Beyond content, some technical things can impact SEO: - Site Speed: Slow sites can hurt ranking (Google uses page experience signals, and speed is one). Plus, users hate slow sites. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to see how you fare and get suggestions. Common speed tips: optimize images (don’t upload huge images scaled down via HTML – resize/compress them), use caching, minimize excessive scripts or plugins, possibly use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for global speed. If not tech-savvy, choosing a decent host and a lightweight site theme/CMS can go a long way. - Mobile-Friendly: More searches happen on mobile than desktop. Google primarily uses the mobile version of sites for indexing (mobile-first indexing). So ensure your site is responsive (adapts to mobile) and easy to use on a phone. No tiny text, buttons too small to tap, etc. Most modern site builders/themes are responsive, but double check. - URL Structure: Keep URLs short and descriptive, including keywords if possible. e.g., mysite.com/budget-travel-tips is nicer than mysite.com/post?id=123. Users and search engines prefer readable URLs. Avoid changing URLs once indexed (unless you set up proper redirects), because that can break any existing ranking or links. - Site Navigation: Make sure all your pages can be found by crawling. A clear menu and internal links help. Also, create an XML sitemap (a file listing all important URLs) and submit it in Google Search Console. CMSs like WordPress have plugins (Yoast, etc.) that generate sitemaps automatically. - Robots.txt: This is a file where you can tell crawlers which pages not to crawl (like admin pages, certain scripts). Ensure you’re not accidentally blocking important parts of your site. Generally, beginners don’t need to mess with it much beyond making sure it exists and doesn’t disallow your whole site (it’s happened!). - Avoid Duplicate Content: Google can get confused if the same content is at multiple URLs (like a print version vs regular, or http vs https vs non-www, etc.). Use proper canonical tags or redirects. If you’re mostly running a basic site, just ensure you have one version of your site (prefer HTTPS and a single domain format). If you’re copying content from elsewhere (or manufacturer descriptions), note that original content ranks better. Try to write unique content. - Security (HTTPS): Your site should be HTTPS by default (SSL certificate). Google gives a slight ranking boost to HTTPS and also in Chrome marks non-HTTPS as “Not secure” which can scare users. Most hosts provide free Let’s Encrypt SSL or similar. - Structured Data (Schema): This is more advanced, but you can mark up certain content with special code that helps search engines understand it better and sometimes gives rich results (like star ratings, recipe details, event dates in search results). For beginners, not mandatory, but if you have specific content like recipes, reviews, events, etc., looking into schema markup can be beneficial in the future.
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