Technical errors on your website can have a major influence on the rankings of your web pages on Google and other search engines. If you’re not actively monitoring your website, it might be that you are not aware of these errors on your site.
The following two technical errors are common errors that prevent Google from indexing your web pages correctly:
1. The 301 redirects on your website are broken
Most websites use 301 redirects after a website redesign. If done correctly, these redirects can help you to keep your rankings on Google.
If done wrong, 301 redirects cause a lot of ranking problems. Even if your 301 rankings worked in the past, they might have stopped working in the meantime.
Code changes on your website, new website plugins or broken databases can be the reason for 301 redirects that lead to non-existing pages.
Broken links can destroy years of natural link building. You should make sure that all links on your website are intact.
Tip: Use the website audit tool in SEOprofiler to check the redirects on your pages. The audit tool automatically checks all links and redirects on your pages and it will warn you if something does not work.
2. The rel=canonical attributes on your web pages cause problems
The rel=canonical attribute can help you to avoid duplicate content problems. Unfortunately, it can also lead to major problems.
For example, some websites add a rel=canonical attribute that points to the index page to all web pages. Other sites use a rel=canonical attribute that points to pages that use the ‘noindex’ attribute.
In both cases, the web pages won’t be indexed by Google. Only use rel=canonical with duplicated pages and do not use this tag instead of 301 redirects.
Tip: If you’re not 100% sure that you know what you’re doing, do not use rel=canonical at all. The potential benefits are much smaller than the damage that you can do to your website if you use the rel=canonical attribute incorrectly.
Technical errors on your website can damage the SEO work of several years. Use the website audit tool in SEOprofiler to check your web pages for errors. In addition to 301 redirects and the rel=canonical attribute, the website audit tool checks your website for 49 other factors that can have a negative influence on the rankings of your web pages.
The website audit tool is available in the full version SEOprofiler. The full version is available at a special price this month:
Create a free trial account now or get the full version and save 99%.
Article by Axandra SEO software