In today’s digital world, having a website isn’t enough. For businesses, bloggers, and online entrepreneurs, ensuring that your website ranks high on search engines is essential for visibility and growth. However, many website owners struggle with poor rankings despite having valuable content and attractive designs. The issue often lies in technical SEO—the backbone of search engine optimization that focuses on improving the technical aspects of a website to help search engines crawl and index it efficiently.
In this article, we’ll explore the key reasons why your website isn’t ranking as it should and provide actionable tips on how to fix it using technical SEO.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing your website’s infrastructure to help search engines crawl, interpret, and index your site effectively. Unlike on-page SEO (which focuses on content, keywords, and internal linking), technical SEO deals with the website’s architecture, speed, security, mobile-friendliness, and other backend factors that influence how search engines rank your site.
If your website isn’t ranking well, it could be due to one or more technical issues that prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your pages effectively. Let’s break down the common technical SEO problems and how to fix them.
Common Technical SEO Issues That Affect Rankings
1. Slow Website Speed
One of the most crucial factors in SEO today is website speed. Google has made it clear that page speed is a ranking factor, especially for mobile users. If your site loads slowly, it can negatively affect user experience, leading to higher bounce rates and lower rankings.
How to Fix It:
- Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to test your website’s speed and identify slow-loading pages.
- Optimize images by reducing their file sizes without compromising quality.
- Minimize the use of heavy scripts and plugins.
- Leverage browser caching to store resources locally on users’ devices.
- Consider upgrading your hosting plan if your server is too slow.
2. Mobile Unfriendliness
With mobile traffic accounting for over half of global website visits, mobile-friendliness has become a critical factor in SEO. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, it could affect your rankings and the overall user experience.
How to Fix It:
- Use responsive web design, which ensures that your website adapts to different screen sizes automatically.
- Test your site using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if there are any mobile usability issues.
- Ensure that buttons, links, and navigation are easy to use on smaller screens.
- Reduce pop-ups and intrusive elements that interfere with mobile browsing.
3. Crawl Errors and Broken Links
Search engines need to be able to crawl and index your pages to rank them properly. If there are broken links, 404 errors, or inaccessible pages, search engines may have difficulty crawling your site, which can harm your rankings.
How to Fix It:
- Use tools like Google Search Console to identify crawl errors and fix them quickly.
- Regularly check for broken links using tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs Site Audit.
- Set up proper redirects (301 redirects) for any deleted or moved pages to ensure users and search engines are directed to the correct content.
- Make sure your XML sitemap is up to date and contains all the necessary pages for search engines to crawl.
4. Poor Website Structure
A clear, logical website structure helps search engines understand your site’s hierarchy and the importance of each page. A confusing or poorly structured website can lead to crawling issues and may affect rankings.
How to Fix It:
- Organize your content into categories and subcategories to create a clear, logical hierarchy.
- Use breadcrumb navigation to help both users and search engines understand the structure of your website.
- Ensure that all important pages are reachable within three clicks from the homepage.
- Use internal linking strategically to connect related content and spread link equity across your site.
5. Duplicate Content
Search engines may penalize websites with duplicate content, as it can confuse the algorithm about which version of the content should be ranked. Duplicate content can occur unintentionally, especially on e-commerce sites or websites with similar product descriptions.
How to Fix It:
- Use canonical tags to tell search engines which version of a page should be considered the primary one.
- Avoid duplicate content by ensuring that each page has unique, valuable content.
- Use 301 redirects to consolidate duplicate URLs into one authoritative page.
- Regularly audit your website for duplicate content using tools like Copyscape or Siteliner.
6. Missing or Improper Use of Meta Tags
Meta tags, like title tags and meta descriptions, play a significant role in how search engines understand your content and how users perceive your website in search results. If these tags are missing or improperly used, it can hinder your rankings.
How to Fix It:
- Ensure every page on your website has a unique, descriptive title tag (under 60 characters) and meta description (under 160 characters).
- Include relevant keywords naturally in both the title and description.
- Use structured data (schema markup) to provide additional context about your content to search engines.
7. Insecure Website (No HTTPS)
Google prioritizes secure websites in its rankings, and if your site is not secured with HTTPS, it may be penalized or flagged as insecure. HTTPS ensures that data transmitted between the user and the server is encrypted, which also builds trust with visitors.
How to Fix It:
- Install an SSL certificate on your website to switch from HTTP to HTTPS.
- Ensure that all internal links, resources, and images use HTTPS URLs.
- Update Google Search Console and Analytics with your HTTPS version of the site.
How to Perform a Technical SEO Audit
To address all of these issues, it’s a good idea to conduct a comprehensive technical SEO audit. Here’s how to do it:
- Crawl Your Website: Use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to crawl your website and identify issues like broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags.
- Check Your Site Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze your site’s speed and get actionable recommendations for improvement.
- Audit Your Mobile Usability: Run your site through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to spot any mobile usability problems.
- Fix Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to find crawl errors, 404 pages, and other issues affecting your site’s ability to be indexed.
- Optimize for HTTPS: Make sure your website is secure with HTTPS by installing an SSL certificate.
Conclusion
Technical SEO is an essential aspect of optimizing your website for better search engine rankings. If your website isn’t ranking as it should, it’s likely due to technical issues preventing search engines from crawling and indexing your site effectively. By addressing common issues like slow speed, mobile unfriendliness, crawl errors, and duplicate content, you can significantly improve your website’s performance and visibility in search engine results.
With regular audits and technical optimizations, you’ll ensure that your website stays in top shape, improving your chances of achieving higher rankings and attracting more organic traffic.
