In 2019, a case study done by Analytive proved that the use of technical search engine optimization (SEO) could increase a software company's database traffic by 26 times in eight months. Another study by BrightEdge Research showed that 68% of online experiences began with a search engine.
In other words, if you operate your business through the Internet, your customers will most likely be reaching you via Google or a similar search engine — and the volume of those customers will be dictated by your use of technical SEO.
Whether you are an entrepreneur looking for a way to sell your newly invented product, an online marketer seeking ways to help your clients, or a new business owner setting up your first-ever website, technical SEO is an imperative, transformative tool that you need in order to enhance your website's credibility and success.
Related: Learn the Technical SEO Skills Needed to Rank Higher on Google
Putting the 'web' in 'website'
"SEO" stands for "search engine optimization. The goal behind it is simple: To ensure your website is at the top of the results in a search engine.
But in order for your website (or one of the web pages within your website) to get into the 5.429785400000 million search results in the first place, it must first be indexed. This means it has to be recognized by a search engine and added to its search index. In Google's case, that means a network of hundreds of billions of web pages.
Search engines such as Google use crawlers, also known as web spiders, to crawl through and index web pages. This software starts with one web page and crawls its way into all of the pages that are linked to that first one. It repeats the process in those new pages, spinning and weaving its way through millions of hyperlinks — until it's created a massive web of pages that it can add to its index.
Once your website and its web pages are indexed, there are separate branches of SEO that ensure they reach the top of the search results. For example, on-page SEO is about optimizing the content within your web pages.
Off-page SEO is about how you market your product outside of your own website, using tools like backlinks or social media. These optimization strategies are vital, but neither one of them will do much good if those pages are not indexed to begin with.
That's where technical SEO comes into play.
Related: Why Exceptional SEO Is Crucial for a Successful Business
The technical side of things
While on-page and off-page SEO are about the content of your website, technical SEO is about the structure of your website — how it is built.