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In this episode of the Unbottleneck Podcast, Steve is joined by SEO veteran, Doc Sheldon, for a discussion about all things involving technical SEO! 

About Our Guest: Doc Sheldon

Known as the industry’s “biggest smart ass,” Doc Sheldon has 18 years of experience in search engine marketing helping small to mid-sized businesses improve their digital marketing. Sheldon is the founder of Intrinsic Value SEO and Top Shelf Copy, where he is focused on helping businesses retain and grow their traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition to his agency, Sheldon also hosts an annual DeepSEO conference that features a line-up of highly respected influencers in SEO. Experts join together to share their insight and experience about industry trends and to help answer common questions about SEO strategies and growth. 

Sponsored by Ryte

Doc Sheldon on Linkedin 
Intrinsic Value SEO on LinkedIn
Intrinsic Value SEO on Facebook
Intrinsic Value SEO on Twitter

  • Why Focus on Technical SEO?
  • The Essentials of a SEO Audit
  • How to Improve Tech SEO 
  • Web Crawler Basics
  • Tips for Getting It Right the First Time 

Why Technical SEO?

You have great content and quality backlinks, but your site is still not ranking. Why? There’s a great chance that there’s a problem on the technical side causing your website, specifically for user experience and helpfulness. 

There are three strategies of search: technical, contextual, and off-page visibility (links). These three strategies work together to help Google and other search engines determine how helpful your site is to a user’s intent. 

Tech SEO Audit 

Performing a technical SEO audit is a great way to get buy-in from your webmaster or web designer and create a streamlined process to improve your website’s ranking. 

Some elements to review in your audit include: 

  • Images
  • Broken Links
  • Page Speed 
  • Mobile-responsiveness 
  • Internal Linking 
  • URL structure

If any issues are found in your audit, tackle these items based on priorities – high, medium or low. 

Helpful tools to conduct your audit: 

  • Screaming Frog 
  • Sitebulb
  • SEMrush 

Pro-Tip: Make it a consistent practice to test and retest your site for any technical issues that could be affecting your rankings. 

How to Improve Tech SEO 

The key to improving your technical SEO strategy is to develop a cadence of ongoing maintenance to your website. 

In addition to regular TLC, here are some best practices for both consultants and clients to maximize productivity: 

Create a Baseline 

The best way to track results over time is to create a baseline. By documenting your site’s current metrics, you can see how your website is performing, then hold your team accountable for results. 

Silence the Noise 

With a plethora of SEO tips, tricks, and tactics at our fingertips, it can be tempting to want to implement them all. The truth is, there is an overwhelming amount of misinformation on the Internet and sometimes what has proven to be successful for one person, may not work for your industry, niche, or business model. This is why it is important to take in new information with a grain of salt. 

If you are not familiar with the tech side of SEO, it is important to have someone on your team that you trust to decipher this information and implement the best strategy for your business. 

Pro-Tip: For consultants, teach your clients what industry-related sources they should be learning new information from. 

What are Web Crawlers?

When we talk about ranking in search engines, it’s important to understand what web crawlers are and how they work.

A web crawler is a software that crawls the internet to identify new content and decide if that new content will be helpful. After identifying that new content, it is indexed and tested to determine if that page is genuinely more helpful than other sites and if it is, it is ranked appropriately. 

Therefore, without a crawler, there is no way for search engines to understand a website’s content. 

Get It Right the First Time

Google algorithm updates have the potential to affect rankings, but not if you do your job right. 

In previous years, Google would roll out big updates that heavily affected rankings causing many websites to revamp their SEO strategy. While Google still updates its algorithm, it should not be drastic enough for your site to lose its ranking if you are already implementing best practices and regular maintenance.  

Pro-Tip: Don’t obsess over SEO tactics! If you focus on tactics too much, you could negatively impact the user experience. Instead, make it a constant practice to ask users for feedback about how to improve your website and use that information to create a more pleasant experience. 

Keep up with the best Technical SEO and digital marketing strategies. Follow Steve on LinkedIn!