Common On-Site SEO Issues and How to Fix Them?

Posted by admin May 13, 2022

If the ranking of the site pages is not well, then, it could be because of on-site SEO (Search Engine Optimization) issues. However, in such cases, they must be addressed and fixed on time. Otherwise, you have to experience customer loss and a decline in business growth. 

Certainly, assistance from a leading and professional SEO agency can be taken. Basically, they have the knowledge on fixing the on-site SEO issues and assuring the best results. On the contrary, the checklist of common on-site SEO problems is huge that needs to be resolved. Do you know the major issues to focus on? Here, in this article, we are revealing those! Check out!

What are common on-site SEO issues and the best ways to fix them?

No HTTPS Security

Essentially, it is essential to have HTTPs for website security.  However, to check if the site lacks security, write the domain name in Google Chrome. A gray background or in the worse case, a red background will be shown with a “Not Secure” sign or warning. 

The result- the visitors will immediately move from the site, hence, causing issues in ranking. 

How to Fix it

To resolve it, firstly, find out if the site has HTTPs. For that, type the domain name in explorer. If it shows a “secure” message, then, your website is secure. In case it is not, then, follow the below steps:

For transforming the site to HTTPs, you require an SSL certificate by the  Certificate Authority.

When the user purchases and installs the certificate, the HTTPs security is confirmed. 

Slow Website Speed

Website speed plays an important role in higher ranking. When the site has a faster speed, then, the visitors will have the best experience. The case is different when it is slow. Definitely, it can drop the ranking. You need to know that Google reduces the number of site crawlers when the response time is not two seconds. It signifies the indexing of fewer pages.

How to fix it?

Seek help from Google PageSpeed Insights. It keeps track and calculates the site performance for mobile and desktop versions. It shows suggestions on improving the website speed. Positively, it gives valuable details on solving the issue. 

Also, in case of assistance, WordPress users can hire an experienced hosting provider. It is advisable to choose services that are fully tested for uptime and good speed. Moreover, minifying JavaScript CSS  and web page image optimization assures the best outcome possible. 

Incorrect Site Indexing

Is your site shown on search engines when searched? NO? Then, the chances that there are indexing issues. When it is about Google, if there is no indexing of pages, it means, they do not exist and searching them is not probable. To confirm the same:

Type “site:oursitename.com” on the search bar of Google and check the number of the website indexed web pages.

How to Fix it?

• First of all, if the indexing of website is not there, add the URL. 
• But, when there is indexing and showing more results than usual. Then, know if the site has an old version or if there is any hacking or spam which is indexed than the right redirects.
• Or, there is a website indexing, but with fewer results. In that scenario, carry out the audit on indexed pages. Then, compare it with those pages’ required ranking.  
• In case you are not sure about the reason behind it, then, look out for the Google Webmaster terms and conditions to confirm the site compliance. 
• And, when the results are not the same as expected, check if the necessary site pages are blocked by the robots.txt file or not. In addition, confirm if NOINDEX meta tags are implemented by mistake. 

Broken Links

Those websites with several pages with one or two broken links do not cause any issues. But, the case is different when there are several. The reasons:

• The site quality perception by users reduces.
• They can take your browsing budget at once. If search bots shows several broken links then it redirects them to different websites. Hence, leaving significant pages of your site unindexed and unscanned. Also, it negatively affects the site page authority. 

How to fix it?

Use Google Search Console and select “Crawl Errors” from “Crawl” to know the web pages showing 404 responses. In case, there is an error, then, resolve it at first. Otherwise, the website visitors move to other sites, or they get navigated to other site pages. 

Duplicate Site Content

Any website should not have any duplicate non-unique content. The reason is simple- it will negatively influence the site ranking. Moreover, the site can get penalized and the chances of ranking on SERPs can be lost. 

How to fix it?

You can leverage the tools such as CopyScape and Siteliner to know the uniqueness of the content. If the site content has duplicates, then, follow the below-defined steps:

• Create the URLs in Google Webmaster
• Move to “settings” from the top right of the web page
• Choose “site settings”, select proper URL format
• When a search engine locates a site with a non-www site version linking, and your chosen one is www, the link URL will be taken as one of www.

If different URLs are sharing similar content, then, website backlinking, parameter tracking issues, and link sharing, are possible. To get rid of this,  get help from Canonical Tag. The bot that encounters it will discover the link to the real resource. Every link to the duplicate page is considered a link to the actual page. Hence, you cannot lose any value of SEO from these links. 

Include canonical tags with code on duplicate and original content:

“<link rel=” canonical” href=”https://oursite.com.com/category/resource”/>”

Put the canonical tag in the metas, which are placed at the bottom of the page below “Yoast SEO Premium”. 

Incorrect or Missing Robots.txt

We all know that missing a robot.txt file can cause problems. But, do you know if the Robots.txt is not configured correctly, then, it can kill organic website traffic. To check:

• Write the site URL to your browser using the “/robots.txt” suffix.
• If the result “User-agent: * Disallow: /” is received; then, there is definitely a problem.

How to fix it?

• If there is “Disallow: /”, then consult an SEO company. The professionals might have done it and have the reasons. 
• If it is a difficult “robots.txt” file, then, similar to other eCommerce websites, you must check it in-depth with the web developer to know if it is right.

Missing Broken Images and Alt Tags

Image optimization issues are general, however, until the site is highly reliant, then, they can be saved for later. Missing broken images and alt tags are the common issues businesses come through. 

Significantly, the Alt tags are images of HTML attributes that define the content. If there is no correct order of image components then use a sub-tag for an image showing content and function. However, keyword enforcement for enabling search engine browsers to know the web page information. 

How to fix it?

It is not a difficult task. Just place the image component in the HTML code and include the Alt tag. The image source will be like this:

<img src=“images.jpg” alt=“image description” title=“images xyz”>

Different Homepage Versions

Do you remember when “www.yourwebsite.com” and “yourwebsite.com” went to a similar place? However, it is not a big thing, but it also implies that Google can index different versions of URLs that can reduce the visibility of your site in searches.

How to Fix It?

First, find out if various URL versions are directed to the standard URL. It includes HTTP and HTTPS versions; the versions such as, “www.ourwebsite.com/home.html” are also included. Examine the likely combinations. 

Secondly, “site:oursitename.com” can be used to find the indexed pages and know if they are navigating to different URL versions. If so, then, address “301 redirects” or let the SEO agency do so.  However, the canonical domain can also be chosen. 

Issues in Title tags

It is not essential that the title tags are general, however, there are many. Below are the common ones:

• Duplicate title tags
• Missing title tag
• Too long or too short title tags

How to fix it?

Shorten the title tag of the existing web page. This is because 70 to 71 characters are suitable for showing space for new devices. In case there is any doubt, check out the format:

Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Name of Brand

Provide a different Title tag for each page. For example for an online store, the following formula can be used for creating a title tag:

[Item Name] – [Item Category] | [Brand]

Use the keyword at the title tag beginning

Less Usage of Structured Data

According to Google, Structured Data is a particular format that gives details on page and content classification. 

That is to say, it is an easy way to assist the crawlers to Google search to know the data and content on the web page. Considering an example of the page suggesting various recipes. In that case- the ingredient list could be considered as the content for structured data format. 

Address details, considering the google example is another data type for bets structured data format:

<script type=”application/ld+json”>

{

 “@context”: “https://schema.org”,

 “@type”: “Organization”,

 “url”: “https://www.example.com”,

 “name”: “Xyz Corp.”,

 “contactPoint”: {

   “@type”: “ContactPoint”,

   “telephone”: “+65-401-555-2121”,

   “contactType”: “Customer service”

 }

}

</script>

Then, the structure data could be shown on SERPs in the rich snippet form, which shows the visual appeal of SERP listing. 

How to Fix It?

When the new content is created, find out the possibilities to use the structured data on the web page. Then, coordinate the strategies with the SEO team and content creators.  We advise using the structured data to enhance CTR and boost ranking for SERP pages.  After implementing the structured data, examine the GSC report on a regular basis. It ensures no issues are reported by Google using structured data markup.

Mobile Browsing Non-Optimization

Google has launched its first mobile index in 2018. Since then, the search engines started ranking sites according to mobile versions. Mobile-ready means the site has to be optimized for mobile browsing and responsive website design ready. Some sites are not mobile-optimized.  Even the statistics speak for themselves that approximately 6.64 billion users are using smartphones globally. And, the internet users in the 69 percentile prefer to shop online than visit in person. Hence, if you fail to make the site optimized for mobile, then, you can lose a higher amount of customers. 

How to fix it?

• If you are considering blocking CSS, images and JavaScript, then, don’t do it. The Google search engines search for the elements for content categorization. 
• Do not use the flash content and ensure cross-device conversion optimization. 
• The site should be designed in such a way that the mobile users can easily click on the buttons and browse. 
• Rich snippet searches are effective when used on a mobile device and engage more. Hence, leverage schema.org structured data. 
• Also, you can go for the Litmus Test. Carry out the below mobile-readiness test:

• GMetrix
• Pingdom
• Google Page Insights

Non-Optimized or Missing Meta Descriptions

The 160 characters and short content that defines all about the web page is Meta Description. From these snippets, the search engines can simply index the web page. Also, the well-drafted description may engage the visitors to the web page.

Undoubtedly, it is an easy-to-use SEO feature, though several pages cannot have the essential content. Chances are you cannot check this type of content on the web page. However, it is a vital feature that supports the users to understand if they like to choose the result after making the queries. Similar to the page content, the meta descriptions have to be optimized properly. It is so to match the content of the page, hence, integrating only the suitable keywords.

How to Fix It?

When it is about the missing meta description, follow the below steps:

• Arrange the SEO site audit for finding the missing meta description pages
• Find the page value and accordingly prioritize

When it is about the web pages with meta descriptions:

• Monitor pages according to the value and performance of the business. 
• The audit will find the page that has errors in meta descriptions.
• High value and ranking pages must optimize first.
• The web pages experience change, update or edit  must also be updated  for the meta description 
• Ensure all the metas are unique

Less Word Count

Content with less word count can drop SEO ranking, and vice-versa is also true! The thin or low word count of content is nothing but an attempt 

to increase the number of web pages without providing quality to every page.

How to fix it?

• Work on researching the topic properly.
• Discover the relevant and related information to be used in the content.
• We advise using the long-tail keywords
• Include the keywords in the heading and subheadings 
• Give appropriate structure to the content
• The approximate word count of the blog has to be between 2200 to 2500 words. 

Messy and Non-intuitive URLs

If the site URL ends with “index. php?p=465455” then it is nothing to search engines and to you as well.  Even though they are not user-friendly, they are meaningless. 

How to fix it?

Follow the below pointers to fix the on-site SEO issue:

• Consider lowercase letters
• Include the keywords in the URL
• Use one domain and subdomain
• Canonicalize several URLs used for similar content
• Leverage Hyphens to split words rather than spaces
• Compress the lengthy URLs of more than 100 characters to 70 characters

Unused Contact Forms

Do you find any issue with the contact form? Are users not filling it? The research confirms that out of 1.5 million users, only 49% fill the form when seen. Of 49%, those who complete it are 16%. 

How to fix it?

• The contact form has to be compelling, simple and short.
• Gather the required information, like name, email id and contact details. 

** if required, ask for other details **

• Use another CTA than only “Submit”
• Experiment with the fields, copy, colour, position, etc.
• Measure the performance outcome with A/B testing to find out what is working and what is not.

Wrong Language Declaration

If your site’s audience is worldwide, then, language declaration is essential. This makes search engines find the language. Particularly, when it is about text-to-speech conversion, it improves the user experience as translators can read the content in an accurate native language dialect. In addition, there are several geo-location and SEO benefits.

How to fix it?

For declaring the region, particularly of the web page, rel=” alternate” hreflang tag can be used. 

For <head> section of https://sample.com/uk, include the link element navigating towards french page at “https://oursite.com.uk-fr”, like:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”fr” href=” https://oursite.com/uk-fr” />

Majorly, the mistakes of sites are using incorrect language codes. You need to understand that language declaration is a vital part of the relevance score for web pages. 

The other issue is about return tag errors- hreflang annotations are the reason behind them. It does not cross reference, therefore, use google search console -> International Targeting for finding such errors. Confirm these annotations from different web pages. It implies that when page X is linked to Y, then, Y has to be linked back to X. 

Concluding Remarks

This is all we have to say! Feasibly, now you have an idea of how to rectify the on-site SEO issues. Assuredly, these are the best and most enduring ways to boost site ranking and give a positive influence on SERP visibility.  You can also hire the best SEO company in Singapore to get help if still not clear on resolving the technical SEO problems. Awebstar is the name for you! We offer definite SEO services, investigate the top on-site problems and give the best solution. Contact us now to get a quote!