The B2B Marketer’s Cheat Sheet to Technical SEO

Your website looks amazing. Congrats! But does it matter if your buyers can’t find it?
That’s a rhetorical question. The answer is definitely, “No.”
Your website isn’t just your brand’s digital billboard—it’s your lead generation machine, key objection buster, and customer hub. But if search engines like Google struggle to crawl it – causing AI platforms like Gemini to ignore it – you’re leaving money on the table.
Technical SEO might sound like a backend developer’s problem, but knowing the basics could make all the difference for your bottom line.
If you’re picturing calculators and graphs, don’t worry! This guide is here to arm you with enough knowledge to guide your team, ask smart questions, and spot potential red flags (plus a little extra for the SEO nerds out there). Let’s get started.
What we’ll cover and why it matters (TL;DR)
- Crawling & Indexing – These are the mechanisms that make search engine visibility for your brand possible. Or not. In other words, it’s kind of a big deal.
- Site Architecture – Who pays attention to your URL choices? That depends on how intuitive your site navigation is. That said, even if it’s great, your URL choices should still make sense.
- Page Speed – Did you know that you’ll lose more than 33% of potential buyers if your web page takes more than 6 seconds to load? This doesn’t take into account how quickly they’ll form a negative opinion (that takes one-tenth of a second).
Errors to Avoid to keep you off Google’s naughty list.
Advanced Technical SEO: A few advanced practices to keep your technical SEO in tip top shape, like using AI to improve your website schema (we told you there’d be a few gold nuggets for the SEO nerds).
Plus some sure signs it’s time to call on the experts.
Technical SEO Essentials
Technical SEO isn’t about perfection—it’s about removing obstacles. Here are the key areas where your team should focus, along with some practical tips to keep things running smoothly.
Crawling and Indexing: Make Sure Google Can See You
Technical SEO is called “technical” for a reason. Some of these things are more complicated than others, but all are essential for your team to check and recheck regularly.
Indexing Check
A search engine’s index is a list of your public-facing web pages on your website. Most website platforms generate a sitemap for you, so ensuring it has been submitted via Google Search Console (GSC) is a great first step!
It’s up to your team to tell Google which pages it should ignore (more on that in a moment), making it very easy to bloat the list. Regularly perform an index bloat check with Google Search Console (GSC). A high page count can be indicative of bloat and is a great sign it’s time to audit your pages.
In the same indexing section in GSC, you can also identify and fix issues preventing pages from being indexed and ranking in search results.
Robots.txt Optimization
The two most frequently used methods to keep pages from being indexed are robots.txt and a “noindex” meta tag. You can use robots.txt files to direct search engines to ignore specific pages of your website or give specific instructions on how to crawl other pages.
We recommend using robots.txt files to ignore pages like staging environments and low-value archives. Avoid making these instructions too broad and never block a core web page, like a product or solutions page.
Please note that a page that is blocked by search in robots.txt means that a search engine bot can’t access the page, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the page can’t be indexed or show up in search results.
Using the “noindex” meta tag will prevent the page from appearing in search results and prevent it from being indexed – but in order for the search engine to see this meta tag, it must not be blocked from being crawled via robots.txt.
XML & HTML Sitemaps
An XML sitemap lists your URLs and their metadata, including information like how high the page should be ranked. This file type is used by all major search engines. HTML sitemaps are for human visitors that organize pages in a readable format to help them navigate your website.
Yoast SEO and Rank Math are useful tools for creating and submitting sitemaps. Yoast SEO will automatically update the sitemap index and individual sitemaps as you add or remove content and include the post styles you want search engines to index.
Canonical Tag Audit
A canonical tag is a snippet of code that tells search engines which URL is preferred when indexing the page. Different appended URL strings for the same page are seen by search engines as duplicate content. For example, if UTM parameters are used to track the source of a visit or an anchor tag is used, a canonical tag would indicate to the search engine that the purest version of the URL is the preferred version.
Pages are also considered duplicate if the content is the same and there is a different URL slug associated. This could happen if a page is cloned, and steps should be taken to either unpublish and redirect the bogus page or indicate which page is the “real” page via canonical tags.
You can use GSC to audit canonical tags by entering a URL, opening the “Page indexing” section of the URL Inspection report, and scrolling down to find “Google-selected canonical.”
Site Architecture: Keep It Simple, Smart, and Scannable
A well-organized site isn’t just for search engines—it’s for the busy buyers who land on your homepage. A “flat” structure, where key pages are just a few clicks away, works wonders for usability and SEO.
Check out our article on information architecture for more details using our own website as an example.
Navigation Hierarchy
Organize menus and submenus on your website so key pages are accessible within as few clicks as possible. Keep categories broad but focused to avoid confusion and the need for listing content more than once. This organization also helps minimize paths or additional url components which may make it more difficult for search engines to crawl the site.
Messy structure creates “orphan pages” without internal links pointing to them.
URL Structure
A well-optimized URL structure helps with both user experience and search engine crawling. Best practices include keeping URLs short, using hyphens for readability, and ensuring they are keyword optimized. (But don’t overdo it! Keep it to three to four words, maximum.)
Use consistent URL formats and canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.
Optimizing Internal Links
Avoid generic linked text like “click here” or “learn more” for your internal links. Your visitors are more likely to click a link if they have a good idea of where it will lead them. Don’t let this deter you! Internal linking to relevant content is considered a huge positive in search engine algorithms. Yoast SEO and ChaptGPT are fantastic tools for identifying linking opportunities for pages with high business intent, such as product or solution pages.
If you use anchor tags to jump to content on a page, this can improve usability. However, it’s important to avoid duplicating anchor tags across pages. Focusing on variety will yield better SEO results.
Use Breadcrumbs
Wherever possible, use visual breadcrumbs on your website to make navigation easier for the end user. For example, at the top of a blog article, using the following structure will help an end user understand how they arrived at the page and how to back out to a broader source of content with a single click:
Home > Blog > {Article Name}
When viewing our Guide on Generative Engine Optimization, the breadcrumb is:
Home » Blog » The Complete Guide to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Staying Ahead in 2025
Page Speed: Nobody Likes a Slowpoke
Think of it this way: every second of delay is a lost opportunity. Speed matters.
Core Web Vitals will be your new best friend.
Optimize Core Web Vitals
The total size of a page directly correlates with its load time. Large pages are often necessary, but there are ways to reduce their size.
Start with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to measure metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). To boost speed, compress images (try Imagify or TinyPNG), implement lazy loading for below-the-fold content, and clear out unnecessary redirect chains.
Layer Content With Caution
Pop-ups are useful for directing users to pages and products you want to promote, but they can be annoying. Ensure they don’t push down visible elements. Also, if you’re using third-party scripts that manipulate the page, load them on-site and ensure they don’t change the top fold.
Errors to Avoid: Stay Off Google’s Naughty List
Search engines are unforgiving when it comes to technical errors. Examples include:
- Broken links (the dreaded error, “401 This Page Doesn’t Exist”)
- Inconsistent HTTPS usage—Google prioritizes secure sites
- Slow response times (500 errors)
- Redirect chains (that’s where a redirect points to another redirect and it loops – not good!)
These errors hurt your rankings. And don’t overlook thin content (pages with fewer than 250 words). If you’ve got them, beef them up.
Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to catch errors. These tools have audit checklists that describe the problem and outline a fix.
Advanced Optimizations: The Extra Mile
Once you’ve covered the basics, consider these power moves:
- Schema Markup: Help search engines understand your content better. Tools like Schema.org or ChatGPT can guide you.
- Hreflang Tags: Ideal for multilingual sites, these tags ensure users land on the right regional version of your content.
- CDN (Content Delivery Network): A service like Cloudflare can turbocharge your site speed and security.
- Lazy Loading: Lazy loading is a technique that delays the loading of images and other media files until they are needed – when they are about to appear on the user’s screen.
These advanced tweaks can give your site the edge it needs in competitive markets.
When to Call in the Experts
There comes a time when even the best teams need backup. Here’s when to consider bringing in a pro:
- You’re dealing with persistent indexing or crawling issues.
- You’re planning a major site migration or redesign.
- Your site serves multiple languages or regions, and hreflang tags feel like a puzzle.
- You’ve been hit with a Google penalty and don’t know why.
Technical SEO doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Focus on making your site easy to crawl, lightning-fast, and user-friendly. Keep an eye on the essentials, and don’t hesitate to seek help when things get tricky.
Need a team that speaks fluent SEO and understands B2B SaaS? Let’s chat. We’re here to turn technical headaches into measurable results.