If you want to drive traffic to your website, you must optimize it for search engine rankings. Unfortunately, the process of search engine optimization is complex, and even minor errors can lead to major issues. Take the time to identify and resolve common SEO issues with your site so that you can maximize profit.
This article will delve into the topic of technical SEO. We’ll go over what it is, as well as the most common technical SEO issues you’re likely to encounter and how to fix them. Continue reading!
What exactly is Technical SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a multifaceted concept. It is the process of optimizing a website to receive traffic from search engines’ free, organic, and natural search results. A strong SEO strategy includes many components, but many people overlook the importance of technical SEO. These are changes you make to a website or server that have an immediate impact on search engine crawling, indexation, and rankings.
Title tags, page titles, HTTP header responses, 301 redirects, XML sitemaps, and metadata are all examples of technical SEO components. It is not the same as the components of SEO that most people are familiar with, such as keyword research, analytics, and social media strategies. However, just because technical SEO is different doesn’t make it any less important. In fact, identifying and correcting simple technical SEO issues can have a significant impact on your search engine rankings.
Resolving the Top 13 Technical SEO Issues
A number of complex processes are involved in optimizing your website. Before you even launch your site, you must conduct keyword research and create content. You’ll need to pay attention to small details like headings, metadata, and image optimization, which all add up to have a big impact on your SEO. Once your site is live, you must continue to maintain it and make important updates and changes to ensure that it is performing to its full potential.
Here is where technical SEO comes into play. Technical SEO issues may be minor, but they can have a significant impact on your rankings. Here are some of the most common technical SEO issues to look for and address:
1- HTTPS security – As of a 2017 update, Google now displays a “not secure” warning in the Chrome browser whenever a user visits an HTTP site. Users will receive this warning if your site is not HTTPS secure, and they may choose to visit another site. To see if your domain is secure, enter it into Google Chrome and look for the “secure” message. You’ll need an SSL certificate to convert your site to HTTPS.
2- Improve site indexing – If your site’s pages aren’t indexed, Google considers them to be non-existent, and they won’t appear in search results. Try searching for your brand name to see if it appears in the results. If it doesn’t, begin by entering your URL into Google. If your site is indexed but there are too many results, double-check for older versions of your site or spam from site hacking.
3- Robots.txt – The only thing worse than a misconfigured robots.txt file is a misconfigured robots.txt file. To check your robots.txt file, go to your website’s URL and add “/robots.txt” at the end. If the results show “User-agent: *Disallow/,” it means robots are being denied access to your site, which you should address.
4- Slow page speed – If your page does not load in 3 seconds or less, you may lose traffic. Site speed is extremely important for both user experience and Google rankings. To test your page speed, use Google PageSpeed Insights to identify speed issues and, if possible, resolve them. Poor image optimization, browser caching issues, and slow server response time are all common page speed issues.
5- Multiple home page versions – If you type “yourwebsite.com” into Google, you’ll get the same result as if you type “www.yourwebsite.com.” If you have multiple versions of your homepage, Google may index multiple URLs, diluting your visibility. When checking, make sure to look for both HTTP and HTTPS versions of the site.
6- Duplicate content – When it comes to SEO rankings, content is extremely important, but it must be of high quality and contain relevant keywords. Duplicate content may help you fill out your website, but it can also confuse search engine crawlers and harm your rankings. Check the Rel=Canonical if you have duplicate or similar content on your site.
7- Incorrect Rel=Canonical – This is especially important for sites with duplicate or similar content so that Google recognizes each page as unique. Examine your source code, and if you find a problem, double-check your content structure and web platform.
8- Broken links – It is critical for the ranking of your site to include both internal and external links. This demonstrates to your users and search engine crawlers that your site contains high-quality content. However, links can break over time, resulting in a poor user experience and a drop in page ranking. Conduct regular site audits to look for broken or outdated links.
9- Missing alt tags – Even if images aren’t important for SEO, missing alt tags and broken images are a missed SEO opportunity. Alt tags assist search engines in indexing your pages by informing the bot what each image is – it is a simple way to improve your page’s SEO value while also improving the user experience.
10- Optimize for mobile devices – Google announced in 2018 that mobile-first indexing accounted for more than half of the websites appearing in search results. In some cases, Google transitions sites on its own, but if your site hasn’t been optimized for mobile users yet, you should double-check and do it yourself.
11- Non-optimized meta descriptions – Although less important than keyword research, metadata plays an important role in SEO. Your meta description is a short blurb of up to 165 characters that describes the page – it appears in search results below the site name and helps users determine if the content on the page is what they’re looking for.
12- Structured data – Structured data is a simple way to assist Google search engine crawlers in understanding the data and content on your page. For example, if you have a recipe on your website, the ingredients list will be presented as a bulleted list – structured data that helps Google understand the data on that page.
13- Redirections 301 and 302 – Because dead pages can harm your SEO, it is critical to use redirects to manage them and consolidate multiple pages. 302 redirects are temporary, whereas 301 redirects are permanent. They work very well, but you must understand how to use them properly, so do your research before attempting to use them.
You can apply what you’ve learned about technical SEO to your own site now that you have a better understanding of what it is and how to optimize it. Take Help of Any Digital Marketing Agency for better performence. Continue reading for more simple tips on how to improve the technical SEO of your website.
Author Bio
Anji Kahler
Anji writes for Technical, Digital marketing, and SEO-related topics additionally; she has had a passion for the technology industry for more than ten years, Anji has become an experienced technical writer in this industry. She works in an Amazon Marketing Agency Called Winalll. Her goal is to help people with his vast knowledge to assist them with his best suggestions about different activities: Seo Updates, Digital marketing updates.