The digital landscape is a competitive one, and to stand out, your website needs to be technically sound and SEO-optimized. While Content Geniuses is primarily focused on how to optimize your website from a content perspective, the importance of technical SEO cannot be overstated. It forms the foundation of your website’s visibility to search engines and users alike. By ensuring your website is free of technical glitches, you’re setting the stage for a successful SEO strategy.
In this guide, we’ll delve into the top 10 most crucial technical SEO issues that you need to address to enhance your keyword rankings and boost organic traffic dramatically. If left unattended, these issues can hinder your website’s visibility and performance in search engine results. That’s why we’ve packed this post full providing actionable insights so that you can implement technical SEO fixes right away.
Fix Broken Links
Broken links, also known as 404 errors, are detrimental to your SEO efforts. These are links on your website that lead to non-existent pages, causing a poor user experience and leaking website authority.
The solution? Apply a 301 redirect to all broken links, guiding them to a relevant, live page on your website.
Not only does fixing broken links improve your site’s navigability, but it also enhances your overall SEO. It’s a way of telling search engines that your website is well-maintained and user-friendly, which can contribute to higher rankings. Additionally, keeping your website fresh and up-to-date is critical for SEO. Broken links can be seen as a sign of an outdated website, so keeping them to a minimum can help maintain your site’s credibility and trustworthiness.
Pro-tip: Siteliner is a great tool for finding broken links and duplicate content on your website. It’s free for up to 250 pages and 1 cent per page beyond that.
Broken Backlinks
Broken backlinks are akin to broken links, except they reside on a third-party site, leading to a dead page on your website. While they don’t directly harm your SEO, they do prevent you from fully leveraging opportunities for backlinks.
Redirect all broken backlinks to a relevant, live page on your website, and watch your keyword rankings and organic traffic soar.
Backlinks are a significant factor in how search engines rank websites. By fixing broken backlinks, you’re reclaiming lost link equity and improving your site’s authority. This can lead to improved search visibility and increased organic traffic.
You’re also enhancing your site’s user experience by implementing these redirects. Visitors coming to your site from these links will land on a relevant, live page instead of a 404 error page.
Missing Meta Titles & Descriptions
Every page on your website should have a meta title and description. These elements are crucial for search engine understanding and user engagement.
If any of your pages lack these, it’s time to fill them in. Make your meta descriptions as enticing as possible to improve the page’s click-through rate (CTR) in Google.
Meta titles and descriptions are your first opportunity to attract and engage users in search results. They provide a snapshot of what your page is about, encouraging users to click through. A well-crafted meta title and description can significantly improve your page’s CTR, leading to more traffic and potentially higher rankings.
Moreover, they also serve as a marketing pitch for your content, making it essential to write them in a way that appeals to your target audience.
Pro-tip: Looking for ways to implement meta titles and descriptions quickly? You can train Chat-GPT to do this for you with
Missing H1 Tags
An H1 tag (the title of your page) is a must-have for every page on your website. If any of your pages are missing an H1 tag, it’s time to add it.
Depending on your content management system (CMS), you might need a developer’s assistance to get this added but it’s likely not that complicated.
H1 tags are not just important for SEO; they also play a crucial role in user experience. They provide structure to your content and make it easier for visitors to understand what your page is about. A well-optimized H1 tag can contribute to both improved ranking and user engagement. Plus, H1 tags are an excellent place to incorporate your primary keywords, further enhancing your SEO efforts.
Pro-tip: While having a H1 tag is critical, there should always ever be only one. Never put multiple H1 tags on a page.
Duplicate Content
Every page on your website should be unique. Copying content from other websites or duplicating topics within your site can harm your SEO. Remove any pages that cover the same topic as another page and ensure any content copied from other websites are rewritten to be original content.
Duplicate content can lead to confusion for search engines, making it difficult for them to decide which version of the content to index and rank. By ensuring each page on your website is unique and offers value, you’re improving your chances of ranking well in search results.
Additionally, creating unique content provides an opportunity to showcase your brand’s voice and perspective, which can help differentiate you from competitors.
Low-Value Informational Content
Low-value informational content is content that is very low in word count (< 500 words), doesn’t have any keyword rankings, or doesn’t generate any traffic. Remove this type of content or replace it with an improved version that’s useful to users.
Google prefers websites that are “deep” not “wide,” meaning each page should be extremely valuable and deserving of a ranking and establish your website’s E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness) credentials
Having low-value content on your website can dilute your overall content quality and impact your site’s performance in search results. By focusing on creating high-quality, in-depth content, you can provide more value to your users and increase your chances of ranking well in search results.
Quality trumps quantity in today’s SEO landscape. It’s better to have high-quality pages than many low-value ones.
Poor Internal Linking
A general rule of thumb is that every page on your website should be accessible with a maximum of three clicks from your homepage. If this isn’t the case, you need to improve your internal linking to “raise” these pages in the website architecture.
Internal linking is a powerful SEO strategy that can help distribute link equity across your website, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages. It also improves user experience by making it easier for visitors to navigate your site and discover more content. Moreover, strategic internal linking can guide users deeper into your site, increasing the chances of conversion.
Poor URL Structure
Your URLs should be concise. The shorter, the better. Avoid using duplicate words in your URL if possible. For example, “/benefits-of-vitamin-d” is better than “/what-are-the-benefits-of-vitamin-d.”
A well-structured URL is not only SEO-friendly but also user-friendly. It should give users and search engines an idea of what the page is about. A concise and descriptive URL can contribute to a better user experience and improved search visibility. And, as an added bonus, a clean URL structure will make it easier for you to track performance in analytics tools like Google Analytics and manage your site’s architecture.
Indexed Paginated and Tag Page
Indexed paginated and tag pages can bloat Google’s search results with low-value pages and create duplicate content issues. These should be removed by adding a canonical tag to each page pointing to the root page.
By adding a canonical tag, you’re telling search engines which version of a page to consider as the authoritative one for ranking. This can help resolve duplicate content issues and ensure that your most valuable pages receive the ranking power they deserve.
While paginated/tag pages might not be great for SEO, it’s worth noting that paginated and tag pages can sometimes serve a purpose for user experience. Be sure to balance SEO considerations with user needs.
Submit XML Sitemap
Submitting your XML sitemap makes it easier for Google to crawl and index the pages on your site. You can submit your XML sitemap in the Google Search Console dashboard.
An XML sitemap is like a roadmap of your website that helps search engines find, crawl and index all of your website’s content.
Submitting your XML sitemap is a proactive way of telling search engines about all the pages on your site, including those that might not be discoverable through the normal crawling process. Many content management systems, such as WordPress, will do this automatically. Keeping your sitemap up-to-date can help search engines quickly discover new or updated content, helping you stay competitive in search results.
The Upshot
By addressing these 10 technical SEO errors, your site will be primed to rank higher in Google’s search results. Remember, SEO is a continuous process, and regular audits and fixes are necessary to maintain and improve your rankings.
These insights are not just one-time fixes but should be part of your ongoing SEO strategy. By regularly monitoring and addressing these issues, you can ensure your website remains optimized and ready to compete in the ever-changing digital landscape.
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