Technical SEO Services London: The Foundation Most Agencies Skip

Most SEO agencies start with content.

They write blogs. Build backlinks. Chase keywords.

And your rankings don’t move.

Why?

Because your site’s foundation is broken.

No amount of content or backlinks will fix a slow, broken, or hard-to-crawl website.

Here’s what technical SEO actually is—and why it matters more than you think.

1. What Is Technical SEO (and Why Most Agencies Ignore It)

Technical SEO is everything that makes your site work properly for search engines.

It includes:

• Site speed
• Mobile usability
• Crawlability (can Google find your pages?)
• Indexability (are your pages in Google’s index?)
• Site structure (how pages link to each other)
• Core Web Vitals (Google’s performance benchmarks)
• Schema markup (structured data)
• Security (HTTPS, SSL certificates)

Why agencies skip it:

• It’s not sexy (clients don’t see immediate “results”)
• It requires technical expertise (not just content writing)
• It’s time-consuming (easier to churn out blog posts)

But here’s the truth:

If your site is slow, broken, or hard to crawl, Google won’t rank you—no matter how good your content is.

Our approach:
Every project starts with a technical audit. We fix what’s broken before we create anything new.

2. Site Speed: If Your Site Is Slow, You’re Invisible

Google uses page speed as a ranking factor.

But more importantly: users bounce if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

The data:

• 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load
• A 1-second delay in load time can reduce conversions by 7%
• Google prioritizes fast sites in rankings

What slows sites down:

• Unoptimized images (huge file sizes)
• Too many plugins (especially on WordPress)
• No caching (every page loads from scratch)
• Cheap hosting (slow servers)
• Bloated code (unnecessary CSS, JavaScript)

How we fix it:

• Compress and optimize images
• Enable caching (store static versions of pages)
• Minify CSS and JavaScript (remove unnecessary code)
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to serve files faster
• Upgrade hosting if necessary

Tools we use:

• Google PageSpeed Insights
• GTmetrix
• WebPageTest

Real example:

We reduced a London e-commerce site’s load time from 8 seconds to 2 seconds. Conversions increased 40% in 3 months.

Bottom line:
If your site is slow, fix it before you invest in content or backlinks.

3. Mobile Usability: Most London Searches Happen on Phones

70%+ of Google searches in London happen on mobile devices.

If your site doesn’t work on phones, you’re losing customers.

What Google checks:

• Is your site responsive? (Does it adapt to different screen sizes?)
• Are buttons and links easy to tap?
• Is text readable without zooming?
• Do forms work on mobile?

Common mobile issues:

• Text too small to read
• Buttons too close together (hard to tap)
• Pop-ups that cover the entire screen (Google penalizes these)
• Horizontal scrolling (because site doesn’t fit screen)

How to test:

• Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
• Check your site on actual phones (iPhone, Android)
• Look at Google Search Console’s “Mobile Usability” report

How we fix it:

• Implement responsive design (site adapts to any screen size)
• Increase font sizes and button spacing
• Remove intrusive pop-ups
• Test on real devices, not just emulators

Real example:

A London restaurant’s site wasn’t mobile-friendly. 60% of their traffic was mobile, but conversions were near zero. We rebuilt their site with mobile-first design. Reservations doubled in 6 weeks.

4. Crawlability: Can Google Actually Find Your Pages?

Google uses bots (called “crawlers”) to discover and index your pages.

If Google can’t crawl your site, you won’t rank.

Common crawl issues:

• Broken internal links (links that point to 404 pages)
• Orphan pages (pages with no internal links pointing to them)
• Blocked by robots.txt (file that tells Google which pages not to crawl)
• Slow server response time (Google’s crawler gives up if your server is too slow)
• Redirect chains (page A redirects to B, which redirects to C—Google hates this)

How to check:

• Use Google Search Console’s “Coverage” report
• Run a crawl with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb
• Check your robots.txt file (yourdomain.com/robots.txt)

How we fix it:

• Fix broken links
• Add internal links to orphan pages
• Update robots.txt to allow important pages
• Improve server response time
• Eliminate redirect chains

Real example:

A London law firm had 200+ pages, but only 50 were indexed. We found 150 orphan pages with no internal links. After fixing internal linking, Google indexed all 200 pages. Traffic increased 70%.

5. Core Web Vitals: Google’s New Ranking Factor

Core Web Vitals measure user experience. Google uses them as ranking signals.

The 3 metrics:

1. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast does the main content load? (Target: under 2.5 seconds)
2. FID (First Input Delay): How fast does your site respond to user interactions? (Target: under 100ms)
3. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Does content jump around while loading? (Target: under 0.1)

Why they matter:

• Google confirmed Core Web Vitals are ranking factors
• Bad scores = lower rankings, higher bounce rates

How to check:

• Google Search Console’s “Core Web Vitals” report
• PageSpeed Insights
• Chrome DevTools

How we fix them:

• LCP: Optimize images, improve server response time, use lazy loading
• FID: Reduce JavaScript execution time, remove unused scripts
• CLS: Set image dimensions, avoid injecting content above existing content

Real example:

A London SaaS company failed all 3 Core Web Vitals. We optimized their site. LCP dropped from 4.5s to 1.8s. Rankings improved across 20+ keywords.

6. Site Structure: How Pages Connect Matters

Google understands your site through internal links and structure.

Good structure:

• Clear hierarchy (homepage → category pages → individual pages)
• Logical URL structure (/services/seo/ not /page?id=12345)
• Internal links that guide users and Google

Bad structure:

• Flat architecture (everything is 1 click from homepage—confusing)
• Deep pages (buried 5+ clicks deep—Google won’t find them)
• No internal linking (pages exist in isolation)

How to fix it:

• Create a clear site hierarchy
• Use breadcrumbs (shows users and Google where they are)
• Add internal links from high-authority pages to important pages
• Use descriptive anchor text (not “click here”)

Example:

Your homepage should link to main service pages. Service pages should link to location pages and blog posts. Blog posts should link to service pages.

Our approach:
We map out your site structure before we create content. This ensures Google understands what’s important.

7. Indexability: Are Your Pages in Google’s Index?

Just because a page exists doesn’t mean Google indexed it.

How to check:

• Google Search Console → Coverage report
• Or search: site:yourdomain.com in Google

Common indexability issues:

• Noindex tags (tells Google not to index the page)
• Canonical tags pointing to wrong page (tells Google this is a duplicate)
• Low-quality content (Google chooses not to index thin pages)
• Duplicate content (Google picks one version and ignores the rest)

How we fix it:

• Remove noindex tags from important pages
• Fix canonical tags
• Improve thin content or delete it
• Consolidate duplicate pages

Real example:

A London e-commerce site had 500 products but only 200 indexed. We found noindex tags on 300 product pages (leftover from a site migration). After removing them, all 500 pages indexed. Organic traffic increased 90%.

8. Schema Markup: Help Google Understand Your Content

Schema markup is code that tells Google what your content means.

Why it matters:

• Helps Google show rich results (star ratings, FAQs, events)
• Improves click-through rates (CTR)
• Can increase visibility in search results

Common schema types:

• LocalBusiness (for local SEO—shows your address, hours, phone)
• Product (shows price, availability, reviews)
• FAQ (shows questions/answers directly in search results)
• Article (tells Google this is a blog post)
• Review (shows star ratings in search results)

How to implement:

• Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
• Add schema via JSON-LD (cleanest method)
• Test with Google’s Rich Results Test

Real example:

We added FAQ schema to a London law firm’s service pages. Their CTR increased 25% because FAQs appeared directly in search results.

9. HTTPS and Security: Non-Negotiable

Google gives preference to secure sites (HTTPS).

If your site is still on HTTP, you’re losing rankings.

What you need:

• SSL certificate (encrypts data between user and server)
• HTTPS (the “S” stands for secure)

Why it matters:

• Google confirmed HTTPS is a ranking signal
• Browsers show “Not Secure” warnings on HTTP sites (scares users away)
• Users trust HTTPS sites more

How to fix:

• Buy an SSL certificate (or get a free one from Let’s Encrypt)
• Install it on your server
• Redirect all HTTP URLs to HTTPS
• Update internal links to use HTTPS

Our approach:
We check HTTPS on every site we audit. If it’s missing, we fix it immediately.

10. Common Technical SEO Mistakes London Businesses Make

We see these all the time:

1. No XML sitemap (or outdated sitemap that doesn’t include new pages)
2. Duplicate content (same content on multiple URLs)
3. Missing alt text on images (Google can’t “see” images without it)
4. Broken redirects (301 redirects that lead to 404 pages)
5. Slow hosting (cheap hosting = slow site = lower rankings)
6. No 404 page (users hit broken links and see nothing)
7. Mixed content warnings (HTTPS site loading HTTP resources)

How we fix them:

• Create or update XML sitemap
• Canonicalize duplicate pages
• Add alt text to all images
• Fix broken redirects
• Recommend better hosting if needed
• Create custom 404 page
• Fix mixed content warnings

11. How We Approach Technical SEO at AlgoSemantic

Most agencies treat technical SEO as an afterthought.

We treat it as the foundation.

Our process:

1. Full technical audit (we check everything—speed, mobile, crawlability, indexability, Core Web Vitals)
2. Prioritize fixes (we tackle high-impact issues first)
3. Implement changes (we don’t just give you a report—we fix it)
4. Monitor performance (we track improvements monthly)
5. Ongoing optimization (technical SEO isn’t one-and-done—we maintain it)

What’s included:

• Site speed optimization
• Mobile usability fixes
• Crawlability and indexability improvements
• Core Web Vitals optimization
• Schema markup implementation
• HTTPS setup (if needed)
• Monthly technical health checks

Why we start here:

Because content and backlinks don’t work if your site’s foundation is broken.

Is Your Site Technically Sound?

Most London businesses don’t know.

We’ll audit your site for free. We’ll show you what’s broken, what’s slowing you down, and what to fix first.

No sales pitch. Just a clear technical breakdown.

Email us: contact@algosemantic.com
Call us: +44 7412 808430

Or keep reading. We’re breaking down technical SEO, one fix at a time.

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