Too many businesses ignore or neglect their technical SEO – we’ve seen it time and again.
Here’s why that’s a mistake: If your brand’s website is the star of the show, then technical SEO is the behind-the-scenes crew making sure it looks camera-ready at all times.
As a key component of a thorough search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, technical SEO can be the deciding factor in whether or not you show up in organic search results ahead of your competitors.
As a team of SEO experts, our award-winning agency has decades of combined experience in all things SEO and digital marketing. Consider this page your ticket to racing up the ranks.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is a handful of methods used to optimize your website and server so search engines can index it more easily.
These tactics work to help search engine crawlers (also called search engine bots or “spiders”) better understand your website’s content and structure, so you show up in more relevant search results. This, in turn, helps improve your organic search engine rankings.
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You need an SEO partner who can deliver results like these:
On-Page SEO vs. Technical SEO: What’s the Difference?
Let’s zoom out for a moment.
There are three pillars that make up a well-rounded SEO strategy:
- On-page SEO (aka on-site SEO)
- Off-page SEO (aka off-site SEO)
- Technical SEO
On-page SEO refers to everything on your own website that could be considered “content,” from keywords in articles and page titles to internal links and meta descriptions.
Off-page SEO refers to the elements floating around the internet that aren’t on your website. This includes social media, guest posts, backlinks, videos on third-party platforms like YouTube, your Google Business profile, and review sites.
In contrast, technical SEO works in the background. It’s not something that a website viewer can see, exactly. But it has a huge impact on the experience they have while visiting your site. Aspects of technical SEO include site structure (mobile performance, page and overall site speed, etc.), structured data or Schema markup, page experience (like Core Web Vitals and other ranking factors), internal links, URL structure, and your XML sitemap.
Results are everything
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Why Does Technical SEO Matter to Search Engines?
If you care about your website’s (and your company’s) SEO at all, then you have to include technical SEO. That’s because proper technical SEO is crucial to maintaining a healthy website that provides a positive user experience.
Moreover, technical SEO is instrumental in getting your content marketing efforts the visibility (read: search engine rankings) they deserve. It ensures your site’s pages are set up to accurately convey their content to search engines, which increases your chances of showing up in relevant organic search results.
On the site visitor side, solid technical SEO provides the best possible experience for people who land on their site, making it easy for them to navigate and stay on your site longer, no matter what device they’re viewing on – a win-win.
What Are Technical SEO Services?
Technical SEO services are the deliverables that a team member, consultant, or agency provides a business to ensure their search engine optimization efforts are thorough, updated, optimized, and accurate behind the scenes.
The exact services offered will vary from person to person. Some may focus more on conducting an audit and then sharing results, while others (like, ahem, us) can work hand-in-hand with you to resolve issues and set your technical SEO efforts up for easier maintenance and continued success.
When global automobile, motorcycle, and equipment manufacturer Honda needed to amplify their digital footprint, the team tapped HawkSEM for help. Through taking an in-depth look at their customer needs, unique selling points, and KPIs, we crafted new SEO and paid search strategies that leaned on high-value keyword research and targeted campaigns. As a result, Honda was able to double their traffic while cutting cost per conversion by nearly a third.
Read the full case study
Technical SEO Deliverables
The exact services that a technical SEO consultant or agency will differ. The services you want may differ as well, depending on your team, bandwidth, budget, and how far your current SEO efforts reach.
Here’s a look at the technical SEO deliverables we often provide here at HawkSEM:
- Technical SEO audit
- Page title optimization
- Meta tag and description optimization
- SEO-friendly URLs
- Crawl budget management
- Google Analytics monitoring (bounce rate, user behavior, etc.)
- Internal and external link recovery
- ALT tag image optimization
- Canonical tag issue resolution
- Google Search Console setup (as needed)
- Crawl error identification and resolution
- 301 webpage redirects (as needed)
- Site architecture (navigation) analysis
- Page speed improvements
- Schema markup implementation
- Robots.txt setup and optimization
- Heading tag (H1, H2, etc.) optimization
- Sitemap optimization
Career Group Companies is one of the nation’s leading recruiting firms. As such, it faces stiff competition on top of a rapidly evolving candidate market. The HawkSEM team partnered with CGC to align and expand their existing SEO efforts so it could continue to scale. Once we set company-wide goals, created new content assets, and expanded the brand’s keyword portfolio, Career Group Companies saw a 43% increase in job listing page views from organic traffic as well as entrances from organic search directly to job listing pages grow by 71%.
What is A Technical SEO Audit?
A technical SEO audit is similar to any other marketing-related audit, such as a content audit or paid search audit.
Basically, it’s a chance to get a feel for the current state of your technical SEO efforts: what’s working, what isn’t, what needs revisiting or refreshing, and what gaps need to be filled.
When you run a site crawl for a technical audit, there are dozens of issues that can be uncovered. These include, but certainly aren’t limited to:
- Missing title tags
- Duplicate content
- Broken links
- Invalid robots.txt format
- Non-secure pages
- Low text-to-HTML ratio
- Sitemap.xml not round
- Various JavaScript & CSS file issues
- Slow page load speed
- Too-long URLs
- Orphaned pages
- Title element issues
Not only can this process be involved, but it works best when performed on a regular basis since issues can crop up at any time
Fair Warning
As you can see, technical SEO site audits can get complicated. Even if you leverage a helpful tool like Semrush, there’s a lot of jargon, awareness notices, potential error messages, and some coding as well. If it all seems like too much, well, that’s what a proper agency is for.
The HawkSEM Difference
As a full-service agency, we pride ourselves on our well-rounded team of knowledgeable experts who have experience across a wide range of industries and digital marketing tactics.
How did we do it? By being an all-remote agency from the start. Not being bound by regions or geography means we can hire the best of the best. Our team is comprised of all senior-level talent, meaning there are no junior marketers handling your account. Each of our SEO experts has at least three years of experience, so you can feel confident that your efforts are in capable hands.
Our Expertise
With such a talented team of marketing experts across the country, our areas of expertise have an equally wide range. Some of our specialties include:
- Lead generation
- Ecommerce
- SaaS
- Finance
- Education
- Healthcare
It’s a big part of why some of the biggest brands out there – including Verizon, Honda, and Microsoft – trust us with their digital marketing. We like to let our amazing results speak for themselves, so check out our case studies to learn more.
Then There’s ConversionIQ™, Our Not-So-Secret Sauce.
ConversionIQ™ is our exclusive marketing platform that gathers all of your marketing data (from social media channels and paid search platforms to your chosen CRM and more) into one easy-to-navigate dashboard. This not only helps you analyze your campaign metrics faster and more easily, but it opens the door for better full-funnel attribution, higher conversions, and more optimized ad experiences.
Agency vs. Consultant: Who Should Handle Your Technical SEO?
Alright, you’re ready to take your technical SEO seriously (and rightfully so). Now it’s time to decide who should take the reins.
Whether you opt to partner with a technical SEO agency or a consultant will depend on a few factors — namely:
- Your budget
- The size and scope of your website
- Whether you want additional services
- Whether you want one-time or ongoing support
If you’ve got a smaller budget or need limited technical SEO help, a consultant could be your best bet. These are usually one-person operations who can dig into your current initiatives and help pinpoint areas of improvement.
An agency, on the other hand, is more likely to be able to offer more complete SEO services as well as other digital marketing-related assistance. You’ll also likely get access to a team of seasoned pros vs. a single professional.
At the HawkSEM agency, we offer a full suite of digital advertising services. Along with all manner of SEO, these include:
- Paid search (aka pay-per-click or PPC)
- Website migration
- Email marketing
- Paid and organic social media
- High-quality content marketing
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
- Landing pages
- Ecommerce marketing
- Remarketing
- & more
Meet The Team
Our Process
Top-tier technical SEO takes work. At HawkSEM, we’ve refined our process to ensure you get the SEO results you deserve as quickly as possible. Here’s how we do it:
- 1.Audit
- 2.Strategize
- 3.Implement
- 4.Report
- 5.Thrive
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1. Audit
We’ve laid out the nuances of a technical SEO audit above. That’s because it’s where we like to start: by zooming out to get a clear picture of where your SEO stands. From there, we can create a better, tailor-made plan to maximize your visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
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2. Strategize
Once we’ve got a strong understanding of your current search engine optimization, we can hit the ground running on a custom strategy that takes your audience, product or service, bandwidth, search engine algorithms, and business goals into account.
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3. Implement
Strategy approved? Now let’s make it happen. Fun fact: You get to keep your freshly made marketing plan from us whether you decide to work with us or not. If you do decide to make it official, we’ll work hand in hand with you to put your plan into action. What more, we’ll keep you in the loop every step of the way through transparent reports and updates.
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4. Report
Ah, yes — our custom reports. After we’ve gathered a significant amount of data on your website performance, we’ll condense all the need-to-know key takeaways into a digestible monthly report. These aren’t just any reports, though.
We customize them to feature the KPIs that matter most to you, in a way that’s easy to read and ready to share with other team members or higher ups as needed. What’s more, you can access these reports anytime through ConversionIQ.
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5. Thrive
Complete SEO is crucial for businesses who want to scale manageably. Our technical SEO services can be instrumental in helping your business continue to grow and thrive. Next-level success: Unlocked.
HawkSEM has been hand-selected as a Google Premier Partner and Microsoft Advertising Partner
We make things happen …but don’t take our word for it:
CSUN
Patch Of Land
Google Partner
Google Partner
The Bottom Line
You can’t trust just any ol’ SEO company to handle your site’s optimization.
Our technical SEO specialists have tons of experience garnering SEO success across all manner of industries and business sizes. From identifying errors and WordPress nuances to handling major algorithm updates and everything in between, we know what it takes to boost rankings and keep them high.
It’s all about creating a custom plan that’s tailor-made to your unique business and its goals. And with a 98% client retention rate and an average 4.5X ROI, we’re confident that our methods will translate into serious SEO success for your business.
Ready to see if we’re a marketing match? Let’s get started.
Request a Free Consultation
No BS, just results. Average clients see a 4.5x ROI
- Dramatically improve ROI
- Outperform the competition
- Increase conversion volume
- Better track ROI
- Reduce cost per acquisition
- Improve lead quality