1. Page Speed: Your First Impression with Google
Google has made it crystal clear: site speed affectsrankings. If your page takes more than three seconds to load, you’vealready lost visitors - and possibly your spot in search results.
Why it matters?
- Slow pages hurt both user experience and Core Web Vitals scores.
- Search engines prioritize fast-loading sites because users expect them.
- Bounce rate skyrockets when your site feels sluggish.
What to do?
- Compress and optimize images (use WebP or AVIF formats).
- Implement lazy loading for below-the-fold content.
- Minify your CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce latency.
- Audit with Google PageSpeed Insights and target 90+ scores on both mobile and desktop.
Fast websites don’t just rank better - they convertbetter.
2. Mobile Optimization: The Real First-Class Experience
Mobile-first indexing isn’t optional anymore. Google nowevaluates your site primarily based on its mobile version, not desktop.That means if your mobile layout is broken, your rankings can tank even if yourdesktop site looks perfect.
What to check?
- Responsive design with fluid grids and adaptive typography.
- Avoid heavy pop-ups or banners that block content.
- Use larger tap targets and readable font sizes.
- Test using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
Remember: your mobile experience isn’t a smaller version ofyour site — it’s the main version.
3. Crawlability and Indexing: Speak Google’s Language
Search engines can’t rank what they can’t read. Many sitesunintentionally block crawlers, misconfigure robots.txt, or forget aboutsitemaps.
What to do right?
- Robots.txt: Allow crawlers to access your key pages and block only unnecessary ones (like admin or staging).
- XML Sitemap: Submit it through Google Search Console and keep it up to date.
- Internal Linking: Make sure every important page is linked from somewhere within your site.
- Canonical Tags: Avoid duplicate content issues by pointing to the preferred version of each URL.
Technical SEO is about clear communication. If searchengines can navigate your structure, they’ll reward your clarity.
4. HTTPS and Security: Trust Is a Ranking Signal
Security isn’t just for e-commerce anymore. HTTPS isnow a confirmed ranking factor and a must-have for any professional website.
If your site still shows “Not Secure” in browsers, users eitherbounce or in some some cases user cannot enter - and search engines willnotice.
Checklist
- Use an SSL certificate (most hosts offer it free via Let’s Encrypt).
- Redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
- Fix mixed-content issues (images or scripts served via HTTP).
This simple step improves trust, SEO, and user confidence- all at once.
5. Structured Data: Helping Search Engines Understand You
Structured data (or schema markup) gives context toyour content. It’s what enables Google to display rich results — stars,ratings, FAQs, and more.
If your site isn’t using structured data, you’re missing aneasy visibility boost.
Examples that work
- Blog posts → Article schema
- Products → Product + Review schema
- Events → Event schema
- Local business → Local Business schema
You can generate markup easily using Google’s StructuredData Markup Helper or plugins like Rank Math and Yoast.
The more clearly you define your content, the better Googlecan display it.
6. Core Web Vitals: The Modern Performance Standard
In recent years, Core Web Vitals have become theheartbeat of technical SEO. These three metrics measure real-world userexperience:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How fast the main content loads.
- First Input Delay (FID): How quickly the page responds to interaction.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How stable the layout feels as it loads.
Optimization tips
- Optimize images and fonts for faster LCP.
- Reduce heavy JavaScript for better FID.
- Reserve space for media to prevent CLS.
- Use Lighthouse or Web Vitals Chrome extension for testing.
Even small tweaks here can lead to massive SEO wins.
7. URL Structure: Clarity Matters
Clean, logical URLs help both users and crawlers understandyour content hierarchy.
Bad:
/blog?id=1234
Good:
/blog/technical-seo-tips
Best practices
- Keep URLs short, descriptive, and keyword relevancy.
- Use hyphens, not underscores.
- Avoid unnecessary parameters.
- Maintain consistency - don’t randomly switch URL formats.
URLs are tiny but powerful - they silently reinforce your SEOstrategy.
8. Image Optimization: Beyond Compression
Images often account for over half of a webpage’s totalweight. Optimizing them isn’t just about size - it’s about discoverability.
How to do it right
- Add descriptive alt text for accessibility and SEO.
- Use lazy loading for below-the-fold content.
- Serve responsive images (srcset) for different devices.
- Convert to WebP or AVIF for faster loading.
Search engines index images, too - optimize them and youmight show up in Google Images, driving additional traffic.
9. Technical Cleanliness: The Often-Ignored Factor
Technical debt - leftover scripts, unused plugins, messycode - all slow your site down. Every redundant line affects crawl budgetand performance.
Quick cleanup wins
- Remove ld tracking scripts or third-party embeds.
- Consolidate analytics tags with Google Tag Manager.
- Minify and combine resources when possible.
- Check for 404s and redirect chains.
A lean site is easier for search engines to crawl and forusers to love.
10. Regular Audits: Because SEO Never Sleeps
Even well-optimized sites degrade over time. New plugins,updates, and features can introduce bloat or break structure.
Run a technical SEO audit at least once a quarterusing:
- Ahrefs Site Audit for crawl analysis.
- Search Console for indexing errors.
- GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights for speed.
Think of technical SEO like car maintenance - ignore it long enough, and performance not what it used to be.



