Most people know the basics of SEO: use keywords, create great content, and build backlinks. But what about the technical side — the part that really powers your site’s performance behind the scenes?
If you want to rank higher, drive more traffic, and make your website future-proof, technical SEO can no longer be an afterthought. Here are some technical SEO tips even many marketers miss.
1. Use Crawl Budget Strategically
Google doesn’t crawl every page of your site equally. It allocates a “crawl budget” — and if you waste it on duplicate pages, outdated content, or broken links, your important pages may get ignored.
Tip: Regularly audit your site and fix unnecessary redirects, soft 404s, and thin pages that don’t add value.
2. Implement Proper Canonical Tags
Duplicate content can confuse search engines, diluting your page authority and hurting your rankings.
Using canonical tags correctly tells search engines which version of a page you want them to prioritise. It helps consolidate ranking signals and ensures that duplicate or near-duplicate pages don’t compete against each other.
3. Don’t Just Be Mobile-Friendly, Be Mobile-First
It’s not enough for your site to work on mobile. It has to be designed for mobile from the ground up, because Google uses mobile-first indexing by default.
Tip: Prioritise mobile page speed, easy tap targets, and clear navigation to improve rankings and user experience.
4. Optimise Page Speed: It’s More Critical Than You Think
Page speed isn’t just a technical detail, it’s a major factor for SEO and user experience. A slow website frustrates users, increases bounce rates, and weakens your rankings.
According to the Deloitte report, as page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of a user bouncing rises by 32%
5. Create a Clean XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap acts like a map for search engines, guiding them to the key pages on your website. However, a messy or outdated sitemap can slow down indexing and confuse.
Make sure your sitemap is accurate, up-to-date, and free from redirect errors. Submitting it to Google Search Console helps you monitor how effectively your site is being crawled.
A clean sitemap is only one part of maintaining strong technical SEO. For a full approach, including how to run a detailed technical audit that covers indexing, crawling, mobile performance, and site structure, take a look at this Mastering Website Optimisation guide.
6. Use Structured Data to Get Featured
Structured data (also called schema markup) allows you to communicate directly with search engines, helping them understand the content and purpose of your pages.
Adding structured data for elements like products, articles, FAQs, and reviews can make your listings more attractive in search results, leading to better click-through rates and higher visibility.
7. Monitor Crawl Errors Like a Hawk
Crawl errors such as broken links, inaccessible pages, and server errors are silent threats to your site’s performance.
Monitoring your site with tools like Google Search Console allows you to quickly spot and fix these issues before they impact your rankings.
8. Focus on Server Optimisation
Your hosting and server setup impact load speed and uptime, both of which affect SEO. Use a fast, reliable server, enable compression, and keep server response times low for better technical SEO performance.
Technical SEO isn’t just a checklist — it’s the foundation that holds your entire digital presence together.
By fine-tuning the areas others often overlook, you’re setting your website up for stronger rankings, better user retention, and more sustainable success. The best part? Most people still underestimate how powerful technical SEO really is, and that’s your opportunity to get ahead.
Ready to go beyond the basics? Start with the technical foundations, because that’s where real SEO wins are made.
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