How to Make Technical SEO Adjustments to Rank Higher on Google?

How to Make Technical SEO Settings to Rank Higher on Google?

Today, the internet has become one of the most important tools for accessing information and doing business. This situation makes increasing the visibility of websites more critical than ever. Ranking high in search engines like Google is vital for attracting more traffic to your website, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately growing your business. This is where technical SEO comes into play, which involves technical optimizations that allow search engines to better understand and evaluate your website. In this article, we will examine in detail the basic technical SEO settings you need to make to rank higher on Google.

1. Optimizing Website Speed

Website speed is a critical factor for user experience and search engine rankings. A slow-loading site can cause users to leave the site immediately (bounce rate) and consequently lower your ranking. Google considers website speed as a ranking factor and rewards fast sites.

1.1. Image Optimization

Large-sized images are one of the most common reasons for your website loading slowly. To optimize images, you can follow these steps:

Image Format Selection: JPEG, PNG, and WebP formats are the most suitable options for the web. JPEG is for photos, PNG is for graphics and logos, and WebP is an excellent option for both and offers better compression.
Reducing Image Size: Before uploading images, resize them to the most appropriate size for displaying them on the web. For example, if an image with a size of 1920x1080 pixels will be displayed in a small area, it should not be kept unnecessarily large.
Compression: Compressing images can significantly reduce file size. You can compress your images using online tools such as TinyPNG, ImageOptim, and Compressor.io, or software such as Photoshop.
Lazy Loading: Lazy loading ensures that images on the page are only loaded as the user scrolls down the page. This significantly reduces the initial page load time.

Sample Code (Lazy Loading):

In this code snippet, the `loading="lazy"` attribute is used to enable lazy loading of the image.

1.2. Browser Caching

Browser caching allows static resources of your website (e.g., images, CSS files, JavaScript files) to be stored in users' browsers. Thus, when a user visits your site again, these resources are loaded from the browser instead of being downloaded from the server again, which significantly speeds up page loading time.

For browser caching, you need to edit your .htaccess file or your web server's configuration file (e.g., httpd.conf for Apache or nginx.conf for Nginx). Below is an example code that you can add to the .htaccess file:



  ExpiresActive On
  ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"
  ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year"
  ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year"
  ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 year"
  ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
  ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 month"
  ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
  ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 1 hour"

This code specifies how long certain file types will be stored in the cache. For example, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and SVG images are stored in the cache for 1 year, CSS and JavaScript files for 1 month, and HTML files for 1 hour.

1.3. Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a system that stores your website's content on servers in different locations around the world. When a user visits your site, the content is served from the nearest server, which significantly speeds up page loading time, especially if you have visitors from geographically different regions.

There are many CDN providers such as Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, and Akamai. Using a CDN is an effective way to improve your website's performance and improve user experience.

2. Mobile Compatibility

With the increasing use of mobile devices, it has become a necessity for your website to be mobile-friendly. Google ranks mobile-friendly sites higher in search results. To ensure mobile compatibility, you can follow these steps:

2.1. Responsive Design

Responsive design is a design approach that allows your website to automatically adapt to different screen sizes and devices. This means that users can view your site seamlessly from desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones.

You can use CSS media queries for responsive design. Media queries allow different CSS rules to be applied based on specific screen sizes or device features.

Sample Code (CSS Media Query):


/* For small screens (e.g., smartphones) */
@media (max-width: 767px) {
  .container {
    width: 100%;
    padding: 10px;
  }
  .menu {
    display: none;
  }
}

/* For medium screens (e.g., tablets) */
@media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 991px) {
  .container {
    width: 750px;
  }
}

/* For large screens (e.g., desktop computers) */
@media (min-width: 992px) {
  .container {
    width: 970px;
  }
}

This code snippet adjusts the width of the `.container` class and the visibility of the `.menu` class according to different screen sizes.

2.2. Mobile-Friendly Test Tool

You can check whether your website is mobile-friendly using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test Tool. This tool helps you see how your site looks on mobile devices and identify potential issues.

2.3. Touchscreen Optimization

Since users typically interact by touching on mobile devices, it is important that your website is suitable for touchscreens. Make sure buttons and links are large enough and easy to click.

3. Schema Markup

Schema Markup is a type of code that allows you to better tell search engines what your website's content is about. Using a standard vocabulary defined by Schema.org, you can provide search engines with information about products, events, recipes, reviews, and more.

Schema markup allows rich snippets to be displayed in search results. Rich snippets can increase your click-through rate by showing additional information (e.g., product price, rating, number of reviews) in search results in addition to normal results.

Sample Code (Product Schema Markup):

This code snippet provides search engines with information about a product: product name, images, description, SKU, brand, reviews, rating, and price. Using this information, Google can display rich snippets in search results.

4. Creating and Submitting a Sitemap

A sitemap is an XML file containing a list of all the pages on your website. A sitemap helps search engines crawl and index your site more easily. Creating a sitemap is especially important for large and complex websites.

You can use various tools to create a sitemap (e.g., XML-Sitemaps.com). After creating a sitemap, you can submit it to Google via Google Search Console.

Sample XML Sitemap:




  
    https://example.com/
    2023-10-27T10:00:00+00:00
    1.0
  
  
    https://example.com/about-us/
    2023-10-26T12:00:00+00:00
    0.8
  
  
    https://example.com/products/
    2023-10-25T14:00:00+00:00
    0.6

This XML file specifies the URLs, last modified dates, and priorities of three pages (homepage, about us page, and products page).

Conclusion and Summary

Technical SEO to rank higher on Google is a continuous process and requires patience. Optimizing your website's speed, ensuring mobile compatibility, using schema markup, and creating a sitemap helps search engines better understand and evaluate your site. By implementing these steps, you can increase your website's visibility, attract more traffic, and grow your business. Remember that technical SEO is just a starting point. Other SEO factors such as content quality, keyword optimization, and link building will also affect your ranking. We wish you success!