By Dan Duke - Ranking on page one in Google search results is vital. As today's users rarely view beyond the first search engine results page (SERP) presented to them, only those websites that stand out amid the masses of search results can achieve visibility. Even via paid search engine advertising (SEA), it’s increasingly difficult to achieve this.

‍

Fortunately, paid SEA isn't the only option. Companies can still rank high in organic search, i.e. without advertising, through search engine optimization (SEO) of their websites and content. If all four critical pillars of SEO are well maintained and optimized, the relevance of a site and its content increases automatically. Google rewards this with a corresponding ranking. In this series on "How to Rank on Page One in Search," we'll explain in four steps how to increase your potential to achieve this, starting with technical SEO. Collectively, the articles can help you to create the best conditions for your content to earn enviable rankings in organic search:

‍

• Step 1: Technical SEO
• Step 2: Domain Authority
• Step 3: Relevance
• Step 4: User Experience (UX) and Usability

‍

Note that while we'll refer to Google often, the general principles apply for other search engines as well.

‍

‍What is technical SEO?Technical SEO is about technical optimization of site architecture, structure, content and more to help search engines and website users in three ways.

1. Crawlability. Ensuring your site can be read by search engines.
2. Indexability. Setting up your pages and their content to be logically and effectively indexed to appear in SERPs.
3. Site performance. This pertains to the technical details that improve your website's ability to please, retain and, ideally, convert users. Critical factors include page and site speed, responsiveness and other drivers of a positive user experience (UX).

Consider technical search engine optimization as the foundation for page-one search rankings to help you focus effectively on first things first.

How to improve your website's technical SEO

The realm of technical SEO is vast and complex, and numerous factors play integral and integrated roles. Prioritizing the most impactful elements of technical SEO in website design, development and management can help boost your ability to rank higher and compete online.

‍

Start by addressing these basic but vital components to improve technical SEO site-wide.

1. Check and improve your page and site speed

The speed at which a website or page performs any given function — from loading content to responding to user-initiated interaction — influences the user experience, for better or worse.

‍

‍

Using analytics tools like Core Web Vitals, web masters can identify and diagnose page and site performance issues based on key performance indicators and metrics. CWV's metrics include:

‍

• First input delay (FID). FID measures the time delay between a user's interactivity with a page and the site's applicable response. (According to Google, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will replace FID in March 2024.) To ensure a good user experience, the page should measure an FID of no more than 100 milliseconds.
• Largest contentful paint (LCP). LCP measures the loading performance of the largest contentful element on the screen. Aim for a loading speed of within 2.5 seconds to provide a respectable user experience.
• Cumulative layout shift (CLS). CLS measures the visual stability of elements on the screen. Strive for a CLS of no more than 0.1 seconds.

‍

Google’s page experience signals combine Core Web Vitals with other search signals, including mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS security and intrusive interstitial policies.

‍

These and other ranking factors can be measured within reports inside Google Search Console to reveal which URLs have potential problems. We use CWV to help power our one-click analysis with integrated recommendations for entire websites within the Rellify Article Intelligence application. Tips for optimizing site speed include:

‍

• Implement lazy loading for non-critical images.
• Optimize image formats for the browser.
• Improve JavaScript performance.

‍

2. Crawl your website to detect and address crawl errors

While common and preventable, crawl errors are a frequently overlooked issue that can pack a punch to SEO. Crawl errors occur when a search engine tries to reach a page on a website but fails. If the page isn't reachable, it's not indexable.

‍

Crawl errors can occur for different reasons, and they can easily go undetected, potentially costing you valuable traffic and business.

‍

Fortunately, it's easy to get ahead of the issue. Simply crawl your pages on a regular basis and check for errors in need of attention. A number of free SEO tools exist for this purpose. These analytics also exist inside Google's Search Console platform.

‍

When probing and addressing crawl errors, be sure to:

‍

• Evaluate all the 4XX (400 series) and 5XX (500 series) error code pages to determine where to redirect them.
• Look for redirect chains or loops by which URLs redirect multiple times to another URL.
• Implement all redirects correctly using 301 (permanent) redirects.

‍

3. Fix broken internal and external links

Poor link structure can cause a bad user experience for both humans and search engines. It can be frustrating when a user clicks a link and discovers that it leads to an incorrect or non-existent page. It can also create dysfunction for robots attempting to crawl and index your site. Both scenarios work to undermine your collective SEO efforts.

‍

The concept applies to both internal links (links back and forth among your own web pages) and external links (links between your website's pages and others sites' pages). Pay attention to the following factors and how they may be either enhancing or degrading your site's overall link structure:

‍

• Links that are redirected to another page via 301 or 302.
• Links that lead to 404s or other error pages.
• Orphaned pages (pages that are not linked to at all).
• An internal link structure that is too deep.

‍

To fix broken links on your site, either update the target URL or remove the link if the destination page no longer exists.

‍

Analytics tools can help you discover other websites that contain external links to your pages. For any in need of attention, it's appropriate to contact those companies or their web masters with your request to fix or remove them.

4. Avoid duplicate content issues

Periodically audit your website for duplicate content, which can exist for a variety of reasons. For example, duplicate content issues may arise from scrapped or copied content or following replication of pages from faceted navigation when multiple versions of the site are live.

‍

Here's how to correct or prevent duplicate content matters:

‍

• If feasible, delete or revise duplicate content as appropriate.
• Implement noindex or canonical tags to dictate which remaining duplicate pages to ignore or prioritize, respectively.
• Set up 301 redirects to the primary version of a given URL. If, for example, your preferred version is https://www.abc.com, the other three versions should 301 redirect to that version.
• Set up parameter handling in Google Search Console.

‍

5. Migrate your website to HTTPS protocol

Hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS), the secure version of HTTP, has become a technical SEO rankingfactor. HTTPS protects your visitors’ data in the exchange between their web browser and your website. The protocol uses secure sockets layer (SSL) technology to ensure that sensitive information is encrypted to help prevent hacking or data leakage.

‍

Nothing can fully guarantee data security online, as cyber criminals are relentless in their destructive pursuits. But if your website still relies on HTTP, you may be putting yourself and your site visitors at risk unnecessarily.

6. Make sure that your URLs have a clean structure

Straight from the pages of Google, “The URL structure of a website should be as simple as possible.

‍

”Overly complex URLs can cause problems for crawlers by generating an unnecessarily high number of URLs that link to identical or similar content on your site. This can prevent search bots from fully indexing all the content on your site. The issue might involve:

‍

• Sorting parameters. Some large shopping sites offer multiple ways to sort the same items, resulting in a much higher number of URLs. For example: http://www.example.com/results?search_type=search_videos&search_query=tpb&search_sort=relevance&search_category=25
• Irrelevant parameters. For example, reference parameters: http://www.example.com/search/noheaders?click=6EE2BF1AF6A3D705D5561B7C3564D9C2&clickPage=OPD+Produkt+Seite&cat=79

‍

If possible, clean up and shorten your URLs by trimming unnecessary parameters.

7. Make sure your website has an optimized XML sitemap

Sitemaps are files that webmasters can create and submit to tell search engines about web pages they would like crawled and indexed for SERPs.

‍

Note, though, that while sitemaps make it easier for search engines to discover and index content, they do not guarantee indexing or influence ranking directly. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine which pages get indexed and how they are ranked. As one of many signals they use to understand site structure and content, a sitemap is simply a recommendation tool to assist in this.

‍

The XML sitemap format is the most versatile type, allowing for expanded information about your content. For each page, this can include such details as when the page was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to others on your site. Done well, an XML sitemap helps search engines more successfully and intelligently crawl a website.

‍

An optimized XML sitemap should include:

• The absolute URL for each page.
• Any new content added to your site (recent blog posts, products, etc.).
• Only pages that return an HTTP 200 response status code.
• No more than 50,000 URLs/pages. For sites with more pages, create multiple XML sitemaps to cover them all.

‍

An XML sitemap should not include:

• URLs with parameters.
• URLs that reference redirected pages or those with canonical or noindex tags.
• Pages that return a 4XX or 5XX response status code.
• Pages that contain duplicate content.

‍

Check the index coverage report in Google Search Console to discover and fix any existing index errors related to your XML sitemap.

‍

8. Optimize your robots.txt file for appropriate access, crawling and indexing

Robots.txt files provide certain instructions for Googlebot and other search engine robots on how to crawl your website. Anything you want to be found in searches should be made easily accessible to them for indexing.

‍

Include the location of your XML sitemap in your robots.txt file and make sure that your robots.txt file does not block pages that you want found by the public.

‍

Pages that are blocked by robots.txt generally won't be accessed by search engine crawlers and therefore won't be indexed to appear in SERPs. Many websites intentionally block access to certain pages and files to prevent them from being made publicly visible. Examples include:

‍

• Temporary files.
• Shopping cart and checkout pages.
• Password-protected pages.
• Admin pages.
• URLs containing parameters.
• Pages to remain hidden or private for any number of other reasons.

‍

You can use Google’s robots.txt tester to check if your file is working correctly.

9. Add structured data or schema markup

Structured data helps provide information about a page and its content. It gives Google context about the importance of a page and helps your organic listings stand out in SERPs. One of the most common types of structured data is called schema markup.

‍

There are many different types of schema markup for structuring data about people, places, organizations, local businesses, reviews and more. Check out Google's free tools for testing your site's structured data and generating schema markup.

10. Incorporate responsive design

Mobile-first indexing is a significant ranking factor, therefore mobile friendliness should be considered a critical aspect of technical SEO.

‍

Mobile friendly websites count on responsive design to create a more custom and enhanced UX for visitors accessing your website from various mobile devices. It accounts for the same performance elements that apply to optimizing websites for desktop and laptop computer use, but certain specs differ. Glean critical insights about mobile friendly site performance via your website's Core Web Vitals metrics.

‍

‍Beyond technical SEO: the significance of quality content and traffic

‍

‍Securing a spot on page one of Google search results is a notable achievement. And technical SEO is the foundation that allows search engines to crawl, index and understand your website and its content in that pursuit.

‍

But this is only part of the equation for online success. High rankings can drive initial traffic, but not all traffic is quality traffic.

‍

Quality traffic refers to visitors who are genuinely interested in your products, services or content and are more likely to engage with your site and take desired actions. Your ability to drive and retain quality traffic will depend not only on your technical SEO but also on the quality of your content.

‍

‍

‍Content quality pertains to the value, relevance and how well it resonates from the perspectives of your target audience. In fact, it's a critical ranking factor informed by Google's own helpful content system, which rewards content that delivers a satisfying UX.

‍

Ultimately, the quality of your content will influence your rankings, your traffic and your site's ability to convert visitors into customers. Even with perfect technical SEO, poor content will not rank well. Contact Rellify today to see how we can combine human expertise and AI to accelerate and improve the quality of your content creation.‍

‍

Next stop: Domain Authority

‍

‍In the next article in our four-part series on page-one ranking, we'll cover how to demonstrate and build domain authority to enhance your site's relevance and credibility in the online marketplace.

‍