Technical SEO Services Guide

Technical SEO providers optimize websites to boost visibility. Learn how to choose the right partner for your SEO project by browsing the top tricks for outsourcing technical SEO services.

You might spend countless hours creating the perfect content and design for your business’s website, only to discover that when someone Googles your organization, it’s nowhere to be found in the search results. Or maybe clients find your website but leave quickly because it’s difficult to navigate or sluggish.

If these scenarios sound familiar, you’re not alone. Many businesses struggle to build their online presence and rank highly in search engine results. Investing in technical search engine optimization (SEO) services can help you boost your organization’s visibility and drive more traffic to your website.

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Technical SEO providers improve your website’s backend infrastructure, loading speed, and other behind-the-scenes elements. These adjustments can boost your website’s search engine rankings and attract more leads.

This guide covers everything you need to know about technical SEO hiring, from available services to performance metrics.

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What Is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO techniques help customers discover and navigate your website more easily, enhancing the user experience. 

Customers often rely on Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines to discover brands and digital content. Most users click the links at the top of the search engine results. According to a 2023 study by Backlinko, only 0.63% of Google users go even so far as the second page.

This statistic highlights the importance of creating high-ranking content and optimizing your website for search engines. Businesses that appear at the top of the results attract organic traffic and connect with clients more effectively. By contrast, organizations that rank poorly will likely get overlooked — even if they have stellar sites.

You can boost your website’s visibility by partnering with a technical SEO provider. These specialists understand how search engines crawl, index, and rank web pages. They use this knowledge to optimize technical elements that affect a website’s ranking. For instance, they could make your web pages mobile-friendly to improve load times and usability.

Technical SEO services perform numerous tasks, including:

• Audit websites to detect issues that may affect SEO
• Develop a responsive, mobile-friendly web design
• Improve page speed
• Build an XML sitemap
• Identify and fix broken internal links
• Fix crawl errors
• Create structured data markup
• Create SEO-friendly URL structures
• Develop a logical site link architecture

Businesses often hire technical SEO specialists to expand their reach and generate new leads. Small changes like improving meta descriptions can increase traffic and boost conversion rates. These enhancements also improve the user experience, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

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5 Benefits of Technical SEO Services

At first glance, hiring technical SEO services can seem unnecessary. After all, if you have a good website, customers should be able to find and use it, shouldn't they? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Without optimization, even the best websites can get buried in the search results, leading to missed opportunities to generate leads.

Here are five reasons why businesses invest in technical SEO services:

1. Improves site performance: Modern internet users expect to access content quickly and effortlessly. Issues like broken links and slow loading times can cause visitors to exit your website and seek information from a competitor. Technical SEO specialists can help you avoid these problems by optimizing your site performance. This process may involve compressing large images to reduce loading times and reformatting menus to improve navigation.
   
2. Increases reach across channels: Customers access information through many digital channels, including search engines, social media, and external referrals. Technical SEO makes it easier for users to find your website through these platforms. For instance, social media algorithms may rank your content more highly if you use URLs with descriptive keywords.
   
3. Optimizes user experience: No one wants to battle a clunky or outdated website. Technical SEO experts focus on creating a smooth and accessible user experience. They reduce friction by improving mobile responsiveness, navigation, and other technical aspects.
   
4. Enhances indexing potential: Search engines collect and interpret data about your website’s content. They add this information to their indexes and show users the most relevant content. Technical SEO providers improve your website’s indexing potential by making it easier for search engines to understand and categorize your content.
   
5. Better search results and rankings: Businesses often hire technical SEO specialists to improve their website’s search engine rankings. Higher visibility in search results typically leads to increased organic traffic and more opportunities to promote your brand.
   

What Services Do Technical SEO Companies Provide?

Every business has unique technical SEO needs. Some websites may only need minor tweaks to improve visibility, while others need significant overhauls to fix complex issues. Technical SEO service providers typically offer several packages to accommodate each client’s goals and project requirements.

Here are a few common services offered by technical SEO services:

• On-page optimization
• Website auditing
• Canonicalization
• Site structure optimization
• Schema markup implementation
• Technical SEO consulting

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization focuses on improving individual web pages to boost their rankings. Businesses have complete control over this content, so technical SEO specialists can easily adjust.

SEO teams can use many tactics to optimize internal web pages, including:

• Add engaging meta descriptions
• Incorporate relevant keywords
• Insert internal and external links
• Structure content with headings and subheadings
• Write unique title tags

Search engines prioritize high-quality, relevant, and user-focused content. On-page optimization will help you meet these expectations, increasing the likelihood that your content will rank highly in search engine results.

Additionally, using keywords and headings that align with user search queries makes it easier for your target audience to find you. For example, a sporting equipment business may use commonly searched terms like “best tennis rackets” and “affordable tennis shoes” in their blog posts. These keywords can help attract customers who are specifically interested in buying tennis products, boosting sales.

Website Auditing

Technical SEO teams typically begin each project by conducting a thorough website audit. This process involves analyzing every aspect of a website’s technical infrastructure to identify weaknesses that may affect its performance and search rankings.

During a website audit, technical SEO specialists can detect many issues that non-specialists often overlook. For example, they may spot outdated plugins that slow down loading times and create cybersecurity risks. Other common problems include confusing redirects, missing metadata, and duplicate content.

Website auditing helps businesses understand their performance and identify areas for improvement. Technical SEO teams will use their findings to recommend the most effective optimization techniques.

Canonicalization

Web pages often have duplicate content with different URLs. For instance, you may use different URLs for users in Canada and the United States. Search engines prioritize original content, so they may decrease your website’s ranking if they encounter more than one URL with identical content.

Canonicalization addresses this issue by directing search engines to the original or preferred URL. This process involves adding canonical tags and including canonical URLs in the sitemap. These steps protect your content’s authenticity and improve its ranking power for greater visibility.

Site Structure Optimization

Search engines continually crawl the internet for new and updated content. Site structure optimization helps crawlers efficiently understand, sort, and rank your content.

Technical SEO providers optimize many aspects of a website’s structure. For instance, they often use categories and subcategories to organize content hierarchically. Additionally, technical SEO specialists standardize URL linking structures and use internal links to guide users to important content. These tactics improve search engine and user navigability, boosting visibility and rankings.

Schema Markup Implementation

Schema markup is a special code that technical SEO specialists add to web pages to help search engines interpret the content. This increased understanding may cause search engines to rank your content higher, driving more traffic.

There are many types of schema markups, including:

• Article markup: Author name and biographical information, featured image, and publication date
• Local business markup: Contact information, hours of operation, and reservation platforms
  
• Product markup: Price, rating, return policies, and shipping timelines
  

Google often displays this information in search results as rich snippets. This data can drive more users to your website and increase click-through rates.

Technical SEO Consulting

Many businesses have in-house SEO staff but may need external support for advanced or complex projects. For example, your in-house team may be baffled by a recurring crawl error and need help troubleshooting the issue. They may also want guidance for restructuring the website architecture or patching security vulnerabilities.

That’s where technical SEO consultants come in. These experts offer specialized advice and recommendations for website optimization. They can also train your in-house employees about technical SEO best practices and educate them about the latest search engine trends.

How To Assess Technical SEO Services

As a business leader, you expect your vendors to deliver consistent and meaningful results. Understanding which key performance indicators (KPIs) to track will help you measure the effectiveness of your technical SEO partnership.

Here are a few key metrics:

• Organic Traffic: The number of website visitors who arrive at your website from search engine results and other unpaid sources.
• Crawl Errors: The number of problems that prevent search engines from crawling a website.
  
• Site Speed: How quickly your website’s content loads when a browser accesses it.
  
• Mobile Usability: The ability for visitors to smoothly use every feature of your website while using smartphones and other mobile devices.
  
• Bounce Rate: The percentage of users who quickly exit your website without engaging with the content.
  
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of website visitors who perform a desired action, such as buying a product or signing up for your discount program.
  
• Pages Per Session: The average number of site pages that a visitor browses during a session.
  

What Is a Technical SEO Team?

Technical SEO projects often involve many aspects of a website. As a result, they require diverse teams with different skills and areas of expertise. 

Typically, these teams include the following roles:

• SEO Managers: They oversee every aspect of the project, from the initial consultation to project delivery. They develop strategies to optimize technical SEO and communicate with internal teams.
• Web Developers: They use programming languages to build, maintain, and optimize websites. Their responsibilities include developing mobile-responsive layouts and enhancing site performance.
  
• SEO Specialists: They use a broad range of tactics to optimize digital content for search engines. For example, they conduct keyword research and create alt-text for images.
  
• Content Strategists: develop a business’s overarching content strategy across platforms.
  
• Link-Building Specialists: They focus on earning high-quality links from trustworthy websites to boost the client’s visibility. This process involves building relationships with other creators and contributing insightful content to their websites.
  
• Data Analysts: They analyze a website's performance using statistical methods and programming languages. They gather relevant data, detect patterns and trends, and share their findings with the rest of the team.
  
• Project Managers: They coordinate and supervise technical SEO projects. Their tasks include creating budgets, setting deadlines, and problem-solving.
  

What To Look For When Hiring Technical SEO Services

Understanding how to hire technical SEO services will help you find the right partner for your project.

Start by looking for a provider with relevant experience in your industry. These experts understand your target audience and the challenges specific to your sector, which allows them to develop tailored SEO strategies.

Past performance is another key consideration. The best technical SEO teams can share successful projects and explain how they’ll adapt their strategies to your project.

Criteria for Hiring a Technical SEO Firm

Business leaders often want to start their projects immediately, but resist the urge to rush through the technical SEO hiring process. Evaluate potential partners carefully, and take the time to read customer reviews. You can browse third-party review services like Clutch for testimonials from verified clients.

10 Questions To Ask When Hiring a Technical SEO Company

1. How much experience do you have in my industry?
   
2. What do you look for during website audits?
   
3. What are your team’s qualifications and areas of expertise?
   
4. Can you share examples of successful technical SEO projects?
   
5. How do you protect client data?
   
6. What metrics do you use to measure success?
   
7. How often do you communicate project updates?
   
8. How do you stay up-to-date with search engine algorithm changes?
   
9. Do you offer ongoing support after the project?
   

Climb the Search Engine Rankings 

Investing in technical SEO services can boost your website’s credibility, performance, and search engine rankings. SEO trends evolve rapidly as Google and other search engines update their algorithms. Look for a technical SEO provider who keeps up with these changes and has a lengthy track record of success.

Clutch can help you find an experienced partner with the right expertise and services. Use our handy filters to discover providers who can meet your project requirements, and begin the process of improving your visibility online.

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