This article will show you 16 of the most common technical SEO issues you’re likely facing and how to solve them.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to website optimizations whose main aim is to optimize the framework or infrastructure of a website. It helps to revamp or improve the organic rankings, which allows search engines to know that the website is of high relevance and value.
The main pillars of technical optimization are to make a website faster, easier to crawl for search engines. In a layman’s language, it will state aspects you should be heedful about the technical footing of the website. With the help of structured data, your content will be eligible for affluent results, which will have a competitive edge over the other search results.
List of Technical SEO issues:
Technical actions to improve the site’s rankings cover various SEO facets like indexing, site structure, and page speed. Overlooking the technical SEO framework can affect your website’s rankings. It is important to clean up the site messiness, and it is pivotal to share insights on the most common technical SEO issues and offer tips to fix them.
So, let’s jump in.
1.Duplicate Content
Google performs the indexing process for your website pages. Content without distinct information is usually unwelcome. Google doesn’t downrank the duplicate content; it refuses to index it. Anything that slows Google’s discovery or crawling can affect the rankings of the website.
Duplicate content is any content that is appreciably similar to the content that resides on your site. Having multiple pages with similar content can cause a tussle to rank higher.
Most websites end up with multiple versions of the homepage through various URLs. You can rectify this by choosing one URL that you want as your main URL. Use 301 Redirects and make sure that your site redirects the content correctly. You can use a handful of SEO tools that help to spot duplicate content.
2.Broken links on Websites
When your website has outbound broken links, it is bad for users, Google web crawlers or your SEO to travel, find that link and collect data. Broken Links can hurt your optimization process and can be damaging. Go for tutorials to get insights on which links need attention.
Regularly audit your outbound links to play safely. No one would like to search a site full of 404 errors and can lead your traffic down. The error occurs when your site is removed without proper redirects for visitors to lead to the correct page. It can lead to poor performance rates and a less user-friendly experience.
To avoid high bounce rates or errors, contact the webmaster and ask for an updated link.
3.Title Tag Issues
Title tags have an impact on organic rankings. It exists in the head section of the web page and is prominently featured in the search engine results page as well. Title tags can have various issues like duplicate tags, missing title tags, or too long title tags. They help the user determine what your page is about and play a pivotal part in the optimization process.
Duplicate title tags are of no use to search engines; instead, use dynamic options to semantically code your tags. We can all relate to times where we want an answer to a specific question, yet the ranking search results answer a different question. It is important to use searcher intent keywords while optimizing title tags.
Title tags need to match the intent of the user to earn their click. Be concise and prioritize the important words in title tags as early as possible. This is one of the common technical SEO issues.
4. Too Many On-page Links
The more links, the better right? Not exactly. The first and most obvious crawlability issue occurs with links that don’t work due to various reasons. It is always advisable to use links that are more relevant and valuable and not overload the page with too many.
Internal link building can be a boon to various SEO opportunities which can be under your control. So wisely use SEO analytics tools to discover the frequency of internal link issues. Not followed links don’t count towards the page ranking factor.
5. Low Word Count
The better the opportunity to answer the user’s search intent and create more backlinks, the higher the enhancement of the ranking factors. Google tends to rank content with depth higher and, most importantly, the valuable content which resonates with the user’s query for better results.
Understanding what a user needs from your page is important to make sure it is comprehensive enough to meet their needs. Even if your page ranks well, it should not be the ultimate SEO goal. Converting traffic is more important. Using a lot of text might be off-putting for a product category page.
Try to have content that enhances the optimization process and drives more traffic. So, what can be the finest word count for SEO
There isn’t one. It is important to have a copy that aids the human visitor, not a search bot. Use long-tail keywords in the form of questions and subheadings, which will enhance the voice-search appeal of your webpage.
6. Low text to HTML ratio
If a lot of HTML code is required to display a small amount of text, then your text to HTML ratio is low which can reduce the ranking or search factor.
A redundant code can cause negative rankings. Google uses this to determine the actual relevance of a page. So, the higher the ratio of text to code, the better it is for driving better SEO efforts. It is important as pages with high HTML text can be more user-friendly. Websites with fewer line codes load faster. A compact code with a high ratio enables search engines to crawl and index a website.
You can fix the low HTML ratio by placing Javascript and CSS in separate files and validate your HTML code. Have a high HTML text ratio to make your website more user-friendly and work faster.
7. Substandard Mobile Experience
This is a major technical SEO issue. Few websites are actually optimized for mobile browsing. Almost 45% of web visitors skip websites if it is not website friendly.
You need to optimize your website for mobile; otherwise, the ranking factors can be deteriorating. Optimize for cross-device conversions. Optimize websites and design in such a way that fat-fingered smartphone users can browse comfortably.
Make it a user-friendly experience for your visitors, which will enhance your website rankings.
Subject your website to various mobile-readiness tests as you can gain a lot of engagement via mobile phones. It helps in a better optimization process. You can create a parallel site for mobile users with custom content for mobile users.
8. Contact forms
Most of the websites don’t perform well due to non-performing contact forms. This can affect the quality of the rankings and optimization.
Surprisingly, we often audit a website that has a contact form, which doesn’t work. Yes! As per research, only 49% of web users start to fill a form when they see it, and among them, around 16 % fill the entire form. Try making the form as compelling to the users as possible. Try to keep the verifications simple.
Try adding an interesting CTA copy other than generic ‘submit’. Most of the websites get ranked when the content is valuable, which grabs the viewers’ eyeballs. You can experiment with the colour, copy of your form.
9. Poor Navigation
Poor engagement paired with crawlability issues can indicate various technical SEO issues and low authority. If your site is irrelevant and not useful to visitors, it is not going to rank well in search engines. The design of a website’s navigation has a huge impact on website rankings. It affects conversions and user-friendliness.
Navigation should be descriptive. Opt for generic labels. Use labels that include popular keyphrases as navigation can be a huge opportunity to indicate your relevance to search engines. Concise navigation is important for SEO. It is important to have a good user experience as it generates more leads and is also good for SEO.
Logical website navigation will enable Google to crawl websites faster and easier to understand what the website is all about.
10. Images that are not user-friendly
Many website designs today work on producing stunning visuals without knowing how those visuals can hurt rankings. Image SEO, keyword optimization is important to draw optimal performances.
You can create SEO-friendly images by incorporating target keywords in the image title. Use tools that check image SEO elements like alt tags and filenames and help you get insights on various on-page SEO opportunities.
Optimizing images for your website is worth the time spent. Images make up an average of 22% of website weight. Therefore, it is important to compress and optimize images before uploading them to your website.
Write SEO friendly alt text. Paying attention to alt tags can be beneficial to the on-page SEO strategy. They are text which can be an alternative to images. Plus, by adding alt tags to images and keywords can achieve better website rankings.
11. Messy URLs
Using a logical URL structure can maximize your search engine visibility and usability in one go. Opt for SEO-friendly URLs which contain keywords that are easy to read and understand for search engines and users. As rankings play an important factor, it is crucial to have SEO-friendly URLs. It helps to promote Pagerank and user experience.
As you know, keeping user experience at the forefront is perhaps the most important of SEO efforts. Use short URLs as they tend to rank higher and enhance user experience. Keep your URL structure organized in the most accepted format.
Ensure to have proper keyword research for structured URLs to enhance better optimization. This is a common technical SEO issue, and it is important to rectify the issue to ensure high rankings and optimization.
12. Slow Page Loading Speed
A fast load time has been an important component of user experience. And is critical for ranking and page views. We suggest you run your pages through a page speed test and apply their suggestions.
There are various tools that help you test and increase your site’s overall speed, like Google Page speed tools. This is one of the common technical SEO issues. If optimized can bring better rankings. Page speed is a direct ranking factor; it is important to optimize page speed. As we know, tools make our lives easier. In this case, Page speed plugins can serve their best use.
How visitors experience your site matters, and that affects your rankings and can be crucial for effective user experience and feedback. Implement accelerated mobile pages, optimize images, and leverage browser caching for files. It needs to be optimized to drive more traffic to the website and ensure higher rankings. Contact your web developer to provide the best solutions for your site’s page issues.
13. Missing Meta Descriptions
These snippets help the search engines index your page, and a well-written meta description can stimulate audience engagement and interest. Meta descriptions play a pivotal role as they describe what the page is all about. They need to be optimized to match what the user will read on the page.
You can run an SEO site audit to find pages that have missing meta descriptions. An audit can identify the pages with meta description errors. It is important to make sure that meta descriptions are unique to a page. It is essential to have a positive impact on the user experience for your website.
14. Technical SEO Sitemap Errors
Sitemaps help search engines to crawl pages efficiently. It states where the important pages exist. Mistakes in XML sitemaps can cause Google to miss important pages or crawl unwanted pages. It is important to update your XML sitemaps so that Google has an accurate list of URLs.
If the site’s pages are properly linked, web crawlers can discover most parts of the site. Sitemaps can enhance the crawling of the site. There are various SEO software, which helps to unify data in interesting ways and create custom sitemaps. Make sure you check your configuration and ensure there are no errors to boost the SO efforts and gain effective results.
In a nutshell, sitemaps enhance the ranking of the website and can affect loading times. While using XML sitemaps, it is important to update the site once a day. It is a common SEO issue; if rectified, it can enhance the ranking factors.
15. Structured Data Markup
If you aren’t taking advantage of local search data, you are missing huge opportunities. Search engines recognize local searches and ensure that they have a presence on various data providers. Many times, businesses don’t have them, and this can leverage effective results.
With the help of structured data markups, you can improve clickthrough rates and result in rankings. It is becoming an important factor as mobile device searches are on a spike. This factor is missing in most businesses, which can affect rankings in cases of local SEO. It can help your site’s search results through ‘rich snippets.
16. Improper Redirects
One of the common issues found on websites is error pages. It can happen for various reasons, like page requests not found on the website or sites getting bogged due to high traffic. It is essential to locate 404 ‘not found errors on your site, and there are various webmaster tools to redirect them to more relevant pages. It is important to know various possible negative effects of redirection.
There are various tools that become a handy solution to maintain the Page Rank and SEO efforts. Redirects can affect user experience, and it is important to rectify them and not lose your precious traffic. While redirects help the users access your content, having a lot can affect loading speeds or lose hard-earned traffic.
Key Takeaway:
Hopefully, the list gave you a better idea of how to spot the various technical SEO issues. Correcting these errors on your site is a first step to ensure that your site is technically healthy.
TECHNICAL SEO FAQS:
- What are the components of technical SEO? List out some of the critical components of technical SEO.
Some of the critical components of technical SEO are as follows:
- Overall crawl of the website is for search engines to crawl the website to determine the rankings.
- Page speed time.
- Core web vitals- these are performance metrics that determine user experience.
- Mobile and desktop usability- to deliver the mobile-optimized experience to users as Google has started to crawl websites from a desktop point of view to smartphones enhancing user experience.
2.What are the top technical SEO tools?
There are various technical SEO tools that help in keyword research or rankings, which are as follows:
- Screaming frog- It is a tool for technical auditing issues.
- Google’s search console mainly monitors the site’s appearance and troubleshoots errors or technical issues.
- Google mobile-friendly test verifies how well a visitor can visit and use your page on a mobile device and identify mobile usability issues.
3.Why is technical SEO strategy important in today’s era of marketing?
A good SEO strategy should cover and improve both on-page and technical SEO factors. If you have a wrong technical SEO in practice, it can cause damaging consequences. It is best to regularly perform an in-depth technical audit process for search engines to index your pages.
It will impact site visitor’s actions, influence rankings, and affect site conversion rates. It helps in maximizing ROI and enhancing SEO efforts. It will enhance the page speed metrics and enhance the loading speed time. A regular audit process can help in spotting crawling and other technical issues which can affect your rankings.
4. What page speed should I aim for?
Page speed is becoming a ranking factor which is Google’s measurer to check your site speed. It can be resource-intensive to aim for a high page speed as it affects rankings. Aim for a high page speed, and after a certain point of time, you can find your site performing well. It is very vital for search engine optimization and bottom-line results.
Google announced that it would use core web vitals as a ranking factor along with page speed is the heart of the new metric, which will enable the ranking process to enhance efficiency. So, aim for a high page speed to enhance user experience.
Joseph Schneider is the Marketing Director at Haitna, an SEO agency in Dallas, TX. He has an interest in researching the latest trends in Digital marketing, Social media marketing, and PPC.