Technical SEO covers any backend optimization that helps search engines crawl, interpret, and index your site efficiently. The most common examples include site speed improvements like compressing images to WebP format, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and enabling browser caching to reduce load times below 2.5 seconds for Core Web Vitals. Another core example is fixing crawl errors—when Google Search Console flags 404s, 500 errors, or blocked resources, you need to either redirect those URLs with 301s or fix server issues so Googlebot can access your pages. Structured data markup is a technical SEO staple. Adding Schema.org JSON-LD to product pages, articles, or local business listings helps Google display rich snippets like star ratings, FAQ accordions, or business hours directly in search results. We see CTR lifts of 15-30% when rich snippets appear, especially for recipe sites or e-commerce. XML sitemaps and robots.txt configuration are foundational examples. Your sitemap tells search engines which pages to prioritize, while robots.txt controls what they can crawl. If you accidentally block important sections in robots.txt, Google won't index them no matter how good your content is. Mobile responsiveness counts as technical SEO too—Google's mobile-first indexing means your mobile version is what gets ranked, so responsive design or dynamic serving matters for rankings, not just user experience. HTTPS migration is another example: moving from HTTP to HTTPS with proper 301 redirects prevents duplicate content issues and satisfies Google's preference for secure sites. Canonical tags are technical as well—they consolidate duplicate or similar pages under one preferred URL to avoid splitting ranking signals. At Ottawa SEO, we run technical audits using Screaming Frog and Search Console to catch these issues across our 500+ domain portfolio. The biggest mistakes we see are orphaned pages with no internal links, slow server response times over 600ms, and missing alt text on images. Technical SEO isn't glamorous, but fixing these backend issues often unlocks rankings faster than publishing ten new blog posts.