Our team begins by conducting a thorough, cooperative analysis of each client’s unique circumstances when they approach us for assistance with their entire digital marketing strategy and, specifically, their SEO and search engine page rank. We want to assess their current marketing tech stack, content, general web presence, and user experience. We also want to see their current brand assets, brand guides, and best practices.
Our preliminary findings are the outcome of a team of experts who sought to determine the best ways to assist them match their marketing and sales activities with the buyer’s journey, as well as more long-term strategies to position these brands for long-term, sustainable success.
SEO is the cornerstone of any successful digital marketing plan and goes beyond simply figuring out how to please crawlers. After all, your business, your work, and your identity all reflected in the terms you employ. We have seen a lot of problems in the years we have been doing these audits; nothing really surprises us anymore.
The fact that some of the mistakes we will list below are typical and fixable may provide some solace if your brand is having trouble performing well on Google or the other search engines.
The Principal Components of an SEO Evaluation
To oversimplify, an SEO audit is a semi-automated, semi-manual process that evaluates a website’s ability to be viewed (indexed) by search engine crawlers and ranked on search engine results pages. Our skilled and qualified team thoroughly examines every element of a website using tools like Semrush to pinpoint its strong points and areas for development. They then develop a coherent plan to best position your brand to be found where your clients and potential customers are searching.
Technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO are the three aspects of search engine optimization that we consider when performing these audits. Although the actual labor within each element can be sensitive and difficult, none of these are very complicated in and of themselves. Suboptimal results, or search engine suboptimization, will come from blind spots or oversight in any of these areas.
Technical Problems with SEO
Why Technical SEO Matters
As the name suggests, technical SEO is everything that is done behind the scenes on your website to make sure that crawlers and, increasingly, users, can locate, index, comprehend, and rank your content against other websites that are comparable to it.
After all, search engines can’t rank what they can’t locate. Furthermore, they will not rank something they can not easily locate. The HTTPS protocol, clean code and site architecture, appropriately implemented structured data, simple, intuitive navigation, quick page loading, and mobile friendliness are all examples of best practices that accompany appropriate site development and domain management.
Typical Technical SEO Problems Found During Audits
Clients can occasionally enter a sales conversation with a critical eye regarding the condition of their website. In other cases, the results of an SEO audit are a roadblock. We have seen pretty much everything!
- Crawling and indexing problems – Again, crawlers can’t rank what they can’t find.
When a page’s URL is altered after it has been published, many crawling problems arise. The majority of content management system (CMS) systems and website providers lack the ability to automatically redirect users to the right page by generating a 301. Rather, that URL results in the dreaded 404 error. If your website has enough broken links, URLs, and 404 errors, a search engine will automatically degrade it.
When a page is published but not configured to be indexed or followed, either directly via a robots.txt file or via a CMS, this is another common problem. Although there are frequently valid and valid reasons why a page should not be indexed or crawled, there are instances in which you want Google to find the page but have unintentionally disabled its crawlers’ capacity to do so.
Using a tool like Google Search Console, Semrush, Moz, or ahrefs is the most effective way to identify these mistakes. For example, if you have Search Console set up correctly, it will notify you when Google cannot find a page. Additionally, our Kuno SEO staff can keep an eye on and take care of these problems for you.
- Site speed and performance issues – Huge graphics that are hardly limited by CSS or inline styling, bandwidth-consuming widgets, crude markup and stylesheets, hefty animation, auto-play video, etc.These gimmicks are completely ineffective with crawlers and go against the minimalist style that is prevalent in the majority of web development techniques nowadays.
- Mobile-friendliness issues – Even though Core Web Vitals are not as important as they were a year or two ago, Google and the others still care about a website’s mobile friendliness. A website will not rank highly in search engine results if it is not responsive, especially now that mobile-forward and responsive web design is commonplace.
Technical SEO Errors’ Effect on Search Rank
Technical SEO mistakes can have a significant impact on SERP ranks, depending on the specific problem. Sloppy markup and unminified script may not have an effect on regular desktop viewports, but they can affect visibility on mobile devices. Although it might not have a direct impact on SEO, elements like mobile friendliness could be a hidden issue. Generally speaking, little mistakes by themselves might not lower rank, but a string of minor mistakes can quickly escalate into penalties and problems with SERP ranking.
To ensure that your site stays up to date with the latest developments in web development and search, you must have a skilled SEO specialist on your team who can navigate optimization platforms to not only view a site’s health score but also delve into issues that have been identified. This will ensure that your brand is always visible to the people who need to see it.
On-Page SEO Issues
On-Page SEO and Its Importance
On-page SEO is everything done at the surface level to make site pages crawler-friendly, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel. It is reasonable to consider on-page SEO to be the framework upon which technical SEO is built.
Typical On-Page SEO Problems
Many on-page SEO strategies are layups, which are simple methods of triangulating a page to ensure it receives the right amount of attention. Despite how simple they are, everyone occasionally misses a layup. The following are some typical errors in on-page optimization:
- Absence of descriptions and meta tags: Frequently used incorrectly, meta descriptions, alt text, and page names lack keywords (see below), are excessively lengthy, or are completely blank. These pages can occasionally contain a wealth of interesting content, such as dynamic product offerings, life-changing case studies, or even an inspiring day of corporate volunteerism. Does it matter if a website has excellent content but lacks the necessary meta data to direct crawlers to it?
- Ineffective keyword optimization: A solid SEO strategy that uses keywords and topic clusters to establish authority and credibility on a subject is the foundation of a strong content strategy. Occasionally, the content strategy appears to be excellent: it uses multi-channel assets, social media syndication, and even earned and paid media to support it. These efforts will always have a governor on them if a strong keyword strategy is not put into place and carried out; they may receive a small short-term boost but rarely a long-term one.
How On-Page Errors Affect Search Engine Visibility and UX
In addition to reducing the value you provide to potential customers, inadequate on-page optimizations will also prevent your site from having the clustering and authority necessary to rank correctly because crawlers will have little to nothing to use, evaluate, and display on search engine results pages. As previously said, on-page SEO is the structure built upon a strong technological base. For people to stop and take notice, it needs curb appeal!
Off-Page SEO Issues
Off-Page SEO and Its Effect on Rank
Off-site, or off-page SEO is the process by which indexers from other websites identify your website. Link aggregators are constantly collecting sites and links, so some of this is beyond your control. Nevertheless, there are ways to use off-page links that can boost your brand and make a difference, even though it is entirely up to you.
Common Off-Site SEO Problems Uncovered During Audits
- harmful and low-quality backlinks Since you have very little control over this, Google even takes it into account and only considers backlink quality as one of many aspects when evaluating site quality and page rank. According to Google experts, if your web tool displays a large number of connections from a few low-quality websites, you should get in touch with the website and ask them to take them down if you do not want to deal with it.
- Unbalanced diversity of backlinks: If you are in charge of digital marketing for a bookshop, you want to build backlinks and links from other bookstores, literary journals, publisher websites, author blogs, and local events.
Off-Page SEO Mistakes and the Authority and Reputation of Websites
“I will show you your future if you show me your friends.” I heard it growing up, and while I do not think it is true, there is some validity to it when comparing the concept to off-site SEO, for example. Using your preferred SEO or website monitoring tool, keep a watch on your backlink and spam score and take appropriate action to maintain organization.
FAQS
Why is an SEO audit important for my business?
Your search rankings and user engagement may suffer from hidden problems like broken links, sluggish page loads, and poor mobile responsiveness, which may be found with the use of an audit. Resolving these problems raises visibility and increases return on investment.
How often should I perform an SEO audit?
An SEO audit should be conducted at least every six to twelve months. However, quarterly audits are great if your site experiences frequent content additions, redesigns, or ranking declines.
What exactly is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a thorough assessment of how well your website performs in search results. To find problems that impact visibility, rankings, and user experience, it examines technical SEO, on-page aspects, and off-page components.