If you want to get your SEO right, the help you need from an SEO company should never be just about the keywords in your written content, or even other aspects like its relevance or word length.

These things all matter – and you should be ready to adjust your content as changes to search engine algorithms are identified – but there is also the crucial matter of technical SEO.

This is not about the content itself, but a range of other aspects that make it easier for your site’s pages and content to get a good ranking. The key fact to note with it is that search engines like Google use crawler bots to identify pages and content, and technical SEO helps create a favourable impression.

Among the many aspects of technical SEO are some key elements of a website. These include having a logical, flat structure that makes it easy for crawlers to navigate the site. Above all, you don’t want any ‘orphan’ pages that don’t link to any others. 404 and 301 redirects should also be avoided as you will be penalised.

Other key issues include fast download speed, as slower ones will be penalised (not least because of their impact on bounce rate), and making sure your site is mobile-friendly, as the majority of searches are now made by phone and failure to adapt to this can also lead to you being penalised.

Failure to address these technical aspects can mean that even high-quality content will fail to achieve the ranking it should because other aspects of the site let you down, so it should never be an afterthought.

If you are having a site designed from scratch by experts who understand technical SEO, these issues can be addressed at the outset, but if you already have a site and it is not ranking well, an audit of these things may identify a technical SEO problem.

In that instance, you should be ready for a major redesign of your site, which could bring great rewards as you find your search rankings soon improve significantly.