If you’re looking to stay ahead in the SEO game, automating your technical SEO tasks is crucial. It not only saves time but also reduces human error and keeps your website running smoothly, allowing you to be more productive and efficient.
But how do you automate the right way without losing the human touch? In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to optimize your technical SEO using automation so that you can focus on the bigger picture: driving more traffic and generating sales.
At Reliqus Consulting, we’ve helped countless businesses like yours automate their technical SEO. Here’s how you can do it, too.
Why Automate Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the backbone of your site’s performance. It impacts everything—from how search engines crawl and index your pages to how fast your site loads for users.
Manually managing technical SEO can be tedious, and small mistakes can lead to big problems, like broken links or slow loading times.
Automation is not just about saving time. It’s a safety net that ensures issues like broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors are spotted and fixed before they become problematic. It also allows you to keep track of your SEO strategy’s progress without constantly monitoring it, giving you peace of mind and improving your site’s performance.
That’s where we come in. At Reliqus Consulting, we integrate advanced automation tools with personalized strategies, helping you grow your business faster and wiser.
Let’s dive into how you can automate technical SEO step by step.
Step 1: Automating Site Audits
Performing regular site audits is essential. It helps you identify and resolve technical issues that could affect your site’s performance.
But doing this manually? That can take hours. Instead, automate it and free yourself from the tedious tasks, allowing you to focus on more strategic aspects of your business and feel liberated from the repetitive work.
Tool Selection
First, you need a tool that can thoroughly audit your website. Tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs are excellent choices. They’ll crawl your site and generate reports on issues like broken links, crawl errors, or duplicate content.
Automation
Instead of conducting a site audit once every six months, schedule regular crawls—either weekly or bi-weekly. These crawls will catch and report problems in real-time, like:
- Broken links (404 errors)
- Duplicate content
- Crawl errors (403, 500 errors)
- Redirect issues (301, 302)
- Indexing problems
- Mobile-friendliness problems
Integration
For deeper insights, integrate your crawling tool with Google Analytics. This will give you more context on how issues impact your traffic and conversions, making it easier to prioritize which problems to solve first.
Issue Resolution
Once the audit report is ready, you can quickly address any problems. Automating these audits means you’re always on top of potential issues, ensuring your site runs at peak performance and giving you a sense of security and confidence.
When you work with Reliqus Consulting, we manage all of this for you, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. For professional help with technical SEO audits, check out our SEO services to ensure your site performs at its best.
Step 2: XML Sitemap Generation
An XML sitemap is like a roadmap for search engines. It helps Google and Bing understand how to crawl and index your site.
The good news is you don’t need to do this manually.
Tool Integration
If your site runs on platforms like WordPress, you’re in luck. You can use plugins like Yoast SEO to generate an XML sitemap automatically. Most e-commerce platforms also have built-in tools for this.
Automation
Schedule your site’s XML sitemap to update automatically whenever your product catalogue or content changes. This is crucial for large e-commerce websites that update products frequently.
Submission
Once your sitemap is generated, it’s essential to submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Automate this process to ensure every update gets submitted, keeping search engines in the loop.
Monitoring
Don’t stop after submission. Keep an eye on the health of your sitemap. Automated tools can alert you to errors or outdated content, so your sitemap remains a practical guide for search engines.
Need help managing your sitemaps and SEO processes? Our technical SEO experts can handle this for you.
Step 3: Robots.txt Management
Your robots.txt file tells search engines which pages of your site they can crawl and which they should ignore. Managing this file manually can be risky—one wrong line could block search engines from indexing critical parts of your site.
So, automating this process is essential to ensure your robots.txt is continuously optimized.
Centralized Control
Most websites use a CMS (Content Management System) that allows you to manage your robots.txt file centrally. You can also use file management systems to maintain it.
Automation
Set up version control for your robots.txt file. You’ll know exactly who edited the file and when by tracking changes, preventing accidental overwrites.
Testing
Regularly testing your robots.txt is a must. Tools like Google’s URL Inspection Tool can automate this process, ensuring your robots.txt is always functioning as it should. This automation saves you from manual checks and ensures search engines crawl the right pages.
Step 4: Image Optimization
Images are essential for engaging users, but if they aren’t optimized, they can slow down your site and hurt your rankings. Automating image optimization is one of the quickest ways to improve your page load times.
Image Compression
Compress your images before uploading them using tools like TinyPNG or Squoosh. These tools reduce file size without compromising quality.
Alt Text Generation
Alt text is crucial for SEO and accessibility. Generate alt text based on the image file name or description to automate the process.
However, review it—while automation is helpful, human oversight is necessary to ensure the descriptions are accurate and meaningful.
Lazy Loading
Lazy loading delays the loading of images until needed, speeding up your site for users. Automating lazy loading can significantly improve your site’s load times, which, in turn, can enhance user experience and SEO performance.
Image Resizing
Not all devices require the exact image size. Set up automatic resizing to ensure your images are perfectly sized for different screen sizes, from desktops to smartphones.
Step 5: Additional Automation Tips
Technical SEO doesn’t stop at audits, sitemaps, robots.txt files, and image optimization. There are more ways to leverage automation for better performance and results.
API Integration
Use APIs to integrate your SEO tools with your platform’s backend. This can help you sync data and ensure your SEO efforts are aligned with real-time changes on your website.
Workflow Automation
Use tools like Zapier or IFTTT to automate repetitive tasks. For example, you can set up an automated workflow that posts on social media whenever a new product is uploaded to your site.
Regular Monitoring
Even with automation, things can go wrong. Keep monitoring your automated processes to ensure they’re running smoothly. Adjust your strategy as needed, and use your judgment to make data-driven decisions.
Remember: Automation is powerful but not a substitute for human insight.
At Reliqus Consulting, we combine automation with our team’s expertise to create custom strategies that drive results.
Conclusion
Technical SEO automation is your key to staying ahead of the competition. Automating routine tasks saves time, reduces errors, and improves your site’s overall performance.
But remember, automation works best when combined with human oversight.
Want to improve your technical SEO? Reliqus Consulting is here to help. Whether automating your audits, managing your robots.txt file, or optimizing your images, we have the tools and expertise to grow your business.
Ready to get started? Check out our SEO services and see how we can help you succeed!