Most conversations about SEO start with content. Write good articles. Use the right keywords. Build links. That’s all valid. But underneath all of it sits a layer that determines whether any of that effort actually registers with search engines. That’s technical SEO.
Technical SEO encompasses the structural and performance aspects of your website, including elements that affect whether Google can access, understand, and properly evaluate your pages. You can have the best content in your industry, but if your site takes eight seconds to load or has broken links everywhere, you’re fighting an uphill battle.
This guide is for people who are comfortable with the basics. If you’re still new to the field, the beginner’s guide to what is SEO on Craft Tech Media is a good starting point before diving into the technical side.
What does technical SEO actually cover?
The term is broad. It includes anything that relates to how your site is built and how search engines interact with it at a structural level. The main areas are:
- Site speed and Core Web Vitals
- Mobile-friendliness
- Crawlability and indexation
- XML sitemaps
- Robots.txt configuration
- HTTPS security
- Structured data and schema markup
- Duplicate content and canonical tags
- URL structure
Some of these you can handle yourself. Others, particularly if your site is large or built on a custom platform, may need a developer. Either way, knowing what they are and why they matter helps you have better conversations with whoever is working on your site.
Core Web Vitals: Google’s page experience signals
Core Web Vitals are a set of specific measurements Google uses to evaluate user experience. They were introduced as official ranking factors in 2021 and remain important. There are three main metrics:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how long it takes for the main content of a page to load. Under 2.5 seconds is the target.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): how quickly the page responds to user interaction. Under 200 milliseconds is good.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): measures how much the page jumps around while loading. A score under 0.1 is acceptable.
You can check your scores in Google Search Console under the Core Web Vitals report, or use the free PageSpeed Insights tool. Poor scores don’t automatically kill rankings, but they’re a disadvantage, particularly in competitive searches where other signals are close.
Google’s own Core Web Vitals documentation for site owners explains what each metric measures and gives practical guidance on improving each one.
XML sitemaps: giving search engines a map
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website you want search engines to find and index. It doesn’t guarantee indexation, but it does make discovery faster and more reliable, particularly for newer or larger sites.
Most CMS platforms generate a sitemap automatically. In WordPress, plugins like Yoast or Rank Math handle it. Once you have one, submit it through Google Search Console so Google knows where to find it.
A sitemap should only include pages you actually want indexed. Exclude parameter URLs, admin pages, duplicate content pages, and anything with a “noindex” tag. A sitemap full of low-quality URLs can do more harm than good.
Robots.txt: controlling what gets crawled
The robots.txt file lives at the root of your domain (yoursite.com/robots.txt) and tells crawlers which pages they’re allowed or not allowed to visit. It’s one of the simplest technical files on a website and one of the easiest to get wrong.
A common mistake is accidentally blocking sections of a site during a redesign and forgetting to remove the restriction after launch. Another is trying to hide thin or low-quality pages with robots.txt, which doesn’t remove them from the index, only a “noindex” tag does that.
For most small business sites, the default robots.txt is fine. If you’re unsure what yours says, type your domain followed by /robots.txt into a browser and read what comes up. If you see “Disallow: /” across the board, your entire site is blocked from crawling.
Website speed: why it matters beyond rankings
Page speed affects SEO, but it also affects conversions. A one-second delay in load time can reduce conversions significantly. People leave slow sites. Google knows this, which is why speed is factored into rankings.
The main causes of slow load times are usually:
- Large uncompressed images
- Slow web hosting
- Too many third-party scripts loading on each page (live chat widgets, analytics, tracking pixels)
- No caching in place
- Unminified CSS and JavaScript files
A free audit through Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix will identify specific issues and suggest fixes. Many hosting providers now offer caching tools or content delivery networks (CDNs) that can dramatically improve load times without code changes.
HTTPS: basic security is also an SEO signal
If your site still starts with “http” rather than “https,” that’s a problem worth fixing immediately. Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, and modern browsers actively warn users when they visit non-secure pages. That warning alone can drive users away.
SSL certificates, which enable HTTPS, are now free or included with most hosting plans. If you’re on a managed platform, it’s often a single toggle in your settings. There’s no reason for a business site to still be running on HTTP.
Structured data and schema markup
Structured data is a way of adding additional context to your content using a standardised code format called Schema.org markup. It helps search engines understand not just that you have a business address, but that it’s a local business, what type, what the opening hours are, and whether there are reviews.
It can also enable rich results in search, star ratings, FAQs, event details, recipe cards. These take up more space in search results and tend to attract more clicks.
You don’t need to write the code by hand. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper walks you through the process. For WordPress sites, plugins like Schema Pro or Rank Math handle it automatically for common page types.
Duplicate content and canonical tags
Duplicate content happens when the same or very similar content exists at multiple URLs. This confuses search engines about which version to rank. It can occur naturally on e-commerce sites where product filters create separate URLs for the same page, or on blogs where the same post appears in multiple category archives.
The fix is a canonical tag, a line of HTML that tells Google “this is the preferred version of this page.” Most CMS platforms handle this automatically, but it’s worth checking if you’ve noticed traffic cannibalisation issues or if your site has a lot of parameter URLs.
When to bring in a technical SEO specialist
If your site is small and built on a mainstream CMS, you can handle most technical SEO basics yourself using the tools mentioned above. But if you’re dealing with a large site, custom development, significant traffic drops after an algorithm update, or persistent crawl errors you can’t diagnose, that’s the time to speak with a specialist. The digital marketing resources at Craft Tech Media can help you understand what to look for when choosing someone to work with.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, directly and indirectly. Crawl issues, slow load times, and poor mobile experience all factor into how Google evaluates and ranks your site. Technical problems can limit the potential of your content regardless of how good it is.
Moving to HTTPS if you haven’t already. After that, run a PageSpeed Insights report and fix the highest-impact image issues. Submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console is also quick and gives you access to useful diagnostic data.
Yes, every website owner should have it set up. Google Search Console is a free tool that shows you which queries bring people to your site, whether your pages are indexed, any crawl errors, and your Core Web Vitals scores. It’s the most direct feedback loop you have with Google.
Yes, if it’s blocking important pages. A misconfigured robots.txt can prevent Google from crawling your content entirely. Always check it after a site migration or redesign.
