technical seo for ottawa

Technical SEO for Ottawa businesses is necessary for any company wanting to improve its online visibility and performance. By optimizing the technical aspects of their website, businesses in Ottawa can vastly improve their local customer base and surpass competitors. Below are some practical technical SEO tips for Ottawa businesses to enhance their online presence.

Mobile-Friendly Website

With more and more users accessing websites through mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website is essential. Ensure that your website is responsive; it should adapt to different screen sizes and devices. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to verify the compatibility of your site with various devices and make necessary changes. Besides improving user experience, mobile optimization also enhances your rankings on mobile search results.

Monitor Page Speed

Page speed is crucial both for user experience and search engine rankings. Websites that are slow to load attract high bounce rates, hence fewer conversions. To assess the speed of your site, you can use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights, which will also help you identify areas that need improvement. Some ways of improving loading times include compressing images, leveraging browser caching as well as minimizing CSS and JavaScript files among others.

Website Security

seo for ottawaSecurity is important for users and search engines. Make sure that your website uses HTTPS instead of HTTP to encrypt data transmission and provide secure browsing environments for visitors. Secure websites are preferred by Google, and therefore, HTTPS can boost your rankings, too. If you have not done so already, obtain an SSL certificate and then migrate the site from HTTP to HTTPS.

Fix Crawl Errors

Crawl errors prevent search engines from properly indexing websites, thereby lowering their ranking potential. Using Google Search Console, you can identify crawl errors such as broken links and 404 errors, among others, and then fix them accordingly. Always monitor crawling issues with the site and resolve them promptly whenever they arise.

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap enables search engines to learn about pages within a site during the crawling process, thus leading to efficient indexing. Ensure that your XML sitemap is current and includes all important pages on the website. Submit the sitemap to Google Search Console for a better indexing experience.

Schema Markup

Schema markup is a type of microdata that helps search engines understand website content. By using schema markup, you can add rich snippets such as reviews, ratings, and event information to your search results. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can be used to implement schema markup on the site.

Local SEO

Local SEO is crucial in attracting customers nearby, especially for Ottawa businesses. Claim your Google My Business listing, then optimize it with accurate and up-to-date information like address, phone number, and business hours. Ensure NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across all online directories while encouraging positive reviews from clients.

Regular Site Audits

Regular site audits help identify technical issues that might affect SEO performance. Conduct thorough audits using tools like SEMrush, SeRanking Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog, which will reveal problems such as duplicate content and missing meta tags, among others, so that you can fix them and maintain healthy, optimized websites.

Monitor and Improve Your Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are metrics that assess the user experience of a webpage. The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) are some of them. Employ tools like Google Search Console or Lighthouse to keep track of your Core Web Vitals and fix them as required.

These technical SEO tips can help businesses in Ottawa enhance their site’s performance, search engine ranking, and user experience. Proactively optimizing your website regularly is necessary to stay competitive in today’s ever-changing digital landscape. When it comes to SEO for local companies in Ottawa; content alone won’t cut it – make sure everything else is up-to-date too!

If you’d like us to perform a free audit for your site, please contact us today. 

Lark Begin is a digital marketer from Ottawa, Canada. Lark is an SEO Master, PPC expert and content writer. She helps many small businesses get ranked on Google each day.