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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nClick to tweet this!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Technical best practices are the \u201cbest\u201d for a reason, so having a strong foundation of basic technical SEO skills is still a must.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor me, the most underrated technical SEO strategy has always been the fundamental best practices,\u201d says consultant Joe Hall. \u201cIt might sound surprising to some, but the vast majority of my clients have a difficulty in grasping the importance of best practices or just the basic fundamentals of SEO. I think this is in large part because of our community’s focus and attention on the \u2018next best thing\u2019, and not very often talking about the basic fundamentals of technical SEO.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those fundamentals include hard skills like understanding how to recognize and fix crawlability, indexation, accessibility, and site performance issues, but also how to prioritize the issues you come across.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SEO expert Lily Ray notes that prioritization is an area of improvement that novice technical SEOs need to address first, as they may be more inclined to cite small things as major problems when they\u2019re really not: \u201cIt is common for new or junior SEOs to send a laundry list of technical items as exported by [SEO tools] directly to clients, without prioritizing which ones are the most important to fix, or knowing which ones can be ignored,\u201d she says. \u201cIn many cases, the tools don\u2019t even flag some of the more severe technical issues that may be affecting crawling, indexation, or rendering\u2026 Good technical SEOs are able to pinpoint real problems that are having a significant impact on the website\u2019s ability to rank well, and they know which tools or other resources to use to be able to solve those problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So start taking note of not just the what when it comes to technical issues, but also the influence those issues actually have on the sites you work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Need to brush up or build on these hard skills? Not to worry \u2014 Moz Academy recently released a Technical SEO Certification that can help you do just that!Sign Me Up!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond the more hands-on, practical skill sets required for building and maintaining search-optimized websites, our experts agree that basic soft skills are just as important, with several citing the need for cross-team collaboration abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTechnical SEO implementations generally require working with multiple teams… which means there\u2019s a lot of partnership, persuasion, give and take collaborations,\u201d says Alexis Sanders, the SEO Director at Merkle. \u201cHaving project management, client services, storytelling, and communication skills will support implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So don\u2019t get stuck in the weeds of your technical work \u2014 make sure you\u2019re in constant communication with the teams and stakeholders who will help support your initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click to tweet this!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the hottest topics in the industry right now is no doubt Core Web Vitals<\/a>, the new Google ranking factors update expected in May 2021. But do technical SEOs really need to worry about them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experts say yes, but to work as a team to address them, and make your SEO voice heard. Alexis Sanders puts it this way: \u201cThe page experience update consists of Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness, web app security, and removing interstitials. Regardless of how teams are structured, making progress is going to require a wide array of talents, giving SEO a more involved seat at the table, as these elements affect our bottom-line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When prioritizing what to focus on, make sure that improving site speed<\/a> is at the top of your list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you only work on one area of Technical SEO in 2021, make it site speed,\u201d advises Kick Point President Dana DiTomaso. \u201cSite speed is one of those great parts of technical SEO where the benefit isn’t only for search engines \u2014 it also helps the people visiting your website. Remember, not everyone is coming to your website using the latest technology and fastest internet connection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked about their favorite ways to optimize, here\u2019s what the experts suggested:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Addressing any site speed and usability issues now will set you up to better weather rankings shake-ups caused by Core Web Vitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click to tweet this!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n To ensure that crawlers can read, index, and serve the content of their sites to searchers, many SEOs rely on structured data and schema<\/a> frameworks to organize everything \u2014 as well they should. But when implementing structured data, the experts agree, make sure you\u2019re using it to achieve specific goals, and not just because you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome structured data has material impact on search results or how Google can process and understand a site, while other structured data will be totally irrelevant to any given site or have no measurable impact,\u201d says Dr. Pete. \u201cWe need to use structured data with clear intent and purpose in order to see results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lily Ray agrees, pointing out the debate on the topic of schema within the industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a wide range of opinions on this topic within the SEO community, with some SEOs wanting to \u2018mark up all the things\u2019 and others not believing schema is important if it doesn\u2019t generate Rich Results. Personally, I like to apply structured data if I believe it can provide search engines with more context about the entities included in our clients\u2019 websites, even if that schema does not generate Rich Results. For example, I believe that adding Schema attributes related to your brand and your authors is a good approach to help solidify information in Google\u2019s Knowledge Graph.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The takeaway? Get clear on your goals, and implement structured data if it makes sense for your strategy, but don\u2019t \u201cmark up all the things\u201d if doing so will create unnecessary work for you and your team without bringing about the results you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click to tweet this!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Emerging technologies don\u2019t always stick around long enough to become useful, but one innovation that won\u2019t be going away anytime soon is using languages like Python to help automate various workflows, like data analysis and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe technical SEO industry has been exploding with new ideas and innovations in the past couple of years, particularly related to analyzing data at scale and automating SEO processes, which has resulted in programming languages like Python moving into the spotlight,\u201d says Lily Ray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why is automation important? Not only can it make your day-to-day work easier and more streamlined, it can have positive effects on your business as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI still think that improving time to task completion (performance optimization) is core to every business,\u201d says Miracle Inameti-Archibong, the Head of SEO at Erudite. \u201cNot just because of the page experience update coming in May, but because it affects all channels and directly affects the bottom line of the business (sale, leads) which is what key decision-makers are interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, explore ways in which automation can help you achieve both your technical SEO and broader business goals more effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click to tweet this!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n SEO success is incremental and gradual, usually taking months to years before you can definitively show how the work you put in has paid off. But if something goes wrong? Well, Dr. Pete has the perfect analogy: \u201cThe truth is that technical SEO is often like washing dishes \u2014 no one gives you much credit for it, but they sure notice when you break something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While technical SEO is the basis for all other SEO work, your non-SEO co-workers and managers will likely pay attention more when things are going wrong than when they\u2019re going right. To help mitigate this issue, he suggests steering clear of \u201cvanity metrics\u201d, such as pages indexed, and instead \u201cshowing how a clear plan of action led to improvements in relevant rankings, traffic, and sales.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click to tweet this!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure you\u2019re outlining specific metrics and goals from the start of every campaign, which will help guide your efforts and give you an easier framework for reporting on things down the line. And don\u2019t forget to factor in outside forces that may be affecting your results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOrganic traffic can be impacted by a lot of external factors, or your other, non-technical SEO campaigns,\u201d says Tom Capper, Moz\u2019s Senior Search Scientist (say that five times fast). \u201cTactics like SEO split-testing or, at a more primitive level, counterfactual forecasting<\/a>, can help to isolate these effects in many cases, and happily technical changes tend to have a quicker, more direct impact than some other types of change that don\u2019t see returns until the next core update.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when analyzing and reporting, remember: quantity isn\u2019t always quality, and make sure you have the full picture before gleaning insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Gear up for Core Web Vitals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n3. Use schema and structured data strategically<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Leverage automation to get things done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n5. Don\u2019t forget about analytics and reporting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nConclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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