Technical SEO Questions, Without the Jargon

On-page SEO is making each page clearly answer one search, in a way both people and Google understand.

• One main keyword and one purpose per page.
• A title that matches the search and earns the click.
• One H1, then clear H2 sections that follow the questions buyers ask.
• Useful, original content with real examples and proof.
• Descriptive image names and alt text.
• Links to related pages on your site.

Write for the reader first. A page that fully answers the question usually satisfies Google too.

Read next: Search Engine Optimization · SEO

Put the main keyword near the front of the title, promise a clear benefit, and keep it to about 60 characters so it is not cut off.

The meta description is your advert in the search results. In about 150 characters, say what the page gives and why to click. It does not affect ranking directly, but a better description wins more clicks.

Write a unique title and description for every page. Duplicates confuse Google and waste your best space in the results.

Read next: Search Engine Optimization

Use one H1 that says what the page is about, H2s for the main sections, and H3s for points inside a section.

Headings are an outline. If someone read only your headings, they should understand the page. Use the words people search in them naturally, especially questions.

Do not pick headings for their size. Style is a design job. Structure is for readers, screen readers and search engines.

Read next: Search Engine Optimization

Make images small in file size, name them for what they show, and describe them in the alt text.

• Resize to the size actually displayed, then compress.
• Use a descriptive filename, such as dental-clinic-lekki-reception.jpg.
• Write alt text that describes the picture in plain words.
• Lazy-load images below the first screen.
• Set width and height so the page does not jump while loading.

Heavy images are the most common reason a site is slow on a phone, and speed affects both rankings and sales.

Read next: Search Engine Optimization · Web development

Technical SEO makes sure Google can find, read and trust your pages. Without it, good content can stay invisible.

• Crawling and indexing: can Google reach every important page?
• Speed and Core Web Vitals, measured on mobile.
• Mobile friendliness and secure HTTPS.
• Clean URLs, sitemaps, redirects and canonical tags.
• Structured data that matches what is on the page.

Most small sites only need this done properly once, then checked a few times a year. We build it into every website we deliver.

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Open the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. It tells you whether the page is blocked, duplicated, or simply not considered useful enough yet.

• Blocked: remove the noindex tag or robots.txt rule.
• Duplicate: point the canonical tag at the right page.
• Thin: improve the page so it adds something other pages do not.
• Orphaned: link to it from your menu or strong pages.

Then request indexing. If many pages are stuck, the cause is usually quality or site structure, not a technical switch.

Read next: SEO

A sitemap is a list of your important pages for search engines. Most website platforms create one for you, and you submit its address once in Google Search Console.

On WordPress, an SEO plugin such as Rank Math or Yoast generates it automatically, usually at /sitemap_index.xml. In Search Console, open Sitemaps, paste that address and submit.

Only pages you want ranked should be in it. A sitemap helps Google discover pages. It does not make weak pages rank.

Read next: Search Engine Optimization

Robots.txt tells search engines which parts of your site they may crawl. Noindex tells them not to show a page in results. They do different jobs.

To keep a page out of Google, use noindex and let Google crawl it so it can see the instruction. Blocking the page in robots.txt alone can leave it in results without a description.

Check both carefully after a redesign. One wrong line can hide an entire website, and it is one of the first things we check on a site that vanished from Google.

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Core Web Vitals measure three things: how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a tap, and whether the layout jumps.

• Loading (LCP): compress the main image, use good hosting and caching. Aim for 2.5 seconds or less.
• Response (INP): cut heavy scripts and unused plugins. Aim for 200 milliseconds or less.
• Stability (CLS): set image sizes and avoid late-loading banners. Aim for 0.1 or less.

Test with PageSpeed Insights on mobile, fix the biggest item first, then test again.

Read next: Web development · SEO

Duplicate content is the same or very similar content at more than one URL. A canonical tag tells Google which version is the main one.

It is rarely a penalty. The cost is that Google splits attention between copies or picks the wrong one. Common causes are www and non-www versions, tracking parameters, and product pages that differ only by colour.

Choose one preferred URL, redirect the others where you can, and set the canonical on the rest.

Read next: SEO

Schema markup is code that labels what is on a page, such as a business, product, review, article or FAQ, so search engines read it without guessing.

Use the types that match your real, visible content: Organization or LocalBusiness on the home and contact pages, Product on product pages, Article on blog posts. Marking up things that are not on the page breaks Google's rules.

It does not lift rankings by itself, but it makes you eligible for richer results and helps AI systems understand you. Test it with Google's Rich Results Test.

Read next: AI SEO · SEO

WordPress is strong for SEO when it is set up cleanly: one SEO plugin, a fast theme, good hosting and no pile of unused plugins.

• Set permalinks to the post name.
• Install one SEO plugin and connect Search Console.
• Write a unique title and description for each page.
• Add caching and image compression.
• Keep plugins few and updated.

A plugin score is a checklist, not a ranking. The page still has to answer the search better than what is ranking now.

Read next: Web development · Search Engine Optimization

Give every product a unique title and description written for the buyer, clear photos, the price, reviews and Product schema.

Copying the manufacturer's description puts you in a crowd of identical pages. Answer what a buyer asks: who it is for, sizes, delivery, returns, and how it compares.

Keep out-of-stock pages live with alternatives, and link products to their category so Google sees the structure.

Read next: Ecommerce marketing · SEO

Category pages often rank for your most valuable searches, like "men's running shoes", so treat them as landing pages, not just product lists.

• Use the search phrase in the title and H1.
• Add a short, useful introduction above the products.
• Offer filters that help, without creating thousands of thin URLs.
• Link to sub-categories and buying guides.
• Add answers to common questions below the products.

One strong category page usually beats many near-identical ones.

Read next: Ecommerce marketing

Crawl your site with a link checker, fix the links that lead nowhere, and point each old URL straight to its final page in a single step.

A 301 redirect tells Google a page has moved for good and passes its value to the new address. A chain, where A leads to B and then C, slows the site and loses some of that value.

Check after every redesign or URL change. That is when most broken links are born.

Read next: SEO · Web development

Keep the same URLs where you can, redirect every old URL that changes to its closest new page, and carry over your titles, content and structured data.

• Crawl and save the old site before touching anything.
• Map every old URL to a new one.
• Launch with 301 redirects in place.
• Submit the new sitemap and watch Search Console daily for two weeks.

Rankings are lost in migrations by forgetting redirects, not by redesigning. Done properly, a new site should lift you: J Artistry Clinic's traffic rose 1,028% in the 14 days after its new website launched.

Read next: Web development · SEO

Internal links connect your own pages. They help visitors find the next step and show Google which pages matter most.

Link from your strongest pages to the ones you want to rank, using words that describe the destination, not "click here". Every important page should be reachable in a few clicks from the home page.

A page with no internal links pointing to it is close to invisible. Add links whenever you publish something new.

Read next: Search Engine Optimization

Yes. Speed is a ranking factor, and it affects sales even more than rankings, because slow pages lose visitors before they read a word.

Aim for the main content to show within 2.5 seconds on a mobile connection. Test with PageSpeed Insights, and test on a normal phone, not just your office Wi-Fi.

Images, hosting and too many scripts cause most slowness. Fix those three before anything else.

Read next: Web development · Conversion rate optimization

Yes. HTTPS is expected by Google and by buyers, and a "Not secure" warning costs you trust before the page even loads.

An SSL certificate encrypts what visitors send, such as passwords and payment details. Most hosts provide one free. After installing it, redirect all http addresses to https and update internal links.

It is a small ranking signal and a large trust signal. No serious business site should run without it.

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Google ranks your site based on its mobile version. If something is missing or broken on a phone, Google treats it as missing.

That means the same content, links and structured data must be present on mobile, text must be readable without zooming, and buttons must be easy to tap.

Check your pages on a real phone. Most of your customers are already on one.

Read next: Web development

A new site earns trust slowly, so start with searches you can win: specific services, specific places, specific questions.

• Get indexed: Search Console, sitemap, clean structure.
• Publish a strong page for each service.
• Set up Google Business Profile and collect reviews.
• Write helpful articles that answer real questions.
• Earn your first links from directories, partners and local press.

Expect little in the first weeks and steady growth from month three. Pair it with ads if you need customers sooner.

Read next: SEO · Search Engine Optimization

To rank in other countries, give each market content that fits it: its spelling, currency, examples and the places you serve there.

Hreflang tags tell Google which version of a page is for which language or country, so the UK visitor sees the UK page. Without separate versions, mention the countries you serve clearly and show prices in their currency.

We do this for clients selling from Nigeria into the UK, the USA and Canada, and for our own site.

Read next: SEO

The same six problems appear in most audits I run, including on sites built by agencies.

• Pages blocked by a noindex tag or robots.txt left over from the build.
• Slow mobile pages, usually oversized images and too many plugins.
• Duplicate pages: with and without a trailing slash, http and https, or tag archives.
• Missing or identical title tags across pages.
• Redirect chains after a redesign.
• No structured data, or structured data that describes a different page.

None of these are hard to fix. They are hard to notice without looking. Search Console's page indexing report is where I start, and it is free.

Read next: SEO

Aim for the main content to appear in 2.5 seconds or less on a phone with an average connection. That is Google's own threshold for Largest Contentful Paint, one of the Core Web Vitals.

The other two thresholds: interaction response under 200 milliseconds, and layout shift under 0.1. Google measures these from real visitors, so a fast laptop in your office tells you nothing about a buyer on mobile data in Ibadan or on a train in London.

Test with PageSpeed Insights and fix the largest image first. On the sites I audit, one uncompressed hero image is usually most of the problem.

Read next: Web development · SEO

I use Rank Math on this website and on most client sites, and Yoast is a fine alternative. The plugin matters far less than what you do with it.

Both handle titles, descriptions, sitemaps, canonical tags and basic schema. Rank Math's free version includes redirects, a 404 monitor and schema types that Yoast charges for, which is why I standardised on it.

What no plugin does is write a good title, choose the right keyword or make the page worth ranking. I have seen sites with a green score on every page and no traffic. The plugin is a checklist, not a strategy.

Read next: Web development · SEO

Add your site as a domain property, verify it, submit your sitemap, and then check it monthly. It takes about fifteen minutes.

• Go to Search Console and add a domain property.
• Verify by adding the DNS record Google gives you, or through your SEO plugin.
• Submit the sitemap address your SEO plugin created, usually /sitemap_index.xml.
• Check the page indexing report for errors after a few days.
• Read the performance report monthly: queries, clicks, positions.

It is the first thing I set up on every new client site, before any SEO work, because it is the only place Google tells you directly what it sees.

Read next: Analytics and tracking · SEO

Schema is not a direct ranking factor, and Google has said so. It earns richer results, helps Google understand your pages, and helps AI systems quote you accurately.

On this website every page carries Organization, Person, Service, Article or FAQ schema through a plugin we built for the purpose. The pages did not jump in rank because of it. They did become easier to understand, which shows up as better matching and cleaner results.

Add schema that describes what is visibly on the page, nothing more. Google's structured data guidelines punish markup that describes content visitors cannot see.

Read next: AI SEO · SEO

Keep URLs short, readable and consistent, and pick one version of each page.

• The slug should be the page's main keyword: /web-development, not /page-id-27.
• No locations in the slug unless the page is about that location, so you can move city without losing the page.
• One flat level where you can. Deep folders add nothing.
• Pick either trailing slash or none and redirect the other.

Trailing slash or not makes no ranking difference. Serving both without a redirect does, because Google sees two pages. Google's guide to consolidating duplicate URLs explains the fix.

Read next: Web development · SEO

A redesign loses rankings only when URLs change without redirects, content is cut, or the new site is slower. Protect those three and you keep what you earned.

• Export every current URL and its traffic before you start.
• Keep URLs identical, or map every old one to a new one with a 301 redirect.
• Keep the content that ranks, even if you restyle it.
• Carry over titles, descriptions and schema.
• Test speed on the staging site before launch.
• Watch Search Console daily for two weeks after.

J Artistry Clinic's traffic rose 1,028% in the 14 days after its relaunch because we did this. Most horror stories I hear are a developer launching a beautiful site with nobody checking the redirects.

Read next: Web development · Digital Marketing Case Studies

A hack damages SEO through injected spam pages, redirects and a security warning in search results. Recovery is cleaning first, then telling Google.

• Restore from a clean backup or remove the injected files and database entries.
• Update everything, change every password, and add two-factor login.
• Remove the spam URLs and submit a review in Search Console's security report.
• Watch for new pages in the sitemap you did not create.

Prevention is cheaper. The sites we build carry a firewall, limited login attempts, daily backups and hidden login pages. I have watched a hack undo a year of rankings in a week.

Read next: Web development

Hosting affects SEO through speed, uptime and sometimes location, so a bad host can hold back a good site.

Slow servers push your pages past Google's speed thresholds no matter how well they are built. Frequent downtime means Google finds errors when it crawls. Shared hosting that puts you beside spam sites can slow you further.

This website runs on Hostinger behind Cloudflare, with LiteSpeed caching, and that combination gives us fast pages at a reasonable price. Any reliable host with caching, a content delivery network and good uptime does the job. The cheapest plan rarely does.

Read next: Web development

Use the URL inspection tool in Search Console. It fetches the page as Google does, shows the rendered HTML and tells you whether it is indexed and why not if it is not.

I use it after every significant change: a new page, a template edit, a plugin that touches output. If the rendered screenshot is missing content, Google cannot rank what it cannot see. That often happens when content is loaded by scripts that are blocked or slow.

For pages built with a lot of JavaScript, make sure the important text is in the HTML Google receives. The pages on this website render all their content server-side for that reason.

Read next: SEO