Technical SEO: fixing what search engines can't see past

If your website looks fine but still isn't ranking, the problem is usually invisible.

Buried in code, structure, or speed issues that visitors never notice but search engines absolutely do - we find and fix them.

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Joe, Founder of Wayfind Studio
Crystal, Co-Founder of Wayfind Studio
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What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO is the process of optimising the underlying structure of your website so search engines can crawl it efficiently, index it correctly, and trust what they find.

It's different from content or keyword work - it's less about what your pages say and more about whether search engines (and increasingly, AI tools) can access and understand them at all.

This covers things like site speed, mobile performance, structured data, crawl errors, duplicate content, and site architecture. None of it is visible to the average visitor, but all of it affects whether your site shows up in the first place.

Most SEO advice focuses on content and keywords, but none of that matters if search engines can't properly crawl, read, or trust your site in the first place. Technical SEO is the unglamorous groundwork underneath everything else - and it's often where the biggest, fastest wins are hiding.

What we offer

Technical SEO covers a lot of ground, most of it invisible to visitors but critical to search engines and AI tools alike. Here's where we typically focus, though not every site needs all of it.

Crawlability & indexing

Making sure search engines can find/access every page that matters & aren't wasting time on ones that don't. This includes fixing crawl errors, cleaning robots.txt, and correcting indexing issues.

XML sitemaps & site architecture

A clear, logical sitemap and site structure make it easier for search engines to understand how your pages relate to each other - and easier for visitors to navigate, too.

Site speed & Core Web Vitals

Slow sites lose rankings and visitors in equal measure. We identify what's slowing your site down - images, code, hosting, third-party scripts - and fix it, measured against Google's Core Web Vitals.

Structured data & schema markup

Adding behind-the-scenes markup that helps search engines & AI tools understand exactly what's on a page - a product, a review, an FAQ, a local business - rather than just guessing from the text.

Duplicate content & canonicalisation

Fixing instances where search engines see the same content on multiple URLs, which dilutes ranking signals and confuses which version should actually appear in results.

Security & HTTPS

Making sure your site meets the basic trust signals search engines expect - valid https, secure certificates, and no mixed-content warnings - protecting both your rankings, your visitors' data, and avoiding the browser warnings.

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How it works

Every project starts the same way, whatever specific area of SEO you need - here's what that looks like in practice.

We start by identifying exactly what's holding your site back - using real data, not assumptions.

Not every issue matters equally. We tell you which fixes will move the needle and which can wait.

We get into the code, the CMS, and the hosting setup to resolve issues directly.

We confirm the fixes have actually worked - re-crawling, retesting, and checking search console data.

Should you choose to - this allows us to review any new issues and that they get caught before they affect your rankings.

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Who is this for?

Technical SEO tends to matter most if:

  • Your site has plateaued or declined in rankings without an obvious content reason
  • You've had a redesign, replatform, or migration and things haven't felt right since
  • Your site feels slow, especially on mobile
  • You're not sure whether search engines can even find all of your pages
  • You want AI tools to be able to understand and represent your site properly
  • An SEO audit has flagged technical issues you're not sure how to prioritise

‣ If you're mid-migration or planning a rebuild, our site migration, build & recovery service covers that specific process in more depth.

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FAQs

A few things clients often ask before getting started.

If your rankings have stalled, your site feels slow, or you've had a redesign or migration recently, technical issues are a common (and often overlooked) cause. A technical SEO audit is the quickest way to find out for certain.

Almost never. Most technical SEO happens in the code and structure behind the scenes - visitors won't notice a design change, just a faster, more reliable site.

Both are possible. Some issues are fixed once and stay fixed; others (like site speed as you add content, or new crawl errors as your site grows) benefit from ongoing monitoring.

Yes - structured data, clean site architecture, and crawlability all affect how well AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews can understand and represent your business.

We work across WordPress, WooCommerce, Next.js, PayloadCMS, Laravel and others - the underlying technical SEO principles apply regardless of platform, though the specific fixes differ.

Unsure what you might need?

Start with a technical SEO audit - a clear, honest report on exactly what's holding your site back, with no obligation to go further.

Request a technical SEO audit

Looking for ongoing support?

If your site needs continuous technical attention - our technical SEO retainers keep things running properly month after month.

Speak to us about ongoing technical SEO