7 Clever Ways to Implement the Best Technical SEO Strategies
Why Your Website's 'Behind-the-Scenes' Health Matters
The best technical SEO strategies ensure your website is fast, secure, and easy for search engines to crawl and index. Here are seven core strategies to master:
- Master crawlability and indexability with robots.txt and XML sitemaps.
- Build a logical site architecture with clean URLs and internal linking.
- Eliminate duplicate content using canonical tags and noindex directives.
- Optimise page speed and mobile performance to meet Core Web Vitals.
- Secure your site with HTTPS and implement structured data (schema markup).
- Support international audiences with hreflang tags for multilingual content.
- Use technical SEO tools like Google Search Console for ongoing monitoring.
Great content alone won't get you found if your site's technical foundation is crumbling. If search engines can't crawl your site or your pages load too slowly, you're invisible to potential customers.
Technical SEO is the plumbing of your website—not glamorous, but essential. A messy site structure or poor page speed means you're losing traffic to competitors who have their technical house in order.
The good news is that fixing these issues brings massive gains. Faster load times mean lower bounce rates, and proper indexing means more pages ranking. The result is more organic traffic, a better user experience, and ultimately, more leads and sales.
I'm Kerry Anderson, co-founder of RankingCo. In this guide, I'll show you how to implement the best technical SEO strategies that actually move the needle and make your site work harder for your brand.
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The Best Technical SEO Strategies to Boost Your Rankings
Strategy 1 & 2: Master Crawlability and Build a Logical Site Map
Crawlability is how easily search engine bots can explore your site, and indexability is how they store your pages in Google's database. If search engines can't crawl or index your pages, they can't rank them. It's like having a shop with no signs pointing the way.
Optimising for both ensures your valuable content gets found, leading to more traffic and customers.
Two key tools help with this:
- Robots.txt: This file tells search bots which parts of your site to access or ignore. It helps manage your crawl budget , ensuring bots focus on your most important pages. You can learn more from Google Search Central's guide to Robots.txt.
- XML Sitemap: This acts as a roadmap, listing all your important pages for search engines to find and crawl efficiently. Google has called sitemaps the "second most important source" for finding URLs.
A logical site map also requires a logical site structure. Aim for a "flat" hierarchy where any page is only a few clicks from the homepage. This helps both users and bots steer your site without getting lost.
Want to make your site more findable? Learn more about our Technical SEO services.
Strategy 3: Optimise Your Site Architecture and URL Structure
A messy site architecture is like a city with no street signs. It frustrates users and confuses search engines. A well-organised site, however, improves user experience, crawlability, and overall SEO performance.
Your site's architecture is how your pages are organised. A flat, logical structure prevents "orphan pages" (pages with no internal links) and makes content easy to find. Use subfolders for categories (e.g., /services/seo/technical
) to give Google context.
Key elements include:
- Clean URLs:
Use hyphens to separate words (e.g.,
best-technical-seo-strategies), not underscores. - Internal Linking: This is the glue holding your site together. It connects related content, distributes authority, and helps search engines understand your site's hierarchy.
- Breadcrumb Navigation: These small text links (e.g., Home > Blog > SEO) show users their location and improve navigation.
Finally, regularly audit and fix broken internal links. They create a poor user experience and can hinder search engine crawlers.
Ready to tidy up your digital home? Explore our Onsite SEO solutions.
Strategy 4: Conquer Duplicate Content with Canonical Tags
Duplicate content occurs when the same or similar content appears on multiple URLs. This confuses search engines, dilutes your authority, and wastes your crawl budget.
While Google doesn't issue a direct "penalty," it can harm your rankings by not knowing which page to prioritise. Fixing this consolidates your content's authority and protects your SEO performance.
Use these two tags to manage it:
- Canonical Tags (
rel="canonical"): This HTML tag tells search engines which URL is the "master" version of a page. This is perfect for product pages with minor variations (e.g., colour or size). - Noindex Tags: This meta tag instructs search engines not to include a specific page in their index. It's useful for "thank you" pages, internal search results, or login pages that don't need to rank.
Using these tags strategically is one of the best technical SEO strategies for preventing internal conflicts and ensuring only your most valuable content gets indexed.
Strategy 5: The Best Technical SEO Strategies for Speed & Mobile-Friendliness
A slow website or clunky mobile experience will send users away and harm your rankings. Google prioritises sites that offer a superior user experience, making speed and mobile-friendliness critical for SEO success.
Optimising in this area leads to higher rankings, lower bounce rates, and more conversions. Google uses mobile-first indexing , so your mobile site is what matters most for ranking. You can check your site with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test.
Pay close attention to Core Web Vitals (CWV) , Google's metrics for user experience:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance (aim for <2.5s).
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Measures interactivity (aim for <200ms).
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability (aim for <0.1).
To improve speed and CWV, you can:
- Compress images to reduce file size.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver content faster globally.
- Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.
- Implement lazy loading for images and videos.
Boosting your site's speed is one of the best technical SEO strategies for improving rankings. Get more traffic with our SEO expertise.
Strategy 6: Secure Your Site and Boost SERPs with Schema
Trust is everything online. An unsecured website deters users and raises red flags for search engines, leading to lost traffic.
Securing your site with HTTPS is a must. It builds user trust and has been a Google ranking signal since 2014. That padlock icon in the URL bar is non-negotiable for a modern website.
Beyond security, you need to help search engines understand your content. This is where structured data (Schema markup) comes in. It's code you add to your site to provide extra context about your pages.
The benefit is the chance to earn rich snippets in search results. These are improved listings with star ratings, prices, or FAQs. They make your site stand out and can significantly boost click-through rates. You can find the right vocabulary at Schema.org.
Want to stand out in the search results? Discover our Onsite SEO services that include schema implementation.
Strategy 7: Go Global with Hreflang and Use the Right Tools
If you have an international audience, you need to serve them the right content. Without proper targeting, users might see the wrong language or region, leading to a poor experience.
Hreflang tags are HTML attributes that solve this. They tell search engines the language and geographical target of a webpage, ensuring users in different countries see the correct version of your site.
To maintain your site's technical health, you need the right tools. Without them, issues can go unnoticed and erode your rankings. Essential tools include:
- Google Search Console: Your direct line to Google for tracking indexing status, crawl errors, and performance.
- PageSpeed Insights: Measures loading speed and Core Web Vitals with actionable recommendations.
- Site Crawlers: Desktop tools that simulate how search engines see your site, helping you find broken links, redirect issues, and duplicate content.
These tools are vital for monitoring, measuring, and refining your technical SEO to keep your site in top shape.
See how our Technical SEO services can help you scale globally.
AI, Organic vs. Paid: The Future of Technical SEO
Generative AI like ChatGPT and Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) are changing how people find information. Instead of clicking links, users get direct answers from AI, creating a new challenge for businesses trying to stay visible.
The key is to adapt by understanding how AI blurs the lines between organic and paid search.
- Organic Visibility: The focus is now on optimising for AI-generated visibility. Since AI models train on web content, strong technical SEO makes your site a more trustworthy source to be cited or referenced. This means doubling down on site authority, clear authorship, and structured data.
- Paid Placements: New opportunities are emerging for sponsored placements within AI responses. Imagine sponsored summaries or branded results appearing in AI-generated answers, guaranteeing your presence.
A successful modern strategy requires both. Use organic authority to influence how AI models perceive your brand, and leverage paid tactics to secure placement in these new environments.
At RankingCo, we combine the best technical SEO strategies with forward-thinking approaches to AI findability. We build strategies that keep you visible as AI transforms search, ensuring you're found wherever your customers are looking.
Get Expert Help and Watch Your Business Grow
Implementing the best technical SEO strategies is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time fix. Your site's technical health needs regular attention to perform at its peak as search engines and your business evolve.
At RankingCo, the world’s best little digital agency, we help startups and scaling businesses expand their reach across Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Canada. Our Brisbane-based team offers full-funnel marketing services, from global and local SEO to paid advertising and website strategy.
We've seen how fixing technical issues can transform a website into a traffic-generating machine. We have the experience to help you grow, from local businesses to those scaling internationally.
Let us handle the technical heavy lifting so you can focus on running your business.
Contact us today to get started with expert Technical SEO and watch your business grow.
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