Technical SEO Basics: Speed, Mobile, Crawling and Indexing

Technical SEO is the plumbing of your website. When it works, nobody notices. When it fails, good content never reaches search results.

Crawling and indexing

Search engines send bots to discover pages (crawling) and then store them in an index. If a page is not indexed, it cannot appear in results. Common blockers include:

• A robots.txt file that blocks important pages.
• A "noindex" tag left on after a website redesign.
• Broken links and orphan pages that nothing links to.
• Duplicate pages that confuse which version should rank.

Use Google Search Console to see which pages are indexed and why others are not.

Sitemap

An XML sitemap lists your important pages and helps search engines find them. Submit it in Search Console and keep it updated.

Site speed

Slow pages frustrate visitors and can hurt performance in search. To improve:

1. Compress and properly size images.
2. Use good hosting and caching.
3. Remove unused scripts and heavy plugins.
4. Load important content first.

Google's Core Web Vitals measure loading, responsiveness and visual stability. Test with PageSpeed Insights and aim to fix real problems, not just chase a score.

Mobile friendliness

Most searches happen on phones, and Google mainly uses the mobile version of a page for indexing. Check that text is readable, buttons are easy to tap and nothing overflows the screen.

HTTPS and security

Serve your site over HTTPS. It protects visitors and is a baseline expectation for trust.

URL structure and redirects

Keep URLs clean and consistent. When you move or delete a page, use a 301 redirect to the best replacement. Avoid long redirect chains.

Canonical tags

If similar content appears at several URLs, such as filtered product pages, a canonical tag tells search engines which version is the main one.

Structured data

Schema markup helps search engines understand content type, such as products, reviews, events and organisations, and can enable rich results.

Fix errors

Check for 404 errors on pages people link to, redirect problems and server errors. Fix them in order of how many pages or visitors they affect.

Summary

Make sure your pages can be found, loaded quickly and used comfortably on a phone. This unlocks the benefit of everything else you do in SEO.

Technical issues are often invisible to site owners. If you want a thorough technical check, message us on WhatsApp.