Technical SEO vs Content SEO

When people are looking on a website, they’re not thinking about how they got there; oftentimes, one of the first things they’ll notice is what their experience with the site is like: How easy is it to use? How quickly can they find what they came to your site for? Are they interested in any of your content, besides what they’re looking for?

Something you want to keep track of, though (besides user experience), is how a user gets to your site. This ties into Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is how people are finding your site, if your site appears high enough on the search. People don’t type in a URL when looking for a site; even if they know the name of the company, they will still Google it, so it’s important that your site is ranking near the top of the Search Engine Results page. It’s best to be ranking within the first 30 websites, since chances are, people won’t click beyond those.

This article is going to talk about two types of SEO, specifically the benefits of and differences between technical SEO vs content SEO.

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO is all about your website’s features, and how you can use those for SEO. How fast do the pages load? How easily can Google find your page?

You want to make sure that the pages you want to be found on Google are accessible for Google (called indexability). Google crawls sites, which means it looks at the different pages and determines a variety of things, such as how easy the page is for Google to read. If your page isn’t indexable, then Google can’t find it, and therefore, the page won’t be able to rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Your Website

There are a few ways you can make sure your website has good technical SEO; you want to make sure that people are finding your site, and technical SEO is a big part of that.

Keep Users Coming Back

It may sound simple, but your users should like your site. Yes, it’s important to rank in the top search engine results so that people can find your site, but you also want people to keep coming back. Word of mouth is a very powerful tool.

How do you keep people coming back?

First, make sure that your website is fast. This helps your users, because people like when a website loads quickly and are more likely to return to it than one that is fast. If a page won’t load within a few seconds, chances are, people are going to click out of it.

Second, navigation. People that come to your site for the first time shouldn’t be confused or frustrated that they can’t find what they’re looking for. If the navigation is easy to use, people will return to your site, and maybe even tell your friends about it!

These aren’t the only two aspects of good technical SEO, but it’s a great start. These are also good for Google, because it means people are going to your site, and Google is able to understand that if people are going to your site, it must be important.

Crawlability and Indexability

Another important aspect of technical SEO is making sure that your site is crawlable–which is when Google (or any search engine you’re using) sends out robots to make sure the content on your site is understandable and legitimate and then stores that data–because otherwise, the pages won’t be able to be indexed. Being indexed, which is where Google makes sure your pages are found in the search results, is important for pages on your site, because that’s how your pages are found.

Sometimes, pages aren’t indexed for a variety of reasons, and then important pages aren’t visible on Google! This is not good, since you want to make sure people are able to find every product and/or service your site offers.

You can check what pages are able to be indexed on Google Search Console. If you haven’t set up Google Search Console and want to know more about why it’s useful, check out this guide from Google.

What is Content SEO?

Content SEO uses your site’s content to help it be found on Google and also by your audience, and there are several things you can do to ensure your site is being found.

Keyword Research

The different parts of Content SEO all serve a purpose, but keyword research, and implementing it, is perhaps the most important. With keyword research, you’re looking for the search terms that bring your audience to your site. Having both primary and secondary keywords implemented is a good way to make sure your audience is searching the correct targeted keywords to find your site.

When it comes to keyword research, you’re focused on three things:

• Finding relevant keywords. If someone is getting to your website by searching something completely irrelevant to your product, you want to know. That way, you can change the keywords on the page to something more relevant.
• Search volume. How many people, typically monthly, are searching for the keywords you’ve chosen? For primary and secondary keywords, you want to make sure your keywords have a high search volume.
• Difficulty. Difficulty lets you know how many other people are competing to be on the first page of the SERP. If a keyword has a high difficulty, that means it’s hard to get on the first page of the SERP, so when looking for keywords for your page, you want to make sure they have a low difficulty.
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All in all, when it comes to keyword research, you want to make sure your keywords are relevant, and that they have a high search volume with a low difficulty.

Once you’re finished with your keyword research, it’s time to implement it on the page. You’ll want to put these keywords in the title of the page, the H1’s and H2’s, and the meta description. This will help Google find the page easier, which will then help the page rank.

Blog Posts

Another big part of Content SEO is, well, the content on your site! This includes blog posts, which are a big part in how the site ranks. The more content that is on your site about a specific and relevant topic, the more likely your site is to rank on the SERP.

With blog posts, the most helpful part is not only the content, but the fact that they should link out to another page or article on your site. If people like the article and they want to explore the site, this is an easy way to do so. This is called internal linking, and it’ll boost the ranking on Google.

When writing blog posts, keep your audience in mind. Make sure the content is something they want to read, and that makes them want to engage with what you’re offering on the site.

Duplicate Content and Site Structure

You want to avoid having duplicate content on your site. While this might be okay for your readers, it’s confusing for Google. Google (and other search engines) needs to pick one piece of content to try and rank for, and if you have duplicate content, the search engine doesn’t know which page you want your site to rank for.

How is your site structured?

This plays into Content SEO, especially with blog posts. According to a Content SEO article from Yoast SEO, “a good [site] structure makes sure you’re not competing with your own SEO content,” which plays into not having duplicate content on your site. If you have duplicate content, you’ll be competing with yourself when it comes to SEO.

Why You Should Use Both Technical and Content SEO

You should be using both Technical and Content SEO on your site. Not only does it make for an easier user experience, but also, it’s always a good idea to update your site’s SEO (especially if you haven’t done so in a while!).

By boosting your site’s SEO, this will hopefully improve your rankings on Google. Improving the rankings on Google means that more people will find your site, because the higher the ranking is on the SERPs, the more likely your audience is to find your site.