Technical SEO
Technical SEO Functions and Purpose
Key SEO Functions
The following three segments of search engine optimization account for the bulk of efforts – outside online advertising – to maintain and increase Website search engine visibility and competitive position. This article focuses on Technical SEO. Content development and backlinks will be addressed in coming articles.
Technical SEO
Preparing a Website for search engine recognition through identity characteristics.
Continued Content Development
Creating content on a Website to demonstrate subject matter expertise and topic relevance.
Backlink Development
Establishing site relevance and subject matter expertise thought referrals (links) from credible sites.
Clearian Technical SEO Service Defined
Technical search engine optimization tasks are performed on your Website specifically – to increase search engine visibility and page rank on Google. They prepare the site itself for defining its identity, purpose and relevance to search engines. Matching a person’s search with relevant Websites is the search engine’s goal; technical SEO helps define your site’s appropriateness as a match to the searcher’s interests. However, continued search engine marketing, including the creation of new site content, backlinks development and report analysis, etc. is highly recommended to maintain and improve rank and visibility.
1.
Moz Pro/Ahrefs Analysis Account
This is a third-party service my company subscribes to. Moz and Ahrefs collect data about Website SEO performance from massive data aggregators, and makes the data accessible in a useful way to SEO professionals. As soon as we launch your project, we will start tracking your own site against three competitors you designate – to gain competitive SEO intelligence on them, and how best to strategically architect your site for SEO performance.
2.
Site Traffic Analysis & Benchmark
During your new site development, we install a Google Analytics tracking code into your existing site – unless already present. We benchmark your site’s traffic volume, activity, quality and level of engagement in your site’s content. We also review your existing SEO efforts and performance, site speed, etc. The numbers contribute to new development, but also provide you with verifiable return-on-investment metrics after the new site goes live.
3.
Competitor Site Analysis & Benchmark
This is the reporting results we garner from the Moz account about your competitors. We look at their metrics for search engine visibility, over-all site credibility (DA [domain authority]), page credibility (PA [page authority]), external Links – inbound links from other sites (industry popularity and credibility as an information source), industry-specific search terms each site is showing up on page 1 of Google, etc.
4.
Site Quality & Performance Analysis
Again, to ensure your return-on-investment in our work – and our credibility – we combine metrics from Moz, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Pingdom and others to baseline your current site. We use to the exact same metrics on your new site for a relevant comparison.
5.
Industry Keyword Analysis
Using both Moz and Google Adwords, we query for your Website’s most effective keywords, and integrate those into your site. For example, “Web Developer” gets thirteen times more search volume than “Website Developer.” For a new furniture dealer Website, should we use the term Couches or Sofas? Utilizing the precise terminology used to find your offering is base-level intelligence planning and strategy in SEO.
6.
On-site SEO Tools
There are a number of SEO plugin tools available for WordPress. Among the leaders are Yoast SEO and All-in-One SEO. These tools simplify adding META data about your site, pages, and posts. Primarily this includes, Page Title, Focus Keyword, Description, Link, etc. Including this data is important to Google visibility – and it’s the information searchers see on the listings that appear after a search. Correct formatting can affect visibility.
7.
XML Sitemap Generator
A sitemap is your Website’s table of contents presented to search engines. Sitemaps are dynamically generated on the fly when requested by a search engine to list of the site’s current content – and any content updates with publish date. This sitemap functionality is executed through third-party software apps we install into your site. Sitemaps are typically located, and may be viewed at: “www.website.com/sitemap.xml”
8.
Google Analytics Account Setup
As mentioned above, we create a Google Account for your company. We install a tracking code in your existing site while we build your new site. When the new site goes live, we move the tracking code to the new site allowing the continuous monitoring of traffic activity. You will be provided control over your Google account.
9.
Google Console Setup
Google Search Console is a cloud application that provide a few critical functions. First, it is the recipient of a “forced in” XML sitemap. We don’t wait for Google bots to eventually find your new site. We want immediate recognition of the new property and all of its contents. We submit your sitemap, and Google indexes it immediately. We also use GSC for verifying Google is happy with the mobile performance of the new site (critically important to Google). We also use GSC to verify content is/has been recognized and to evaluate content for any design or structural problems Google has with the site content, generally invisible otherwise.
10.
On-Page SEO Compliance
For any given page on a Website, there are approximately 17 SEO elements Google wants to see correctly formatted to establish relevance-credibility in their recommending sites to searchers. These SEO elements do not need to be correctly configured to publish a Web page. However, to significantly improve the likelihood of your Web pages appearing in Google search listings, it’s best to configure the site and pages according the Google’s recommendations. Google SEO recommendations also apply to numerous other aspects of Website publishing, like mobile viewing friendliness, the site’s domain name itself, and many of the items we’ve mentioned above.