11 Most Common Technical SEO Issues You Should Never Ignore

SEO is one of businesses’ third most implemented tactics after email marketing and social media. Some reports have shed light on crawlability and technical challenges affecting the SEO strategies of e-commerce websites online.

The advanced technical SEO issues overshadowed the rankings of e-commerce platforms on search engines, leaving an indelible mark on the overall global performance.

Yet, a comprehensive understanding of these intricacies helps website owners minimize technical hiccups and maximize the performance of their websites.

So, let’s get into it and bring a new era of strength to your website by uncovering the 11 common SEO issues. 

Understanding Technical SEO Challenges

Sometimes, websites are inaccessible to search engines, no matter how valuable the website content is. Conducting a site audit helps users evaluate the technical aspects of a website, such as crawlability, indexing, and site speed. Identifying and addressing technical SEO issues makes search engines effectively crawl and index the website. It improves search engine rankings and boosts your business’s potential revenues. 

In-Depth Analysis of the 11 Most Common Technical SEO Issues

Explore the 11 prevalent tech SEO issues influencing your website’s overall performance and user experience. Confronting these challenges will pave the way for improved rankings, enhanced user experience, and a more substantial online presence. 

Ignoring HTTP Status and Server Issues

The interrupted client and server dialogue leads to potential user experience disruptions that hinder overall communication. It leads to serious server issues that damage rankings on the SERP. The common mistakes that affect the HTTP status are 404 errors, pages not crawled, broken internal & external links, broken images, and permanent & temporary redirects.

• 404 error code demonstrates broken pages.
• The pages don’t crawl due to the website’s response time of over 5 seconds, and servers denied access to the webpage.
• The broken internal links limit the visibility and reach of specific content or pages.
• The external broken links don’t exit on another website. It ultimately sends a negative signal to the search engines.

Incorrect Website Indexing

Ensuring effective indexability is crucial for successful SEO. Unindexed pages don’t appear in search engine results and remain invisible to users. One significant reason for hindering website indexing is duplicate data. It confuses the search engine and makes prioritizing pages for similar search terms challenging. 

Here are some common indexing issues to be mindful of:

• Webpages with identical meta title tags and meta descriptions affect ranking decisions on search engines.
• Search engines perceive web pages with minimal content as less valuable. It doesn’t index the webpage and affects the overall ranking.
• Incorrect use of canonical tags creates confusion in designating the canonical version of a page.
• Outdated sitemaps can hinder search engines from discovering and indexing new content.
• Pages with server errors don’t index the web pages. It doesn’t allow the search engines to index the pages.

Missing or Non-Optimized Meta Tags

Meta tags provide concise descriptions of webpage content to search engines, helping them understand the page’s purpose. A webpage without title tags lacks a clear description for search engines and users, impacting the search engine’s ability to comprehend the content. Common SEO issues arise from missing or non-optimized meta tags. To enhance search engine visibility and user understanding, it’s essential to address these problems.

• Missing meta tags lead search engines to generate snippets based on page content. It results in unclear search listings.
• Unoptimized meta descriptions fail to capture the user’s interest. It leads to lower click-through rates.
• Missing or poorly optimized meta tags confuse search engines. It affects the search engine’s ability to understand the content and context of web pages.

XML Sitemap Issues

XML sitemaps play a crucial role in effective website crawling, simplifying navigation, and aiding in website indexing. Search engines rely on XML sitemaps to ensure the thorough crawling and indexing of all relevant pages. The absence of XML sitemaps can result in webpages on the website going unnoticed. To address SEO issues, ensuring the presence and proper implementation of XML sitemaps for comprehensive search engine recognition and indexing is important.

• Incomplete sitemaps make search engines miss out on new or updated content. It affects the freshness and accuracy of the indexed pages.
• Search engines struggle to understand the site’s structure if the URLs in the sitemap are not correctly updated. It leads to confusion, creating potential indexing issues.

Slow Page Speed   

73% of websites that lose viewers have reported slow page loading issues. A website that takes too long to load poses a significant hindrance to your business. It makes the business lose potential customers and sales. This slowdown also adversely affects the website’s visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Some common causes contribute to slow page speed, including:

• Unoptimized and Large Images
• A High Number of HTTP Requests 
• Lack of Caching Optimization
• Slow Server Response
• Unoptimized Code and Scripts
• Unoptimized Database Queries

Rectifying these concerns can bring about a considerable improvement in a website’s page speed and overall performance.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate website content poses significant SEO challenges, leading to lower rankings on search engines. When identical content appears in multiple locations, search engines face challenges in determining the most relevant version. It can result in several adverse outcomes:

• Search engines may struggle to identify the primary source of content authority, cutting the ranking potential across duplicated pages. It lowers visibility in search results.
• Duplicate content violates search engines’ preference for unique and valuable information. Websites with such content face penalties ranging from decreased rankings to removal from search engine indexes.
• Search engine bots operate within a limited crawl budget, allocating resources to crawl pages. Duplicate content diverts these resources towards redundant pages and hinders the discovery of new and valuable content.

Website owners must implement strategies like utilizing canonical tags to specify the preferred version, setting up 301 redirects,  creating evergreen content, or consolidating similar content to address these challenges. Websites can enhance their prospects of achieving higher search rankings and provide a more satisfying user experience by tackling duplicate content issues.

Broken Internal and External Links

Broken internal and external links negatively impact website SEO and user experience. When users or search engine crawlers encounter broken links, they face several challenges:

• Broken links frustrate users when they click on a link only to find that it leads to an error page. It results in a poor user experience that drives users away from the site.
• Websites featuring broken links may witness a drop in rankings on SERPs.
• Search engine crawlers use links to navigate through a website and index its content. Broken links can hinder the crawling process, which prevents search engines from properly indexing all relevant pages on the site.

To address these issues, website owners should regularly audit and fix broken links. Regular maintenance and monitoring of links contribute to a healthy and well-performing website.

Unstructured Data

Structured data simplifies the understanding of content and data on a webpage for Google search crawlers. However, unstructured data poses a challenge for Google search crawlers as it lacks a clear format. 

It hinders search engines from comprehending the content and impacts a website’s visibility in search results. Incorporating structured data is crucial for website owners to enhance information clarity for search engines, improving the chances of better search rankings and visibility.

Mobile Device Optimization

A mobile-unfriendly website leads to significant Search Engine Optimization issues such as:

• Mobile optimization is crucial for maintaining higher search engine rankings, particularly on Google. Websites lacking mobile optimization experience lower visibility and reduced rankings in search results.
• Users accessing the website from mobile devices encounter slow loading times, distorted layouts, or issues with unresponsive elements. It results in a poor user experience, affecting overall user satisfaction when ranking websites. 
• A mobile-unfriendly site has a higher bounce rate, making users leave the site quickly after accessing it. The high bounce rates signal search engines that your content is not relevant or engaging.
• Over 70% of customers use mobiles to shop. With most internet users accessing websites via mobile devices, a mobile-unfriendly site loses a significant portion of its potential traffic. It impacts the overall visibility and content reach.

Implementing responsive design, improving page speed, and ensuring a seamless mobile user experience maintains a strong presence in search engine rankings.

Website Optimization

Website issues affect how search engines crawl, index, and rank your site. It significantly impacts the SEO.

• Crawlability issues on websites, such as broken links, inaccessible pages, or faulty redirects, make search engines struggle to index your content properly. 
• Slow page loading may lead to higher bounce rates, signaling dissatisfaction among website visitors.
• Search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites. A website not optimized for mobile devices may rank lower in mobile search results, which may impact overall SEO performance.
• Search engines prioritize secure sites to ensure user data safety. Websites with security vulnerabilities, such as lacking HTTPS encryption, may be penalized in search rankings.

Optimizing your website for the best performance on search engine results is essential to maintain and improve SEO performance.

Incorrect Canonicalization

Canonicalization is an essential aspect of SEO. It helps search engines understand the preferred version of a page when multiple versions with similar content exist.

The incorrect canonicalization can lead to the mishandling of duplicate content. Search engines don’t understand which version of the page to prioritize, which results in potential duplicate content problems.

Impact of Technical SEO Issues on Global Platforms

The repercussions of on-page technical SEO challenges go beyond individual websites. It affects the website’s overall functionality and effectiveness globally.

• Language and Localization Challenges: The SEO issues lead to inadequate website targeting. It limits the website’s reach to a broader audience on a global scale, potentially causing user disengagement.
• International SEO Governance: The website’s tech SEO issues have insufficient control over international SEO strategies. The inconsistent implementation of SEO best practices across various global platforms leads to suboptimal performance.
• Geo-Targeting and Country-Specific Issues: The website geo-targeting settings in specific countries may lead to inaccurate content delivery to users. It negatively affects user experience and search rankings.
• Cross-Border SEO Challenges: Overlooking cross-border SEO intricacies poses difficulties in dealing with regulatory and cultural nuances. 
• Competitive Disadvantage in Global Markets: Disregarding global SEO strategies employed by competitors causes businesses to lag in global markets. It leads competitors to gain advantages through effective international SEO.
• Global Search Engine Algorithm Sensitivity: Not staying updated with the global search engine algorithm changes makes websites vulnerable to fluctuations in rankings and visibility as algorithms evolve on a global scale.

Consequences of Ignoring On-Page Technical SEO Issues

The consequences of ignoring SEO issues are multifaceted. It affects a website’s performance and relationship with search engines and users.

• Lower Search Engine Rankings: Search engines rank well-optimized websites. SEO issues lead to a drop in website rankings and reduce the website visibility on the SERPs, making it less visible to the audience on the search engine. 
• Poor User Experience: Websites with slow page loading speeds make it difficult for users to access the information. It increases the bounce rates, which affects the overall website performance. 
• Decreased Trust and Credibility: A poorly optimized website with security concerns such as SSL certificate issues erodes user trust. The visitors are wary of sharing sensitive information. Moreover, overlooking SEO technical issues affects the overall brand credibility.
• Loss Of Global Visibility: Neglecting SEO issues for your website allows competitors to capture the markets. Without addressing these issues, you can hinder your business expansion opportunities. 
• Impacts SEO Performance Metrics: The persistent tech SEO issues negatively impact the click-through rates and other metrics. Ignoring these issues requires proactive optimization efforts to address technical challenges.
• Missed Opportunities For Growth & Expansion: Unoptimized websites limit the business’s potential opportunities for business growth. Overlooking the SEO issues restricts your business exposure to relevant businesses.
• Website Vulnerable to Fluctuations: Search engines usually adhere to frequent algorithm updates. Ignoring SEO changes can make the website vulnerable to fluctuations in search engine algorithms.
• Compromised Indexing and Crawling Efficiency: Technical issues hamper search engines’ ability to index new updates promptly. The restrained crawlability leads to reduced visibility of your website on search engines. 
• Diminished User Trust and Loyalty: Broken links on the website erode brand loyalty, leading to dissatisfaction and a potential loss of trust among the users.

Addressing SEO technical issues helps maintain a strong online presence to foster positive user experiences.

Strategies for Effective Problem Resolution of Technical SEO Issues

Addressing SEO issues requires a systematic and strategic approach. Take a look at the effective strategies for tackling common on page technical SEO challenges:

• Conduct a Comprehensive Technical SEO Audit:

  Identify the website’s technical issues with tools like Google Search Console and other audit tools. Recognizing issues can help you prioritize the issues on the website and the urgency that requires immediate attention. 

• Optimize Page Load Time:

  Optimize images to minimize HTTP requests on the pages to reduce load times. Moreover, leveraging browser caching increases visitor’s chances to revisit the website.

• Optimize Website with Responsive Design:

  Make sure that your website adapts seamlessly to various visitors and devices. The responsive design enables a broader audience to engage across the digital spectrum, which contributes to a positive user experience across the digital spectrum.

• Implement Canonical Tags:

  Implement canonical tags and specify the authoritative source of the content, as canonicalization streamlines content for search engines. So, establish a routine to periodically review the content to identify potential issues and maintain a high-quality standard across the website.

• Audit Broken Links and 404 Errors:

  Audit internal and external links to identify the broken links. Ensure redirecting broken or outdated links to maintain a seamless user experience.

• Manage SSL Certificates Efficiently:

  Confirm that your SSL certificate is correctly installed and configured to manage secure data transmission. Migrate your website to HTTPS for security purposes, as it positively influences the search engine rankings.

• Optimize Your Website Images:

  Compress your images and include descriptive alt text to enable search engines to understand the content. It reduces initial page load times and improves overall performance.

• Optimize Website URLs & XML Sitemap:

  Formulate SEO-friendly URLs with relevant keywords for better indexing and user experience. You can also submit updated XML sitemaps to reflect website content and structure changes.

• Ensure Search Engines Crawl and render JavaScript & CSS Files

  : Optimize your source code and resources to minimize the impact on page rendering. Create a favorable setting for search engines to crawl, render, and index your content. It ultimately boosts website performance and visibility.

• Optimize Header Tags Optimization:

  Structure the webpage content logically with relevant H1, H2, H3, and H4 to provide clarity to users and search engines.

• Optimize Meta Tags:

  Craft enticing meta titles and webpage descriptions for accurate representation in search results. It improves the overall click-through rates.

• Implement Schema Markup:

  Leverage suitable schema markup to offer search engines extra context about your content.

• Regular Monitoring and Adaptation:

  Consistently perform SEO audits to pinpoint emerging issues. Staying updated with industry trends helps in incorporating best practices for ongoing technical SEO optimization.

Conclusion

The prevalence of technical mistakes within the SEO strategies for e-commerce websites has shed light on the significant issues that impact search engine rankings and overall website performance on a global scale.

By considering these common technical errors, you can navigate the dynamic terrain of digital marketing and SEO. It will empower your website to succeed optimistically in the ever-evolving digital sphere with a future of improved rankings, satisfied users, and a resilient online presence!