SEO
How to Rank Higher on Google: A Small Business Guide
How to rank higher on Google, step by step: choose the right searches, improve your pages, fix technical problems, earn trust and measure what works.
What is technical SEO? It's the behind-the-scenes work that helps search engines find, crawl, index and understand your website: site speed, mobile friendliness, security, site structure, sitemaps, redirects and structured data. Good content can't rank if Google can't reach it or the site is too slow to use. Technical SEO makes sure the foundations work so your content and links can do their job.
What does technical SEO mean?
The technical SEO meaning is simple. Technical SEO means optimising the way your website is built and served, rather than the words on the page. If SEO is a shop, content is the stock and links are the word of mouth. Technical SEO is the building: the doors open, the lights work and customers can find every aisle.
In digital marketing, technical SEO for websites sits alongside two other parts of SEO:
- On-page SEO: the content, headings, page titles and internal links on each page
- Off-page SEO: links and mentions from other websites, and your Google Business Profile
- Technical SEO: how the site is built, served and read by search engines
What does technical SEO include?
The core technical SEO elements are:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Crawling | Lets search engine bots reach every important page, guided by robots.txt and internal links |
| Indexing | Makes sure the right pages are in Google's index, and duplicates or thin pages aren't |
| XML sitemap | Lists the pages you want found, so Google doesn't miss them |
| Site speed | Fast loading pages, measured by Google's core web vitals |
| Mobile friendliness | Google mainly looks at the mobile version of your site |
| HTTPS security | An SSL certificate so the site loads securely |
| Site structure and URLs | Clear, short addresses and a logical menu |
| Redirects | 301 redirects from old addresses to new ones, so links and rankings carry over |
| Canonical tags | Tell Google which version of a page is the main one |
| Structured data | Schema markup that describes your business, products or articles to search engines |
Why is technical SEO important?
Because the rest of your SEO depends on it. A page Google can't crawl won't be indexed, and a page that isn't indexed can't rank, however good it is. Technical problems also hurt visitors directly: slow pages, broken links and layouts that don't work on a phone send people back to the search results.
Technical problems often hide for months. A site can look fine to its owner while a setting quietly tells Google not to index it, or a redesign breaks hundreds of old links.
What are common SEO issues?
These are the technical SEO issues that turn up most often:
- A "noindex" setting left on after the site was built
- Pages blocked in robots.txt by mistake
- Broken links and 404 errors after pages were moved or deleted
- Missing redirects after a redesign or a domain change
- Duplicate pages, such as the same page with and without "www"
- Slow loading pages, usually from large images or too many scripts
- No XML sitemap, or one that lists old pages
- Mixed content warnings on secure pages
Is technical SEO the same as on-page SEO?
No, though they overlap. Technical SEO vs on-page SEO comes down to what you're changing. On-page SEO is about each page's content: the words, headings, page titles and images. Technical SEO is about the site as a whole: how it's built, how fast it loads and how search engines move through it. Some tasks, such as internal linking and structured data, sit in both.
How do you do technical SEO?
This short technical SEO tutorial covers the first steps any business can take:
- Set up Google Search Console. It's free and shows which pages are indexed and what errors Google finds. Our Google Search Console guide walks through it.
- Check indexing. Search Google for site:yourdomain.com.au and compare the number of results with the pages you expect.
- Submit an XML sitemap in Search Console.
- Test speed with PageSpeed Insights and fix the slowest pages first.
- Fix broken links and add redirects for any page you've moved or deleted.
- Check mobile pages on a real phone, not just a desktop browser.
A few extra technical SEO tips: change one thing at a time so you know what worked, keep a list of every redirect, and recheck after any website update.
What we see when regional businesses audit their websites
The technical problems we find on small business websites in Mildura and the region are rarely exotic. The most common are sites rebuilt without redirects from the old page addresses, photos uploaded at full camera size, and WordPress sites carrying plugins and themes nobody uses. We also see sites where a "discourage search engines" box was ticked during the build and left on.
Most of these take hours, not weeks, to fix once they're found. Our technical SEO service finds and fixes them, and our SEO plans include technical SEO such as robots.txt and the sitemap every month.
Frequently asked questions
What does technical SEO include?
Technical SEO includes crawling, indexing, XML sitemaps, robots.txt, site speed, mobile friendliness, HTTPS, site structure, redirects, canonical tags and structured data. It covers how a site is built and served rather than what each page says.
Do I need technical SEO for a small website?
Yes, but it's usually a smaller job. A 10 page site has fewer things to go wrong than a large online store. The basics still matter: it must be indexable, fast, secure and work on phones.
Can I do technical SEO myself?
Many checks are do-it-yourself with free tools like Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. Fixes that involve code, hosting, redirects across a whole site or a domain change are safer with a developer or SEO specialist.
How often should technical SEO be checked?
Check Search Console monthly for new errors, and run a full check after any redesign, platform change or domain move. Those are the moments when technical problems usually start.
Is technical SEO a one-off job?
The big fixes often are, but websites change. New pages, plugins and updates can create new problems, so regular checks are part of ongoing SEO.
Not sure whether your site has technical problems? Contact Rock Solid Marketing and we'll check the basics with you.
