Category: SEO

Technical SEO can seem intimidating and unapproachable. It is often the most overlooked part of SEO, because it’s not as visible or appealing to the average user. However, there are many technical details that can impact your search engine ranking in a big way. With so much competition out there, it’s important for businesses to optimize their websites for search engines. These tips will help you get a leg up on your competitors and drive more traffic from search engines. If you’re looking to improve your website’s technical SEO, keep reading!

1. Fix Broken Links and Websites

   Broken links, regardless of how they appeared, are more than just an inconvenience. They not only confuse visitors to your site and make it challenging for them to find the information they require, but they also present issues for search engine crawlers. This implies that your website won’t be effectively indexed, which may have a bad impact on your SEO.

2. Ensure Your Website Loads Fast

   Did you know that Google actually considers load speed in its ranking algorithm? It’s true! Websites that load quickly are preferable to users and search engines because they don’t want to wait forever for a website to load. What’s the ideal load speed for a website? That depends on which industry you’re in. For example, the healthcare and retail industries want their websites to load in less than two seconds. The financial services industry would like its websites to load in less than three seconds. You can keep your website fast by optimizing images, optimizing code, and compressing your content. You can also purchase a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to help distribute your website’s content. If you already have a website built using WordPress and you are struggling to make it fast, you should read about Optimizing WordPress Speed using LiteSpeed Cache Plugin to score 100 out of 100 on Google Pagespeed Insights.

3. Don’t Sacrifice User Experience for SEO

   While it’s important to optimize your website for search engines, you also don’t want to sacrifice your user experience for it. If your website is difficult to navigate and use, you won’t drive any search engine traffic! This is a common mistake that businesses make. Don’t sacrifice your user experience for search engine optimization. Instead, work to optimize both at the same time. You can do this by including keywords naturally in your content, creating a logical flow, and using high-quality images. Any time you’re adding keywords to your content, make sure to do it naturally. You don’t want your readers to be able to tell that you’re trying to rank higher in search engines.

4. Add Rich Content and Schema Markup

   Using rich content on your website is one of the best ways to stand out from your competitors. Rich content includes things like images, videos, and long-form content. Google rewards rich content with higher search engine rankings. So, if you want to rank higher in search, you should add more rich content to your website. You can also add rich content by using schema markup on your website. Schema markup is code that you add to your website to let search engines know what your website is about. Using schema markup to add rich content to your website can really boost your SEO. Think of your website as a product. You want to make sure your product description is top-notch. Using schema markup to add rich content to your website can help boost your SEO, attract more traffic, and make more sales.

5. Make Your Website Mobile-First

   Mobile-first indexing is the process of creating a web page that will be the first result when someone searches for a topic, using the mobile version of that page. This means that the mobile version of your website is more important than the desktop version. Mobile-first indexing is expected to be rolled out in 2020. Until then, it’s important to make sure your website is mobile-first friendly. A mobile-first website typically has smaller pages, less text, and more visual content. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website.

Conclusion

There are a lot of different technical SEO factors that can impact your website’s ranking. There are a few key factors that you should always keep in mind: use unique and original content, keep your website free of errors and broken code, load your website as fast as possible, don’t sacrifice user experience for SEO, add rich content and schema markup, and make your website mobile-first. Technical SEO can seem intimidating, but as long as you keep these tips in mind, you should be well on your way to improving your website’s ranking!

Tired of optimising your WordPress website? We know it can be a big hassle sometimes. This is a definitive tutorial to optimise pagespeed of your WordPress website through LiteSpeed Cache plugin. No matter what kind of website you run on WordPress, this pagespeed optimization tutorial explains how to optimize ecommerce WordPress website, how to optimize blog WordPress website, how to optimize a business WordPress website, so on and so forth. The recommendations in this article is for those websites which are hosted on a LiteSpeed Server.

At the end of the article, you can also download the configuration used by our website and import into your LiteSpeed Cache plugin to copy our website’s configuration settings.

Why Optimize Website Pagespeed?

A website’s speed is the single most important factor for Search Engine Optimization that is objective in nature. This simply means that higher pagespeed score means added SEO advantage. Everyone who owns a website or manages it for someone else should give a high priority to website speed optimisation as it directly and significantly impacts the website SEO.

Apart from the the impact on SEO, it also indirectly impacts your bounce rate and your chances of generating conversions or leads, think about it, we all close the tab or press the back button when a certain webpage doesn’t loads quickly. A slow website also discourages your visitors to stay on your website, that’s why pagespeed optimization is done sitewide and not of for a few pages.

What is LiteSpeed Cache Plugin?

LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LCSWP) is a free and open source plugin. The plugin is built for WordPress installations on the LiteSpeed server, though it is also compatible with other servers such as Apache and Nginx with lesser features of course. LCSWP offers a wide range of caching options, image optimization features, and a very powerful set of options for page optimization.

How to Configure LiteSpeed Cache Plugin?

Before we start configuring the LCSWP, we need to make sure it is installed and activated. You can install the plugin in the same way as you install typically any other WordPress plugin by navigating to Plugins > Add New from the left panel in WP Admin area.

If you already have the plugin and were doing experimentations on your own, you need to first reset all settings of LiteSpeed Cache Plugin before following the subsequent recommendations. To reset all settings simply navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Toolbox > Import / Export at the bottom of this page you’ll find a red button called “Reset Settings”, simply press it and your plugin configuration will restore to default.

LiteSpeed Cache General Settings

You need to first setup your installation of LCSWP with a domain key. It is a simple and straightforward process, goto LiteSpeed Cache > General and click on “Request Domain Key” button, it takes some time and the process is automatic. Once you see asterisks (*) in the input field adjacent to the button, click on “Link to QUIC.cloud” button and follow the onscreen instructions. QUIC.cloud service is both free and paid with different features and limits so you can signup with the plan you wish to continue with.

LiteSpeed Cache Critical Configuration

The below mentioned settings are critical and should be implemented no matter what theme you use. Following settings can easily ensure a score of 95+ for desktop and 80+ for mobile in most of the cases.

LiteSpeed Cache Settings

Cache

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache. Under the Cache Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Enable Cache
• Cache Commenters
• Cache REST API
• Cache Login Page
• Cache favicon.ico
• Cache PHP Resources
• Cache Mobile

Purge Cache

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache. Under the Purge Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Purge All On Upgrade
• Serve Stale
• Check all boxes under Auto Purge Rules For Publish/Update

Object Cache

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache. Under the Object Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Object Cache (if any of the extension is enabled under the status below it)
• Method (according to the status above)
• Persistent Connection
• Store Transients

Browser Cache

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache. Under the Browser Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Browser Cache

Advanced Options

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache. Under the Advanced Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Improve HTTP/HTTPS Compatibility
• Instant Click

LiteSpeed Cache Page Optimization Settings

CSS Optimization

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization. Under the CSS Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• CSS Minify
• CSS Combine
• CSS Combine External and Inline
• Load CSS Asynchronously
• CCSS Per URL
• Inline CSS Async Lib
• Font Display Optimization (set it to Swap)

JS Optimization

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization. Under the JS Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• JS Minify
• JS Combine
• JS Combine External and Inline
• Load JS Deferred (set it to “Delayed” if this breaks the website then set it to “Deferred” if this too breaks your website then turn it off and consider changing the theme.)

HTML Optimization

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization. Under the HTML Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• HTML Minify
• DNS Prefetch Control
• Remove Query Strings
• Load Google Fonts Asynchronously
• Remove WordPress Emoji
• Remove Noscript Tags

Media Settings

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization. Under the Media Settings Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Lazy Load Images
• Lazy Load Iframes
• Add Missing Sizes

LiteSpeed Cache Optional Configuration

To further speed up your website you can deploy the below settings one by one depending upon your environment and theme:

Content Delivery Network

CDN Settings

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > CDN. Under the CDN Settings Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• QUIC.cloud CDN
• Use CDN Mapping

Image Optimization

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Image Optimization. Under the Image Optimization Settings Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Auto Request Cron
• Auto Pull Cron
• Optimize Original Images
• Optimize Losslessly
• Create WebP Versions
• Image WebP Replacement
• WebP For Extra srcset
• WordPress Image Quality Control (set it to 85)

Page Optimization

Navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization. Under the CSS Tab, turn ON the below settings:

• Generate UCSS
• UCSS Inline
• CCSS Per URL

Download Best Configuration Settings for LiteSpeed Cache

At TwoOrbits we have used the same process as above but with a slight modification to fit out use case for speeding up our website, we have achieved a PageSpeed Score of 99+ for Mobile devices and 100 for Desktop devices. If you want to copy our strategy then simply use our configuration file in your website, read the below instructions to do so:

Download the LSCWP configuration file and navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > Toolbox > Import / Export then under “Import Settings” choose the downloaded config. file and upload it. After importing the configuration, navigate to LiteSpeed Cache > General > General Settings, and click on “Refresh Domain Key” button.

Litespeed Cache vs WP Rocket

LiteSpeed Cache and WP Rocket are both popular caching plugins for WordPress that can significantly improve your website’s loading speed. Here’s a breakdown of how they compare:

Caching Mechanism:

• LiteSpeed Cache: Utilizes server-level caching, which is generally faster than the file-based caching used by WP Rocket. This functionality requires a LiteSpeed web server or OpenLiteSpeed for server-level caching.

• WP Rocket: Relies on file-based caching, which is compatible with most web hosting providers.

Ease of Use:

• LiteSpeed Cache: Offers more granular control over caching options, but this comes at the expense of a steeper learning curve. It’s better suited for users comfortable with technical settings.

• WP Rocket: Recognized for its user-friendly interface and simple setup. It offers pre-configured settings that you can activate with a few clicks, making it ideal for beginners.

Performance:

• LiteSpeed Cache: Generally leads to faster loading times due to server-level caching, especially on LiteSpeed servers.

• WP Rocket: May deliver slightly better Core Web Vital scores, which are crucial for SEO. It excels at optimizing elements like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

Other Considerations:

• Cost: LiteSpeed Cache is a free plugin, while WP Rocket requires a paid subscription.

• Compatibility: LiteSpeed Cache’s full features are only available with LiteSpeed servers. WP Rocket boasts broader compatibility across various hosting providers and themes.

Choosing the Right Option:

• For beginners or those seeking a user-friendly solution, WP Rocket is the better choice.

• If you have a LiteSpeed server and prioritize raw speed, LiteSpeed Cache is a strong contender. However, be prepared to invest time in understanding its settings.

• For complex websites with specific caching needs, WP Rocket might offer more flexibility.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your technical expertise, website configuration, and budget. Consider trying out free trials or LiteSpeed Cache’s free version to see which one works best for you.