32 Technical SEO Issues That Could Hurt Your Rankings

SEO is critical to a site’s success.

Read through this list to find some of the most common technical SEO issues that are affecting your website’s SEO performance right now.

 

The proof is in the numbers:

• Marketers see SEO as becoming more effective, with 82% reporting effectiveness is on the rise and 42% of this group stating effectiveness is increasing significantly. (MarketDive)
• 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. (WordStream)
• Google receives over 57,000 searches per second on any given day. (Live Stats)
• Businesses that have a strong keyword in the business name rank 1.5 spots higher than if there is no keyword in the name. (Local SEO Guide)

But the thing is, these numbers won’t work for if you don’t get your technical SEO just right.

1. Technical SEO Issue – Duplicate Content

Duplicate content – “substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely matches other content or are appreciably similar” – is a common issue.

In fact, SEMrush reports that 50% of analyzed content face duplicate content issues.

The problem is when there are multiple pages with similar content, it becomes hard for Google and other search engines to determine which page should rank.

2. Technical SEO Issue – Title Tag Issues

Title tags can have a variety of issues that affect SEO, including:

• Duplicate tags
• Missing title tags
• Too long or too short title tags
• Etc.

Your title tags – or page title – helps both users and search engines determine what your page is about, making them an (understandably) important part of the optimization process.

3. Meta Descriptions

A page’s meta description is a short snippet that summarizes what your page is about.

Search engines display generally display them when the searched-for phrase appears in the description, which is why it’s so important to optimize the meta description for SEO.

Oftentimes, sites that don’t utilize their meta descriptions (or duplicate them) will find their SEO suffering for it.

4. Technical SEO Issue – Broken Internal Links

A broken link here or there is often inevitable, but too many broken links spell SEO trouble.

No one wants to continuously search a site full of 404 errors, so it will likely result in a higher bounce right and traffic down.

And both of those things? Are bad for SEO.  Internal links not only improve your SEO, but they’re also the easiest links to add because they’re part of your own web property. 

5. Broken External Links

Much like internal links, you don’t want links intending to lead to your site to lead an error message instead.

A lack of working backlinks will reduce the number of your pages that appear in search engines.

6. Low Text to HTML Ratio 

This occurs when there’s more backend code on a site then text that people can read, and can cause sites to load slowly.

Often caused by a poorly coded site, it can be solved by removing unneeded code or adding more on-page text.

7. Technical SEO Issue – H1 Tag Issues

Header (H1) tags are another important component of on-page SEO.

While title tags appear in search results, H1 tags are visible to users on your page. The two should be different.

While it’s not recommended to have more than one H1 tag per page, commonly many are missing altogether or are duplicated in the title tag.

8. Technical SEO Issue – Missing Alt Tags

Images without alt tags are often overlooked by search engines.

Without text descriptions, they simply don’t know which category to put them in. This is why it’s important to include any keywords you’re trying to rank for in your image alt tags.

9. Broken Images

Clicking on an image that leads to nowhere is a sure way to increase your bounce rate, which in turn will have an adverse effect on your SEO.

Broken images are common and often occur due to site or domain changes or a change in file after publishing.

If you come across any of these on your site, make sure you troubleshoot fast.

10. Low Word Count

Though simplicity and brevity is often desirable in marketing, too little text could cause your SEO to suffer.

Google tends to rank content with depth higher, and longer pages often indicate that.

11. Technical SEO – Incorrect Language Declaration

Ideally, you want your content delivered to the right audience – which also means those that speak your language.

Failing to declare the default language of your site will hurt your page’s ability to translate as well as your location and international SEO.

Make sure you use this list to declare your language correctly.

12. 302 Redirects Instead of 301

First, the difference:

• 301 – permanent redirect
• 302 – temporary redirect

If you’re planning to permanently replace or redirect a page, use a 301 redirect so search engines don’t continue to crawl or index a page you’re no longer using.

13. Technical SEO Issue Upper Case vs. Lower Case URLs

This has become less of a problem of late, but still comes up for those using .net.

Mainly, servers won’t always redirect sites using uppercase to the lowercase URL.

If this is happening to you, use this rewrite module to fix the problem.

14. Multiple Versions of Homepage

This falls into the duplicate content category but creates an even bigger issue when it’s the homepage at fault.

Most modern search engines can work around the problem, but it’s still a best practice to eliminate the issue if possible.

The problem can usually be solved by adding a 301 redirect to a duplicate page that will point to the correct page.

15. Query Parameters at the end of URLs

Familiar with the overly long URL?

This often happens when certain filters are added to URLs such as color, size, etc. Most commonly it affects ecommerce sites.

I’ve had this issue with a lot of sites… Many times the parameters cause duplicate content as well.

The biggest issue here? It uses up your crawl budget, so make sure you take the time needed to clean up your URLs.  

16. Technical SEO – Soft 404 Errors

As a user, you may never notice this.

Technically, a soft 404 looks like a typical 404 redirect but returns a code 200 – which tells search engines that the page is working as it should.

When that happens, search engines will continue to crawl and index those pages that you don’t actually want them to.

The fix should be fairly simple for most web developers.

17. Too Many On-page Links

The more links the better, right?

Not exactly.

While there’s no official maximum limit, it’s recommended to include only links that are relevant and valuable, and not overload any page with too many. No more than 300, that is for sure. 

18. Technical SEO Issue – Outdated Sitemaps

XML sitemaps help search engines find the most important URLs for your site.

But just as your site is updated, so too should your sitemap.

If sitemaps are left too long with outdated information, they may point search engines to broken URLs. Make sure you update yours regularly.

19. Check Which Pages Aren’t Indexing

This one alone could save you a lot of trouble.

Before you start diagnosing your possible SEO problems, check to see your ranking.

All it takes is a Google search.

Type your site URL into Google to find which pages are ranking, and make sure they’re the ones you want.

Any pages you’d like to rank for missing? Then it’s dig deeper into the problem.

Here is a technical SEO tip, the new Google Search Console will actual show you this directly as well.

12. Technical SEO Issue – robots.txt File

This is a big hit to your technical SEO.

Something as small as “/” in the wrong place can do damage, so make sure yours are in order.

A misplaced “disallow” is another thing to be on the lookout for. This will signal Google and other search engines to not crawl the page containing the disallow, which would keep it from being properly indexed.

Read our guide to robots.txt to learn more.

13. Improper Noindex

Another small code that could seriously jeopardize your SEO is a misplaced index.

This mistake usually occurs in the website development phase before a site goes live, but should be removed.

If not, it can keep search engines from indexing your site. And if it’s not indexed, it won’t be ranked.

14. Rel=canonical Issue

This again deals with duplicate content issues. Specifically, it helps prevent the issue by telling search engines the page with the rel=canonical is the one they should be index.

If used in the wrong place (or not at all), it could understandably cause a bit of confusion.

If you suspect an issue, go through and make sure all your important pages are using a rel=canonical tag.

15. Technical SEO – Not Using HTTPS

If you haven’t made the move to HTTPs, it’s time.

A recent announcement from Google stated that they would soon start marking any non-HTTPS sites as non-secure if they require credit cards or passwords.

Currently, sites using HTTPS are ranked above those still using HTTP.

16. Technical SEO – Using Meta Refresh

Meta refresh is an (outdated) way of redirecting users to another page.

These days, most opt for 301 redirects. Google does not recommend using the meta refresh, and notes that it will not have the same benefits as a 301.

Moz has this to say about them: “ They are usually slower, and not a recommended SEO technique. They are most commonly associated with a five-second countdown with the text “If you are not redirected in five seconds, click here.” Meta refreshes do pass some link juice, but are not recommended as an SEO tactic due to poor usability and the loss of link juice passed.”

17. Not Using XML Sitemaps

There are a lot of sitemaps available, but if you’re not using XML, you’re not helping your SEO.

XML sitemaps are primarily for search engines – they help them understand which pages to crawl and index.

They’re most useful for very large sites, sites with pages that are not well linked to each other, new sites with few external links, and sites with rich media content.

Some common problems with them include:

• Not using them
• Allowing old versions to exist
• Not updating the sitemap
• Creating multiple versions

18. Too Long Word Count & Page Size

Unnecessarily lengthy pages can slow down site speed (they need to be really big though). And sometimes, you won’t even realize the extra text is there.

Things like terms & conditions or location info can be meant for a single page, but end up embedded in all site pages.

To make sure this isn’t an SEO for you, scan your site using a tool like Screaming Frog to make sure the word count is what you expect and there’s no hidden text.

19. Slow Load Time

If your websites loading slow, it’s likely not ranking well.

Google itself has said:

“Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed — that’s why we’ve decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings. We use a variety of sources to determine the speed of a site relative to other sites.”

Luckily, site speed can be monitored and any issues should be dealt with as soon as possible.

To give you a resource on what speed you should be aiming for, SEMrush compiled the results from a study into the following:

• if your site loads in 5 seconds, it is faster than approximately 25% of the web
• if your site loads in 2.9 seconds, it is faster than approximately 50% of the web
• if your site loads in 1.7 seconds, it is faster than approximately 75% of the web
• if your site loads in 0.8 seconds, it is faster than approximately 94% of the web

Some ways to increase site speed include:

• Enabling compression
• Optimize images
• Leveraging browser caching

20. Internal Linking Structure

As I’ve previously stated, internal linking ranks high in SEO.

To make sure yours is as effective as possible, make sure your pages connect to each other through practical navigational links with optimized anchor text.

21. Poor Mobile Experience

These days, this one’s a no-brainer.

In 2016, Google announced its intention to start mobile-first indexing:

“To make our results more useful, we’ve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results.”

To properly optimize for mobile, you must take everything from site design and structure to use of flash and page speed into consideration.

22. Questionable Link Building

While link building itself gives an obvious boost in search rinks, doing so in a questionable manner could result in penalties.

Beware of “black hat” strategies like link exchanges. Yes, they’ll get you a lot of links fast, but they’ll be low quality and won’t improve your rankings.

Other questionable “link scheme” behavior includes:

• Buying or selling links
• Automated programs or services

23. Technical SEO and Poor Navigation

If users can’t easily navigate your site, they’re unlikely to engage and will prove less useful to visitors.

In turn, that could lead search engines to consider your site to have low authority, which will adversely affect your rankings.

24. Messy URLs

When URLs are automatically generated, search engine friendliness isn’t necessarily taken into consideration.

Which is why you’ll end up with messy, unintelligible URLs like “index.php?p=367595.”

It’s not pretty, and it’s not SEO friendly.

Try cleaning them up and adding in relevant keywords to your URLs.

25. Local Search and Structured Data Markup

Local searches drive a lot of search engine queries, and Google certainly recognizes that.

Which is why a presence on search data providers like Yelp, Facebook, etc. is essential, as well as your own Google My Business page. Make sure your contact information is consistent on all pages. 

26. Technical SEO and Overuse of Flash

Flash websites: great for interacting with visitors, not so great for search engine optimization.

Because search engines look for text and keywords, they have a harder time with flash websites.

For higher indexing and rank, it’s best to keep flash use at a minimum.

27. Improper Move to New Website or URL Structure

Updating and moving websites is an important part of keeping a business fresh and relevant, but if the transition isn’t managed properly, there’s a lot that could go wrong.

Mainly, a loss in traffic.

It’s important to keep track of all URLs and ensure there are no duplicates and that 301 redirects are directed properly.

28. URL Errors and Technical SEO

Another possible issue could be with the URLs themselves. Check to make sure that no pages are reporting 404 errors that aren’t supposed to.

29. Pages Left out of Your Sitemap

This goes back to making sure you update your sitemap frequently.

If you add a new page to your site but fail to update your sitemap, search engines won’t know to crawl it.

Make it a part of the official process to update all pages and URLs when anything new is added to your site.

30. Meta Descriptions are Too Long

While technically meta descriptions can be any length, Google will often cut off descriptions that exceed 160 characters.

Best to keep it under the 160 mark, and if you do exceed make sure any important keywords are included before the possible cut off.

31. Too Many Nofollow Exit Links

Nofollow links have their uses. Mainly the following three:

• Links to untrusted content
• Paid links
• Crawl prioritization

Beyond that, you shouldn’t be overusing nofollow in your outbound links. Some sites use nofollow in an attempt to prioritise internal spider crawling, but fair warning: Google’s not a fan of this.

32. Wrong robots.txt Order

This one isn’t quite as common in technical SEO, but worth mentioning since Google lists it specifically in their guidelines.

Be careful when ordering your file (or make sure your developer is); you could have the correct commands listed, but if they don’t work together correctly it could lead to unintended URLs being crawled.

Wrapping Up Technical SEO Issues

To the untrained eye, technical SEO issues aren’t easy to spot.

Hopefully, this list gave you a better idea of what to look for (and what can wrong) on the technical side of SEO.

If you suspect any of the above could be happening on your site, it’s time to have a long look at your site and your SEO efforts.