Website optimization is important for site health and traffic. Google and other search engines reward actively and properly optimized websites. Search engine optimization should be high on the radar of internet marketers. Small marketers are heavily involved with what is called off-page search engine optimization. Off-page optimization is a proper mix of social bookmarking, link building, and social media engagement, activities similar to marketing. But there is another type of SEO that is just as important, technical SEO or on-page optimization.

Writers and other SEO experts tend to do off-page optimization, which is why we refer to this type of optimization here as SEO Marketing to distinguish it from the other type of site optimization, Technical SEO or On-Page Optimization. Technical SEO, the lesser known of the two, doesn’t exist in the same social circles as marketing SEO, but it may be the more important when it comes to affecting a website’s search engine ranking.

TECHNICAL SEO

On-page optimization activities are performed on the back-end pages of a website to comply with the most current best practices, as primarily described by Google. Algorithms allow search engines to quickly read and rank the content of a web page. Technical SEO are tasks performed by programmers or a webmaster. They ensure that a website is up to date with the latest best practices that can affect the site’s ranking.

Much attention is paid to technical optimization during the creation of a new website. But Google is famous for changing the calculation of its algorithms (Penguin, Panda and the like) in its search to provide the highest quality results relevancy from a search query. Therefore, Google updates may change a best practice or require a new type of file, such as a sitemap or robots txt, to be added to a website’s directory. Fortunately, updates to the back-end utility should only be done periodically, mostly on older websites. But just like a car that, although it works, requires a maintenance tune-up, the website that is too old must get technical adjustments to ensure compliance with the latest guidelines.

On-page technical SEO is a utility function that is done strictly for the benefit of search engines, but also works to improve the user experience. Keywords can be developed as part of the technical SEO service and keyword density on a page analyzed. However, marketers can generate keywords and phrases as well as write the metatext.

But it’s a technician’s job to physically add the metatext to the site’s back-end pages, as well as perform other back-end tasks like optimizing page titles, H1 tags, and adding image alt text. Additionally, technical SEO considers page size and load times, 301 redirect and 404 error pages and fixes search engine and user annoyances like broken links.

Both types of SEO are important for site traffic for different reasons. Optimizing for SEO marketing is only half the job. Technical SEO ensures that daily on-page marketing efforts have their best chance of success on the back of a technically tight website.

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