Technical SEO for Beginners: Fixing Crawling, Indexing & Site Speed
Technical SEO focuses on improving how search engines crawl, index, and render your website. It ensures pages load fast, are mobile-friendly, secure (HTTPS), and structured so Google can easily understand and rank them.
Why Technical SEO Is the Backbone of Every Website
You can write the best content in your industry but if search engines can’t crawl, index, or load your site properly, no one will ever see it.
That’s where technical SEO comes in.
Think of it as the behind-the-scenes foundation that keeps your website fast, discoverable, and optimized for Google. Without it, your pages might as well be invisible.
The good news? You don’t need to be a developer to understand or fix technical SEO issues. In this step-by-step guide, Legacy Digital Marketing walks you through how to optimize your website for crawling, indexing, and site speed, the three technical pillars that every small business should master in 2025.
Let’s make your site technically unstoppable.
Step 1: Understand What Technical SEO Really Means
Before jumping into fixes, let’s break it down simply.
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s infrastructure so that search engines can effectively crawl, index, and rank your pages.
Why it’s important:
- It improves visibility and ensures your content appears in search results.
- It enhances user experience by improving load speed and site performance.
- It prevents crawl errors and duplicate content that can hurt rankings.
Step 2: Crawling – Make Sure Google Can Access Your Site
Search engines use bots (also called spiders or crawlers) to find and read your web pages. If your site has crawl barriers, Google might not even see some of your content.
How to fix crawling issues:
1. Check your robots.txt file
This file tells Google which pages to crawl and which to skip.
Go to: yourwebsite.com/robots.txt
Make sure it’s not blocking key pages.
Example of correct setup:
2. Submit your sitemap
A sitemap is like your site’s roadmap for search engines.
Submit it through Google Search Console to make crawling easier.
3. Fix broken links and redirects
Broken links waste crawl budget and frustrate users. Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit to identify and fix them.
4. Avoid duplicate URLs
Duplicate pages confuse crawlers. Use canonical tags to tell Google which version is the “main” page.
Step 3: Indexing – Ensure Your Pages Appear in Search
Crawling helps Google find your content, but indexing is what makes it visible in search results.
How to fix indexing problems:
1. Check index coverage in Google Search Console
Go to Coverage → Excluded Pages and look for warnings like:
- “Crawled – currently not indexed”
- “Duplicate without user-selected canonical”
Fix these issues by improving content quality or adjusting canonicals.
2. Use meta robots tags wisely
Make sure important pages aren’t set to “noindex.”
3. Avoid thin or low-quality content
Pages with little to no value may be skipped. Add depth, detail, or merge similar pages to improve topical authority.
4. Prevent duplicate indexing with canonicalization
If you have multiple versions of a page (e.g., http vs https, or /home vs /index), use a canonical tag.
Step 4: Optimize Site Speed (Core Web Vitals)
A slow site isn’t just annoying, it’s an SEO killer.
Google’s Core Web Vitals measure how fast and stable your website feels to users. These include:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast the main content loads.
- FID (First Input Delay): How quickly your site responds to clicks.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): How stable your layout is as it loads.
How to improve site speed:
- Compress images: Use tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to reduce file size without losing quality.
- Use browser caching: Set caching rules so returning visitors load your site faster.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN stores your site files across global servers for faster access.
- Minify code (HTML, CSS, JS): Remove unnecessary characters or spaces in your code to make it lighter.
- Use lazy loading: Load images only when users scroll down to them, it saves bandwidth and speeds up page rendering.
Step 5: Secure Your Website with HTTPS
Security is a ranking factor. Google prefers websites with HTTPS because it protects user data and builds trust.
How to secure your site:
- Get an SSL certificate from your host (often free).
- Redirect all HTTP URLs to HTTPS.
- Update internal links to point to HTTPS pages.
- Verify your HTTPS property in Google Search Console.
Step 6: Ensure Mobile-Friendlines
More than 60% of searches now happen on mobile. If your site isn’t responsive, you’re losing traffic and rankings.
How to check and fix mobile issues:
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
- Make text readable without zooming.
- Ensure buttons and menus are easy to tap.
- Avoid intrusive pop-ups.
Mobile-friendly sites improve both user experience and SEO performance.
Step 7: Optimize Site Architecture & Internal Linking
Your site structure helps both users and search engines find information efficiently.
Tips for better site architecture:
- Keep important pages within three clicks of your homepage.
- Use descriptive, keyword-rich anchor text.
- Group related pages under logical categories.
- Include a breadcrumb trail for easy navigation.
Step 8: Implement Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Structured data helps Google understand what your page is about whether it’s a product, article, review, or local business.
How to add schema:
- Use JSON-LD format.
- Add schema for your content type:
- BlogPosting
- LocalBusiness
- Product
- FAQPage
- Validate it using Google’s Rich Results Test.
Step 9: Fix Duplicate Content and Canonical Issues
Duplicate pages can confuse search engines and dilute rankings.
Common causes:
- Multiple versions of the same URL (www vs non-www, /index.html).
- Parameter-based URLs (?sort=price).
- Copied product descriptions.
Fixes:
- Set canonical tags to preferred URLs.
- Use 301 redirects to merge duplicates.
- Block unnecessary pages in robots.txt.
Step 10: Monitor Technical SEO with Tools
You can’t fix what you can’t measure. Use SEO tools to continuously audit and improve your site.
Recommended tools:
- Google Search Console – Crawl and index tracking.
- Google PageSpeed Insights – Core Web Vitals analysis.
- Ahrefs or Semrush – Technical audits and backlink data.
- Screaming Frog – Deep crawl diagnostics.
Check your site monthly for broken links, crawl errors, and slow pages to keep your SEO healthy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Check your robots.txt, submit an XML sitemap, and remove broken links or duplicate URLs to improve crawl accessibility.
Crawling is when Google discovers pages, while indexing is when those pages are added to the search database.
Compress images, use caching, minify code, and use a CDN to improve your Core Web Vitals and overall site speed.
Run an SEO audit at least once a month using tools like Search Console or Screaming Frog.
Use canonical tags, consolidate similar pages, and redirect duplicate URLs using 301 redirects.
Yes! Many fixes, like improving site speed or submitting a sitemap, can be done easily with free tools and basic knowledge.
Technical SEO might sound intimidating, but it’s really about creating a website that’s easy for search engines to understand and users to love.
Once you fix crawling, indexing, and site speed, your content will naturally rise in rankings and you’ll gain a serious edge over competitors who ignore these fundamentals.
At Legacy Digital Marketing, we help businesses build high-performing websites that are technically sound, lightning-fast, and SEO-ready.
Because in 2025, your website shouldn’t just exist, it should perform.
