Quick answer: Technical SEO is the part of search engine optimization that makes sure Google can crawl, understand and index your website. It covers site structure, URLs, duplicate content, sitemaps, page speed and mobile-friendliness. Good content cannot rank if technical SEO is broken.
The objective of the technical SEO is to ensure that Google search engine is able to crawl and index your website appropriately. Search engine prefers a certain structure to the website to be able to crawl easily.
Google provides a webmaster guidlines at https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/overview
These guidelines are
1. Simple URL structure
2. Duplicate content should be avioded
3. Allow the links to be crawlable
4. Ensure that the Googlebot is not blocked
5. Ensure browser compatibility
Then there are content specific guidelines and quality specific guidelines
The other things that needs to be taken care of are
1. Your site speed – Check your site speed using google analytics
2. Check your website mobile compatibility
3. Look for crawl errors and address those with the help of your web developers
4. Upload the website maps
5. 404 erros on your website – What is 404 erros? A page which doesn’t on your website. How to address 404 error? Redirect it to relevant content which might be related to the page to which the consumers landed
To understand all these issues, the best way is to do a SEO Audit.
SEO Audit can be done using free tools or paid tools like semrush or Ahrefs.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between technical SEO and on-page SEO?
Technical SEO is about the website’s structure and code: crawling, indexing, speed and URLs. On-page SEO is about the content on each page: titles, headings, keywords and meta descriptions.
How do I check technical SEO problems?
Open Google Search Console and check the Pages (indexing) report and Core Web Vitals. They show which pages are not indexed and why.
Do I need a developer for technical SEO?
Not for the basics. On WordPress, an SEO plugin can create your sitemap, set canonical URLs and title tags. A developer helps with speed and complex errors.