What is Technical SEO?
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Technical SEO in One Sentence
Technical SEO = auditing and optimizing your site’s infrastructure and code so search engines can reliably discover, crawl, render, and index your content .
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2. Why Technical SEO Still Matters in 2025
- Crawlability & Indexing: If Googlebot can’t discover your pages, they won’t appear in the SERPs audit for broken links, XML sitemap errors, and robots.txt misconfigurations .
- Site Speed & UX: Core Web Vitals (LCP < 2.5 s, CLS < 0.1, INP < 100 ms) remain explicit ranking signals speed optimisations directly boost visibility and engagement .
- Mobile-First & Security: Google uses mobile-first indexing, and HTTPS is a soft ranking signal ensure your pages are responsive and fully served over SSL.
- Structured Data & Internationalisation: Proper JSON-LD schema drives rich snippets, and hreflang tags ensure the right content reaches the right region.
3. Core Components of Technical SEO
| Component | Purpose | Tools / Techniques |
|---|---|---|
| Crawl & Index | Ensure discovery and inclusion in search results | Screaming Frog; GSC Coverage report; robots.txt; XML sitemap |
| Site Structure | Flat, logical architecture for deep crawl coverage | Ahrefs Site Audit; Octopus.do; breadcrumb markup |
| Performance & Speed | Meet Core Web Vitals thresholds | PageSpeed Insights; Lighthouse; GTmetrix; image compression |
| Mobile & Security | Responsive UX and trust via HTTPS | Mobile Audit in Ahrefs/Lighthouse; SSL certificates; redirects |
| Structured Data | Enable rich results and enhanced SERP features | JSON-LD schema; Rich Results Test; Metatag modules |
These pillars are drawn from industry-leading frameworks to cover every facet of site health and ranking potential (Ahrefs, Backlinko).
4. ChatGPT Power-Ups
| Task | Prompt Example |
|---|---|
| Audit crawlability | “Checklist: technical SEO issues blocking Googlebot on my WordPress site.” |
| Explain Core Web Vitals | “In 150 words, explain LCP, CLS, and INP and why they matter.” |
| Generate structured data schema | “Output JSON-LD for a recipe page with name, ingredients, and instructions.” |
| Simulate mobile-first indexing | “Act as Google’s mobile crawler and list issues on my Shopify home page.” |
| Identify hreflang errors | “Scan these URLs and report missing or conflicting hreflang tags.” |
Use these prompts to super-charge every stage of your technical SEO workflow.
5. Step-by-Step Technical SEO Workflow
5.1 Step 1: Crawl & Audit Your Site
Run a full-site crawl with Ahrefs Site Audit or Screaming Frog to uncover broken links, orphan pages, and indexation errors. In Ahrefs, connect via Google Search Console, adjust crawl limits, enable Core Web Vitals tracking, then generate a health score and detailed issues list.
- WordPress: Activate Yoast SEO or Rank Math to auto-generate sitemaps, manage robots.txt, and set canonical tags in the plugin’s File Editor.
- Drupal: Enable the Simple XML Sitemap module for automated sitemap generation; use the Metatag module to configure robots directives and canonical URLs .
- Shopify: Install the Smart SEO app to automate meta tags, alt text, JSON-LD output, broken-link checks, and sitemap management.
5.2 Step 2: Spot & Fix Crawlability Issues
Review your Google Search Console Coverage report for excluded or error pages. Validate your robots.txt and sitemap.xml for incorrect disallows or missing entries .
- WordPress: In Yoast’s File Editor, review and correct robots.txt; rebuild sitemaps under SEO → General → Features .
- Drupal: Edit /robots.txt in your sites/default/files or leverage the Robotstxt module for granular control .
- Shopify: Go to Online Store → Themes → Edit code → robots.txt.liquid to tweak directives; then resubmit your sitemap in GSC .
5.3 Step 3: Optimize Speed & Performance
Measure LCP, CLS, and INP with PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Address render-blocking JS/CSS, leverage browser caching, and compress images .
- WordPress: Use WP Rocket for caching, Autoptimize for minification, and Smush for image optimization (M Accelerator).
- Drupal: Enable Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation and use responsive Image Style modules to serve optimized images (Acquia, dev.acquia.com).
- Shopify: Pick a performance-optimized theme, limit third-party apps, and use Shopify’s built-in image compression (OpenStore, PPSPY).
5.4 Step 4: Mobile-First & Security
Run a mobile audit in Ahrefs or Lighthouse to surface mobile-only issues, check viewport, font scaling, and tap target sizing . Ensure SSL is enforced site-wide and HTTP is permanently redirected to HTTPS .
5.5 Step 5: Structured Data & Hreflang
Validate your JSON-LD schema with Google’s Rich Results Test and fix errors. Implement schema types (Article, Product, FAQ) to enable rich snippets .
- WordPress: Leverage Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP plugin.
- Drupal: Use the Metatag: Schema.org or JSON-LD modules.
- Shopify: Smart SEO covers core JSON-LD for products; custom scripts can be added in theme.liquid.
5.6 Step 6: Monitor & Iterate
Schedule quarterly Ahrefs Site Audits and set up Google Search Console alerts for coverage or performance regressions. Prioritise fixes by health score and impact, then loop back through these steps to keep your technical foundation rock-solid .
Ready to elevate your site’s infrastructure for maximum visibility?
Follow this blueprint, tune your crawl settings, patch issues, fine-tune performance, and keep monitoring. Technical SEO may be a marathon, but with this step-by-step plan and ChatGPT as your co-pilot, you’ll stay miles ahead in 2025.
