Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for any business looking to drive organic traffic, leads, and sales in 2023. With advanced SEO techniques, you can boost your site’s search rankings, visibility, and authority.
In this complete guide, we will cover the top 13 advanced technical SEO strategies and tips to implement for better search performance. Whether you’re new to SEO or a seasoned pro, this SEO checklist will help take your efforts to the next level.
Why Technical SEO Matters More Than Ever
With Google’s constant algorithm updates and increasing competition, mastering technical SEO is essential for long-term success. Optimizing the technical aspects of your website helps Google easily crawl, index, and understand your pages. This makes it easier to rank your important keywords and content.
Technical SEO refers to optimizing a site’s underlying code, infrastructure, and architecture. It focuses on enhancing a site’s technical performance and page experience. With core web vitals becoming a key ranking factor, technical SEO is crucial.
If you ignore technical SEO issues, Google may struggle to properly index and rank your site. Technical errors can also frustrate users, leading to high bounce rates and lost conversions. That’s why regularly monitoring and improving technical SEO should be a priority.
Perform an In-Depth Technical SEO Audit
The first step is auditing your current technical SEO health. Use free tools like Google Search Console and Semrush to uncover issues impacting performance.
Look for crawl errors, duplicate content, broken links, page speed problems, and more. Check your site on mobile devices as well since mobile optimization is critical.
An advanced technical SEO audit helps you identify high-priority problems to address first. This lays the foundation for proper optimization and long-term rankings.
Optimize URL Structure and Internal Linking
Well-structured URLs are search-friendly and user-friendly. Create clear, descriptive URLs with target keywords where possible. Use hyphens instead of underscores and do not use excessive dynamic parameters.
Internal links should connect relevant pages using optimized anchor text. This helps Google understand your site’s architecture and topics. Avoid over-optimization and unnatural linking patterns.
Improve Site Speed and Mobile Optimization
Site speed greatly impacts user experience and SEO. Use PageSpeed Insights to check your desktop and mobile speed scores.
Enable caching, lazy loading for images/videos, and compression. Minify HTML, CSS, JS, and media files. Choose a fast, optimized web host. Improve server response times.
Also ensure your site loads smoothly on all devices, with an optimized mobile design and layout. Accelerated mobile pages (AMP) further enhance speed.
Enhance On-Page Optimization and Content Quality
On-page SEO helps Google understand the topic and relevance of each page. Include your target keyword in titles, headers, meta descriptions, image alt text, and 1-3 times in content.
Create useful, engaging content that answers searchers’ questions. Include multimedia and structured data where possible. Interlink related content to form an internal linking web. Promote your best content.
Create an XML Sitemap and Submit in Search Console
An XML sitemap helps Google discover new and updated pages. Manually submit sitemaps in Search Console for faster indexing.
Update sitemaps frequently as you add content. Make sure they contain all site pages, including images, videos, and other media. Compressed sitemaps help with larger sites.
Fix Crawl Errors and Indexing Issues
Debug crawl errors shown in Search Console like 404s and 500s. Identify fixes like resolving broken links or changing access permissions.
Submit currently unindexed but valid pages using the “Request Indexing” tool. Remove pages you want deindexed. Review low indexing rates for further crawling issues.
Optimize Images, Videos, and Structured Data
Add descriptive file names, alt text, and title tags to images to improve meaning. Compress files and enable lazy loading for faster speeds.
Transcribe video and audio content with captions. Use YouTube transcripts. Mark up videos with proper schema markup.
Adding more structured data improves search visibility for certain formats like reviews, events, and recipes.
Improve Technical Performance Using Testing Tools
Tools like Google Lighthouse and WebPagetest reveal optimization opportunities. Test page load speed, accessibility, SEO, and PWA metrics.
Fix low scores for performance, progressive web app capabilities, and best practices. Troubleshoot issues flagged for CSS, JavaScript, and images.
Build High-Quality Backlinks from Relevant Sites
Backlinks remain a crucial ranking signal. Focus on earning authoritative backlinks naturally over time. Guest post on niche blogs and be featured on reputable industry sites.
Promote your best content across social media and online platforms. Build localized citations and links to rank better in local search.
Monitor Your Rankings with Advanced SEO Tools
Robust SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz provide deep insights into your current performance and competitors.
Track ranking changes for target keywords over time. Discover new keyword opportunities and optimization ideas. Identify harmful backlinks that need disavowing.
Keep Up with SEO Best Practices and Google Algorithm Changes
SEO is constantly evolving. Subscribe to authoritative blogs like SearchEngineLand to stay updated on important changes and fresh tactics.
Adapt your strategy based on Google’s core algorithm updates like product reviews update and passage indexing. Follow SEO experts on social media for real-time news.
Perform SEO for Voice Search Optimization
Optimize for featured snippets and voice search results by answering questions in clear sentences. Use natural language and conversational wording.
Include relevant questions and answers on pages. Begin paragraphs with questions as hooks to capture attention. Format content in FAQ and “how to” structures.
Make Your Site Mobile-First
With mobile usage surpassing desktop, a mobile-first index is crucial. Test all pages on actual mobile devices. Expand tap targets for buttons and links.
Avoid interstitials and popups. Enable click-to-call and location/direction functionality. Design with thumb-friendly interactions in mind.
The Key Takeaways for Advanced Technical SEO
technical SEO establishes the foundation for search visibility and success. By optimizing your site’s architecture, speed, and technical performance, you make it easier for Google to crawl, index, and rank your pages.
Key takeaways include:
- Conduct regular technical SEO audits
- Improve site speed and mobile optimization
- Enhance on-page factors and content quality
- Build an XML sitemap and fix crawling errors
- Leverage rich media and structured data
- Perform page testing using Google tools
- Acquire authoritative backlinks over time
- Track rankings and analytics using advanced SEO tools
- Stay updated on best practices and algorithm changes
- Optimize for voice search and mobile-first indexing
With this checklist of advanced techniques, you can take your SEO to the next level. By combining these technical efforts with robust content and smart link building, you will boost organic search traffic, leads, and sales for your business in 2023.
Q: What are advanced SEO techniques?
A: Advanced SEO techniques refer to the strategies and tactics used to improve a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). These techniques go beyond basic SEO practices and require a deeper understanding of search engine algorithms and user behavior.
Q: Why do I need advanced SEO techniques for success in 2023?
A: SEO is an ever-evolving field, and staying ahead of the competition requires implementing advanced techniques. With search engines constantly updating their algorithms and users’ expectations evolving, advanced SEO techniques are crucial for achieving and maintaining high rankings, driving organic traffic, and increasing conversions.
Q: What are some advanced SEO techniques for 2023?
A: Some advanced SEO techniques for 2023 include optimizing for featured snippets, focusing on on-page SEO, improving page speed and user experience, implementing local SEO strategies, utilizing data-driven keyword research, creating high-quality and engaging content, building authoritative backlinks, conducting regular site audits, and addressing technical SEO issues.
Q: How can I optimize my website for featured snippets?
A: To optimize your website for featured snippets, you can identify common questions related to your industry or niche and create content that directly answers those questions. Structure your content using clear headings, bullet points, and concise paragraphs to make it easy for search engines to extract the information and display it as a featured snippet.
Q: What is on-page SEO?
A: On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing individual web pages to improve their visibility and relevancy for specific keywords. It involves optimizing content, meta tags, headings, URLs, internal linking, and other on-page elements to make them more search engine friendly and user-friendly.
Q: How does page speed affect SEO?
A: Page speed is an important ranking factor in search engine algorithms. Slow-loading pages can negatively impact user experience and increase bounce rates. Optimizing your website’s page speed can improve user satisfaction, increase search engine rankings, and ultimately drive more organic traffic to your site.
Q: What is local SEO and why is it important?
A: Local SEO focuses on optimizing a website’s visibility and rankings for local search queries. It aims to target geographically specific keywords to attract local customers. Local SEO is particularly important for businesses with physical locations, as it helps them appear in local search results and increases their chances of being found by local customers.
Q: How can I address technical SEO issues?
A: To address technical SEO issues, you can perform a thorough site audit using tools like Google Search Console and third-party SEO software. Identify and fix issues such as broken links, duplicate content, slow page load times, crawl errors, XML sitemap issues, and mobile responsiveness problems. Resolving these technical issues can improve your site’s crawlability, indexability, and overall SEO performance.
Q: What is the importance of creating high-quality content?
A: Creating high-quality content is essential for SEO success. High-quality content attracts and engages users, increases the likelihood of earning backlinks, and provides valuable information that search engines look for when ranking web pages. It is important to create content that is unique, informative, visually appealing, and optimized for relevant keywords.
Q: How can I improve my website’s crawlability and indexability?
A: To improve your website’s crawlability and indexability, you can ensure that your site has a clear and logical site structure, use XML sitemaps to assist search engine bots in crawling and indexing your pages, and utilize internal linking to guide search engines to important pages on your site. Additionally, optimizing your robots.txt file and avoiding duplicate content can also improve crawlability and indexability.
