SEO · Lesson 6 of 7
Technical SEO Basics: Speed, Mobile, and Crawlability
If Google can't access and read your site properly, nothing else matters.
After This Lesson, You Will Be Able To
Identify and fix the 3 most critical technical SEO issues on any website without needing developer knowledge.
What Technical SEO Actually Is
If your site is slow, not mobile-friendly, or has broken pages, Google will rank it lower — regardless of how good your content is. The good news: the basics are simple and most no-code platforms handle much of it automatically.
The Technical SEO Minimum Every Site Needs
Mobile-friendly design
More than 60% of searches happen on mobile. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it ranks based on your mobile experience, not desktop. Test at Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
Page speed
Slow pages rank lower and lose visitors. Google's target is under 3 seconds. The biggest speed killer: large uncompressed images. Compress all images to under 200KB using TinyPNG or Squoosh before uploading.
HTTPS (SSL certificate)
Your site URL should start with https://, not http://. Modern hosting platforms include SSL free. If yours doesn't, switch hosting. Google marks non-HTTPS sites as 'not secure'.
Crawlable pages
Google needs to be able to find and read your pages. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. Make sure no important pages are accidentally set to 'no-index'.
No broken links (404 errors)
Broken links frustrate visitors and waste Google's crawl budget. Check for them monthly using a free tool like Broken Link Checker or Screaming Frog.
Exercise
~10 minutes · ChatGPT or Claude
Prompt to use
Explain technical SEO to me as a complete beginner. I use [your website platform — Carrd/Framer/WordPress/etc.]. Tell me: 1) Which technical SEO issues are handled automatically by my platform, 2) Which ones I need to check manually, 3) How to check my page speed and what a good score looks like, 4) What Google Search Console is and why I should set it up. Keep it practical — I don't know how to code.
Technical SEO is invisible when it's done right. What technical issue on your site right now is costing you rankings without you knowing it? Run a check before the week ends.
Key Takeaways
Mobile-first indexing means Google ranks based on your mobile experience. If your mobile site is bad, your ranking is bad.
Page speed is a ranking factor. Compress your images before uploading — this alone solves 80% of speed issues.
HTTPS is non-negotiable. Any site still on HTTP is at a serious disadvantage and flagged as 'not secure' in browsers.
Google Search Console is free and essential. It shows you how Google sees your site and what errors exist.
Set up Google Search Console for your site today.
It's free, takes 10 minutes to set up, and gives you data you cannot get anywhere else. Submit your sitemap after setup. You'll start seeing search performance data within a few days.
Next Lesson
Tracking Your Rankings and Iterating
SEO · Lesson 7 of 7 · 8 min