Reach the Limits of Technical SEO with This Guide

Search engine optimization is more important than ever, and companies that take it seriously position themselves to win big in the long run. As a Columbus marketing agency, we’ve seen businesses pump out amazing content and beautiful design, only to scratch their heads, wondering why there’s no lift in organic traffic. And in a world rapidly shifting toward Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), the lack of SEO is certainly a costly oversight.

From performance and accessibility to best practices and SEO, these technical metrics quietly influence every search rank. This article explains how to push technical SEO beyond the basics and remove the hidden constraints in these technical metrics that are holding your site back.

Get the Foundations of SEO Right

At a high level, you’ll want to triage your efforts according to four key categories that directly and indirectly impact your SEO: performance, best practices, accessibility, and SEO fundamentals. You can pull this information directly from PageSpeed:

Criteria	What It Is	What You Should Focus on
Performance	A fast website is a better website for users and for search engines. Performance is a core ranking factor and must not be ignored.	CDN (Content Delivery Network) Use a CDN like Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront. The goal is to serve assets as close to the user as possible to minimize latency. Less latency equals a faster website. Stop when: A CDN is properly configured and active on every page load. Cache Policies Caching tells browsers how to handle repeated visits. Configure headers and expiration rules to cache non-dynamic files (such as images or scripts). Caching dynamic files is trickier when using WordPress or similar CMSs, but can be done through CloudFlare. Stop when: All content is cached without disrupting website functionality, and the performance is consistently fast. Image Optimization Large images slow everything down. Compress and resize images using tools like TinyPNG, Squoosh, or WebP formats. Balance quality with size. Stop when: All images are compressed, properly scaled, and load without visible quality loss.
Best Practices	This covers various technical items that help with the security, performance, and maintainability of your website.	Use HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate. Minimize JavaScript and remove unused code. Use lazy loading for offscreen assets. Remove broken or dead links.
Accessibility	Search engines love accessible websites because they provide better user experiences.	Font Readability Is the font size large enough? Is there enough color contrast? Stop when: Content is easily scannable and readable across devices. Structural Clarity Are sections clearly defined? Is related content grouped together? Stop when: Your layout separates content logically (e.g., headers for each service, FAQs grouped, etc.). Alt-Text Do images have alt-text? This improves the viewing experience for screen readers and search engines. Stop when: All images have alt-text. Contrast Provide enough contrast between your copy and background elements. Use a tool like a Contrast Checker to ensure accessibility. Stop when: Copy displays with enough contrast.
SEO	This indicates whether your website is designed to be easily indexed by search engines.	Search-Friendly Schema Markup Add structured data (schema markup) to each page using JSON-LD. This tells search engines exactly what each page contains (products, articles, FAQs, reviews, etc.). Without it, your site will likely not be indexed. Use Google’s Rich Results Test or similar tools to verify. Stop when: All relevant web pages have valid, working schema markup. Robots.txt This file tells search bots which parts of your site to crawl or ignore. Make sure it’s clean and doesn’t accidentally block important pages. Stop when: Googlebot can access all pages you want indexed. Sitemap.xml Submit a sitemap that lists all your site’s important URLs. While not a major ranking factor, it helps clarify the site’s structure to web crawlers. Check it by visiting: www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Stop when: All key pages are included. Canonical URLs Avoid duplicate content penalties by setting canonical tags. These URLs tell Google which version of a page is the “master” one for SEO value. Stop when: All pages have the correct canonical URLs.

Monitor SEO Status with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

Like most marketing services, SEO isn’t a “set-it-and-forget-it” task. The landscape around digital is constantly changing, and your site’s visibility is influenced by:

Search algorithm changes
New competitors ranking on SERPs
Server performance from bot and legit traffic
Updates to your content management system (CMS) and third-party services
Broken website links or expired content

Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools are critical for understanding what’s working and what’s not.

Here’s what to watch:

Index Coverage
- See which URLs are and aren’t indexed. This often includes duplicates from www/non-www, HTTP vs HTTPS, or subdomains.
- Stop when: Only the correct domain (e.g., https://yourdomain.com/page) is indexed. Remove or redirect the other alternatives.
Error Reports
- Look for 404 errors, redirect loops, and other crawl issues. Often, broken links or missing content create unnecessary dead ends, which penalize your website’s SEO.
- Stop when: All indexable pages return 200 (OK) status and no high-priority errors exist.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Under the “Performance” tab, examine which search queries your pages rank for, how often they appear (impressions), and their CTR.
- If you’re ranking well but getting zero clicks, it’s time to revise your:
  - Meta titles
  - Descriptions
  - Headlines
  - Featured image (for social/media preview)
- Stop when: CTR trends are improving, and core pages outperform competitors for targeted keywords.

AEO: The Future of Technical SEO

As search evolves, so does the importance of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). Google and Bing are increasingly leveraging AI to serve direct answers via featured snippets, AI summaries, and voice search. Additionally, as the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and DeepSeek gains traction, SEO remains relevant because answer engines derive their responses from search engines!

To compete on answer engines:

Continue using schema markups.
Structure content with clear questions and concise answers. Long-form content is no longer ideal.
Include TL;DR sections or summaries at the beginning and end of your paragraphs.
Target long-tail, conversational queries.
Ultimately, keep maximizing your SEO.

Your goal is to become the source for search engine answers. Again, AEO overlaps with technical SEO, making things like schema markup, fast page loads, and clean architecture still applicable and even more essential.

The Bottom Line

If your website isn’t optimized for technical SEO, you’re leaving organic traffic on the table.

Focus on the following:

Improve site speed using CDNs, caching, and image compression
Fix accessibility and structural issues to enhance user experience
Validate schema markup, sitemap, robots.txt, and canonical URLs
Use webmaster tools to track and troubleshoot performance
Prepare your content for AEO by structuring pages for clarity and answers

Need help with technical SEO or want to start with an SEO audit? Our Columbus marketing agency can diagnose, repair, and future-proof your site, so you can focus on growing your brand. Contact us today for a free consultation!