A (Brief) Introduction to Technical SEO
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes.
In this insightful session, Michaela Laubscher presents a comprehensive introduction to the world of technical SEO, recorded live at the Christchurch Digital Marketing Meetup on 8th October 2024.
Hosted by Titus Cam at the Enterprise Precinct and Innovation Campus (EPIC), this talk focuses on the technical elements that can make or break your website’s success in organic search results.
Presentation slides and speaker notes available at the end of this article (below).
Michaela begins by defining technical SEO and its vital role in optimising your website’s performance for both search engines and users. The talk explores the "technology intersection," where your website must communicate with search engines—complex systems of web crawlers, databases, and algorithms—and the many different devices customers use to access your site. Michaela breaks down technical SEO into five key components, including web pages, hosting servers, DNS configuration, domain management, and clients (browsers, crawlers, and auditing tools).
You'll also learn about:
- The structure and function of websites and how various elements like CMS platforms and server choices can influence SEO performance.
- The importance of HTTP status codes (such as 200 and 404), and how managing these can prevent common SEO pitfalls like broken links and poor user experience.
- Page speed optimisation strategies to ensure your website loads quickly and meets Google’s recommended load time of under 3 seconds.
- Website architecture and how internal linking, sitemaps, and robots.txt files impact how search engines crawl and index your site.
- Key SEO concepts like crawling, indexing, and ranking, and how they affect your website's ability to perform well in search engine results.
Throughout the presentation, Michaela shares practical tips and insights based on her years of experience in digital marketing, including six years specialising in SEO. She has worked on over 120 websites and has taught SEO to business owners, marketers, and developers through her SEO short course at the New Zealand Institute of Education (NZIE).
If you're new to technical SEO or want to deepen your understanding, this talk will help you identify areas for improvement on your website and take steps to enhance its performance in search. Whether you're a business owner, marketer, or web developer, this presentation offers valuable insights that will help you optimise your site for better search engine rankings and user experience.
