{"id":6604,"date":"2024-01-02T19:16:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T19:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysiteauditor.com\/blog\/?p=6604"},"modified":"2024-01-08T16:59:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:59:26","slug":"common-technical-seo-issues-and-how-to-fix-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysiteauditor.com\/blog\/common-technical-seo-issues-and-how-to-fix-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Technical SEO Issues and How to Fix Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people who have even a basic understanding of SEO know how important well-written content, keyword targeting, and backlinks are for their Google ranking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But these public-facing on-site<\/a> and off-site SEO<\/a> efforts can\u2019t do all the heavy lifting. Your technical SEO is just as important \u2014 in fact, it\u2019s maybe even <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> important. After all, hosting a perfectly optimized blog post will count for little if your website hasn\u2019t been optimized \u201cunder the hood.\u201d Think of your technical SEO as the fluid that keeps your search engine performance ticking over.<\/span><\/p>\n

At <\/span>MySiteAuditor<\/span><\/a>, we know a thing or two about SEO, and we routinely come across the same issues time and time again. That\u2019s why we thought it\u2019d be a good idea to run through some of the common technical SEO issues, and we\u2019ll even tell you how to fix technical SEO issues too. None of the issues we outline below are particularly difficult to resolve, and it\u2019s possible that you can fix all of them in a single afternoon if you\u2019re tech-savvy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ready? Let\u2019s dive in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Common Technical Issues and Solutions<\/b><\/h2>\n

No HTTPS Security<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Which technical SEO issues are most important? They all play their role, but if we had to pick one, we\u2019d probably go for anything security-related. Having no HTTPS security impacts the success of your website in two ways. First, visitors who see a \u201cnot secure\u201d notification when they land on your website will be more likely to close the page within seconds because, in this day and age, people take their digital security seriously \u2014 and rightly so.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019ll impact your Google standing, too. The search engine wants to send people to valuable websites that they enjoy using, and if they see that everyone seems to be leaving your site within a couple of seconds, then it\u2019s clear that your website does not fall into that useful and valuable category. And in any case, keeping your website is just the right thing to do. Your visitors should feel safe at your site.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do you solve this? It\u2019s easy \u2014 you buy an SSL certificate from a reputable certificate authority. Once it\u2019s installed, your website will have the much-needed \u201cSecure\u201d badge of honor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Site Isn\u2019t Indexed Correctly<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Everyone talks about improving their site\u2019s SEO, but they often overlook that if a site isn\u2019t indexed correctly, then all the magic SEO tricks will be for nothing. If Google can\u2019t index your website\u2019s pages, then those pages essentially don\u2019t exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a quick check you can do to see how many of your website\u2019s pages Google has indexed. Simply point your browser to the search engine and type \u201csite:[yourwebsitename.com]\u201d into the search bar. At the top, you\u2019ll see how many results pop up. If your website has 450 visible pages and it says \u201cabout 450 results\u201d then you\u2019re good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If there are <\/span>no<\/span><\/i> results, then you have a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you see significantly fewer results than expected, then you have a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you see <\/span>more<\/span><\/i> results than expected? Yep, you have a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your site isn\u2019t yet indexed, then you can submit it directly to Google; you\u2019ll find information on how to do this on <\/span>this page<\/span><\/a>. For pages not indexed, you\u2019ll need to perform an audit. You can check those pages against Google\u2019s guidelines (also found on the previously linked page) to ensure that the website is fully compliant. And if you see more results, cross-reference for duplicate content or old pages that may still be active. Deactivating the pages or redirecting them to a different page should do the trick.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No XML Sitemaps<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Your website\u2019s XML sitemap is what allows Google\u2019s crawlers to make sense of your website. This isn\u2019t the most common technical SEO issue, but if your website has many pages and is generally quite complex, then it can make a huge difference. Without an XML sitemap, Google\u2019s bots could get lost as they crawl your site. You can think of the sitemap as the compass that pushes crawlers in the right direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to overlook XML sitemaps, especially if you\u2019ve grown your website steadily from its humble beginnings. If you don\u2019t have one, then now\u2019s the time \u2014 and remember that once it\u2019s done, you\u2019ll have to share the location in your website\u2019s robots.txt.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you do have one, make sure it\u2019s the only one that\u2019s active. Google can\u2019t differentiate between outdated and up-to-date XML sitemaps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Missing or Incorrect Robots.txt<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You can\u2019t call missing Robots.txt one of the most common technical SEO issues. And that\u2019s largely because it\u2019s one of the most serious technical SEO problems, so people normally know about it \u2014 without it, Google\u2019s crawlers have no way of knowing which pages it should be crawling. With robots.txt, you\u2019ll prevent Google from spidering all over your website, which could involve indexing pages that are old or not meant for public view.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you only have a few pages that you\u2019re happy for the world to see, then you may not need robots.txt. But if you have private areas, staging sites, or just want complete control over what crawlers see, then you absolutely do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need to work with your developer to put together or correct your robots.txt file, because although it\u2019s relatively straightforward to fix, things can quickly go wrong if handled incorrectly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meta Robots NOINDEX Set<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Having an incorrect robots.txt file can be damaging, but it\u2019s not necessarily fatal. The pages included in the file will still make their way to Google\u2019s pages, even if it would be better if they didn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if your website has a NOINDEX command, then all the pages included within the file will be removed from the crawler\u2019s exploration of your website. Your site won\u2019t automatically have a NOINDEX directive; it\u2019s usually added when a website is being developed or redeveloped, which is when it <\/span>should<\/span><\/i> be used. But sometimes the directive is not removed when the website goes live. It\u2019s usually just an oversight in the mad rush to get the website online.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can manually look for NOINDEX directives by checking your website\u2019s source code. If it\u2019s there, speak to your developer to get it out of there. You may also want to set a reminder to remove NOINDEX directives if you\u2019re regularly updating your website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Slow Page Speed<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Your page load time impacts your SEO performance in an indirect way. Studies have shown that people are quick to leave a website if the page fails to load quickly \u2014 a 5 second load time results in more than 80% of people hitting the \u2018X\u2019 button.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This matters because Google\u2019s overarching goal is to point their users in the direction of quality websites. And if people are leaving a website within the first few seconds of being there, Google will get the message that the site isn\u2019t valuable. If you\u2019ve put a lot of time and effort into creating a great site, then you want your visitors to see it!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if your website loads quickly for you, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019ll load for all users just as quickly. You can check your site\u2019s speed directly within Google <\/span>by clicking here<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s best to check mobile speed as well as desktop \u2014 mobile users are even less patient when it comes to load time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have a problem, then your developer will need to investigate. It could be as simple as needing to compress your site\u2019s images, or as complex as an underlying server issue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Multiple Versions of the Homepage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You want to give your visitors as many ways as possible to reach your homepage, but it\u2019s important to keep in mind that you may be making Google\u2019s job more difficult.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, let\u2019s say you\u2019ve indexed \u2018<\/span>www.yourwebsitename.com<\/span>,\u2019 \u2018yourwebsitename.com,\u2019 \u2018yourwebsitename.com\/home.\u2019 and \u2018<\/span>www.yourwebsitename.com\/home<\/span>.\u2019 While Google may decide just to prioritize one version, there\u2019s also a chance that they focus on all the variations. And that means that the SEO credentials of your homepage have been split between four different sites, even if they\u2019re all effectively the same page.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is one of those SEO technical issues that is easy to fix and which costs you nothing. It\u2019s best to use the \u201csite:yourwebsite.com\u201d Google search tool to see which of your homepages pops up first on search results, and make that one your priority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Incorrect Rel=Canonical<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Many websites have no need for rel=canonical tags, but if you\u2019re running a website with pages that have similar content, then it\u2019s key. For example, many e-commerce sites<\/a> have product pages that have highly similar content that can look virtually the same to Google\u2019s bots. It can also be useful if you have dynamically rendered pages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rel=canonical simply tells Google which pages should receive priority. You\u2019ll want to place the tag in the one that is of most importance. For example, it could go on the overall product category page, which would then point users to that page rather than a specific product page. You\u2019ll need to dig into the source code to fix this one, but the tag is easy to place \u2014 you can follow this guide from Google on <\/span>how to do it<\/span><\/a>. If you\u2019re really unsure of what to do, then let your developer handle the job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Duplicate Content<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Duplicate content<\/a> serves little purpose and can make Google\u2019s job of indexing and ranking your website more difficult. And anything that is unwelcome by Google should have no place on your website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Duplicate content can come from multiple sources. Having older pages still \u201clive\u201d to Google, even if they\u2019re publicly visible, is perhaps the top reason for duplicate content. It also occurs when similar URLs point to the same website (for example: <\/span>www.yourwebsitename.com<\/span> and yourwebsitename.com.).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The solution to this is to tell Google which pages should receive priority. You can use the above-mentioned rel=canonical tag to order live pages. For pages that you don\u2019t want or need to be indexed, you can use the robots.txt tag.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Missing Alt Tags<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not having alt tags on your images is not going to necessarily hurt your SEO, but you\u2019ll be missing an opportunity to make your website\u2019s SEO as robust as possible. It\u2019s very easy to add alt tags to your images, and since Google\u2019s algorithm loves them, it\u2019s a no-brainer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alt tags provide additional information to Google about what the website is about. The images on your site already provide an improved experience to your visitors \u2014 with alt tags, you can get maximum value from those photos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How you add alt tags will depend on your CMS, but most \u2014 and all the major ones \u2014 make it very simple to add them. The issue is normally identifying which images don\u2019t have alt tags. There are website SEO scanning tools that can flag up any images without tags.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Broken Links<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Having internal and external links on your website enhances the user\u2019s experience, and can make a huge difference to your site\u2019s SEO performance. However, that\u2019ll only happen if your links are live and working. It\u2019s better to have no links at all than broken links.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your internal links should always be updated when a page is updated. External links are a little trickier since you won\u2019t receive a notification if that page is removed or changed. It\u2019s recommended to periodically check your external links. There are SEO tools that can help identify any broken links, at which point you\u2019ll just need to remove or change the URL.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not Enough Use of Structured Data<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Structured data is an underused tool in the SEO world. Not only does it improve the user experience, but it also gives your website a clean and structured look and feel \u2014 two things that Google loves.<\/span><\/p>\n

How you incorporate structured data will depend on the type of website you run. You\u2019ll often see recipe websites feature ingredient lists as structured content, for example. Your business\u2019s contact information is also suitable.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve underusing structured data, then keep it in mind moving forward. It\u2019s not an essential SEO tactic, but when you\u2019re coming up with new content for your site, try to identify opportunities to use it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mobile Device Optimization<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You\u2019ll know from your own internet usage just how important having mobile device optimization<\/a> has become. More searches are now made with a smartphone device than a desktop computer, and that should guide your SEO efforts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to assume that you have a mobile-ready website. For SEO purposes, it\u2019s recommended not to have two different versions of your website (for example, yourwebsitename.com and m.yourwebsitename.com). That\u2019ll run the risk of splitting your ranking \u2014 it\u2019s much better if all your SEO efforts are concentrated on a single page. The easiest solution to this is to adopt responsive design, which will automatically present your website in line with the user\u2019s device.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Missing or Non-Optimized Meta Descriptions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You can think of meta descriptions in much the same way you think of alt text for your images. Meta descriptions may not appear directly on your website, but they\u2019re essential from a search engine\u2019s perspective. They provide additional information to Google\u2019s bots about the content of the page. Plus, they show up on Google\u2019s results page, which can help generate interest in your site from users. It\u2019s a way to let people know what to expect when they land on the page.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can use SEO auditing tools to identify which pages do not have meta descriptions. It\u2019s also recommended to look at the meta descriptions of your website\u2019s most important pages to check they\u2019re logical and well-written.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Users Sent to Pages with Wrong Language<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Websites that have an international audience should serve content in a variety of languages. It helps to improve the user experience and also ensures that Google ranks your pages even when searches are made in other languages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some years ago, Google introduced the hreflang tag to help businesses serve local communities around the world. Including the hreflang tag on your website will help to redirect the user to the page in their local language. Since this is code-based, it\u2019s important to update the code when making changes to pages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

As we said at the beginning of the article, your technical SEO is arguably just as important as your on-site and off-site SEO efforts. The reason why many website owners overlook this crucial aspect is that most of the actions take place on the developer\u2019s side, and they\u2019re focused on website performance, not SEO \u2014 they already have enough to do and SEO is not on their agenda. Moving forward, it\u2019s recommended to speak to the developer team to check that all the elements above have been checked before the website goes live.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your website is already live, then check all of the above to ensure you have no technical issues SEO that may be impacting your site\u2019s Google performance. All of the problems are relatively easy to fix with the help of your developer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most people who have even a basic understanding of SEO know how important well-written content, keyword targeting, and backlinks are for their Google ranking.\u00a0 But these public-facing on-site and off-site SEO efforts can\u2019t do all the heavy lifting. Your technical SEO is just as important \u2014 in fact, it\u2019s maybe even more important. After all, […]","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":6606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/mysiteauditor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Technical-SEO-1-scaled.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/mysiteauditor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/itunes-cover.jpg","download_link":false,"player_link":false,"audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":[],"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/mysiteauditor.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast","embedCode":"

Common Technical SEO Issues and How to Fix Them<\/a><\/blockquote>