In search engine optimization (SEO), where the focus often swings toward the latest trends and advanced tactics, Google’s Search Off The Record podcast team recently reminded everyone to get the basics right first.
Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes, and John Mueller of Google’s Search Relations team explained that many websites still need help with basic technical SEO issues like site crawlability, indexing, and page rendering.
These foundational factors directly impact a site’s performance in search results. As such, they should be addressed before less critical optimizations.
Technical SEO: Foundation Before Innovation
Technical SEO involves optimizing a website’s architecture and infrastructure to improve crawling and indexing by search engines.
Unlike content creation or promotion, technical SEO focuses solely on the behind-the-scenes elements of a site.
Illyes explains why he often posts on social media about technical SEO:
“I like to post about technical things…because every now and then we notice that big site owners or big site SEOs will miss critical basic things.”
Illyes described his observations from conferences where attendees were captivated by the ‘next big thing.’
He argued: