11 SEO Issues You Might Be Doing Wrong on Your Website
Do you know that there might be things on your site that are probably hurting your SEO traffic? Then, check out these 11 SEO Issues on Your Website that could be ruining your SEO. And find out how you can fix them!
1. HTTPS Pages Linking to HTTP Pages on Your Website
Modern browsers warn about a nonsecure page if an internal link on your website brings people to an HTTP URL. Nonsecure page warnings can damage your overall website authority and user experience.
Check your links to make sure that they link to the HTTPS versions. Make sure you link to HTTPS pages where possible.
2. Forgotten Noindex Tag
You are probably wondering why a page is not getting any traffic. One good reason it's not ranking would be your site tagged as noindex.
A noindex tag tells search engines that a page should not be indexed. In addition, it tells Search Engines that they should not show your page on its Search Engine Result Page.
You probably didn't add it manually. But some WordPress and e-commerce platforms can noindex a page with just a click of a button or a checkmark. So check if you have anything on your pages in the header that tells Google not to index a page.
3. Thin Content
Thin content does not help your site to rank well. Google has its prime pickings of content with a billion blogs. So it's a no-brainer for Google to rank high on its Search Engine Results Pages, the site with the good stuff, and ignore the crap.
Unless you create content on how-to instructions that do not need to be lengthy, make sure you give valuable and dense content. For example, add images, animated GIFs, or videos. Otherwise, thin content will not do well for you and your site.
It doesn't mean that you need 5,000-word articles or even 1,000 or 10,000-word articles. Just make sure that you cover every aspect of the article that helps someone get what they need. If you're not doing that, then your content is thin.
It's not about length. It's about the value that you're providing. So you're good if you can provide value in your content in 500 words. If you can do that in 2000 words, you're good too. It's fine if it takes 5 to 10,000 words. The key is to be super thorough.
4. Excessive Anchor Text-rich Links
It might be tempting to use terms where you want your site to rank as much as possible. However, while it is tempting to use keywords you want to rank on and link it to another page with the same keyword to rank higher on the keyword, it might be hurting your SEO.
The problem with this is that if all your pages have the exact anchor text, it alarms Google. It is not natural for every internal link or external link to have the exact anchor text.
An exception would be using the terms: Click here, Learn more, or even your site's main keyword repeatedly, but make sure that you use them naturally. The rule of thumb is to use them as best for the user.
5. High Resolution and Non-Compressed Images
High-resolution images may look great, but they will not help you rank on Google Image Search results if uncompressed.
Image Search can drive so much traffic. If you're not leveraging that,
you're missing out. So make sure you have high-resolution images,
high in quality but compressed from a file-size standpoint.
Compressed High-Quality images will help your site rank up well.
6. Irrelevant and Intrusive Pop-up Ads
Have you ever visited a site with too many pop-ups? How was your experience? Odds to none, those pop-ups probably ruined your viewing experience. You do not want to have these annoying customer experiences on your site.
It does not mean you should not have pop-ups anymore, as these pop-ups are helpful for brand monetization and revenue.
The general rule of thumb is to make sure that the pop-up's value is more than the intrusion effect that it causes. If the pop-ups don't add value and are just ads, you might want to reconsider your pop-ups.
If your site's pop-ups ruin your site visitor's experience and don't provide any value, either remove them or try to provide way more value.
7. Pages With Errors
Make sure to fix your 400 errors or 500 errors.
8. Redirect Loops
Often, you are going to remove old pages or consolidate your content. And when you do, you're going to use 301 redirects.
However, when you do these 301 redirects, they'll redirect one page to another. So it can cause a 301 redirect loop which you wouldn't want for your site.
Each time you do 301 redirects, ensure they're not in loops. Don't do 301 redirects to URLs that are redirecting to another URL. The best practice is to make them go straight to the most recent URL. If you have to update all your old 301 redirects, make sure you do that.
9. Orphaned Pages
Orphaned Pages are pages that don't get linked anywhere internally.
You probably have a well-done piece of content. But if no one knows about it, it doesn't matter. You're not going to get any rankings from it.
Make sure that you're interlinking relevant pages to your content.
You don't want orphaned pages. But, if you do that, you'll find that you spent all this time creating this content, making it so beautiful and visually appealing, but no one ends up seeing it.
Make sure you add the internal links. For example, on my team, what we do is anytime we publish new content, we link it to 3 old pieces of content. By doing that, we're ensuring that our new content also ranks well.
10. Links to Redirected Pages
Internal links should not be redirecting. Fix these redirecting internal links. Change those old internal links in your site and make sure you link them to the right end place. The best practice would be to update your internal links each time you add 301 redirects or 302 redirects.
11. Internal Broken Links
Broken links are a natural part of the website as your site gets older and your business becomes more established. Of course, every site does, but make sure you clean them out once a quarter.