Technical SEO that fixes the foundations first

Technical SEO: making sure search engines can use your website

Before a search engine can rank a page, it has to find it, fetch it, render it and decide it is worth keeping in its index. Technical SEO is the work that makes each of those steps reliable. It has nothing to do with clever wording or keyword lists; it is about the structure, code, speed and configuration of the website itself.

On many Ugandan business websites we review, the content is reasonable but the technical foundations quietly undermine it. A setting left on after development blocks pages from indexing. Two or three copies of the site exist at different addresses. Images are so large that phones on mobile data give up before the page appears. Old URLs from a previous website return errors, throwing away years of links. None of these are visible to the business owner, yet each one limits how well the site can perform in search.

This page explains what technical SEO covers, the problems we find most often and how we fix them. For our wider search engine optimisation service, see SEO services in Uganda.

Crawling and indexing

Crawling is a search engine discovering and fetching your pages. Indexing is the decision to store a page so it can appear in results. A page that is not indexed cannot rank, however good it is. We check:

• whether robots.txt blocks pages or resources the site needs;
• whether important pages carry an accidental noindex tag;
• whether every important page is reachable through normal HTML links, not only through search boxes or scripts;
• how Google Search Console reports each page: indexed, excluded, or discovered but not yet crawled;
• whether thin or duplicate pages are taking crawl attention away from pages that matter.

Duplicate versions and canonical URLs

Many sites can be reached at several addresses: with and without www, over http and https, with and without a trailing slash, and sometimes through tracking parameters. To a search engine these can look like separate pages competing with one another.

Page speed and Core Web Vitals

Google measures real-world page experience with Core Web Vitals. They track how quickly the main content appears (Largest Contentful Paint) and how fast the page responds to a tap (Interaction to Next Paint). They also measure how much the layout jumps while loading (Cumulative Layout Shift). These are a small ranking signal, but slow pages also lose visitors, which matters more.

Where the bottleneck is the hosting, our web hosting team can help; where it is the site itself, we work with you or your developer.

Mobile-first indexing

Google primarily uses the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking. If your mobile layout hides content, drops structured data or loads a stripped-down page, that is what Google sees. We check that the mobile version has the same important content, headings, links and structured data as the desktop version. We also check that text is readable without zooming, and that buttons and links aren’t crammed together.

Site structure and internal linking

A clear structure helps visitors and search engines understand which pages matter most and how topics relate. We look at:

• how many clicks it takes to reach important service pages from the homepage;
• whether related pages link to each other with descriptive anchor text;
• orphan pages that no other page links to;
• breadcrumbs, which show both visitors and search engines where a page sits;
• URL structure — short, readable, consistent addresses.

On this website, for example, every specialist page sits under its service and links back to it, and related services link to one another in the body text.

Redirects, broken links and migrations

When you move or delete pages, links to them from other websites and from Google’s index break. Each broken link wastes the trust that page had earned. We find broken internal links and 404 errors, and map old URLs to their best new pages with permanent 301 redirects. We remove redirect chains (one redirect leading to another) and set up a helpful custom 404 page.

This is especially important during a redesign or platform change; see website redesign and website migration.

Structured data

Structured data (schema markup) is code that describes a page in a standard vocabulary. It can say: this organisation has this address and phone number, this article went live on this date, or this page offers this service. It helps search engines understand content, and some enhanced results require it.

We only mark up information that is visible and accurate on the page, and we never add fake reviews or ratings. Structured data does not guarantee any special appearance in results.

XML sitemaps and robots.txt

An XML sitemap lists the pages you want indexed; robots.txt tells crawlers what not to fetch. Both should be accurate and consistent with each other. We make sure the sitemap contains only canonical, indexable URLs — not redirects, error pages or noindexed pages — that it updates when content changes and that it is submitted in Google Search Console.

HTTPS and security signals

Secure, consistent HTTPS is a baseline expectation. A site that shows certificate warnings, mixes secure and insecure content or has been compromised with spam pages will struggle in search regardless of its content. We check certificate validity, redirects and mixed content, and look for signs of hacked content such as unexpected pages in the index. See SSL certificate installation.

JavaScript-heavy sites

Sites built with JavaScript frameworks, or WordPress themes that load content through scripts, can be harder for search engines to render. If key text or links only appear after scripts run, indexing can be slow or incomplete. We test how Google renders important pages. Where it misses content, we recommend server-side rendering, pre-rendering or simpler templates.

Multiple languages and regions

Organisations serving Uganda alongside other East African countries, or publishing in more than one language, need to tell search engines which version suits which audience. This is done with consistent URL structures and hreflang annotations. Done badly, versions compete with each other; done well, each audience sees the right page.

Technical problems we find most often

The tools we use — and what they tell us

We rely first on Google’s own data, then on independent tools to fill in the picture:

• Google Search Console — indexing status, crawl errors, Core Web Vitals from real Chrome users and the queries bringing visitors;
• PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse — lab measurements of speed and specific recommendations;
• Site crawlers — a complete map of URLs, status codes, redirects, titles, canonicals and internal links;
• Structured data validators — confirming markup is valid and matches the page;
• Server logs, where hosting allows — showing exactly what search engine bots request.

Tools produce long lists of warnings, many of which don’t matter. Part of our job is telling you which ones do.

How a technical SEO engagement runs

1. Access and baseline

   We request Search Console access (or help set it up), crawl the site and record current indexing, speed and errors.

2. Diagnose

   Findings are grouped by impact: issues blocking indexing first, then duplication, speed, structure and enhancements.

3. Fix or brief

   We implement fixes directly where we have access, or write clear instructions for your developer.

4. Validate

   We use Search Console to request re-crawling and validate fixes, then monitor whether pages are indexed.

5. Monitor

   Technical health is rechecked after releases, plugin updates or content changes.

What technical SEO can and cannot do

Fixing technical problems removes obstacles; it does not on its own make a page the most relevant answer to a search. Sites with blocked or duplicated pages sometimes improve quickly once we fix them. Sites that are technically sound but thin on content will need content work too. We will tell you honestly which category your site falls into, and we never promise rankings.

Your next step

Send us your website address and, if you have it, access to Google Search Console. We will crawl the site, check indexing, duplicates, redirects and speed, and send a short list of technical fixes ranked by impact — then implement them or brief your developer.

Technical SEO questions