10 Ways to Think Like Googlebot & Boost Your Technical SEO

Introduction

You must have heard posting high quality content plays a key role in getting organic traffic, but did you know you can take your reach a step ahead with the power of technical SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

As the name suggests, it focuses on the technical aspects of a website and being a type of SEO, it aims to improve rankings. One of the prime roles of technical SEO is to optimise your sites in a way google bots can crawl through your website efficiently.

Read further to find out how:

What is a Googlebot?

Every search engine has a web crawler of its own which gathers and analyses data from web pages. In the case of Google, this web crawler is named ‘Googlebot'.

How does Googlebot work?

It often visits links of pages from the previous crawl and whenever the crawler comes across those it hasn’t visited, it adds them to the list. If the links are broken, then the index is updated accordingly.

While sitemaps might help get your site discovered by crawlers, they are necessary only if your site is:

How to Find Quality Backlinks for Your Website

• Large
• Has a lot of isolated pages
• New or changes quickly.

Why to think like Googlebot?

If your page has fresh links, social mentions which the Googlebot comes across when crawling, your chances to appear on the results page become higher. Hence, when creating a website, keep in mind both user experience as well as Googlebots. Luckily, Google too, is user focused.

Here are 10 ways to boost your technical SEO by thinking like Googlebot:

Here are some sitemap optimisation tips:

1. Add robots.txt
   
   A robots.txt file is the first thing googlebots come across. It has a set of instructions for web crawlers which tells them which pages to access and which to not. This way you can ensure duplicate or broken pages are not getting indexed.
    
2. Create sitemaps
   A sitemap is a file that has a list of all the URLs on your website. It helps googlebot to prioritise pages to crawl. As mentioned before, they are useful even if you have a small website.
   • Update the sitemap regularly
   • Have only one sitemap index.
   • Don’t make every page a high priority
      
3. Have a clean and defined URL structure
   URLs are the building blocks of your site which help you attract more traffic when they are more defined. A clean link appears more trustworthy and eases the navigation process for the users.
    
4. Internal linking
   Along with having a defined URL structure, you should also try to internally link web pages. This will ensure that your users can find all the information they are looking for within your website easily. Need help for internal linking? Consider getting us on board! We are a top SEO company in Mumbai who will guide you through the process.
    
5. Faster loading site
   You will be surprised to know that a fast loading site positively impacts your ranking. If your visitors have a great experience using the site they will stay on it for a longer period of time. This reduces the bounce rate which translates to better user engagement for Google and it boosts your ranking. You can check your speed using tools like Page Speed Insight and GTmetrix.
    
6. Create an SEO friendly site structure
   As you post more content on your site, it will get cluttered. Site structure refers to organising the content on your site in a way it becomes easy for your users to navigate. Up to the mark user experience equals better ranking.
   These are some tips to create an SEO-friendly site structure:
   • Keep a decent number of links on any page
   • Utilise heading hierarchy.
      
7. Canonical URLs
   You might have a number of web pages on your site consisting of the same content in different languages. Usually, Googlebots identify such pages as duplicates which hurts your ranking. For top SEO benefits, make sure that you are marking them with a canonical tag or a href tag.
    
8. Include alt tags in images
   By adding text to images, you give Google some context as to what they are about. These are some places you can include alt tags in order to optimise your images:
   • Image file name- Give a suitable title to the image in the file name.
   • Image alt text- describe the image in the alt tag so that it becomes easier for the bot to understand what the image is about.
      
9. Find and fix broken links
   Internal linking and back linking being ranking factors are important and need to be precise. So making sure that the links listed across your website or on other sites are not misspelt becomes vital. Fortunately, there are a number of tools available on the net to check if there are broken links on your page.
    
10. Have optimised meta title and description
    It is a well established fact among SEO professionals that optimising meta title and description increases the CTR(Click Through Rate) and ranking in SERP(Search Engine Results Page). These are some things to keep in mind while writing them:
    • Use hyphens (-)
    • Don’t make it too lengthy

These are some ways you can boost your technical SEO using the mind of a Googlebot. With the cutthroat competition in the market, it is essential to understand the importance of technical SEO and harness it to its fullest potential. You can take help of a top SEO company in Mumbai for effective and customised strategies for your business.

We at Verve Media offer a package of services from graphic designing to web development. Our team of SEO experts believe that through the digital landscape, business can form a connection with the audience. By working on your website's on-page SEO, off-page SEO, they reach your target audience timely and efficiently. The experience we have had working with prestigious brands in the industry makes us a top-notch digital marketing company in Mumbai.