How to Optimize Your Blog for Technical SEO

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Search Engine Optimization is a phrase almost like a holy grail for every marketeer. It is nothing but the process of making your content or website more visible to people who are using search engines like Google. 

Technical SEO is a subset of SEO in general. It calls for optimizing the website's internal structure to become more indexable for search engines and, hence, more easily visible to readers. 

Creating content, in this case, the blog is just one part of the deal. The next part is to make it reach your audience, where both SEO and technical SEO come in. 

So how does that work? Let us find out. 

7 Ways to Optimize Your Blog for Technical SEO

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1. Take Note of Your Loading Speed

The math here is simple, the longer it takes for your blog to load, the more your readers will give up on trying to access it.

Even if your page load time increases by a couple of seconds, your bounce will shoot up through the roof. 

It’s believed sites loading within 3 seconds are preferred while ranking the search results. Thus, most businesses strive to keep their loading speed as low as possible.

So, what are the factors that affect your page loading speed?

• Your hosting server. 
• How heavy the images are on your page.
• The Internal structure of your site.
• The organization of your code.

To optimize your blog or page for speed, you first need to know the speed at twitch your pages are currently loading. 

• Page Speed Insight by Google is a tool that helps you understand your upload speed and tips for optimizing it. 

• GTmetrix is another tool that shows your exact page speed and this tool, too, gives you recommendations on how to improve your loading speed. 

Besides some specific steps suitable for your website and webpage, here are some general actions you can perform to help your blog load faster. 

• Optimize the images that you are using in your blog. 
• Optimize the size of the file that is being sent by the server. 
• Take out redundant characters from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.
• Don't forget about AMPs, i.e., Accelerated Mobile Pages. 

2. Create Responsive Pages

Our personal experiences are enough to validate that the world is mostly on its phones now. That's your blog page must be optimized to suit the needs of your readers. 

Google currently prioritizes mobile version indexing over desktop version indexing because the volume of searches from mobile is way more than from a desktop.

Taking this into account, if your blog is not responsive, in other words, if it is not suitable to be read on a mobile, it will be accessible and visible to your readers. 

So how do you make your blog page responsive?

• For Google to identify your page as responsive, you need to add a "viewport" tag in the header of your HTML code. This tag will help the browser tailor the page dimension and scale according to different devices. 

The screenshot below shows the difference between pages that uses the “viewport” tag. 

• Most website-creating platforms like WordPress, Shopify, etc., already optimize your content for various devices, including mobile. 
• However, with tools like Mobile Compatibility Test, you can check out if your website or webpage is mobile-friendly or not. 

Read: How to Improve Your Mobile UX - 9 Top Tips

3. Take Note of Images 

Images are a great way to beautify your blog and add substantial value. However, in the world of technical SEO, you also need to think about how the images in your blog affect your blog's visibility on search engines. 

So, let us see how you can use images to their best potential to improve your blog's SEO and ensure that these images rank high on Google's image search. 

• Name of the file: It might be the last thing you think about when uploading an image, but it is crucial. Make sure the name of the image is descriptive so that Google or other search engines understand what the image's content entails. 
• Alt-Text: This is the text displayed to your readers if the image is not loading. Make sure that this text describes the image appropriately. The Alt Text lets Google know the image's content and helps Google index it. 
• Optimize your images: The Logic here is simple. The heavier the image, the more time it will take for the image to load, and hence this will affect the page's loading time in total. Try to compress your images as much as possible without compromising their quality. 

The screaming frog can find all image sizes, as shown in the screenshot below. 

• Tools like TinyPNG can help you compress images while maintaining the same quality. 
• Image Format: Advanced image formats like JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP are better for image optimization. 

4. Avoid Duplicate Content 

Not only is plagiarism morally unethical, but it is also detrimental to SEO. Why?

• It can lead to copyright claims.
• If Google identifies this as duplicate content, it will tend to push the original content more. 

Hence, the best idea is to focus on creating original content for your readers. 

Pro Tip: Use tools like Siteliner to identify duplicate content on your website and audit those content accordingly. It shows results as shown in the below image. 

5. Write Rich Snippets

The Meta description of your blog is more important than you think. Write SEO-rich snippets so that google understands better what your blog is all about. 

Look at the query in the screenshot below, and the description in the results is pulled as a rich snippet by Google itself. 

• It will help you improve your SERP ranking. 
• It will also help your readers understand what your blog is all about, and if it matches what they are looking for, they will want to read it. 

6. Be Mindful of Error 404

This is probably one of the worst experiences your reader can have when trying to read your blog; they simply can't get access to it. 

Error 404 usually occurs when users' requested addresses can't be found. It can still occur even if all URLs of your websites are correct. 

• In that case, you can set up a custom error page to guide your readers to the correct possible pages. 
• Use tools like Dead link Checker to identify which pages of your website might have broken addresses. 

Take a look at the below screenshot showing a sample report obtained through this free tool. 

7. Have a Secure Website

Google takes website security very seriously. Adopting the HTTPS protocol was a determining factor in website ranking.

• If you have not yet adopted HTTPS protocol, consider shifting to it seriously. As the name suggests in the screenshot, all user's data accessing the site is highly secured. Edited version

• When shifting to HTTPS, understand that your page URLs will change. You can consider opting for canonical tags to avoid identical duplicate content. 
• Seek professional help if required to avoid losing out on any vital data while migrating. 

Blog & Technical SEO FAQs

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1. How Is Technical SEO Different from SEO in General?

Technical SEO involves optimizing the internal structure of your website so that you rank high on SERP. It considers factors like the responsiveness of your website, speed of loading, and so on. 

2. How Can I Use Images to Optimize My Blog for SEO?

Add appropriate Alt Text and compresses the images without compromising their quality. It uses compatible and advanced image formats. 

3. How Can I Shift to HTTPS Protocol?

To migrate to HTTPS protocol, you need to purchase an SSL certificate. Your Website hosting company can help you with the same. 

Key Takeaways

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• Optimize your blog page to minimize loading time. 
• Make sure your blog is responsive and compatible across devices. 
• Optimize your images for SEO. 
• Avoid duplicate content. 
• Focus on the security of your website.