page SEO and Technical SEO. Nevertheless, people new to SEO are usually confused between these two, leading to frustration and an un-optimized website. If you are also among them, don’t worry. This blog will sway away your confusion by providing in-depth Technical and On-page SEO details. So, keep reading!
What Is Technical SEO
Technical SEO is carefully enhancing a website’s technicalities to boost its performance on search engines. It goes in-depth into aspects such as crawlability, indexing, and page load speed. Other tasks include generating XML sitemaps, forming and setting up robots.txt files, fixing crawl errors, and enhancing server response time.
Effective management of these technical aspects allows search engines to crawl and interpret your website content easily, hence better rankings on Google’s or other SEs pages.
Why Is Technical SEO Important?
Can you relate to this? You type in Google for a particular website and click the link to access its page. 1 second, 2 seconds and 5 seconds passed, and the page is still loading, causing frustration until you decide to close that tab. Every second a website takes to load, you lose an essential reader, and the website bounce rate increases.
This is one of the reasons why technical SEO matters so much. Moreover, no technical SEO means that search engines like Google will have difficulty locating your website or crawling and indexing it. Your website won’t rank and thus loses organic search traffic.
To better understand why Technical SEO is important, let’s dig deeper into how Saramin raised its organic traffic twice. Saramin is one of the top job portals in Korea, providing a platform with information on vacancies, companies, and remuneration. They verified their website on Google Search Console, paid attention to crawl errors, and rectified them. This led to an increase in organic traffic by 15% within a couple of days. Developers.google.com
They also performed other crucial technical SEO checks through tools such as Mobile-Friendly Test, AMP Test, and PageSpeed Insights, improving the performance of their website. Their website traffic increased by 102% year on year.
How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit?
Below are the steps you must take to get the most out of Technical SEO.
1. Crawl Your Website
Crawling is an integral part of a technical SEO audit because it helps to identify problems on your website, such as broken links, duplicate content, etc. There are plenty of free tools that you can use to crawl your websites, Google Search Console being one of them. This is how you can do it through the Google search console tool;
Step 1: Login To Google Search Console, choose property type, enter your website domain, and click continue.
Step 2: Verify your site domain ownership via DNS record.
Step 3: Open the search console dashboard once your website is verified. You will find numerous options, including Performance, URL Inspections, Pages, HTTPs, Links, etc., just below the overview tab on the dashboard.
Step 4: To inspect your website, click on each option. As soon as you click, you will be provided with results. For example, if you want to know which pages of your website are indexed and which are not, click the pages option. On clicking, it will show indexed pages, not indexed pages, and the reasons for them not being indexed. Analyze the results and make the changes to your website accordingly.
2. Make Sure Only One Version of Your Site Is Browsable
Having only one version of your website is vital as multiple versions confuse the search engine. As a result, search engines cannot crawl your website, and your website’s SEO ranking is affected negatively. There are two possibilities for a multiple version of a website:
- Different versions for mobile and desktop.
- Have the “https” version and the non “https” version.
You can check this issue using Google Search Console. How? Log in to Search Console and click on the HTTPS option in the menu column under the experience tab (As shown in the image below). You will find instant results showing all the https and non-https links.
3. Check Your Site Speed
Once you have finished inspecting the basic site structure, the next step is to check your website speed. Fast page loading is essential as users don’t like to wait, and a slower loading speed increases the chances of losing customers. So, to assess your website loading speed, consider using tools like PageSpeed Insights by Google. To get started, follow the below steps;
Step 1: Open PageSpeed Insights ( https://pagespeed.web.dev/)
Step 2: Enter your website URL and click on analyze. Step 3: Scroll down to check the results PageSpeed Insights shows your website speed on both mobile and desktop. In addition to loading speed, it also shows data related to;
- First Contentful Paint
- Total Blocking Time
- Largest Contentful Paint
- Cumulative Layout Shift
- Opportunities For Improvement
- Other Diagnosis
Analyze all the reports in detail and make necessary changes as per the suggestion to increase your website speed.
4. Look for Any Security Issues
With increasing hacking incidences, security has become essential to protect your website data. It is the reason search engines like Google don’t favor unsecured websites. Therefore, website security has become an essential part of Technical SEO.
To assess security issues on your website, you can use tools like ImmuniWeb. It scans your website for various security errors and provides suggestions to resolve them. Some standard security parameters it scans are:
- Remote Server: Is the remote server secured for users
- Software Security: Are all software updated and secured
- GDPR Compliance: Is the website compliant with all General Data Protection Regulation
- PCI DSS Compliance: Is the website secure for transitions
- HTTP Header: Are all http headers working properly
www.immuniweb.com
So, after you discover problems when running a security audit on ImmuniWeb software, do your best to fix the issues and enhance website protection for an improved SEO ranking. This was all you had to do to enhance the technical performance of your website. With that in mind, it’s time to discuss the On-Page SEO.
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is a process of improving the attributes of a website to rank higher and get more relevant visitors from search engines. Having effective on-page SEO not only aids search engines in interpreting page content but also helps users understand the purpose and relevance of that particular page for their specific query with speed.
Simply put, good on-page SEO helps search engines understand what a human visitor would see (and find valuable) and who can consistently present information for users about the given search questions considered to be thorough by them.
Why is On-Page SEO Important?
On-page SEO has the function of helping search engines determine if your website is relevant for users’ queries by scanning the content of that particular site. All your website’s content, including images, HTML, and metadata, must be optimized according to Google’s new standards.
This helps search engines understand your website and rank it accordingly. Also, it is quite affordable and consists of some long-term benefits that could assist general sites in continuing to grow for years and receive free traffic. On-page SEO gives the best ROI of all digital marketing methods.
Still not convinced? Let us clarify this by looking at the growth of Edelweiss Bakery after using On-Page SEO techniques. Edelweiss Bakery is a small local bakery in Florida and has been running for over 20 years. Although they are liked by locals, their organic traffic remained uneventful.
Semrush.com
To address this issue, they focused on making SEO of their website. They link to other sites, make a blog, and improve it; they work with appropriate keywords and optimized images as well as videos. With continued work after a few months, their website ranking and organic traffic improved tremendously. They saw a 460% monthly increase in mobile organic traffic.
How To Perform An On-Page SEO Audit?
An on-page SEO audit involves careful analysis of numerous features of a website to find opportunities for improvement. This will improve your website’s SEO and make it rank better on the search engine. Here’s how you carry out an on-page SEO audit, step-by-step:
1. Optimize Your page title
One of many On-Page Elements you have to pay attention to while optimizing pages and content is a page title. It assists the search engines in analyzing your page content and ranking better in SERP for the user’s intended search. Make sure to create a descriptive title that reflects what the page is about and makes use of your target keyword. In addition, when creating a page title, keep the following recommended practices in mind:
- Sixty characters or less should be the length of your titles to ensure they are displayed correctly. Six hundred pixels is the maximum range of Google’s display titles, though it doesn’t mean any character limit. This may prevent title truncation in search results.
- Do not stuff the title with the same one word.
For example: Check this title – Link Insertion Vs. Guest Post – What’sWhat’s The Difference? This title has less than 60 characters, includes targeted keywords, and is relevant to the content.
Outreachcrayon.com
2. Use headers
Use header tags to arrange your content to make it easier for search engines to navigate and comprehend. Make sure your headers include relevant keywords; nevertheless, select keywords distinct from those in your page title. The following is a brief explanation of header tags and their purposes:
- H1: The post’s title. They are typically written with keywords in mind, with a page or post’s “big idea” at their center.
- H2: These subheadings separate your paragraphs into individual sections and classify the main thoughts within.
- H3: The following sections delve deeper into the issues listed in H2. Alternatively, they can be used to align bullet points or lists.
- H4: These subsections elaborate more on the points raised in H3. They can alternatively be used to organize bullet points or lists.
To make it more clear for you, here is an example of a heading used in a blog outline: In the picture, you can see that the H1 tag is used for naming a blog, and it uses h2 tags as their sub-headings. Blog.hubspot.com
Finally, an H3 tag is used for the subheading, and then this goes even further by using an H4 tag to show a further subheading. This is a splendid way of using headings in your content. The same pattern must be followed in your website content as well.
3. Place keywords Strategically In The Content
Add keywords to every website page, in addition to the headers, URL, and title. Additionally, incorporate keywords naturally where they fit within the content. But remember, you must refrain from stuffing your content with them. Stuffing your website and web pages with keywords can hurt SEO and make for a tacky and spammy reading experience. Furthermore, search engines actively look for (and penalize!) content containing excessive keywords. So, to start with, include your target keywords in the following sections;
-
- Headings (H1)
- First Para
- Sub-Headings (H2, H3etc.)
This makes it easier for search engines to gain context about page content and helps users quickly decide if the content matches their search intent. Furthermore, use relevant keywords throughout the content by placing them naturally.
While placing keywords throughout the content, you are mostly confused about the keyword density. To overcome this challenge, you can use plugins like Yoast SEO. This also analyzes keyword intensity and placement throughout the content and gives you suggestions accordingly. In addition, it also gives you details on the use of headings, Alt text, Title, internal and external links, etc.
4. Incorporate Images, Graphics, And Other Visuals
Human beings are visual-oriented. Each of the five senses humans rely heavily on to solve problems and get by in daily life is quite significant. However, 80% of what humans learn comes from their vision, and similar percentages probably apply to most animals with developed brains.
This is why the effectiveness of textual content and comprehensive content marketing strategies is significantly impacted by visual-rich material, such as pictures, videos, and photos. Also, according to a study by Springer, people following directions using text and illustrations do 323% better than those following directions with text only. blog.hubspot.com
So, start using visual elements in your content and follow the tips mentioned below to make them relevant to user intent.
- Carefully organize your visual content with consideration for its audience, messaging, and objectives.
- To ensure it resonates with readers, you should consider what sorts of photos, infographics, videos, animations, and other rich media you may use in your content from the start.
5. Add Meta Descriptions
For the convenience of users and search engines, a meta description (also known as a meta description attribute or tag) is an HTML element that summarizes and describes your page’s contents. This block of text is located under your title in search engine rankings; sometimes, though, the search engines may choose a different passage from within the page’s main body copy.
A captivating meta description can increase the number of people clicking through your organic search results. It means more individuals who find your page among the search results will click and visit your website. This results in more traffic on your website, even if your ranking doesn’t change at all! To write an engaging meta description, focus on these tips:
- Include primary keywords
- Keep it conversational
- Offer value to the reader
- Use active voice
- It should be only 120 characters
Now check out this image with a perfect meta description per the above-mentioned tips. You can notice that the meta description includes the search keywords: Top places to travel, using less than 120 characters, and offering value with names of different places.
6. Optimize visuals with alt text
Moz.com
Always include keywords in the alt text of images to optimize the visual content of your website. This helps improve the On-page SEO, helps rank in image search, for example, in an image carousel or search engine results page, helps people with impaired vision, and enables screen readers to read.
7. Add internal and External links
Once you finished structuring your content and optimizing images, the next step is to add internal links. Wondering what internal links are? They are hyperlinks that point to other pages of the same website. Users and search engines use these links to find content and navigate your website.
Not only this, but they are also crucial for SEO optimization as search engines like Google follow internal links to rank content in the search results. Besides interlinking, adding external links is also essential. They are vital as they build trust and enhance user experience.
In fact, according to Google, adding links in content that point to authoritative sources provides value to users, thereby helping them rank higher in the search results.
Understanding The Difference Between Technical SEO and On-Page
As you now have a clear understanding of both technical SEO and On-page SEO, let us delve into the differences between them.
Aspect | Technical SEO | On-Page SEO |
Focus | Backend website and server optimizations | Content and HTML elements on individual web pages |
Goal | Improve site structure, speed, and crawlability | Improve relevance and user experience of the content. |
Examples | XML sitemaps, robots.txt, site speed optimization | Keyword optimization, meta tags, content quality |
Impact | It affects the site performance as well as indexing across the board. | Has a direct impact on the ranking of individual pages |
Site-wide vs. Page-specific | Site-wide considerations | Page-specific optimizations |
Performance Metrics | Page load times, mobile-friendliness, crawl errors | Keyword rankings, click-through rates, bounce rates |
Tools | Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights | Google Analytics, SEO plugins (Yoast, All in One SEO) |
Dependencies | Infrastructure, server setup, website architecture | Content creation, HTML structure, user engagement |
Example Action | Implementing HTTPS, optimizing site speed | Crafting compelling meta descriptions using header tags |
Long-term vs. Immediate | Long-term impact on on-site health | Immediate effects on specific pages and content |
Technical SEO and On-page have different roles to play in your website optimization involving various processes. Although technical SEO focuses on technically optimizing your website, On-page SEO denotes content optimization.
Technical SEO and On-Page optimization are quite different, but one must consider both approaches if he and she is going to optimize the website for search engine ranking.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website for search results is mainly influenced by Technical SEO and On-Page SEO. These are the SEO optimization processes that make your website work more effectively, make its content better, and help make your site rank high on search results.
Without working on these factors, your website can’t rank in the initial search results. The best way to rank high on the search results and beat competitors is by understanding the process well and knowing strategies to implement while performing technical SEO as well as on-page.