Do SEO? Well, SEO is a good profession. But many SEO people, especially beginners, face challenges in achieving results. The reason is that they put all the burden on writers, pushing them to publish more and better content.
Well, there is no doubt that content is the primary factor, but alone it is not enough for good SEO. Many other SEO factors directly impact the performance. These are the factors that, if ignored, make the content unreachable to search engines. And if a search engine cannot properly access the content, how could it rank?
In simple terms, Content is only one part of SEO. The rest happens behind the scenes. In this blog post, we are going to break down what leads to proper SEO.
Why Good Content Still Matters (But Isn’t Enough)?
Good content is like the fuel of a website, giving it the power. Content helps you answer user questions, build trust, and keep the readers engaged.
Truth again:
Even the best content cannot rank if Google or any other search engine can’t crawl, load, or understand a website. You can think of SEO as a team effort. Content is the star player, but the star can’t win the match alone.
If your site loads slowly, has broken security, or blocks crawlers, then excellent writing will still underperform. That is why you must also focus on technical SEO factors that are usually left unfocused.
The Technical Side of SEO Most People Ignore
Technical SEO ensures that search engines can find and read your content. You know what? Based on technical factors, most SEO work happens quietly in the background. Let us get you up to speed on the basic technical SEO parts that actually matter.
1. Correct DNS Setup (Why It Affects SEO More Than You Think)
DNS (Domain Name System) is the phonebook of the Internet and contains all the necessary records. When someone types your website address in a browser, the DNS records tell the browser which server to connect to.
If your DNS setup is configured incorrectly, your website might:
- Take longer to load
- Go offline completely
- Experience delays while crawling
- Wrong IP pointing
- Broken subdomains
And if your website takes a long time to load or goes offline, users will quit it instantly, and as a result, your website will have a higher bounce rate. This means a simple DNS mistake can hide your content from search engines without you even realizing it. That is why it is necessary for you to ensure that the DNS settings for your website are configured correctly.
You can check whether the records in your DNS setup are correct by performing a DNS Lookup. You can do that easily by running the domain name through a DNS Lookup tool. The tool will show you the records that are propagated in the DNS configuration for the input domain name.
2. SSL Certificate (The Trust Signal Search Engines Take Seriously)
- Your connection is not private.
- This site is not secure.
If your website is returning one of the above warnings, it probably means that its SSL certificate is missing or expired. An SSL certificate is what authenticates a website’s identity. It enables an encrypted connection to secure communication between a browser and the web server.
When HTTPS is enabled on your website, users can feel safe, and search engines also trust your site more. A single SSL error can harm a site’s credibility, sending a negative SEO signal and ultimately leading to lost rankings.
So, if you want to achieve good SEO results, keep checking your website’s SSL certificate. For this, you can use an SSL certificate checker. It will tell you whether your website has a valid SSL certificate.
3. Robots.txt (Controls How Google Sees Your Website)
Robots.txt is a must-have file for websites. This file tells search engine crawlers which pages on a website to crawl and index, and which not to. In fact, this file decides what search engine crawlers can access on a website. You can find this site in the root folder of your website.
But here’s the danger:
One wrong line in robots.txt can block:
- Your entire website
- Your important pages
- Your images or scripts
Many people accidentally write: Disallow: /
You know what this means. This means that you are telling the crawler to crawl none of the pages on your website. And when search engines do not crawl a website, they will not index it, and you will not find it in SERPs.
Robots.txt doesn’t get attention, but it silently controls your SEO destiny. So you must make sure that your website’s robots.txt file is correct and in the right folder.
If you are not sure or suspect there are errors in the robots.txt file, create a new one and place it in the root folder of your website (make sure to delete the previous one). Creating a new robots.txt file is crucial; a single error in it can have serious consequences. So instead of building one yourself, it’s better to use a robots.txt generator. This tool will help you create a robots.txt file quickly and efficiently.
4. Site Speed and Core Web Vitals
Website speed and some other core web vitals are among the most crucial factors that directly impact a website’s ranking. Regarding the website speed, every single second matters.
According to Think with Google, if a page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the bounce rate increases by 32%. That is why you need to ensure your website loads faster. We suggest aiming for a minimum of 1.5-2 seconds of load time.
Besides speed, search engines, especially Google, also consider some other technical factors that impact ranking.
These factors are usually referred to as a website’s core web vitals and include the following:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast your main content appears
- FID (First Input Delay): How fast your site reacts
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): How stable your layout feels
When these metrics are slow, rankings drop even if your content is amazing. Also, users leave slow sites. Google sees this and assumes your content isn’t helpful. To see how these core web vitals are performing, run your website through PageSpeed Insights or visit your search console dashboard.
5. Mobile Friendly Design
According to Statista, in the second quarter of 2025, mobile devices accounted for 62.54% of worldwide website traffic. Google also uses mobile-first indexing. That is why there is no chance that your site has a non-mobile-friendly design and you still expect better rankings.
If your site:
- Breaks on small screens
- Loads poorly on mobile
- Has tiny text or messy buttons
Then your SEO takes a direct hit.
So, a mobile-friendly design is no longer optional. It is now a mandatory ranking requirement.
6. Clean URL Structure
Last but not least, the URL structure of a website affects its SEO. Your URLs should be simple and readable.
- Avoid Urls like /post.php?id=5812
- Use clean URLs like /best-laptops-for-students
Clean URLs help:
- Google understands your topic
- Users trust your page
- Pages get indexed faster
Off-Page Also Matters
SEO doesn’t end at your website content and technical elements. Search engines also look at signals coming from outside your site. Regarding the off-page SEO, the two most crucial factors are:
- Backlinks
- Brand Signals and Social Engagement
Backlinks act as votes. If you get links from trusted websites, Google considers you a reliable source.
But relevance matters more than quantity. Many people just focus on building links, even if the other site is irrelevant or spammy. Know that a single link from a trusted niche site beats 100 random links.
Other than backlinks, the next are brand signals and social engagement. When people search for your brand name, Google sees it as a sign of trust. If people share your content socially, it shows that it has value. These signals tell Google that your website matters.
Final Talk
SEO is not just about having good content. It delivers better results only when the technical and off-page SEO factors we discussed above are implemented correctly.
When your content, technical setup, and off-page signals come together, search engines finally get a clear path to understand and rank your site. That is the stage where your content can perform at its full potential.
