Technical SEO
Technical search engine optimization refers to the structure and organization of a site for maximum search engine visibility. Our coverage addresses structured data (Schema.org), website hierarchy, menus, categories, page speed, bot crawlers (including Googlebot), domain names, and more.
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Technical SEO
Real-time SEO: Create a Google Product Feed from an XML Sitemap
February 26, 2019 • Hamlet Batista
It is now possible to update product listings in organic search results in real time via a product feed. In this article, I’ll explain how to create a feed from an XML sitemap.
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Technical SEO
How Query Intent Impacts Ecommerce SEO
February 21, 2019 • Bill Sebald
Google attempts to understand the intent of a searcher's query. The company recognizes the burden of providing the best results, even if the query is vague. For example, if someone types in “jaguar,” Google has to figure out what that searcher wants.
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Technical SEO
6 SEO Myths about Alt Tags
December 10, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Alt tags are a frequent to-do item for search engine optimization. But there's much confusion surrounding the importance of optimizing alt tags. So it’s time for some myth-busting around this oft-misunderstood topic.
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Technical SEO
Use HTML Caching to Increase Page Speed
December 9, 2018 • Hamlet Batista
Heavy traffic to a website can result in performance problems, slower page speed, and fewer conversions. In this article, I'll share a simple process to speed up page loads. The idea is to cache not just images and scripts, but also the HTML content.
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Technical SEO
SEO: Why Is Metadata Important?
November 19, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
This article will describe at a high level the types of metadata most commonly used in SEO. Pay careful attention to the terminology. Meta tags are metadata, but not all metadata are meta tags. Some elements commonly called “tags” are actually attributes of a tag.
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Technical SEO
SEO: Understanding Sitemaps for Ecommerce Stores
October 3, 2018 • Armando Roggio
Sitemaps inform search engines which pages on a website should be crawled, and may help search engines discover and index those pages. While sitemaps can be a simple text file listing ...
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Technical SEO
Technical SEO: 15 Critical Areas That Impact Performance
September 30, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
The technical aspects of search engine optimization can seem mysterious, especially for content marketers. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The 15 areas below cover the major areas. 15
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Technical SEO
Change Organic Search Snippets to Drive Motivated Buyers
September 28, 2018 • Hamlet Batista
In “How to Increase Click-throughs on Organic Search Listings,” I addressed the importance of compelling messages in organic snippets. In this article, I will dig deeper. I will explore how ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Building a 301 Redirect Strategy
September 16, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
When a site’s URLs change, 301 redirects are crucial to preserve and grow natural search performance. Organic search rankings depend in large part on link authority: the quantity and quality of ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Retaining Performance on Site Migrations
September 7, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Site migrations are risky for natural search performance. Whether you’re migrating a site to a new design or rebranding, what you do before the new site is live will determine its natural search performance.
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Technical SEO
SEO Is Way More Than Metadata
August 19, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Metadata is just data about data. In the world of organic search, that means title tags and meta descriptions, schema structured data, canonical tags, meta robots tags and the like.
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Technical SEO
SEO: 7 Reasons Your Site’s Indexation Is Down
August 3, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Without indexation, there is no possibility of ranking in natural search results. When indexation numbers drop, there are a handful of potential reasons. Site Speed Increasingly, slower site speeds are masquerading as ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Shaving Seconds Off Page Speed
July 9, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
For customers, site speed matters. For search engines, site speed impacts organic rankings. With its mobile Speed Update rolling out now, Google is applying site speed to mobile search results ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Harnessing Facets to Drive the Meaty Torso
June 15, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Natural search performance on ecommerce sites often suffers from an invisible problem: a missing torso. For search engine optimization, a “torso” describes keywords that drive too many searches to be called ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: 3 Paths to Crawlable JavaScript
June 3, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Last week’s primer described some of the reasons that Googlebot, in particular, has trouble with modern forms of JavaScript. This article addresses solutions to compensate for bots’ limitations.
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Technical SEO
SEO: No, Google Does Not Support Newer JavaScript
May 25, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Some search engine optimization professionals and developers have concluded in the last couple of years that Google can crawl JavaScript. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sites using Angular (the ...
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Technical SEO
301 Redirects May Save Your SEO
May 4, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
A search engine professional’s lucky number is 301. That’s the server header status code for a type of redirect that performs many critical functions for natural search performance. What Is a ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: Managing Modern Algorithm Updates
April 27, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Google launched a broad core algorithm update last week that impacted web search appearance and rankings. Algorithm changes typically center on rankings improvements tied to determining the quality of a site’s ...
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Technical SEO
How to Optimize Mobile Search for Voice, Barcodes, and Images
April 18, 2018 • Hamlet Batista
The traditional behavior of typing keyword phrases in a Google’s search box is being replaced by searches for voice, barcodes, and images. It is impractical to type long-tail searches on mobile devices. But this difficulty also presents opportunities. In this post, I'll address how to optimize mobile searches for voice, barcodes, and images.
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Technical SEO
13 Ways to Kill Organic Search Traffic
April 15, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Skill and effort influence organic search success. But any number of actions can harm search engine optimization efforts. In this post, I’ll describe 13 SEO blunders that I’ve seen over ...
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Technical SEO
Gzip Compression Could Make Your Site 90-percent Faster
March 16, 2018 • Armando Roggio
Not using gzip on your web server? Your company should be. Enabling gzip compression could improve initial page load times by as much as 90 percent. Your business's faster web pages may even lead to better search engine rankings, an increase in site traffic, and more sales.
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Technical SEO
How to Quickly Drop Seconds from a Site’s Load Time
March 13, 2018 • Hamlet Batista
There are good reasons to improve your online store’s page speed, especially for mobile. However, I’ve found that improving speed can require a lot of expensive developer work. usually following standard best practices over many months. In this article, I will share simple tricks to eliminate seconds of page load time, in just a few hours.
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Technical SEO
4 SEO Requirements for International Ecommerce Sites
March 2, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
Multinational ecommerce businesses with country-specific websites have distinct search engine optimization requirements. A searcher in Australia, say, must end up on the site containing Australian English, currency, and content. A searcher in Germany must land on that website. And so on.
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Technical SEO
SEO Tips for New Ecommerce Sites (and Redesigns)
February 26, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
The battle for organic search performance can be won or lost before a site launches. Choices made in the design and implementation stages impact the ability of an ecommerce business to change critical elements for search engine optimization, handcuffing what is typically one of the largest drivers of traffic and revenue.
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Technical SEO
HTTPS Is Important for More Reasons Than SEO
February 9, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
A website’s use of the secure protocol — as evidenced by the HTTPS designation and the presence of a security certificate — is a priority for search engines. But recent changes to Google Chrome make it important for web browsers, too. Google is tackling the security challenge across the web via its Chrome browser. Google is tackling the security challenge across the web via its Chrome browser. This week, the Chrome team announced that all web pages without an HTTPS certificate will display a “Not Secure” label in Chrome 68, scheduled to be launched in July 2018.
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Technical SEO
6 Ways Web Developers Can Improve SEO
February 2, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
The relationship between web developers and search-engine-optimization teams is sometimes contentious. Seemingly unrelated technical decisions by developers can impact organic search traffic. But there are enormous SEO benefits in working with development teams and their release planning and testing cycles. In 13 years, I’ve encountered just one developer who refused to consider SEO recommendations.
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Technical SEO
SEO: Google to Make Mobile Speed a Ranking Factor
January 19, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown
If you weren’t already focused on your mobile site’s performance, Google is giving you a reason. In July of 2018, Google will use a new ranking signal focused purely on mobile site speed: the “Speed Update.” Google will dampen rankings for slower mobile sites to help mobile searchers find sites that deliver what Google considers to be a better mobile experience. Desktop site speed has been a Google ranking factor for almost eight years — its obsession with speed isn’t anything new. What is new is that Google will now include mobile sites in the site speed ranking equation.
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Technical SEO
SEO: How to Identify High Rankings That Produce No Clicks
January 14, 2018 • Hamlet Batista
Google's AdWords Keyword Planner is helpful for keyword research, as are many third-party tools. But Google Search Console can also identify keyword optimization opportunities. I'll explain in this post. Many search engine optimizers believe that a web page can rank organically for just a few keywords, perhaps three to five.
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Technical SEO
How to Increase Click-throughs on Organic Search Listings
January 4, 2018 • Hamlet Batista
Finding new keywords to target and developing content around them is a common practice for search engine optimization. But optimizing for a keyword does not necessarily mean a searcher will ...
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Technical SEO
SEO: For Redesigns and Migrations, Prepare for the Worst
December 1, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
You spend months preparing for your ecommerce redesign or migration. You take search engine optimization into consideration and anticipate an increase in organic search traffic after launch. But what happens ...