What is technical SEO
Technical SEO is the optimisation of a website's infrastructure so Google can efficiently find, read, understand and index your content. If the technical foundations are not in order, even the best content will stay invisible in search results.
Think of technical SEO as the foundations of a building. If the foundations are unstable, there is no point installing elegant windows (content optimisation) or painting the facade (design). Foundations first, everything else after.
Crawlability - can Google find your pages
Googlebot is Google's crawler that discovers new and updated pages across the web. To let it work efficiently on your site:
robots.txt
The robots.txt file tells Googlebot which parts of the site it may and may not crawl. It lives at the site root (for example, jkonsult.lv/robots.txt).
- Do not block important pages, CSS or JS files
- Block admin panels, internal search result pages and other low-value URLs
- Reference the XML sitemap location
- Test robots.txt with the Google Search Console robots.txt Tester
XML Sitemap
The XML sitemap is a map of your site that helps Google find every important page. Good practices:
- Include only indexable pages (no noindex URLs)
- Include a lastmod date for each page
- Cap at 50,000 URLs per sitemap file
- Submit the sitemap through Google Search Console
- Auto-update the sitemap whenever new pages go live
Crawl budget
Google assigns a limited amount of resources to crawling each site. For large sites (1,000+ pages), crawl budget management is critical:
- Remove or noindex low-value pages (filter combinations, empty categories)
- Eliminate redirect chains (A→B→C→D - collapse to A→D)
- Fix soft 404 errors (pages that return a 200 status but display a "not found" message)
Indexation - does Google store your pages
After crawling, Google decides whether to include the page in its index. The main issues:
Noindex tags
The meta robots noindex tag tells Google not to index a page. Use it intentionally:
- Use for: thank-you pages, internal search results, test pages
- Do not use for: main pages, product pages, important article pages
- Check with "site:yourdomain.lv" in Google Search to see how many pages are indexed
Canonical tags
Canonical tags tell Google which is the primary version of a page when multiple URLs contain identical or near-identical content.
- Every page should have a canonical tag pointing to itself or the primary version
- Use when URL parameters create duplicates (for example, ?sort=price)
- HTTP and HTTPS, www and non-www versions should resolve to a single canonical
Site speed and Core Web Vitals
Google has officially confirmed that site speed is a ranking factor. Core Web Vitals is the set of three concrete metrics:
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) - target: < 2.5s
Measures how quickly the largest visible element loads (usually a hero image or headline).
- Optimise images - WebP format, correct dimensions, lazy loading
- Preload the hero image: <link rel="preload" as="image" href="hero.webp">
- Avoid render-blocking JavaScript and CSS
- Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) - target: < 0.1
Measures how much page elements jump around during load.
- Always set width and height for images and video
- Reserve space for ad blocks and embeds
- Use font-display: swap for fonts
- Avoid inserting dynamic content above existing content
INP (Interaction to Next Paint) - target: < 200ms
Measures how quickly the page responds to user interactions (clicks, keyboard input).
- Minimise JavaScript execution time
- Break long JavaScript tasks into smaller chunks
- Use requestIdleCallback() for non-urgent work
Mobile-first indexing
Since 2021, Google always evaluates the mobile version of your site. This means:
- The mobile version must contain all important content (not only the desktop version)
- The mobile version must not hide SEO-critical content behind "show more" buttons or accordions
- Font sizes must be at least 16px to avoid pinch-zoom
- Tap targets must be at least 44x44px
- No horizontal scrolling
Schema.org structured data
Structured data helps Google understand what your content means and can enable rich results in search.
Most useful schema types
- LocalBusiness - for local businesses (address, hours, phone)
- Article - for blog posts and news
- Product - for e-commerce products (price, availability, reviews)
- FAQPage - frequently asked questions (often wins Featured Snippets)
- BreadcrumbList - the navigation path
- Organization - company information
- Service - service descriptions
Validate your structured data with the Schema.org Validator and the Google Rich Results Test.
HTTPS and security
HTTPS has been a ranking factor since 2014. Your site must use an SSL certificate. In addition:
- All HTTP pages must redirect to HTTPS (301 redirect)
- Mixed content (HTTP resources on an HTTPS page) must be eliminated
- Consider setting an HSTS header for added security
Internationalisation and hreflang
If your site is available in multiple languages or targets multiple geographies:
- Use hreflang tags to tell Google the language and region variants
- Each language version must have a unique URL (not just cookie-based switching)
- The x-default value indicates the default version
- hreflang is bidirectional - if A points to B, then B must point to A
Technical SEO audit checklist
Review these points regularly (every three months is a good cadence):
- Google Search Console - indexation errors and warnings
- Core Web Vitals - are all three metrics in the "good" zone
- Mobile responsiveness - check with Google Mobile-Friendly Test
- robots.txt - is it blocking any important pages
- XML sitemap - is it up to date and submitted to GSC
- Canonical tags - any conflicts or missing entries
- 404 errors - any broken internal or external links
- Redirect chains - any long chains
- Structured data - does it validate without errors
- HTTPS - is all content served securely
If you want a professional technical SEO audit for your site, JKonsult SEO services include a full technical diagnostic with concrete recommendations.
Frequently overlooked technical issues
Many technical SEO problems are silent killers. They do not cause visible errors but slowly erode rankings. These are the ones we often catch in audits:
Orphan pages - pages without internal links
Orphan pages are pages that no other page on your site links to. Google can find them through the sitemap, but without internal links they do not receive authority and are often not crawled regularly. Fix: add internal links from related pages to every important page.
Redirect chains and loops
If page A redirects to B, B redirects to C and C redirects to D, every hop loses some SEO value and slows down the user experience. Google recommends a maximum of one redirect. Audit and collapse all chains directly to the final URL.
Soft 404 errors
Soft 404s are pages that visually display a "not found" message but technically return a 200 (OK) status. Google Search Console flags these as an issue. Fix: make sure 404 pages return a genuine 404 HTTP status.
Mixed content
If your HTTPS page loads images, scripts or stylesheets from HTTP URLs, this triggers mixed content warnings in browsers and can affect SEO. Check and ensure every resource is served over HTTPS.
JavaScript rendering dependencies
If your site's content is rendered in JavaScript (React, Vue, Angular without SSR), Google may not be able to read or index it fully. Fixes: Server-Side Rendering (SSR), Static Site Generation (SSG) or dynamic rendering.
Technical SEO tools and resources
In professional technical SEO work these tools are indispensable:
- Google Search Console - the official Google tool for indexation, Core Web Vitals and crawl issue monitoring
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider - a comprehensive crawler that finds 404s, redirect chains, duplicate content, missing meta data and much more
- PageSpeed Insights / Lighthouse - detailed speed and Core Web Vitals analysis with concrete recommendations
- Chrome DevTools - Network and Performance tabs show the loading process in detail
- Schema.org Validator - structured data validation
- Ahrefs Site Audit - automated technical audit with prioritised issues
- Google Mobile-Friendly Test - mobile version check
Technical SEO for WordPress sites
WordPress is the most popular CMS in Latvia. These are the WordPress-specific technical SEO recommendations:
- Caching plugins - WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache significantly improve speed
- Image optimisation - ShortPixel or Imagify automatically compress and convert to WebP
- SEO plugins - Yoast SEO or Rank Math automate sitemap, schema and meta management
- Regular updates - outdated PHP versions and plugins cause both security and speed problems
- Hosting quality - cheap shared hosting is often the cause of slow load times. Choose a quality provider
- Database optimisation - regular database cleanup of post revisions and transients
For more on SEO in general, see our SEO optimisation guide and the introduction to SEO fundamentals.
"Technical SEO is the 30% of work that decides whether content gets noticed at all. Any SEO audit should start with the technical state, not with keywords."