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When it comes to getting your WordPress website noticed by search engines, technical SEO services play a big role.
It’s all about making sure search engines can easily find, understand, and rank your site.
But how do you get good at it?
Let’s dive into some of the important aspects of technical SEO for WordPress and how they can be applied to your WordPress site.
Why Are Technical SEO Services So Important?
Technical SEO is the engine of your WordPress site; without it running smoothly, your site can’t perform.
Studies show that 53% of mobile users leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load ( Source: Google ).
Technical SEO focuses on aspects like speed, structure, and usability, which directly impact your site’s SEO performance.
When these elements are well-optimized, your site gains visibility attracts more organic traffic, and provides a better user experience.
And if you’re using WordPress, it’s even easier to manage these with various plugins and tools.
Creating an XML Sitemap for Better Search Engine Optimization Indexing
An XML sitemap is like a blueprint of your WordPress site, allowing search engines to find all the search engine results pages that matter.
Without a sitemap, search engines might miss indexing some important pages, which can hurt your search engine rankings.
How to Create and Submit an XML Sitemap in WordPress
With technical SEO services, creating and managing an XML sitemap becomes simple.
Most WordPress plugins, like Rank Math or Yoast SEO, auto-generate your sitemap.
- Install a Plugin: Download and activate Rank Math or Yoast SEO from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
- Enable the Sitemap Option: Go to the plugin settings, locate the sitemap section, and enable it.
- Submit the Sitemap to Google Search Console:
- Go to Google Search Console.
- Navigate to Sitemaps and enter your sitemap URL
(e.g., www.yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml).
This step ensures search engines are aware of your site’s structure and content. If you’re regularly adding new posts or pages, it helps keep everything updated.
Robots.txt File: Controlling Search Engine Crawling
The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages they should or shouldn’t crawl.
If there’s content you don’t want to be indexed ( like admin pages or duplicate content ), setting this up properly is key.
How to Edit Robots.txt Using Yoast SEO
- Access the Plugin’s Tools Section: In Yoast SEO, find the “File Editor” option.
- Customize Your Rules: Here you can add rules like:
- Disallow: /wp-admin/ (hides the admin area).
- Disallow: /private/ (hides private pages).
Make sure you’re not accidentally blocking pages you want search engines to index.
If you’re unsure about your settings, professional technical SEO services can help fine-tune this.
Canonical Tags to Prevent Duplicate Content
One issue many WordPress sites face is duplicate content, where similar pages appear under different URLs.
Google gets confused and doesn’t know which page to rank. Canonical tags solve this by telling search engines which page is the “main” version.
Adding Canonical Tags with Rank Math or Yoast SEO
Using either plugin:
- Edit the Page/Post: Under technical SEO settings, look for an “Advanced” tab.
- Set the Canonical URL: Enter the URL of the page you want search engines to treat as the primary version.
By setting canonical tags, you avoid hurting your technical SEO with duplicate content issues.
Implementing SSL for a Secure Site
Google gives preference to https sites over http ones.
An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between your user’s browser and your website, making it secure.
Not only does this improve technical SEO, but it also builds user trust.
How to Add SSL to Your WordPress Site
- Get an SSL Certificate: Some hosting providers offer free SSL, or you can purchase one.
- Change Your WordPress Settings to Use HTTPS: Go to Settings > General and change your site’s URL from http to https.
- Redirect HTTP to HTTPS: Use a plugin like Really Simple SSL to set up redirects so all organic traffic is secure.
Having a secure site not only boosts your search engine rankings but also your technical SEO skills, 85% of online shoppers won’t buy from a site that doesn’t have https ( Source: GlobalSign ).
Site Speed: The User Experience and SEO
Site speed is key to both user experience and search rankings.
1 second delay in load time can lead to a 7% drop in conversions ( Source: Akamai )
Fast sites keep users engaged and rank better on Google.
How to Speed Up Your Site with Technical SEO Services
- Enable Caching: Caching plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache will load static versions of your pages and reduce load time.
- Optimize Images: Compress images with plugins like Smush or ShortPixel so they load fast without compromising quality.
- Minify JavaScript and CSS Files: Use plugins like Autoptimize to minify code and reduce the size of your site’s assets.
Antibe offers technical SEO services that focus on site speed.
From optimizing your images to setting up caching, we’ll get your WordPress site blazing fast. Feel free to reach out to our SEO expert Hristijan ( hristijan@antibe.com ).
Structured Data: Enhance Your Search Visibility
Structured data is code that tells engines what’s on your pages.
When you add structured data, you increase the chances of your site showing up as a rich snippet in search results (e.g. reviews, recipes).
Adding Structured Data with WordPress SEO Plugins
Both Rank Math and Yoast SEO allow you to add schema markup:
- Choose the Type of Schema: For example, you can add an “Article”, “Product,” or “Event” schema depending on your content.
- Fill in the Details: The plugin will guide you through adding all the necessary information like title, description, and image URL.
Adding structured data can increase your CTR and visibility in search results.
Finding and Fixing Technical SEO Issues with Google Search Console
Google Search Console is one of the best free tools to monitor your site’s technical health.
It allows you to find indexing issues, track your site’s performance, and get insights into technical problems.
How to Use Google Search Console for Technical SEO
- Coverage Report: The Coverage section shows pages with indexing issues. If you see “errors” use them to fix 404 pages or blocked resources.
- URL Inspection Tool: Test specific URLs to see if they’re indexed correctly and how Google sees them.
- Mobile Usability Section: As 58% of all searches are now from mobile devices, this section helps you identify and fix mobile usability issues.
Regularly reviewing and acting on the insights from Google Search Console is crucial for maintaining your site’s technical health.
Comparison Table: Rank Math vs. Yoast SEO
Rank Math tends to provide more features for free compared to Yoast SEO, especially if you’re looking for extensive schema markup options and detailed on-page analysis.
Common Technical SEO Issues and How to Fix Them
Every WordPress site, no matter how well-built, is bound to face some technical SEO challenges from time to time.
These issues can impact your site’s performance and search rankings, but the good news is they are usually easy to identify and fix.
Here’s a closer look at some common technical SEO strategies and issues and actionable steps to resolve them.
Broken Links
- Problem: Links leading to 404 pages affect user experience and SEO for digital marketing.
- Solution: Use technical SEO tools like Broken Link Checker or Google Search Console to find and fix broken links.
Redirect Loops
- Problem: When pages redirect to each other endlessly, causing infinite loops.
- Solution: Technical SEO audit services redirect using Screaming Frog and make sure each redirect is correctly set up.
Mobile Usability Issues
- Problem: Poor mobile usability can impact your organic search engine rankings as Google uses mobile-first indexing.
- Solution: Use responsive themes and Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool to ensure your site works well on mobile.
Final Thoughts
Both of us concluded that Technical SEO services are crucial for our WordPress site’s success.
Simple, they impact everything from speed to search rankings to user experience.
By focusing on XML sitemaps, robots.txt, canonical tags, SSL, and speed, we can set a solid foundation for your site’s growth.
Whether you’re starting out or looking to improve your site, feel free to book a free consultation with our technical SEO expert, Hristijan ( hristijan@antibe.com ). He will be more than happy to help make your WordPress site the best it can be.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Technical SEO Service?
Technical SEO services are the behind-the-scenes optimization processes that make your website easier for search engines to crawl, index, and understand.
Unlike on-page SEO efforts, which focus on content and keywords, a technical SEO company focuses on the structure and website performance of your website.
This WordPress page speed optimization service includes improving site speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, creating XML sitemaps, fixing broken links, and optimizing your robots.txt file.
Think of it as getting the “engine” of your website running smoothly so engines can rank it effectively and users can navigate without issues.
What is the Best Technical SEO Service?
The “best” technical SEO agency really depends on your needs and the size of your site.
Some top services offer comprehensive site audits, helping you identify and fix issues with speed, mobile usability, broken links, and security.
Companies like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz provide powerful SEO tools for site analysis.
However, if you’re using WordPress, Yoast SEO Premium and Rank Math Pro are among the best technical SEO agencies.
They offer features like automated XML sitemaps, structured data markup, and even readability checks for digital marketing.
What is the Technical Type of SEO?
Technical SEO is a branch of SEO that focuses on improving the technical aspects of a website to enhance its visibility in search engines.
It’s distinct from on-page SEO (which targets content and keyword research and optimization) and off-page SEO (which focuses on backlinks and social signals).
The technical type of SEO covers things like site speed, secure connections (SSL/HTTPS), mobile optimization, proper URL structure, and fixing issues like crawl errors and duplicate content.
What Do Technical SEO Experts Do?
A technical SEO agency works to optimize the structure, speed, and SEO performance of your website to help search engines crawl and index it efficiently.
This includes conducting site audits to find any issues that might hinder search engine optimization, such as broken links, redirect loops, duplicate content, or poor mobile usability. They also work on improving page load speed, setting up proper redirects, managing the robots.txt file, and implementing structured data (schema markup) to help search engines better understand your content.
