Why Technical SEO is Important and How it Helps Your Online Business

Are you wondering where you went wrong? You have used HTML tags, alt tags, keywords and meta descriptions – but still, your web pages are nowhere to be seen on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines are very intelligent; they are not easily satisfied with these techniques and demand more effort from you and your SEO experts. 

But do you even have a go-to SEO expert? The time and money invested in your website are of no use if your customers can’t find you online. You, as a businessperson, aim to provide quality service to your customers and expand your business over time. 

You need an SEO specialist who handles the technical aspects of your website if you hope to increase its speed, remove spammy links and optimize it for every device type. With the Google Page Experience Update just months away, these technical SEO aspects will be bigger ranking factors than ever before.

SEM vs. SEO

While most people think of these terms as synonyms, they are different in terms of application, cost and efficiency.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a paid marketing strategy used by websites/blogs to promote their content and services. 

SEM is a suitable practice for large-scale companies with a significant budget for online advertising. You must have noticed ads at the top or the bottom of Google Search results – the placement of these ads is part of SEM. Brands using this strategy opt for a PPC (pay-per-click) program in which the publisher is paid every time the ad is clicked.

Search engine optimization (SEO), on the other hand, is an organic marketing tactic used for the same purpose as SEM. 

SEO is cost-effective when compared to SEM because you will rank your website organically in search results, cutting the need for paid advertising through publishers. SEO is suitable for small- to medium-scale online businesses that are operating on a tight budget but want to gain customers quickly.

Both tactics are aimed at expanding your business, but in the long term, SEO will produce better results than SEM. Initially, you will find it difficult to implement SEO because it’s a very broad concept, but once you get the hang of it, you will easily beat all the players in your league.

What Is Technical SEO?

It is the process of optimizing your website for search engine spiders to index it effectively. This process will help you achieve a better organic ranking in all the search engines. 

While basic SEO is all about optimizing your content using keywords, tags and meta description, technical SEO is only concerned with the technicalities of the website’s infrastructure.

Why Is Technical SEO Necessary?

To fully understand technical SEO’s value, let’s explore how it enhances your website’s performance and what steps should be taken to implement it.

1. Increases Speed

Search engines prefer a website that loads quickly, so you need to take measures to boost your website’s speed.

Select the right pillars for your website; your content management system (CMS) should be fast with no downtime. Keeping your website simple by using fewer plugins and scripts can also increase its speed. 

Images are vital parts of every online business, but you have to be careful when using high-quality ones. Time delay in loading heavy images will slow down your website and affect users’ browsing experience. If you have used HTML and CSS to create your online store, use a software tool to minify the code for better performance.

2. Gives Directions to Search Engines

Another SEO trick is to use an XML sitemap that assists search engines in navigating your website. If the search engines have a well-defined roadmap of your website, they can easily display your web pages in search results. 

An XML sitemap gives information about when the pages were last updated and their priority in terms of usage. This analysis will help you identify neglected pages that can be optimized for better results. While some CMS will automatically generate an XML sitemap, you can also create one using a sitemap generator tool.

3. Enhances Security

You must have noticed that some URLs start with HTTPS while the others start with HTTP. A URL starting with HTTPS signifies that the website uses a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, which creates a secure link between your browser and the webserver.

As Google endorses the importance of security, it prefers to display websites with SSL certificates. From a user’s point of view, security is the biggest concern nowadays, so make sure your customers don’t hesitate while entering their credit card numbers. Although most CMS will automatically install the certificate, you can also manually install it.

4. Increases Adaptability

Not everyone owns a laptop or a PC, so make sure you are not catering to their users’ needs only. Smartphones and tablets have become more popular because they are easier to use and carry, so optimizing your website for all types of devices will increase the traffic flow.

If you are offering a discount on carpet cleaning services for online bookings only, you wouldn’t want to lose those customers who couldn’t access your website from a mobile phone.

You should consider enabling accelerated mobile pages (AMP) on your website for a better organic ranking. AMP HTML is code which disables scripts and forms from your content, reducing its weight. This helps in loading your web pages very quickly on mobiles/tablets.

5. Promotes Your Website

Finally, you have created your online dream store, and its website is now live on the internet. So, what’s next?

You need to submit your XML sitemap to the Google Search Console for crawling and indexing. Without using this tool, search engines will never know about your website’s existence, and no user will land on it through Google searches.

How Technical SEO Helps Your Online Business

All the effort made towards optimizing your website will bring various benefits in the long term.

1. Increases Conversion Rate

The daily visits on your website are directly related to its ranking; a higher ranking in search engines translates to a greater number of unique and repeat visitors. This means that there will be higher chances of visitors becoming customers on your website. 

Let’s not forget that the conversion rate mostly depends on your content and services; SEO techniques are secondary but still matter to a great extent.

2. Increases Revenue

SEO practices are meant to divert more traffic towards your website, which results in more revenue from ads. If your website attracts a lot of traffic, you might also get offers from brands for sponsored posts. 

Another way to cash these views is to sign up for an affiliate partner program; eCommerce websites like Amazon and eBay are popular in this field. You would review a product from your partner’s website and insert its purchase link in your content, then get a commission every time a user purchases that product through your link.

If your website has been getting a lot of views, you can seize this opportunity to sell your success secrets through videos and eBooks. Thousands of new online businesses are opening every day that can buy this material.

3. Reduces Cost

Business is all about investing the right amount of money for the right purpose. With COVID-19, businesses have already suffered enough. Now, it’s time to make smart moves.

Inbound links play an important role in technical SEO. These are the links that point from other websites towards your site/blog. According to a report, inbound links can generate leads at a much lower cost than outbound links.

SEO will cut down your marketing budget by a significant amount. If you have implemented SEO practices correctly and reached a higher ranking, you don’t need to pay money to ad publishers for promoting your website. Inbound lead generation is free as most inbound links stem from social media. If your website is a renowned name in its field, you will get free inbound links from other websites.

4. Puts You Ahead of Others

Technical SEO is not that easy! Creating an online store is just the first step towards establishing your brand on the internet.

Most people will take the wrong approach – set up an eCommerce store using WordPress and then share the link with friends and family to gain customers. That is never going to help! 

You are intelligent! You have put a lot of effort into optimizing your website and making it search engine-friendly. This hard work will pay off and put your website ahead of its competitors in terms of ranking, views and revenue.

Final Thoughts

You have taken the right step by setting up an online store – but that was just the first step. Making a mark in the online market will require some patience and smart work, so don’t wait any longer and start looking for an SEO expert today! Don’t lose hope if your store has been performing poorly because every successful business started from scratch.