TLDR: Technical SEO is the “behind-the-scenes” foundation of your website, ensuring that search engines can crawl, index, and understand your content efficiently. It impacts everything from page speed to site structure and mobile experience.
Table of Contents
What is Technical SEO?
As our Head of SEO, Arina puts it, “SEO traditionally splits into three main pillars, content, technical, and links. Technical SEO is what’s behind the scenes of a website. What the site is built on, the CMS it uses, how it’s presented to users, and how search engines crawl and index it.”
In other words, technical SEO is the backstage crew that makes sure the show (your content) can even be seen by the audience (Google and your users).
Difference between content SEO and technical SEO
Content SEO focuses on what’s on stage, your words, images, and value to the reader.
Technical SEO, on the other hand, focuses on the scaffolding behind that stage, ensuring the lighting, sound, and structure all work flawlessly so the performance can shine.
Why search engines need technically optimised websites
Search engines are automated crawlers. They rely on clean code, sitemaps, and logical structures to discover and index pages. If your site has broken links, slow scripts, or inaccessible URLs, even the best content might never be seen.
Why technical SEO is important
Helps search engines crawl and index effectively
Think of search engines like Google as busy librarians, they only have so much time to look through your website before moving on. That’s what we call the crawl budget.
As Arina explains, “If you’ve got loads of dead links or endless redirects, that crawl budget gets eaten up really quickly and then Google might miss the pages that actually matter.”
In other words, a technically healthy site makes life easier for both users and crawlers. Everything’s neat, tidy, and easy to find.
Improves user experience
Technical SEO isn’t about pleasing Google, it’s about keeping your visitors happy too. Arina says, “Technical SEO isn’t just for organic performance; it affects the overall user experience.”
If your site is slow, clunky, or full of broken pages, people will leave before they even see what you have to offer. A smooth, well-built website keeps users engaged, builds trust, and helps them get where they want to go, whether that’s reading a blog, filling out a form, or buying a product.
Enhances page speed and performance
Over time, websites can get weighed down, a few extra plugins here, an outdated script there, maybe some huge image files that no one’s resized. Suddenly, your once-speedy site starts dragging. “Established sites often become slow because of years of small changes. Technical SEO helps keep your site lean.”
By trimming the digital fat and making sure everything loads quickly, you’ll not only make your site more efficient but also improve how search engines (and users) see it.
Boosts rankings and organic visibility
Here’s the simple truth: search engines love technically strong sites.
When your website is fast, secure (HTTPS), and mobile-friendly, it’s far more likely to show up higher in search results. Technical SEO builds the foundation for all your other SEO efforts, without it, even the best content might never get the visibility it deserves.
Key elements of technical SEO
Here’s a breakdown of the main components Arina discussed, plus practical examples:
Website speed & performance
Your site should load quickly on all devices. Use tools like PageSpeed Insights to identify bloated scripts or heavy images.
Mobile-friendliness
With mobile-first indexing, your mobile version is the default in Google’s eyes. A responsive design is essential.
Secure HTTPS connection (SSL)
Always serve your site over HTTPS, not only for user trust but also because search engines flag HTTP sites as insecure.
Crawlability & indexability
Properly configure your robots.txt and XML sitemaps to guide crawlers efficiently. Avoid blocking important pages or wasting crawl budget on low-value URLs.
Structured data / Schema markup
Add schema to help search engines understand your content’s meaning, for example, marking up products, FAQs, or reviews for rich snippets.
Canonical tags & duplicate content handling
Use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of similar pages, avoiding duplicate content penalties.
URL structure optimisation
Keep URLs short, descriptive, and logical. As Arina notes, “If you can tell what the page is about just by looking at the URL, then it’s easy for both users and search engines to understand.”
Core web vitals
Monitor loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability, these are now major ranking signals in Google’s algorithm.
Recommended tools for your technical SEO audit
Arina and the team at Modo25 uses a range of tools to get a full picture of site health:
- Google Search Console – Google’s own platform to monitor indexing, crawl errors, and Core Web Vitals.
- Screaming Frog – A powerful crawler that finds broken links, redirects, and duplicate content.
- PageSpeed Insights – Tests speed and Core Web Vitals for both mobile and desktop.
- Lumar (formerly Deepcrawl) – Offers a comprehensive overview of technical site health.
We combine data from all these sources to get the overall health of the site before we start looking for issues.
Common technical SEO issues
During audits, the Modo25 team often finds recurring themes:
- Broken links / 404 errors – Especially common on ecommerce sites when products go out of stock.
- Slow page loading – Often caused by excessive JavaScript, large images, or unremoved old scripts.
- Missing XML sitemaps – Makes it harder for search engines to find all your pages.
- Incorrect canonical tags – Can cause duplicate content or indexing problems.
- Non-secure (HTTP) sites – Users and Google both distrust them.
Technical SEO best practices
Arina’s advice? “Keep it clean and simple.”
- Regular site audits – Catch issues early before they affect rankings.
- Keep site architecture logical – A clear hierarchy helps both users and crawlers.
- Optimise for mobile-first indexing – Google prioritises mobile experience.
- Monitor Core Web Vitals – Continuously test and improve performance metrics.
- Use structured data – Unlock rich results and improve content understanding.
Summed up: “Follow Google’s webmaster guidelines. It’s not about what SEOs want, it’s about what Google needs your site to do to crawl, index, and rank.”
Conclusion & key takeaways
Technical SEO might not be glamorous, but it’s the backbone of every successful website.
- It ensures your site is discoverable, fast, and user-friendly.
- It prevents wasted crawl budgets and missed indexing opportunities.
- And it supports every other marketing channel, from organic to paid.
Remember, technical SEO isn’t a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process. Run a full site audit using tools like Lumar or Screaming Frog, or check out Modo25’s technical SEO services to ensure your site is performing at its best.
