For those looking to launch a startup, creating an online presence must begin with a practical technical SEO strategy.

This is foundational to ensuring higher search rankings and increased organic traffic. Technical SEO focuses on making sure that your website is easy to access, quick, and well-organized for search engines.

In this article, we will cover basic technical SEO tips designed for startups. We will show you how to improve your site architecture, loading speeds, and implement the easiest SEO friendly techniques to optimize your website. In addition, we will also introduce easy-to-use technical SEO tools that monitor and improve your site.

Lay the Groundwork: Nail Down Your SEO-Ready Site Architecture

An effective technical SEO strategy starts with the fundamentals. Here are the critical components to consider.

Pick a Content Management System (CMS) that Scales with SEO Needs.

The choice of your content management system (CMS) greatly determines your site’s performance and SEO. Here’s what I have to say:

• WordPress: Very flexible and has a multitude of plugins, and allows full control over meta tags, descriptions, and other SEO components. Great for sites focused on content deployment.

• Webflow: Provides some level of design flexibility alongside clean code. Ideal for those who want design flexibility but still need powerful SEO features.

• Shopify: Specifically designed for e-commerce, it comes with in-built SEO capabilities, but lacks the adaptability afforded by WordPress and Webflow.

The right CMS selection harmonizes your technical SEO frameworks with the objectives of your business.

Maintain A Flat Site Architecture

A flat site design means all pages can be accessed within a number of clicks from the homepage, which improves both user experience and the ability to be crawled.

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• Flat Structure: Best suited to smaller websites, where page indexing is done seamlessly through the defined hierarchy.

• Deep Structure: Useful for larger content-rich websites, but can decrease efficiency in navigation if not designed with care.

This is one of the basic technical SEO tips for startups looking to improve visibility with a flat architecture.

Create Strategic Internal Links

Having an effective internal link structure will facilitate interaction for users and search engines and create a hierarchy for the pages, along with page authority distribution.

• Pillar Pages: Write broad pages for major topics and link them to more specific subtopics.

• Anchor Text: Ensure contextual relevance by using descriptive and topical anchor texts.

• Link Depth: Ensure important pages are not buried deep within the website’s hierarchy. Ensure important pages are accessible within a few clicks.

Carrying out an internal link audit using technical SEO tools can help identify areas to improve site structure and cohesiveness.

Site Speed Is Cashflow: Turbocharge Performance from the Start

In the online world, time is a very important resource. According to Google, the likelihood of a user bouncing increases by 32% as page load time increases from the 1- to 3-second mark.

Make use of tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to check a website’s performance. Both services evaluate a site’s speed alongside offering additional suggestions on how to further improve loading times.

Take Actionable Steps Towards Implementation

• Compression: Utilize compression techniques to help reduce file sizes as well as the time it takes to load your pages.

• Lazy Loading: Improve initial page load times by applying lazy loading to images and videos so that they only load when they become visible on the user’s viewport.

• A Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN allows you to stream videos on multiple servers all over the globe, so users can access them faster, no matter where they’re located.

• Script Management: With script optimization, non-essential JavaScript files are set to load after the main content of the page, and the code is minified to optimize render time.

These elements can be added to your technical SEO strategy that improve user experience and conversion values.

Mobile-First or Game Over: Mastering Responsive Design

If your website doesn’t include mobile optimization, you’re already trailing behind. Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing, meaning sites are valued based on their performance on mobile devices versus computers.

This change is not optional for emerging businesses, as they’re striving to stay alive. If your website isn’t smartphone and tablet-friendly, you will lose traffic, visibility, and conversions.

To create a thorough technical SEO strategy, one needs to start with the basics. Examining the viewport settings should be the first step.

This is the first step to scaling content to appear on all screen sizes. Use a readable font of no less than 16px, and maintain tap target distance (buttons and links) vertically apart by no less than 48px.

These are basic technical SEO strategies that influence mobile usability and rankings. After these basic adjustments, whenever testing mobile usability, confirm the changes worked using technical SEO tools like Google Search Console’s Mobile Usability report or PageSpeed Insights.

These tools clearly illustrate what needs alteration and what works. Run consistent tests, gather feedback from actual users, and adjust accordingly. Each adjustment will lead to improved mobile usability and ranking.

Indexing Strategy: Control What Google Sees and Prioritizes

Your robots.txt file and meta tag describe what Google crawls or ignores. Seems easy. However, one erroneous line can freeze the entire site from being indexed. Stay away from using Disallow: / unless you intend to block access to your entire site.

Skip the noindex meta tag on important pages, and Google will remove them from the search results. When in doubt, use Screaming Frog for a quick scan of blunders.

A well-structured XML sitemap functions as a GPS for search engines. Make sure yours only includes indexable pages—no 404s, redirects, or dupes. Submit your sitemap through Google Search Console directly. One of the best pieces of technical SEO advice: remember to update your sitemap each time new content gets added. This is minimal effort that leads to substantial rewards.

Google Search Console is your go-to technical SEO strategy dashboard. It shows crawl errors like broken links or blocked resources.

Check it weekly. Prioritize fixing “Submitted URL has crawl issue” errors—they often block rankings. Use the Coverage and Page Indexing reports to see what’s in, what’s out, and why.

Secure Your Site: HTTPS and Other Trust Signals

Services such as Let’s Encrypt, which provide SSL certificates at no cost, make obtaining SSL certificates far easier. Additionally, for services like Heroku, the process is further expedited by tools like SSL FastTrack, letting you secure your domain in mere minutes. These tools will lower the technical burden for securing your website.

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Beyond HTTPS, other trust signals can enhance your website’s authority:

• Structured Data: Adding schema markup allows better communication with search engines and may result in rich snippets of your website appearing on Google search.

• Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: This ensures the company’s compliance with various data protection laws, which fosters trust among users.

Not only do these factors improve your website’s technical SEO, but they will also provide reassurance for users visiting your site for the first time.

Making HTTPS and other trust signals a priority will strengthen your startup’s online presence, improve security as well as SEO visibility at the same time.

Structured Data = Rich Results: Your Shortcut to Visibility

Schema markup is a type of structured data that you will incorporate into your website’s code. It gives search engines precise pieces of information pertaining to your content, be it a product, company details, or even FAQs.

This context, for example, helps improve search results into rich snippets, which provide some details within the listing instead of just the title and URL. For example, Nestlé found out that pages displaying rich results had an 82% higher click-through rate compared to standard listings.

Top 3 Schema Types for Startups

• Product Schema: Perfect for businesses that sell products. This schema markup allows you to display vital product information like price, availability, and even reviews, directly in the search, making your business more visible to hundreds of potential customers.

• Organization Schema: Strengthens the online visibility of your brand by sharing your company name, logo, contact details, and social handles. Improves your trustworthiness and credibility among users, as well as search engines.

• FAQ Schema: Anyone with a question submission feature on their site, attaching this schema to the outlined questions can be useful as it allows those questions and answers to be fully visible in the pages of search engines.

Applying Schema Markup Without a Developer

If you are looking to add schema markup to your website, you don’t have to be a developer. Here are some tools that can help you:

• Put Markup On Your Web Page: A markup wizard from Google helps you add schema tags and highlight portions of text on your website.

• Rank Math: A plugin for WordPress that helps you add different types of schema to your pages and posts with ease.

• Yoast SEO: A plugin for WordPress that adds structured data to your website automatically and optimizes your content for search engine visibility.

Master Redirects and URL Hygiene Before It’s Too Late

A 301 redirect tells the search engine that a page has permanently relocated to a new page. This ensures SEO values like PageRank are passed onto the new URL.

A 302 redirect signals the opposite, stating that there is a temporary move. Search engines are likely to retain SEO equity due to the perceived temporary nature of the 302 redirect.

Use a 301 redirect when rebranding or permanently changing a URL structure, and a 302 redirect when doing A/B testing or other temporary redirects.

Not managing duplicate content effectively may divide your site’s authority. Applying canonical tags allows you to mark a page as canonical, informing search engines to index the designated URL. This becomes vitally important when multiple URLs feature the same content.

Validate that every page contains a self-referencing canonical and that your sitemap contains these canonical URLs.

Clean and descriptive URLs enhance the user experience and are easily understood by search engines. Avoid lengthy URL parameters, but instead use readable slugs. For example:

• ✅ /blog/seo-tips
• ❌ /blog/article?id=12345

Best practices:

• Use hyphens to separate words.
• Avoid having too many words in a single URL.
• Provide an accurate description of the content on the webpage for easy identification.
• Add keywords that are relevant to the webpage in a non-forced manner.

Use Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs to do a site audit. You can use these tools to check for redirects, duplicate content, and URLs that do not align with each other concerning technical SEO standards.

Technical SEO Tools Stack for Startups

Startups looking to boost their online presence need to formulate a robust technical SEO strategy. Here is a short summary of checklists and basic workflows to ensure your site is running in tip-top condition.

Must-Have Free Tools for Your Technical SEO Strategy

Using the following must-haves can immensely improve your technical SEO processes:

1. Google Search Console

Helps you track how Google perceives your site and provides performance monitoring, crawl error checking, and overall visibility optimization.

2. Screaming Frog SEO Spider (Lite Version)

Windows desktop software that lets you analyze on-site SEO components like broken and duplicate content and redirects. The Lite version is limited to 500 URL crawls, which is perfect for smaller sites.

3. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Does not only claims to offer thorough site audits and backlink analysis like the previously mentioned tools. Claim to bombard you with endless SEO issues in all areas of your website and require constant fixing to keep its health in check.

Budget-Friendly Pro Tools with High ROI

Using cheaper tools provides a greater professional depth of insight into business streamlining and efficiency:

1. Sitebulb

Has a handy auditing tool that fetches visuals of your site’s skeleton and points out critical SEO issues. It is designed to help beginners aiming to improve their technical SEO, hence its simplistic interface.

2. Surfer SEO

It specializes in optimizing content and technical SEO in one package. It offers actionable insights to increase content relevance and sophistication based on ranking factors.

3. JetOctopus

A cloud-based log file and website crawler that shows how search engines interact with the website in real-time. It helps with solving crawl budget problems as well as site performance.

Building a Simple Monthly Technical SEO Audit Workflow

• Crawl Your Website: Retrieve your site using Screaming Frog or JetOctopus and try to retrieve as many technical problems as possible, like broken links, duplicate content, errors in crawling, among others.

• Search Performance Review: Check out the performance in Google Search Console, track the indexation, check the search queries, and check if there are reported issues.

• Check Backlinks And Keyword Rankings: Check backlinks and keyword rankings using Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
• Content: Optimize the material with Surfer SEO to ensure the content captures the expectations provided by the top pages and user intents.

• Assemble and Define Fixes: Compile a list of problems that have been identified, order them based on impact and relevance, and apply changes as needed.

Common Technical SEO Pitfalls to Avoid at All Costs

If you’re launching a startup, overlooking technical SEO can severely hinder your online visibility. Let’s explore three critical mistakes to avoid:

1. Launching Without Proper Indexing Rules

Failing to configure your site’s indexing settings can prevent search engines from discovering your content. A misconfigured robots.txt file or incorrect meta tags can inadvertently block essential pages from being indexed.

Utilize reliable technical SEO tools to audit your site’s indexing status. Ensure that your robots.txt file and meta tags are correctly set to allow search engines to crawl and index your important pages.

2. Using Slow or Bloated Themes

Selecting a theme with excessive features or poor coding can significantly slow down your website. Page speed is a known ranking factor; a sluggish site can lead to higher bounce rates and lower search rankings.

Opt for lightweight, performance-optimized themes. Regularly test your site’s speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and implement recommended optimizations to enhance load times.

3. Neglecting Redirects, Robots.txt, and Canonicalization Post-Launch

After launching, it’s crucial to ensure that redirects are properly set up, the robots.txt file is correctly configured, and canonical tags are accurately implemented. Neglecting these can lead to duplicate content issues and hinder search engine crawling.

Conduct a comprehensive technical SEO audit post-launch. Verify that all redirects are functioning as intended, the robots.txt file isn’t blocking important pages, and canonical tags are correctly pointing to preferred URLs.

Turn Technical SEO Into a Growth Flywheel

Technical SEO is more than a one-time setup—it’s the engine that powers your startup’s online visibility and growth. By implementing the technical SEO tips outlined in this guide, you’re laying a solid foundation that supports every aspect of your digital marketing strategy.

A well-crafted technical SEO strategy ensures that your website is easily discoverable, fast, and user-friendly. Utilizing the right technical SEO tools can help you identify and fix issues promptly, keeping your site optimized for both users and search engines.

Remember, consistent attention to technical SEO isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential. Make it a regular part of your website maintenance routine to stay ahead of the competition.

Featured Image – Freepik

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