Technical SEO vs. Content SEO
You may have heard these words thrown around before: technical SEO and content SEO. So, what’s the difference?
In a few words, technical SEO refers to improving the technical side of your website, like site speed and loading errors. Content SEO refers to improving the content, like blog posts, on your website’s pages. Both SEO strategies help your website appear higher up in Google search results.
This podcast episode + article is a beginner’s overview of the difference between technical SEO and content SEO. It’s meant for business owners, entrepreneurs, and writers who are deciding whether to handle SEO themselves or hand it off to a professional.
Other episodes you’ll enjoy:
Finding and using keywords: https://digitalbloomiq.com/keywords-for-health-and-wellness
A Marketing plan that supports you SEO: https://digitalbloomiq.com/seo/marketing-plan
Using ChatGPT for your SEO: https://digitalbloomiq.com/using-chatgpt-for-seo
Listen to this podcast episode here:
Looking for a SEO Audit checklist to get started on the technical areas of your SEO that make a big difference? Here ya go!
If you’re looking for something a little bit more technical, check out this blog post on Technical SEO.
Technical SEO
The technical side of SEO is important because you need to understand how Google is seeing your website. Google scans your website’s code and understands how it's built. There are certain aspects that Google likes and dislikes.
Robot.txt
The Robot.txt file is one specific file that your website shows to Google. Most website platforms like WordPress and Squarespace automatically generate this file.
The purpose of Robot.txt is to guide Google to certain pages while keeping it away from others. There might be certain parts of your website that you don’t want Google to see because they could change how you rank. Robot.txt gives you some control over what you communicate to Google about your site.
Again, for most small and medium-sized businesses, this is already set up. But knowing about it allows you to take ownership of it and customize it.
Site error
When you have a lot of site errors, like broken links, you can negatively impact your Google ranking. Think of your website as a house. If you invite guests over but they can’t open the door or access the bathroom, they’re not going to want to go over very often. Google doesn’t track errors on your website, but it does notice how people are interacting. If people get to your site and then quickly leave because there are too many errors, Google notices.
So, maintain your website and keep it clean. A web developer or SEO expert can help you do this over time so that the errors don’t accumulate. It’s important to pay attention to this, especially if your site is growing. It’s much more difficult to fix a broken-down house than a house that has just a few issues.
Site speed
The speed that your site loads is also a factor in technical SEO. There are certain structural aspects that you can manage to improve your site speed.
Have a process around how you are resizing and compressing your images every time you upload a blog post. Keep tabs on your plugins because having lots of plugins slows down your site. You can do a plugin update at least every six months just to make sure that you’re not doubling up on two plugins that do the same thing.
Content SEO
Now, let’s transition to content SEO. You may feel more familiar with this side of things. Keywords, blogging, and all the other ways you fill your site with amazing information are parts of content SEO.
Keywords
When people search for information in Google, they use specific queries. When you incorporate keywords into your SEO strategy, you’re using different tools to see what people are searching and how popular those searches are. You can start to build a strategy with your content so that you are targeting the keywords that will bring people to your site.
There’s a business side to keyword work. You want to make sure that the keywords you’re targeting are being searched by people who are interested in your business and what you’re selling. Keyword work can be very psychological as well. You should be thinking about what your audience is looking for and how you’re meeting their needs on your site. As you can see, this plays hand-in-hand with the rest of your marketing.
Blogging
Blogging refers to creating great, informative content that will drive traffic to your site. Creating good content can be difficult, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be something that feels heavy.
It helps to create a sustainable content-writing routine. You remove the stress of planning and can focus on sharing your ideas with the world. Over time, you’ll start to see results.
Organized and dynamic content
An important side of content SEO is how your content is organized and presented. Categorize specific blog posts and customize those category pages so that there’s a nice flow to your website. Doing this helps people find the information that they need. Going back to the house analogy, having a nice flow of rooms and hallways in your house makes the experience a little bit better.
Keep the posts on your website clean and dynamic. Use headings to break up long paragraphs or blocks of text. Images, infographics, and videos are great ways to spice up your content.
You can have the best content in the world, but if the experience of the content isn’t great, then people are going to leave your site.
And that’s the difference between technical SEO and content SEO! Hopefully, this article helped clarify things for you.
Notice that there are two sides to SEO: preventative and repair. There are some things that you can do now so that over time Google sees your website as trustworthy. But the other side is maintenance and repair. SEO is an ongoing process. It’s like cleaning your house. You’re always going to have to maintain it to some extent, whether you’re cleaning and fixing things or renovating things.
Want to do your very own SEO audit? This checklist will walk you through the key elements to Technical SEO to understand what needs to be improved on your website. Download below.
SEO can be frustrating for a lot of people, but that’s why there are professionals out there to help. If you are looking for hands-on SEO support, fill out our contact form and we’ll find the right fit SEO service for you.