Technical SEO is the part of SEO nobody talks about — until the site is broken
Technical SEO is the foundation that makes everything else work. Without it, your content and links don't matter — Google literally can't read your site. For most businesses in Cameroon, the highest-impact technical fixes are: mobile speed, HTTPS, a working sitemap, and no broken links or duplicate content. You can check most of these for free with Google Search Console.
Most businesses work on their content and never touch technical SEO. Then they wonder why they're not ranking despite publishing good articles. Technical SEO is the invisible plumbing. You don't notice it until it's broken.
What is technical SEO — and what does it cover?
Technical SEO is everything that helps search engines find, read, and understand your website. It's not about keywords or links — it's about whether Google can access your pages at all.
The main components: crawlability (can search engines reach all your pages?), indexability (are pages being added to Google's index?), site speed (Core Web Vitals — how fast pages load and respond), mobile usability (does the site work on phones?), HTTPS (secure connection), structured data (schema markup that helps Google understand content type), sitemaps (a map of your site's pages for crawlers), and canonicalisation (avoiding duplicate content).
Core Web Vitals — why speed is an SEO ranking factor
Since 2021, Google has used Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. These are three metrics measuring user experience: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint — how fast the main content loads, target under 2.5 seconds), FID/INP (Interaction to Next Paint — how fast the page responds to clicks, target under 200ms), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift — whether content jumps around as it loads, target under 0.1).
For businesses in Cameroon, speed is even more critical. A significant portion of your audience accesses your site on mobile, on a 4G or 3G connection. A slow page doesn't just hurt your ranking — it loses customers before they even see what you offer.
The technical issues that hurt African business websites most
In our work with websites across Cameroon, the most common technical SEO problems are: no HTTPS (Google flags non-HTTPS sites; many old sites still run on HTTP), missing or wrong sitemap (search engines can't find all your pages), broken links (both internal and outbound), unoptimised images (heavy PNG/JPG files that slow page load on mobile), no hreflang tags on bilingual sites (French and English versions of the same page confuse Google without them), and duplicate title tags (multiple pages competing for the same keyword).
Start with the free Google Search Console. It shows you which pages are indexed, which have errors, and your Core Web Vitals scores.
How to do a quick technical SEO audit yourself
You don't need expensive tools for a basic audit. Step 1: Google Search Console — submit your sitemap, check coverage errors and Core Web Vitals. Step 2: Google PageSpeed Insights — run your homepage on mobile and fix whatever scores below 50. Step 3: W3C Validator — check for critical HTML errors. Step 4: crawl your site with Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) to find broken links, missing meta tags, and duplicate content.
Fix issues in this order: broken pages/links first, HTTPS second, speed third, structured data last.
Structured data — what it is and why it matters
Structured data (schema markup) is code you add to your pages that tells Google exactly what type of content they contain. For a business, the most useful schema types are: LocalBusiness (name, address, phone, hours), Article/BlogPosting (for blog posts), FAQPage (triggers rich FAQ results in search), and BreadcrumbList (shows page hierarchy in search results).
You can generate schema markup for free at schema.org or using Google's Structured Data Markup Helper. Add it to your pages and validate with Google's Rich Results Test.
Key takeaways
- Technical SEO is the foundation — content and links don't help if crawlers can't read your site.
- For Cameroon sites: HTTPS, mobile speed, and a working sitemap are the highest-impact starting points.
- Google Search Console is free and shows you your most critical technical issues — use it first.
- Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor; a fast, stable mobile experience directly affects where you rank.
Frequently asked questions
Start with Google Search Console (free). It shows indexing errors, Core Web Vitals scores, and mobile usability issues. Also run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage to see speed scores.
Yes. Your competitors' sites likely have technical problems too — fixing yours first is a real advantage. Google doesn't care about your company size; it cares about whether it can read and rank your site.
A basic check every 3 months. After any major site change (new design, new platform, new content management system) do a full audit immediately, since changes often break things you didn't intend to break.
Sources
- Google Search Central. "Google SEO Starter Guide." Google, 2025.
- Google Search Central. "Core Web Vitals and Google Search." Google, 2025.
- Moz. "Technical SEO." 2025.
- Schema.org. "Getting Started with Schema.org." 2025.
Kaevor performs technical SEO audits and fixes for business websites in Cameroon and across Africa — HTTPS, speed, structured data, bilingual hreflang. Message us on WhatsApp — we respond same day.
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