They provide a speedy, accurate and personal service. I am very impressed with the knowledge and the results achieved.
Mandi Cooper, FastBuy Properties
Results Focused
We've recently started using Big Surf for PPC and have been hugely impressed with the amount of research, knowledge, and time that's been invested in creating our campaign.
Caledonian Driver Training
Wealth of Knowledge
Calum at Big Surf Digital was available at short notice to deliver a comprehensive training session on SEO. We wouldn't hesitate in recommending his services.
H. Miller
Skilled and Professional
I needed some advice on marketing my website through google ads and Calum put me in the picture. He gave me loads of his time, even though he is obviously a very busy man. He is skilled and professional at what he does.
Stuart, The Academy of Professional Celebrants
Highly Recommend
Since Big Surf Digital have optimised my site, my rankings have increased considerably for my keywords and are continuing to do so. The impact on my business has been noticeable. I would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them to prospective clients.
Rachael Roberts
Technical SEO tips for a high performing site
Technical SEO is a part of SEO that many business owners won't have much exposure to, until there's a problem of course. Technical SEO is all about optimising
the backend structure of your site to improve performance and ensure search engines can crawl and index your pages effectively.
By addressing your current technical SEO issues, and knowing what to look out for in future you'll be able to avoid any SEO disasters.
Technical SEO involves optimising the infrastructure of your website, focusing on areas that impact search engine crawling, indexing, and user experience.
Unlike on-page SEO, which deals with the visible aspects of a webpage, technical SEO targets the factors within the page code that
influence crawling, indexing and the loading and presentation of pages.
Why technical SEO matters for business growth
Technical SEO involves optimising your website’s infrastructure to help search engines like Google understand, crawl, and index your content. This includes
addressing aspects of your website's code, server configuration, and URL structure, as well as ensuring your website is secure and loads quickly. By taking care
of technical SEO, you’re not only making your site more search engine friendly but also enhancing user experience, which ultimately contributes to better rankings
and visibility.
Unlike content focused SEO, technical SEO is less about what’s visible to the user and more about what’s happening in the background. When technical SEO issues arise, they can have a direct impact on rankings, site traffic, and sales.
Technical SEO Tips
Here’s a breakdown of some common technical SEO issues that we come across as well as tips on how to avoid and, or fix them.
Robots blocking content
The robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site they can and cannot crawl. If certain pages or sections are unintentionally blocked it can
prevent search engines from indexing important content. For instance, you may have blocked sections of your site during development but forgotten to update these settings after launch. To check, you can use tools like
Google Search Console to identify which parts of your site are blocked by robots.txt.
Noindex Meta tags present after site migration
The noindex Meta tag tells search engines not to index specific pages. This is often used temporarily during site development or when updating certain sections.
However, if these tags are left on important pages after a site migration or relaunch, it will stop Google from indexing the page. Without being indexed the page
won't be able to rank for anything.
When performing a site migration, double check that all pages meant for public viewing are indexable. This can be confirmed in the HTML source of each page, where
you should see an absence of the noindex tag for public pages. Use a crawler like SEO Spider to check all
of your URLs in one go. Google Search Console is also a helpful tool for identifying which pages may have been excluded due to a noindex tag.
Site migration without 301 redirects
When migrating a website, implementing 301 redirects is essential for preserving your SEO value. A 301 redirect permanently transfers users and search engines
from an old URL to a new one, allowing you to retain any authority and rankings associated with the original page. Without these redirects, search engines will
encounter broken links and will drop your pages from their index like a stone.
Unfortunately it's extremely common for web design agencies to completely ignore this. We have worked on numerous sites that have lost the majority of their
traffic after website redesigns where redirects weren't considered. If you've recently seen traffic drop after a redesign get in touch.
Before launching a new site or changing URLs, plan a 301 redirect strategy. Tools like Screaming Frog can help identify which URLs need redirects. This preparation
will save you a significant amount of time and ensure a smooth transition without any ranking and traffic drops.
Changing URLs without 301 redirects
Even if you’re making small changes to URLs, implementing 301 redirects is necessary to avoid broken links. Once you've changed a URL it becomes a completely
new entity in Google's eyes. Even if it's just by one letter. That new URL will lose all of the link strength and ranking history that it has accumulated. Without
that strength it won't rank as well as the original page.
Every time you alter a URL, make sure it has a 301 redirect in place to direct both users and search engines to the correct page. These redirects can be configured
within your website’s content management system (CMS) or through the server.
Linking structure that excludes your biggest traffic pages
Internal linking is important for directing users to important pages and to funnel linking strength to. However, some websites fail to prioritise their target keyword pages
in their navigation or content linking structure. Make sure your highest traffic pages are linked from your main navigation or other prominent sections. You can
also use breadcrumb navigation, which helps users and search engines understand the relationship between pages.
Wrong URL versions indexed without canonical tags
Canonical tags are used to indicate the preferred version of a page when multiple versions exist. Without these tags, search engines might index duplicate or
less desirable versions of your pages. For instance, if both HTTP and HTTPS versions of your site are available, search engines might choose the HTTP version if a
canonical tag isn’t set for HTTPS. This can cause havoc with rankings as it did a couple of years ago on this site. We didn't have canonicals added and Google decided to index the version of the
homepage that didn't have any links. The site dropped out of the top ten for a number of keywords before we could rectify it.
404s and broken URLs
A 404 error occurs when a page can’t be found, which can happen if a URL is mistyped, changed without a redirect, or deleted. Broken URLs are not only
frustrating for users but also harmful for SEO. When search engine crawlers visit your site you want them to be able to locate every page of content and index them
accordingly. Using tools like Google Search Console or site crawlers, identify any 404 errors so you can fix them.
Slow loading speeds
Page speed is a ranking factor for both desktop and mobile searches. Slow loading speeds can increase bounce rates, impact rankings and reduce conversion rates.
There are several causes of slow page speed, including large image files, excessive JavaScript, and unoptimised code. To improve loading times, compress images,
minify CSS and JavaScript files, and use browser caching. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help you identify areas
for improvement and provide specific recommendations for speeding up your site.
If you use WordPress you can try using a speed plugin.
WPRocket and Autooptimise are two good options. Although if you
really want to improve page speed I would recommend creating a site with as little scripts as possible, or without WordPress. Page speed plugins can help but depending
on how the sites built they can only do so much. Building a lean site from scratch will have a much bigger impact.
Get in touch for an SEO quote
We can take care of your technical SEO within one of our all in one campaigns.
Check out some of our results
SEO campaign for online retailer - Increased revenue by 133%
PPC campaign for property company - Increased leads by 31%
SEO campaign for US Gear manufacturer - Increased enquiries by 94%
PPC campaign for driving School - Increased enquiries by 633%
