9 Important Technical Issues that Matters in SEO

Do you know about the 9 important technical issues that matter in SEO?

This article will explore effective methods for identifying technical SEO problems that have the potential to significantly impact your search engine rankings. Read carefully to find 9 important technical issues that matters in SEO.

Also read: 10 Best SEO Practices that You Must Follow in 2023

9 Technical issues in SEO

1.Indexability issues

Indexability refers to the capability of a webpage to be included in search engine indexes. When a page is not indexable, it cannot appear in search engine results pages and consequently fails to generate organic search traffic.

To ensure indexability, three essential requirements need to be fulfilled:

• Crawlability

The page should be accessible for search engine bots to crawl. Unless you have explicitly blocked Googlebot from accessing the page via the robots.txt file or if your website contains fewer than 1,000 pages, this requirement is usually not a concern.

• No noindex tag

The page must not contain a noindex tag, which instructs search engines not to include the page in their indexes. By removing this tag, you allow search engines to index the page and display it in search results.

• Canonicalization

The page should have a canonical tag that specifies it as the main or preferred version. Canonicalization helps prevent duplicate content issues and ensures that search engines prioritize the desired page for indexing.

By satisfying these three requirements, you can enhance the indexability of your webpages and increase their chances of appearing in search engine results, ultimately attracting valuable organic search traffic.

2. Sitemap issues

An ideal sitemap should exclusively include pages that you intend search engines to index. However, if a sitemap is not consistently updated or if an unreliable generator is employed to create it, several issues may arise. These issues can manifest as broken pages, pages marked as “noindexed,” pages that have lost their canonicalization, or pages that are blocked in the robots.txt file.

To ensure the effectiveness of your sitemap, it is crucial to regularly update it with accurate and relevant URLs. This helps prevent the inclusion of broken or irrelevant pages that can hinder search engine indexing. Additionally, using a reliable sitemap generator is recommended to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the sitemap.

By maintaining an up-to-date and reliable sitemap, you can enhance the crawling and indexing of your web pages, improving their visibility and potential for higher search engine rankings.

3. HTTPS issues

Google incorporates HTTPS encryption as a minor factor in determining rankings. Consequently, if your website lacks an SSL or TLS certificate to ensure its security, you might encounter lower rankings.

However, having an SSL or TLS certificate doesn’t guarantee complete compliance. Certain pages or resources within your website may continue to employ the HTTP protocol.

4.  Duplicate content

Duplicate content occurs when identical or closely resembling content is found in multiple locations on the web.

This has negative implications for SEO primarily due to two reasons: First, it can lead to undesirable URLs appearing in search results. Second, it can diminish the distribution of link equity.

The existence of duplicate content doesn’t always stem from intentional or unintentional creation of similar pages.

5. Broken pages

Pages that cannot be located (4XX errors) and pages that yield server errors (5XX errors) will not be included in Google’s index, thus failing to generate any traffic for your website.

Moreover, if broken pages possess incoming links, all the valuable link equity associated with them will be rendered useless.

Broken pages also consume crawl budget unnecessarily, which is particularly crucial to monitor for larger websites.

6. Broken links

If you have already addressed broken pages, it’s likely that you have resolved most of the issues related to broken links.

However, there are other significant issues related to links that require attention:

• Orphan pages

These pages lack internal links, which limits the ability of web crawlers to discover them. The only means of access for crawlers are through sitemaps or external backlinks. Since there are no internal links pointing to them, these pages do not receive any link equity from other pages on your website. Furthermore, users will not be able to navigate to these pages through the site’s navigation, potentially causing them to go unnoticed.

• HTTPS pages linking to internal HTTP pages

If your website has internal links leading to HTTP URLs while the site itself is secured with HTTPS, web browsers may display a warning about the non-secure nature of the linked pages. This can have negative consequences for your website’s overall authority and user experience, as users may be discouraged from proceeding due to security concerns.

It is important to address these issues to ensure optimal website performance, link equity distribution, and user satisfaction.

7. Mobile experience issues

Having a website that is optimized for mobile devices is crucial for SEO, and there are two main reasons for this:

Google’s mobile-first indexing

Google primarily uses the content of mobile pages to index and rank websites. This means that if your mobile pages are well-optimized and provide a positive user experience, it increases the chances of better visibility and rankings in search results.

Mobile experience as part of Page Experience signals

In addition to content quality, Google considers various factors related to user experience as part of its Page Experience signals. While content remains a significant ranking factor, page experience can act as a differentiating factor when multiple pages offer similar content quality. A positive mobile experience, including factors like fast loading speed, mobile-friendly design, and easy navigation, can give your website an edge in search rankings.

8. Performance and stability issues

Google utilizes Page Experience signals to rank pages, considering performance and visual stability as crucial factors.

To evaluate user experience, Google has created Core Web Vitals (CWV), a specialized set of metrics. Website owners and SEO experts can employ these metrics to gauge how Google assesses their website’s UX.

It is important to note that while page experience can influence rankings to some extent, CWV is not a competition for speed. The goal is not to have the fastest website on the internet, but rather to achieve a “good” score, preferably in all three categories: loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

9. Bad website structure

In the realm of technical SEO, poor website structure primarily refers to the issue of having essential organic pages buried too deeply within the website’s hierarchy. When pages are nested too deeply, requiring users to navigate through more than six clicks to reach them, they tend to receive less link equity from the homepage, which typically has the most backlinks. Consequently, their rankings may be negatively impacted since the value of each link diminishes with every intermediate step.

It’s worth noting that website structure holds significance for various other reasons as well, including overall user experience, efficient crawling by search engines, and aiding Google in comprehending the context of your pages. In this discussion, however, we will solely concentrate on the technical aspect.

Conclusion

In conclusion, understanding and addressing the most important technical issues in SEO is crucial for achieving optimal search engine visibility and organic rankings. We hope that with the help of this blog, you can now easily find 9 important technical issues in SEO.