The Ultimate Guide to Identifying and Fixing Common Technical SEO Issues

Crawlability and indexability are foundational elements of technical SEO, ensuring that search engines can efficiently discover and understand your content. If your site is not fully crawlable or indexable, it won’t appear in search results, no matter how valuable your content may be. According to the Ahrefs study, issues related to crawlability and indexability are among the most common technical SEO problems.

Crawlability refers to the ability of search engine bots to access and navigate through your website’s pages. Search engines use bots, like Google’s Googlebot, to “crawl” websites, following links from one page to another to discover new content. If a bot encounters barriers, such as broken links or blocked pages, it may fail to index parts of your site, reducing your overall visibility

1. Broken Internal Links: If internal links are broken or lead to non-existent pages (404 errors), search engines will struggle to crawl your site effectively.
2. Poor URL Structure: Complex or dynamically generated URLs can confuse search engine bots, leading to incomplete crawling.
3. Robots.txt Misconfigurations: Misconfigured robots.txt files can block search engine bots from accessing important sections of your site.

Indexability is the process by which a search engine stores and catalogs the content it has crawled. If your pages are not properly indexed, they won’t appear in search engine results, which means your content will remain invisible to potential visitors

1. Noindex Tags: Pages with “noindex” tags prevent search engines from indexing them, which can be beneficial for low-value content but disastrous if applied to important pages.
2. Duplicate Content: Search engines may choose not to index duplicate content or may index the wrong version, leading to issues with visibility.
3. Spammy Content: As of March 2024, Google’s latest algorithm update has intensified efforts to identify and unindex spammy or low-quality pages. If your site contains such content, it may be de-indexed, resulting in a significant drop in search visibility

Google’s March 2024 update has introduced more stringent criteria for identifying and de-indexing spammy or low-quality pages. This update focuses on improving the overall quality of search results by ensuring that only valuable, relevant, and high-quality content is indexed and ranked. Websites that engage in practices such as keyword stuffing, duplicate content creation, or generating thin content may find their pages de-indexed or severely downgraded in rankings

• Audit and Repair Internal Links: Regularly audit your internal links using tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to identify and repair broken links. Ensuring all internal links point to valid pages will enhance your site’s crawlability.
• Simplify URL Structures: Use clean, descriptive URLs that are easy for both users and search engines to understand. Avoid using complex parameters in URLs unless absolutely necessary.
• Correct Robots.txt and Meta Tags: Ensure that your robots.txt file is correctly configured to allow search engine bots to access important pages. Also, review your use of “noindex” tags to ensure they are not applied to pages that should be indexed.
• Remove or Improve Low-Quality Content: Review your site for any spammy, thin, or low-quality content that could trigger Google’s new de-indexing criteria. Either improve this content to meet quality standards or remove it altogether to avoid penalties
• Use Google Search Console: Regularly monitor Google Search Console to identify indexing issues and take immediate action to resolve them. The tool provides detailed reports on crawl errors, indexing status, and potential issues with your robots.txt file

Page structure is a crucial aspect of both user experience and SEO. A well-structured page not only makes it easier for users to navigate your content but also helps search engines understand the importance of each section on your page. The Ahrefs study revealed that many websites suffer from poor page structure, often due to missing headers or incomplete content

Page structure refers to how your content is organized on a webpage, including the use of headings (H1, H2, etc.), paragraphs, images, and other elements. A clear and logical structure helps search engines parse your content, identify the main topics, and determine the relevance of your page to specific search queries

• Missing Headers: Failing to include proper headers (H1, H2, etc.) can make it difficult for search engines to understand the hierarchy of your content. The absence of these elements can lead to poor indexing and reduced visibility in search results.
• Inconsistent Use of Headings: Overusing H1 tags, skipping heading levels, or using headings inconsistently can confuse both search engines and users. This inconsistency can weaken the overall structure of your page.
• Incomplete Content: Pages that lack comprehensive content or are missing key sections can be perceived as low quality by search engines, leading to lower rankings

• Use Proper Heading Tags: Ensure that each page on your site uses one H1 tag for the main title, followed by H2 and H3 tags for subheadings and sections. This creates a clear hierarchy that helps search engines understand the structure of your content.
• Audit Heading Usage: Use SEO tools to audit your headings and ensure that they are used consistently and logically throughout your site. Avoid skipping heading levels, as this can disrupt the flow of your content.
• Ensure Comprehensive Content: Make sure each page provides complete and valuable content that fully covers the topic at hand. Avoid publishing pages that are thin on content, as these may be flagged by search engines as low quality.
• Incorporate Structured Data: Where appropriate, use structured data (schema markup) to enhance your content’s visibility in search results. Structured data provides additional context to search engines, helping them better understand the content and its relevance

The Ahrefs study identified several recurring technical SEO issues across the majority of analyzed websites. Addressing these issues can significantly improve your website’s performance in search engines. Most Common Technical SEO Issues Identified in Over 1 Million Websites

Meta tags are vital elements that provide search engines with information about your website’s content. However, the study found that a significant percentage of websites have poorly optimized meta tags, which can negatively impact their search rankings.

• Missing Meta Tags: Many websites fail to include essential meta tags like title tags, meta descriptions, and alt text for images. This oversight can lead to poor indexing and reduced visibility in search results.
• Duplicate Meta Tags: Duplicate meta tags across different pages can confuse search engines, leading to indexing issues and potential penalties.
• Over-Optimized Meta Tags: Stuffing meta tags with too many keywords can result in penalties from search engines due to unnatural and spammy content.

• Conduct a Meta Tags Audit: Use tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs to identify missing or duplicate meta tags on your site. Regular audits can help ensure that your tags remain optimized and relevant.
• Create Unique Meta Tags: Ensure that each page on your site has unique and descriptive meta tags that accurately reflect the content. Tailor these tags to the specific content of each page to enhance relevance.
• Optimize for Relevance: Focus on including relevant keywords naturally within your meta tags without overstuffing. Ensure that your meta tags are user-friendly and provide clear information about the page’s content
• Use automatic meta-tags optimization tools

Nytro System automate the process of optimizing meta tags, ensuring that your titles, descriptions, image alt texts and link anchor titles  are fully optimized with relevant keywords search queries.

Technical SEO is a critical component of your overall SEO strategy

Addressing common technical issues like meta tags optimization, heading and webpage structure, internal linking, redirection management, and page speed can significantly improve your website’s visibility and performance.

By understanding the causes of these issues and implementing the solutions provided in this guide, you can ensure that your website remains competitive in search engine rankings. Additionally, leveraging tools like NytroSEO.com can automate many of these tasks, making it easier to maintain a healthy and optimized website.

Remember, SEO is not a one-time task but an ongoing process.

Regular audits and updates are essential to keeping your site in top shape. Stay proactive, and your efforts will be rewarded with higher rankings, more traffic, and better user engagement.

By following this guide, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the common technical SEO issues that could otherwise hold your website back