{"id":133137,"date":"2021-05-04T09:17:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T14:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?page_id=133137"},"modified":"2025-09-01T10:36:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:36:18","slug":"technical-seo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/technical-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Technical SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">Technical SEO is the most important part of SEO until it isn\u2019t. Pages need to be crawlable and indexable to even have a chance at ranking, but many other activities will have minimal impact compared to content and&nbsp;links.<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>We wrote this beginner\u2019s guide to help you understand some of the basics and where your time&nbsp;is best spent to maximize impact.<\/p>\n\n<div data-mode=\"normal\" data-oembed=\"1\" data-provider=\"youtube\" id=\"arve-youtube-dauimufxabq\" style=\"max-width:900px;\" class=\"arve\">\n\t<div class=\"arve-inner\">\n\t\t<div style=\"aspect-ratio:500\/281\" class=\"arve-embed arve-embed--has-aspect-ratio\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"arve-ar\" style=\"padding-top:56.200000%\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t<iframe allow=\"accelerometer 'none';autoplay 'none';bluetooth 'none';browsing-topics 'none';camera 'none';clipboard-read 'none';clipboard-write;display-capture 'none';encrypted-media 'none';gamepad 'none';geolocation 'none';gyroscope 'none';hid 'none';identity-credentials-get 'none';idle-detection 'none';keyboard-map 'none';local-fonts;magnetometer 'none';microphone 'none';midi 'none';otp-credentials 'none';payment 'none';picture-in-picture;publickey-credentials-create 'none';publickey-credentials-get 'none';screen-wake-lock 'none';serial 'none';summarizer 'none';sync-xhr;usb 'none';web-share;window-management 'none';xr-spatial-tracking 'none';\" allowfullscreen class=\"arve-iframe fitvidsignore\" credentialless data-arve=\"arve-youtube-dauimufxabq\" data-lenis-prevent data-src-no-ap=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/DaUIMuFXABQ?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"505.8\" loading=\"lazy\" name referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/DaUIMuFXABQ?feature=oembed&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;rel=0&amp;autohide=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;autoplay=0\" title width=\"900\"><\/iframe>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"chapter-list\"><div class=\"h2\">Contents<\/div><div class=\"main-block\" id=\"chapterList\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n[MAIN_CONTENT]\n\n\n\n<div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Technical SEO basics\" data-chapter=\"Technical SEO basics\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/6.svg\" data-num=\"1\" data-section=\"technical-seo-basics\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/6.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 1<\/span>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Technical SEO basics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is technical SEO?<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n\n<\/h3>\n<p>Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages. It helps increase visibility and rankings in search engines. It matters for AI search, too.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n\n<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How complicated is technical SEO?<\/h3>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\n\n<\/h3>\n<p>It depends. The fundamentals aren\u2019t really difficult to master, but technical SEO can be complex and hard to understand. I\u2019ll keep things as simple as I can with this&nbsp;guide.<\/p>\n<h3>Does technical SEO matter for AI search?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. AI search still depends on crawlable, well-structured, trustworthy web pages. Technical SEO ensures your site is fast, accessible, and indexable, all of which improve the chances your content is used in AI-driven answers as well as traditional search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><hr class=\"g-devider2\"><\/div><div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Understanding crawling\" data-chapter=\"Understanding crawling\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/spider_icon.svg\" data-num=\"2\" data-section=\"understanding-crawling\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/spider_icon.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 2<\/span>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Understanding crawling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In this chapter, we\u2019ll cover how to make sure search engines can efficiently crawl your content.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How crawling works<\/h3>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>Crawling is where search engines grab content from pages and use the links on them to find even more pages. There are a few ways you can control what gets crawled on your website. Here are a few options.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robots.txt<\/h4>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/robots-txt\/\">robots.txt<\/a> file tells search engines and AI platforms where they can and can\u2019t go on your&nbsp;site.<\/p>\n<p>Most search engines and AI crawlers respect your robots.txt settings. If you explicitly disallow them, they\u2019ll obey and won\u2019t crawl your content or include it in training data. But if you block search engines and LLMs from using your website as training material, you also limit your chances of becoming visible in their responses.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">DID YOU&nbsp;KNOW?<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">Google and some LLMs may index pages that they can\u2019t crawl if links are pointing to those pages. This can be confusing, but if you want to keep pages from being indexed, check out this <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\">guide and flowchart<\/a> which can guide you through the process.\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>LLMs.txt<\/h4>\n<p>LLMs.txt is a voluntary standard for telling large language models (LLMs) how they can use your content, but as we explain in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/what-is-llms-txt\/\">our guide to LLMs.txt<\/a>, it\u2019s not especially effective and likely not worth the effort.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no evidence yet that LLMs.txt improves AI retrieval, boosts traffic, or enhances model accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crawl rate<\/h4>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a crawl-delay directive you can use in robots.txt that many crawlers support. It lets you set how often they can crawl pages. Unfortunately, Google doesn\u2019t respect this.<sup><a href=\"#references\">[1]<\/a><\/sup> For Google, you\u2019ll need to change the crawl rate in Google Search Console.<sup><a href=\"#references\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Access restrictions<\/h4>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>If you want the page to be accessible to some users but not search engines, then what you probably want is one of these three options:<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Some kind of login system<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en-US\/docs\/Web\/HTTP\/Authentication\">HTTP authentication<\/a> (where a password is required for access)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>IP whitelisting (which only allows specific IP addresses to access the&nbsp;pages)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>This type of setup is best for things like internal networks, member-only content, or for staging, test, or development sites. It allows for a group of users to access the page, but search engines will not be able to access the page and will not index&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to see crawl activity<\/h3>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>For Google specifically, the easiest way to see what it\u2019s crawling is with the <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/settings\/crawl-stats\">\u201cCrawl stats\u201d report<\/a> in Google Search Console, which gives you more information about how it\u2019s crawling your website.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>If you want to see all crawl activity on your website, including from AI crawlers, then you will need to access your server logs and possibly use a tool to better analyze the data. This can get fairly advanced. But if your hosting has a control panel like cPanel, you should have access to raw logs and some aggregators like AWstats and Webalizer.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Crawl adjustments<\/h3>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>Each website is going to have a different <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/crawl-budget\/\">crawl budget<\/a>, which is a combination of how often Google wants to crawl a site and how much crawling your site allows. More popular pages and pages that change often will be crawled more often, and pages that don\u2019t seem to be popular or well linked will be crawled less&nbsp;often.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>If crawlers see signs of stress while crawling your website, they\u2019ll typically slow down or even stop crawling until conditions improve.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n<p>After pages are crawled, they\u2019re rendered and sent to the index. The index is the master list of pages that can be returned for search queries. Let\u2019s talk about the&nbsp;index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><hr class=\"g-devider2\"><\/div><div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Understanding indexing\" data-chapter=\"Understanding indexing\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/index_icon.svg\" data-num=\"3\" data-section=\"understanding-indexing\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/index_icon.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 3<\/span>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Understanding indexing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In this chapter, we\u2019ll talk about how to make sure your pages are indexed and check how they\u2019re indexed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robots directives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A robots meta tag is an HTML snippet that tells search engines how to crawl or index a certain page. It\u2019s placed into the &lt;head&gt; section of a webpage and looks like&nbsp;this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>&lt;meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\" \/&gt;<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Canonicalization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When there is <a>duplicate content<\/a> creating multiple versions of the same page, Google will select one to store in its index. This process is called <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonicalization\/\">canonicalization<\/a> and the URL selected as the canonical will be the one Google shows in search results. There are many different signals it uses to select the canonical URL including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonical-tags\/\">Canonical tags<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">Duplicate pages<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">Internal links<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/301-redirects\/\">Redirects<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-create-a-sitemap\/\">Sitemap URLs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The easiest way to see how Google has indexed a page is to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console?action=inspect\">URL Inspection tool<\/a> in Google Search Console. It will show you the Google-selected canonical URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1290\" height=\"1054\" class=\"wp-image-146986\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1-google-search-console-indexing.png\" alt=\"Checking how a URL is indexed in Google Search Console\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1-google-search-console-indexing.png 1290w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1-google-search-console-indexing-520x425.png 520w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/1-google-search-console-indexing-768x627.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div><hr class=\"g-devider2\"><\/div><div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Technical SEO quick wins\" data-chapter=\"Technical SEO quick wins\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/win.svg\" data-num=\"4\" data-section=\"technical-seo-quick-wins\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/win.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 4<\/span>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Technical SEO quick&nbsp;wins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the hardest things for SEOs is prioritization. There are a lot of best practices, but some changes will have more of an impact on your rankings and traffic than others. Here are some of the projects I\u2019d recommend prioritizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Check indexing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Make sure pages you want people to find can be indexed in Google. The two previous chapters were all about crawling and indexing, and that was no accident.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can check the <strong>Indexability<\/strong> report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a> to find pages that can\u2019t be indexed and the reasons why. It\u2019s free in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/webmaster-tools\">Ahrefs Webmaster Tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1034\" height=\"752\" class=\"wp-image-146987\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2-site-audit-indexing.png\" alt=\"Finding noindexed pages in Ahrefs' Site Audit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2-site-audit-indexing.png 1034w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2-site-audit-indexing-584x425.png 584w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2-site-audit-indexing-768x559.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1034px) 100vw, 1034px\"><\/figure>\n\n<div class=\"highlighted-section\"><!-- Title Section -->\n<h4 class=\"section-title\">Run a free technical SEO&nbsp;audit<\/h4>\n<!-- Form Section --><form class=\"form-section\">\n<div class=\"input-button-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"input-container\"><input type=\"text\" placeholder=\"Enter domain\"><\/div>\n<a class=\"start-button\" href=\"\/signup?plan=awt&amp;return=site-audit\">Start for&nbsp;Free<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tooltip-container\">Free for websites with verified ownership<span class=\"info-icon\">i<\/span>\n<div class=\"tooltip-content\">\n<p>Ownership verification can be done&nbsp;by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Connecting Google Search Console (recommended);<\/li>\n<li>Uploading an HTML&nbsp;file;<\/li>\n<li>Adding a TXT record to your DNS configuration;<\/li>\n<li>Adding an HTML meta tag to your homepage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/help.ahrefs.com\/en\/articles\/3275938-verifying-ownership-of-your-project-or-website\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Learn more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"webmaster-tools-info\">Signing up here gives you access to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/webmaster-tools\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ahrefs Webmaster Tools \u2197<\/a> for&nbsp;free<\/p>\n<\/form><\/div>\n<p><style>\n  \/* Highlighted Section with Gray Border *\/\n  .highlighted-section {\n    border: 1px solid #ddd; \/* Light gray border *\/\n    border-radius: 8px;\n    padding: 15px 20px; \/* Adjusted padding to reduce top spacing *\/\n    background-color: #f9f9f9; \/* Light background for contrast *\/\n    max-width: 600px;\n    margin: 20px auto; \/* Center alignment *\/\n  }\n\n  \/* Section Title *\/\n  .section-title {\n    font-size: 24px; \/* Larger font size *\/\n    font-weight: bold;\n    color: #333;\n    margin-bottom: 15px;\n    margin-top: 0; \/* Remove extra spacing above the title *\/\n    text-align: center;\n  }\n\n  .form-section {\n    display: flex;\n    flex-direction: column;\n    gap: 10px;\n  }\n\n  .input-button-wrapper {\n    display: flex;\n    gap: 10px; \/* Space between input and button *\/\n    align-items: center;\n  }\n\n  .input-container input {\n    padding: 10px;\n    font-size: 16px;\n    border: 1px solid #ddd;\n    border-radius: 4px;\n    width: 100%;\n  }\n\n  .tooltip-container {\n    position: relative;\n    display: inline-flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 5px;\n    font-size: 14px;\n    color: #555;\n    cursor: help;\n  }\n\n  .tooltip-container .info-icon {\n    color: #0073e6;\n    font-weight: bold;\n    font-size: 12px;\n    position: relative;\n    top: -5px;\n    display: inline-block;\n    text-decoration: none;\n    cursor: help;\n  }\n\n  .tooltip-content {\n    position: fixed; \/* Ensure tooltip can break out of its container *\/\n    top: 50px; \/* Adjust based on trigger position *\/\n    left: 50%; \/* Center horizontally *\/\n    transform: translateX(-50%);\n    background: white;\n    border: 1px solid #ddd;\n    border-radius: 5px;\n    box-shadow: 0px 4px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);\n    padding: 15px;\n    font-size: 14px;\n    display: none; \/* Initially hidden *\/\n    z-index: 1000;\n    min-width: 300px;\n    max-width: 400px; \/* Optional width for better readability *\/\n    white-space: normal;\n  }\n\n  .tooltip-container:hover .tooltip-content {\n    display: block;\n  }\n\n  .tooltip-content ul {\n    list-style-type: disc;\n    padding-left: 20px;\n  }\n\n  .tooltip-content a {\n    color: #0073e6;\n    text-decoration: none;\n  }\n\n  .webmaster-tools-info {\n    color: #333;\n    font-size: 14px;\n    margin-top: 10px;\n  }\n\n  .start-button {\n    background-color: orange;\n    color: white;\n    padding: 10px 20px;\n    text-decoration: none;\n    font-weight: bold;\n    border-radius: 5px;\n    white-space: nowrap; \/* Ensure text doesn\u2019t break into a second line *\/\n  }\n<\/style><\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reclaim lost&nbsp;links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Websites tend to change their URLs over the years. In many cases, these old URLs have links from other websites. If they\u2019re not redirected to the current pages, then those links are lost and no longer count for your pages. It\u2019s not too late to do these redirects, and you can quickly reclaim any lost value. Think of this as the fastest link building you will ever&nbsp;do.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find opportunities to reclaim lost links using Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>. Enter your domain, go to the <strong>Best by Links<\/strong> report, and add a \u201c404 not found\u201d HTTP response filter. I usually sort this by \u201cReferring Domains\u201d.<br><br>This is what it looks like for 1800flowers.com:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1506\" height=\"944\" class=\"wp-image-146988\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/3-best-by-links.png\" alt=\"Finding 404 pages in Ahrefs' Site Explorer\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/3-best-by-links.png 1506w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/3-best-by-links-678x425.png 678w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/3-best-by-links-768x481.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1506px) 100vw, 1506px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at the first URL in archive.org, I see that this was previously the Mother\u2019s Day page. By redirecting that one page to the current version, you\u2019ll reclaim 225 links from 59 different websites\u2014and there are plenty more opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I even created a <a href=\"https:\/\/colab.research.google.com\/drive\/18lMkaRHK__eNM6m5FpoyhGDlDAYr3a6P?usp=sharing\">script to help you match redirects<\/a>. Don\u2019t be scared away; you just have to download a couple of files and upload them. The Colab notebook walks you through it and takes care of the heavy lifting for&nbsp;you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll want to <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/301-redirects\/\">301 redirect<\/a> any old URLs to their current locations to reclaim this lost&nbsp;value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"recommendation\"><div class=\"recommendation-title\">DID YOU&nbsp;KNOW?<\/div><div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n\n\n\n<p>A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect. Any links pointing to the redirected URL will count toward the new URL in Google\u2019s eyes.<sup><a href=\"#references\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Add internal links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">Internal links<\/a> are links from one page on your site to another page on your site. They help your pages be found and also help the pages rank better. We have a tool within <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a> called <strong>Internal Link Opportunities<\/strong> that helps you quickly locate these opportunities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This tool works by looking for mentions of keywords that you already rank for on your site. Then it suggests them as contextual internal link opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the tool shows a mention of \u201cfaceted navigation\u201d in our guide to duplicate content. As Site Audit knows we have a page about faceted navigation, it suggests we add an internal link to that&nbsp;page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"274\" class=\"wp-image-146989\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4-internal-link-opportunities.png\" alt=\"Finding internal linking opportunities in Ahrefs' Site Audit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4-internal-link-opportunities.png 1999w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4-internal-link-opportunities-680x93.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4-internal-link-opportunities-768x105.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/4-internal-link-opportunities-1536x211.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Add schema markup<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/schema-markup\/\">Schema markup<\/a> is code that helps search engines understand your content better and powers many features that can help your website stand out from the rest in search results. It may also help&nbsp;LLMs correctly interpret your page content. Google has a <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/guides\/search-gallery\">search gallery<\/a> that shows the various search features and the schema needed for your site to be eligible.<\/p>\n<div><hr class=\"g-devider2\"><\/div><div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Technical SEO for AI search\" data-chapter=\"Technical SEO for AI search\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/2.svg\" data-num=\"5\" data-section=\"technical-seo-for-ai-search\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/2.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 5<\/span>\n<h2><a id=\"post-190834-_9agvvh4otvb7\"><\/a>Technical SEO for AI search<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>AI has changed how content is found and displayed to searchers, but it still depends on a foundation of crawlable, well-structured, and trustworthy web pages. It\u2019s also changing how we create and optimize content.<\/p>\n<p>Paying attention to a few AI-specific technical factors can help you stay visible wherever people search for information.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"post-190834-_s5mpijkjokn2\"><\/a>Make your site accessible to&nbsp;LLMs<\/h3>\n<p>Like search engines, LLMs need to be able to crawl your website and access its content. However, they work a little differently from search engine crawlers.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, most LLMs don\u2019t render JavaScript, a common coding language used to build websites. If key content or navigation only appears after JavaScript loads, there\u2019s a risk some AI crawlers won\u2019t see it. So, it\u2019s best to avoid using it for any mission-critical content that you want visible in AI search.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth checking whether third-party tools are blocking AI crawlers from accessing your website.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, Cloudflare introduced new features allowing website owners to control whether AI platforms can scrape content for their training datasets.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1654\" height=\"740\" class=\"wp-image-190839\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1.png 1654w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-680x304.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-768x344.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-1536x687.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1654px) 100vw, 1654px\"><\/p>\n<p>The default setting blocks AI crawlers from accessing content. However, you\u2019ll need to switch it off if you want your content to maximize your visibility in AI search results.<\/p>\n<h3>Redirect hallucinated URLs<\/h3>\n<p>AI search systems may cite URLs on your domain that don\u2019t exist. You can discover these in Ahrefs\u2019 Web Analytics by looking at pages that receive AI search traffic:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-191072\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/hallucinated-urls-1.png\" alt width=\"892\" height=\"950\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/hallucinated-urls-1.png 892w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/hallucinated-urls-1-399x425.png 399w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/hallucinated-urls-1-768x818.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 892px) 100vw, 892px\"><\/p>\n<p>If any of these pages resolve to a 404 error, the AI system may have hallucinated the URL. To avoid losing traffic, you can redirect that URL to a relevant live&nbsp;page.<\/p>\n<p>Regular monitoring prevents user frustration and protects brand authority.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"post-190834-_ur9gzb2p1sga\"><\/a>AI content detection<\/h3>\n<p>Although it is fine to use AI to create content for your website, too much AI content can be <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2023\/02\/google-search-and-ai-content\">seen as a spam signal<\/a> that limits your content\u2019s visibility in traditional and AI search systems.&nbsp;<br><br><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1362\" height=\"313\" class=\"wp-image-190840\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-2.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-2.png 1362w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-2-680x156.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-2-768x176.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1362px) 100vw, 1362px\"><\/p>\n<p>You can use Ahrefs\u2019 AI detector within <strong>Site Explorer<\/strong> &gt; <strong>Page Inspect <\/strong>to see how machines may interpret the level of AI used in your content.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1834\" height=\"1370\" class=\"wp-image-190841\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-3.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-3.jpg 1834w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-3-569x425.jpg 569w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-3-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-3-1536x1147.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1834px) 100vw, 1834px\"><\/p>\n<p>You can also check this in bulk in the <strong>Top Pages<\/strong> report to spot existing pages that may need to be rewritten:<\/p>\n<p><br><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"872\" height=\"421\" class=\"wp-image-190842\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-4.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-4.png 872w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-4-680x328.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-4-768x371.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\"><\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"post-190834-_t0n2m01i2nc2\"><\/a>Code injected by AI&nbsp;tools<\/h3>\n<p>If you\u2019ve used AI to help build your website or add new features to it, they may add extra HTML code that reveals AI was&nbsp;used.<\/p>\n<p>In one case, a Yoast SEO bug inserted hidden AI-related classes into pages, making it obvious to search engines that AI was involved.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"848\" height=\"493\" class=\"wp-image-190843\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-5.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-5.jpg 848w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-5-680x395.jpg 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-5-768x446.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you use AI tools to make on-page changes, check your site\u2019s source code to ensure nothing unexpected is being added. Hidden \u201cfingerprints\u201d like this can be avoided with regular code reviews and testing before publishing updates.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><hr class=\"g-devider2\"><\/div><div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Additional technical projects\" data-chapter=\"Additional technical SEO projects\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/2.svg\" data-num=\"6\" data-section=\"additional-technical-projects\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/2.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 6<\/span>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional technical SEO projects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The projects we\u2019ll talk about in this chapter are all good things to focus on, but they may require more work and have less benefit than the \u201cquick win\u201d projects from the previous part. That doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t do them. This is just to help you get an idea of how to prioritize various projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Page experience signals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>These are lesser ranking factors, but still things you want to look at for the sake of your users. They cover aspects of the website that impact user experience (UX).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1331\" class=\"wp-image-146990\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/page-experience-signals.jpeg\" alt=\"Google's search signals for page experience\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/page-experience-signals.jpeg 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/page-experience-signals-511x425.jpeg 511w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/page-experience-signals-768x639.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/page-experience-signals-1536x1278.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Core Web Vitals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/core-web-vitals\/\">Core Web Vitals<\/a> are the speed metrics that are part of Google\u2019s Page Experience signals used to measure user experience. The metrics measure visual load with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/largest-contentful-paint-lcp\/\">Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)<\/a>, visual stability with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/cumulative-layout-shift-cls\/\">Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)<\/a>, and interactivity with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/first-input-delay-fid\/\">First Input Delay (FID)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">HTTPS<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/what-is-https\/\">HTTPS<\/a> protects the communication between your browser and server from being intercepted and tampered with by attackers. This provides confidentiality, integrity, and authentication to the vast majority of today\u2019s WWW traffic. You want your pages loaded over HTTPS and not&nbsp;HTTP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any website that shows a \u201clock\u201d icon in the address bar is using&nbsp;HTTPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-146991\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/5-https-680x142.png\" alt=\"Example of a website protected by HTTPS\" width=\"340\" height=\"71\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/5-https-680x142.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/5-https.png 736w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mobile-friendliness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply put, this checks if webpages display properly and are easily used by people on mobile devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How do you know how mobile-friendly your site is? Check the \u201cMobile Usability\u201d report in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-search-console\/\">Google Search Console<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1366\" height=\"560\" class=\"wp-image-146992\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/6-mobile-usability.png\" alt=\"The Mobile Usability report in Google Search Console\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/6-mobile-usability.png 1366w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/6-mobile-usability-680x279.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/6-mobile-usability-768x315.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This report tells you if any of your pages have mobile-friendliness issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Interstitials<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2016\/08\/helping-users-easily-access-content-on\">Interstitials<\/a> block content from being seen. These are popups that cover the main content and that users may have to interact with before they go&nbsp;away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hreflang \u2014 For multiple languages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/hreflang-tags\/\">Hreflang<\/a> is an HTML attribute used to specify the language and geographical targeting of a webpage. If you have multiple versions of the same page in different languages, you can use the hreflang tag to tell search engines like Google about these variations. This helps them to serve the correct version to their&nbsp;users.<\/p>\n<p>Ahrefs now helps make hreflang implementation easier with a visual hreflang link graph in <strong>Site Audit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1574\" height=\"1225\" class=\"wp-image-190846\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-1.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-1.png 1574w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-1-546x425.png 546w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-1-768x598.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/word-image-190834-1-1-1536x1195.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1574px) 100vw, 1574px\"><\/p>\n<p>This hreflang graph shows all language variants of a page and highlights any configuration issues. Plus, it flags errors like invalid language codes, missing self-links, and a lack of reciprocal tags and gives clear guidance on how to fix&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">General maintenance\/website health<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>These tasks aren\u2019t likely to have much impact on your rankings but are generally good things to fix for user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Broken links<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Broken links are links on your site that point to non-existent resources. These can be either internal (i.e., to other pages on your domain) or external (i.e., to pages on other domains).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find broken links on your website quickly with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a> in the <strong>Links<\/strong> report. It\u2019s free in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/webmaster-tools\">Ahrefs Webmaster Tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2204\" height=\"650\" class=\"wp-image-146993\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7-broken-links-site-audit.png\" alt=\"Finding broken internal and external links in Ahrefs' Site Audit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7-broken-links-site-audit.png 2204w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7-broken-links-site-audit-680x201.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7-broken-links-site-audit-768x226.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7-broken-links-site-audit-1536x453.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/7-broken-links-site-audit-2048x604.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2204px) 100vw, 2204px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Redirect chains<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Redirect chains are a series of redirects that happen between the initial URL and the destination URL.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find redirect chains on your website quickly with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Site Audit<\/a> in the <strong>Redirects<\/strong> report. It\u2019s free in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/webmaster-tools\">Ahrefs Webmaster Tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1286\" height=\"652\" class=\"wp-image-146994\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/8-redirect-chains.png\" alt=\"Finding redirect chains in Ahrefs' Site Audit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/8-redirect-chains.png 1286w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/8-redirect-chains-680x345.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/8-redirect-chains-768x389.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1286px) 100vw, 1286px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div><hr class=\"g-devider2\"><\/div><div class=\"chapter-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text chapter-header\" data-anchor=\"Technical SEO tools\" data-chapter=\"Technical SEO tools\" data-image=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/guide\/ch6.svg\" data-num=\"7\" data-section=\"technical-seo-toolss\"><div class=\"imgHolder\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/guide\/ch6.svg\"><\/div><div class=\"content\"><span class=\"ch\">Part 7<\/span>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Technical SEO&nbsp;tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>These tools help you improve the technical aspects of your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/about\">Google Search Console<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2084\" height=\"1386\" class=\"wp-image-146995\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9-google-search-console.png\" alt=\"Google Search Console\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9-google-search-console.png 2084w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9-google-search-console-639x425.png 639w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9-google-search-console-768x511.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9-google-search-console-1536x1022.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9-google-search-console-2048x1362.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2084px) 100vw, 2084px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Google Search Console (previously Google Webmaster Tools) is a free service from Google that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website\u2019s appearance in its search results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use it to find and fix technical errors, submit sitemaps, see structured data issues, and&nbsp;more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/toolbox\/webmaster\">Bing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/webmaster.yandex.com\/welcome\/\">Yandex<\/a> have their own versions, and so does Ahrefs. <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/webmaster-tools\">Ahrefs Webmaster Tools<\/a> is a free tool that\u2019ll help you improve your website\u2019s SEO performance. It allows you&nbsp;to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Monitor your website\u2019s SEO health.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check for 100+ SEO issues.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>View all your backlinks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See all the keywords you rank&nbsp;for.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Find out how much traffic your pages are receiving.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Find internal linking opportunities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s our answer to the limitations of Google Search Console.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/test\/mobile-friendly\">Google\u2019s Mobile-Friendly Test<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1386\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-146996\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/10-google-mobile-friendly-test.png\" alt=\"Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/10-google-mobile-friendly-test.png 1386w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/10-google-mobile-friendly-test-680x392.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/10-google-mobile-friendly-test-768x443.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1386px) 100vw, 1386px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Google\u2019s Mobile-Friendly Test checks how easily a visitor can use your page on a mobile device. It also identifies specific mobile-usability issues like text that\u2019s too small to read, the use of incompatible plugins, and so&nbsp;on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mobile-Friendly Test shows what Google sees when it crawls the page. You can also use the <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/test\/rich-results\">Rich Results Test<\/a> to see the content Google sees for desktop or mobile devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/web\/tools\/chrome-devtools\/\">Chrome DevTools<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2100\" height=\"740\" class=\"wp-image-146997\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/11-chrome-devtools.png\" alt=\"Google Chrome's DevTools\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/11-chrome-devtools.png 2100w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/11-chrome-devtools-680x240.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/11-chrome-devtools-768x271.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/11-chrome-devtools-1536x541.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/11-chrome-devtools-2048x722.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2100px) 100vw, 2100px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Chrome DevTools is Chrome\u2019s built-in webpage debugging tool. Use it to debug page speed issues, improve webpage rendering performance, and&nbsp;more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From a technical SEO standpoint, it has endless uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo-toolbar\">Ahrefs\u2019 SEO Toolbar<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2278\" height=\"990\" class=\"wp-image-146998\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/12-ahrefs-seo-toolbar.jpg\" alt=\"Ahrefs SEO Toolbar\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/12-ahrefs-seo-toolbar.jpg 2278w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/12-ahrefs-seo-toolbar-680x296.jpg 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/12-ahrefs-seo-toolbar-768x334.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/12-ahrefs-seo-toolbar-1536x668.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/12-ahrefs-seo-toolbar-2048x890.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2278px) 100vw, 2278px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ahrefs\u2019 SEO Toolbar is a free extension for <a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/ahrefs-seo-toolbar\/hgmoccdbjhknikckedaaebbpdeebhiei\">Chrome<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/addons.mozilla.org\/en-US\/firefox\/addon\/ahrefs-seo-toolbar\/\">Firefox<\/a> that provides useful SEO data about the pages and websites you&nbsp;visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its free features are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On-page SEO report<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Redirect tracer with HTTP headers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Broken link checker<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Link highlighter<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SERP positions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, as an Ahrefs user, you&nbsp;get:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SEO metrics for every site and page you visit and for Google search results<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keyword metrics, such as search volume and Keyword Difficulty, directly in the&nbsp;SERP<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SERP results export<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/pagespeed-insights\/\">PageSpeed Insights<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1566\" height=\"896\" class=\"wp-image-146999\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/13-pagespeed-insights.jpg\" alt=\"Google Pagespeed Insights\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/13-pagespeed-insights.jpg 1566w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/13-pagespeed-insights-680x389.jpg 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/13-pagespeed-insights-768x439.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/13-pagespeed-insights-1536x879.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1566px) 100vw, 1566px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>PageSpeed Insights analyzes the loading speed of your webpages. Alongside the performance score, it also shows actionable recommendations to make pages load faster.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If your content isn\u2019t indexed, then it won\u2019t be found in search engines.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When something is broken that impacts search traffic, it can be a priority to fix. But for most sites, you\u2019re probably better off spending time on your content and&nbsp;links.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many of the technical projects that have the most impact are around indexing or&nbsp;links.<\/li>\n<li>Technical SEO still matters for AI search. Well-structured, crawlable pages help AI systems find, understand, and surface your content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"references\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZSghHC_4LzU\">\u201cIs a crawl-delay rule ignored by Googlebot?\u201d<\/a>. <em>Google Search Central.<\/em> 21st December 2017<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/48620?hl=en\">\u201cChange Googlebot crawl rate\u201d<\/a>. <em>Google<\/em>. Retrieved 9th September 2022<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/methode\/status\/757923179641839616\">\u201c30x redirects don\u2019t lose PageRank anymore<\/a>\u201d. <em>Gary Illyes<\/em>. 26th July&nbsp;2016<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We wrote this beginner\u2019s guide to help you understand some of the basics and where your time&nbsp;is best spent to maximize impact. [MAIN_CONTENT] What is technical SEO? Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to help search engines<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":133139,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guide.php","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"coauthors":[377,336,458],"class_list":["post-133137","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technical-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Technical SEO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website to help search engines like Google find, crawl, understand, and index your pages.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/technical-seo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Technical SEO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn the basics of technical SEO.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/technical-seo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-01T15:36:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/social_EN-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Learn the basics of technical SEO.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ahrefs\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/technical-seo\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/technical-seo\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Technical SEO\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/technical-seo\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/technical-seo\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/social_EN-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-04T14:17:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-01T15:36:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website to help search engines like Google find, crawl, understand, and index your pages.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/technical-seo\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/technical-seo\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/social_EN-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/social_EN-2.png\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":990},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ahrefs.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\",\"description\":\"Link Building Strategies &amp; 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