Technical SEO Vs On-Page SEO: A Comprehensive Guide

Technical SEO Vs On-Page SEO is a topic that needs to be addressed more effectively.

Both are focused on one goal: Improving your site’s rankings!

So, it’s not always easy to tell one from another.

The important thing to remember is that technical and on-page SEO are two different yet equally important aspects of SEO.

In this guide, we’ll get into the details of both, helping you understand the differences.

Let’s get started.

What’s Technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to improving all the technical aspects of a website. The goal is to rank it higher on the search engine results pages.

The basic idea behind technical SEO is to make it easier for search engines like Google to crawl and index a website.

Technical and on-page SEO are two different sub-categories in the broader SEO spectrum.

Before talking about the elements of technical SEO, let’s first see why it’s so important.

Importance of Technical SEO in a Website’s Success

Google and other search engines want to present the most relevant and helpful content to their users.

So, they have to crawl and analyze web pages for several factors.

These include:

• How fast your site loads when people land on it
• How easy is it for search engine crawlers to understand your site’s content

If you do that well, you’ll be helping your site’s organic search engine rankings.

But, if you don’t, your site might not even get indexed by search engines.

That’s how important technical SEO is.

That being said, your technical SEO strategy shouldn’t solely focus on making the search engines happy.

Every technical aspect of your site should be optimized keeping in view the user.

If you focus on the user experience, your site will automatically become search-engine friendly.

Characteristics of a Technically Optimized Website

Thankfully, optimizing a site for technical SEO factors isn’t as tough as it used to be.

You don’t have to be tech-savvy either.

Here are the characteristics of a technically sound website.

It’s Fast

Today, people are not as patient as they used to be.

There’s just too much information on the internet, which can easily distract a prospect.

The point is that your website needs to load fast.

Because, according to Google, if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, around 53% of mobile visitors will bounce back.

That’s an audience that could have been your long-term customers.

Here’s something even more important that you need to know.

Website loading time is now an official Google ranking factor!

Don’t take our word for it; here’s what Google has to say:

So, if your site isn’t getting to the first page of Google, it might be because it’s taking too long to load.

Slow-loading web pages offer below par user experience.

But, how do you make sure your site is loading as fast as it should?

Thankfully, it’s just a matter of seconds with the Google PageSpeed Insights tool.

The nice thing is you get a list of recommendations from the tool if your site isn’t doing perfectly.

By applying these recommendations, you can improve your page speed score, which is calculated out of 100.

It’s Easily Crawlable

Search engine bots crawl every site before ranking it against relevant search queries.

They use your site’s internal links to understand the content on it.

This is why it’s so important to have a proper internal linking structure.

Ideally, every page on your site should be linked to a relevant page internally.

There are a few ways to guide search engines to the right pages though.

You can, for instance, block search engine crawlers from crawling certain pages on your website.

Or, you can let these bots crawl a page but prevent them from showing it on the search engine.

Robots.txt File

Robots.txt file is a powerful tool that you can use to give directions to search engine bots on your site.

But, only edit your site’s robots.txt file when you know what you’re doing.

A tiny mistake in this file can lead to disastrous outcomes for your site.

For instance, you could end up preventing search engines to crawl your most important pages.

Many webmasters mistakenly block CSS and JS files.

The code in your CSS and JS files inform search engines about:

• How your site works (JavaScript)
• What it looks like (CSS)

As a result, search engines can’t understand the structure and function of a site, which can lead to ranking issues.

The point is: You don’t want to tinker with your robots.txt file unnecessarily.

Ideally, let your developer take care of it for you.

It Doesn’t Have Dead Links

Slow loading pages are bad for the user experience but broken or dead links can be really annoying.

They may even cost you qualified leads.

If someone lands on a dead link on your site, they don’t get what they were looking for.

Instead, they see a 404 error.

Plus, dead links are bad for your SEO, too.

Importantly, search engine bots can spot a deadlink more easily than a human user.

So, if there are 404 errors on your site, you can’t hide them from search engine bots.

The issue is that dynamic websites are always a work in progress.

And it’s not uncommon to have at least a few dead links on your site.

The good thing is: There are tools that can help you spot dead links on a web page.

And once you know where those dead links are, you can fix them easily.

Pro tip: When you delete or move a web page, always redirect it to a functional one.

It Doesn’t Have Duplicate Content

A technically sound website doesn’t have the same content on two different web pages.

Think about it. How’d search engines know which one to rank when the content is the same?

As a result, it’s likely that search engines won’t rank both pages.

The problem is that you might not always know about the duplicate content issue.

Different URLs on your site could have the same content, without you knowing it.

Now, that’s not really a problem for users, but it is an SEO issue you need to fix.

Thankfully, fixing duplicate content issues is straightforward.

SEO tools like YOAST SEO and Rank Math let you set a canonical URL.

This is the main URL or the web page you want the search engines to rank.

It’s Secure

Security is one of the most important technical SEO factors.

Every website has this lock icon on the left side of the web address.

It tells the visitors that the website is secured with an SSL (secure socket layer).

A non-secured website would show an open lock in front of the web address.

This would not only look ugly but Google will actually prompt the visitor to steer clear of your website.

Today, users are very careful about who they give their information.

Your website’s address should be HTTPS and not HTTP.

The extra “S” just means that your website has an SSL certificate installed on it.

This makes sure that no data gets leaked when your site loads.

Importantly, Google takes website security pretty seriously.

This is why it takes into consideration the security of your site before ranking it for relevant search queries.

It Has Structured Data

Structured data helps Google and other search engines understand your site’s content better.

This eventually can help you rank for your target queries easily.

Thankfully, you can provide the structured data information to the search engines in the Schema.org format.

Structured data is an important part of any technical SEO strategy because it helps your content rank for rich results that stand out on SERPs (search engine results pages).

It Has XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is simply the list of web pages on your website.

By submitting your sitemap to search engines, you make sure that every important web page on your site gets crawled and indexed.

For instance, submitting your sitemap in Google Search Console is one of the first and most important steps in technical SEO.

Having an HTML sitemap of your site may not be an absolute must when you have a nice internal linking structure.

But, it can help.

With technical SEO out of the way, let’s break down the elements of an on-page SEO strategy.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO includes factors that affect the quality and relevance of the content on a web page.

This includes optimizing the headings, paragraphs, URLs, internal links, and more.

Why is On-Page SEO Important?

Google still ranks web content based on keywords.

Search a term on Google and observe the first-page titles.

Most of them will have the exact same keyword.

But, keyword usage is one of the many on-page SEO factors that affect your organic rankings, including:

• User experience
• Dwell time
• Search intent
• CTR (click-through rate)
• Loading speed

Let’s dive into the process of on-site optimization.

Optimizing Your Content

One of the most important aspects of an on-page SEO strategy is optimizing every piece of content for your target keywords.

Use Your Target Keyword in the Introduction

The first few sentences of your web page are the most important to search engine crawlers.

So, you want to include your target keyword in the first 100 words of your introduction.

That’s going to help search engine bots understand and rank your content.

Front-Load Your H1 Tag With the Target Keyword

According to Google, the H1 tag of a web page helps Google understand the structure of that web page.

So, it’s important that you place your primary keyword at the beginning of your H1 tag.

If you use a content management system like WordPress, you don’t need to worry about the H1 tag.

It’ll be added automatically.

Use Your Keyword in an H2 Tag

H2 tags are the second most important element on a web page.

They also provide a proper structure to your web page content.

Plus, placing your target keyword in an H2 tag can help you rank for that particular keyword in Google.

Keyword Frequency

Gone are the days when you could stuff web pages with keywords without getting penalized.

Search engines have improved over time and keyword stuffing is a thing of the past.

Today, if you use a keyword too many times, you put your site at risk of getting a penalty.

You want to keep your website in the good books of Google.

External Linking (Outbound Links)

External links are links that point to external resources on the web.

These links help Google figure out what your web page is all about.

Plus, linking to authority resources tells Google that your content is high-quality and credible.

Web pages with authority outbound links tend to rank higher than pages with no external links.

URL Optimization

The structure of your URL affects how Google perceives and ranks your web page.

Plus, it’s shown just above the title of a web page in SERPs.

So, how do you make your URLs SEO-friendly?

• Make them short
• Include your keyword

So, if you have a blog post on the topic, “On-page SEO”, just include it in the URL of that post.

Just make sure that it’s not too long; if your keyword is long, try using its shorter version.

Title and Description Tags Optimization

Google gives importance to title tags. The search engine uses title tags to rank web pages.

Similarly, the meta description of your web page is also super important.

Not because Google looks at it to rank your page, but because it helps users figure out which SERP result to click on.

Front-Load Your Title

Your title tag is one of the most important aspects of on-page SEO, if not the most important one.

This is mainly because the title tag tells the search engines about the content on your web page.

Moreover, you want to place your primary keyword at the beginning of your title.

This way, it’d have more weight in the eyes of search engine bots.

However, don’t force your keyword at the front if it doesn’t make sense.

Generally, the closer it is to the beginning, the better.

Include Title Tag Modifiers

Including a modifier in your title tag can help you rank for a long-tail version of your keyword.

Modifiers are words like:

• Best
• Free
• Checklist
• Guide

Write Keyword-Optimized Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions of your web pages are more important than you might realize.

After the title of your page, the meta description is your only chance to persuade a user to click on your link.

Therefore, your meta descriptions need to be catchy and persuasive.

Plus, include your target keyword in your meta description.

All that would help you stand out from the rest of the search engine results and generate more clicks.

Create SEO-Friendly Content

Creating SEO-friendly content is much more than using the right keywords.

If you want to rank your content on Google, it should have all of these qualities:

• Unique
• Super valuable
• Search intent optimized

Creating Unique Content

The term “Unique” doesn’t only refer to duplicate content.

It also means that your content stands out from the crowd.

You shouldn’t regurgitate the already published content just to make it plagiarism-free.

Every blog post you publish should bring something new to the table.

Something that’s not covered already by tons of other blog posts.

Publish Valuable Content

Millions of blog posts get published every single day.

What makes your content stand out is the value it offers to the users.

Here’s how you can create valuable content:

• Include Details
• Use copywriting formulas
• Publish updated stuff
• Build your credibility as an author

The last one can be a little tricky; most blog owners don’t even know what they’re teaching others.

Content that’s written by an expert is always more valuable than content that’s written by someone random.

Satisfy Search Intent

You can get a first-page Google rank with unique and valuable content.

But, if your content isn’t satisfying search intent, it won’t stay there for long.

This just means that your content has to be in line with what the searcher wants.

To check the search intent of any keyword, just Google the term and observe the first-page results.

For instance, you can’t rank for the term “DA checker” by writing a comparison post.

This is because most of the results on the first page are just DA checker tools and not articles.

Write Short Paras and Sentences

Your web content or blog posts shouldn’t be difficult to understand for the general public.

Short sentences and paras are easy to read.

Plus, you should use common vocabulary to connect with all types of audiences effectively.

Image Optimization

Image optimization is an important part of on-page SEO.

Every image has this attribute called ALT text.

Its purpose is to tell search engines what an image is about.

Including your target keyword in image ALT texts can help you improve your organic rankings, especially on Google Images.

Use Internal Linking

Internal linking is when you link two web pages on the same site.

It helps search engines understand the internal structure of your site.

A proper internal linking structure makes it easy for Google to index and rank your web pages.

Write Comprehensively

Generally, long-form content does better than short-form content on Google.

The idea is to cover the topic in as much detail as possible, without adding any fluff or unnecessary words.

What you can do is visit the first page results for your target keyword and analyze their content.

See if they’ve missed any topics that users might want to read and include them in your content.

Technical SEO Vs On-Page SEO: What’s the Difference?

By now, you should have a good understanding of technical and on-page SEO.

Technical SEO includes everything you do besides optimizing the content on your web pages.

Helping Google and other search engines understand, crawl, and index your web pages is the backbone of technical SEO.

On the other hand, on-page SEO includes everything that you do with your content to make it better.

Optimizing your content for user intent and search engines is the core of on-page SEO.

This was all about technical SEO Vs on-page SEO.

If you think you’re better off outsourcing your technical and on-page SEO, the next section is for you.

Outsourcing Technical SEO

Technical SEO requires some special skills.

Luckily, you can outsource it on Legiit, cost-effectively!

Technical SEO Audit by SuperstarSEO

This technical SEO audit report will tell you everything that’s wrong with your site.

By spending just $10, you’ll get suggestions on how to improve your site’s SEO.

Site Speed Optimization by AmedAbraham

We’ve talked about the importance of site speed.

Google prefers fast websites over slow ones.

If your site’s taking more than 2 seconds to load, get it fixed by AmedAbraham.

Outsource On-Page SEO

Here’s an on-page SEO service that might interest you.

SurferSEO-Optimized Content by BillJ

On-page SEO is all about optimizing your content for readers and search engines.

And SurferSEO is the tool that can help you do that.

However, you need to understand SEO copywriting to fully leverage it.

If you’re thinking of outsourcing your SEO content creation to a professional writer, this service is for you.

Technical SEO Vs On-Page SEO: Conclusion

On-page and technical SEO are both equally important.

For instance, you can keep publishing great content, but if it’s not indexable, it won’t reach the intended audience.

The differences between technical SEO and on-page SEO are subtle.

A technical SEO strategy focuses on making a site technically sound.

It essentially includes everything that can help search engines understand, crawl, and index your web pages.

Whereas, the core of on-page SEO is optimizing the content of a web page.

So, everything from title tags to image optimization falls under the ambit of on-page SEO.

Importantly, both work hand-in-hand.

You can’t expect to rank on the first page of Google by ignoring one and focusing on the other.