Search Engine Optimization Audit Tips – 9 Instances of Why Your Source Code Matters
Do you have a website that you’re struggling to rank well for? Then it’s time for an SEO Audit. This article is packed with SEO Audit tips to help you get your website ranking better for all major search engines. You’ll learn about problems such as hidden content and server-side code showing up on the client side. Then you can focus on fixing these problems and improve your website’s overall performance.
Canonical URL Tag Issues
You may have seen a canonical URL issue when you see multiple URLs with the same content. This can happen due to redirects, search parameter issues on ecommerce sites, or syndicating content across multiple sites. In such cases, Google may determine the URL that has the best ranking and ignore the others. Regardless of how they came about, these issues can be problematic for SEO. So, how can you fix canonical URL tag issues?
The first issue is duplicate content. You need to make sure your site has a single URL that is distinct from each other. In addition, you should avoid putting the canonical URL on duplicate content unless it has its own unique content. This will prevent Google from picking up a canonical URL that isn’t relevant to your content. However, if you’re having duplicate content issues, you should talk to your web developer to determine if you really need to implement the canonical URL tag.
Canonical URL tag issues are also common in dynamic websites. When two pages have nearly identical content, search engines can’t decide which one is the most relevant. If you’re unsure, contact an SEO expert. They’ll help you fix these problems. And don’t forget to read our guide to canonical URL tags in SEO audits. This will help you understand whether your site is penalizing your site.
Server-Side Code Showing Up Client-Side
You’ve probably noticed large amounts of HTML content in your source code, but it’s possible that some of that content never made it to the page. That’s where your SEO audit comes in. SEO audit tools look for hidden code and content, which can be benign or malicious. Among other things, an audit will find duplicated title tags, meta descriptions, and canonical URL tags.
While you’ve probably noticed that your HTML code is showing up on the client side of your website, you may be doing something different. Server-side rendering makes sure that all of the page’s elements are rendered, while client-side rendering allows for only some of them to be rendered. This is bad for Google, since it means it can’t credit your website for the content it didn’t render. In addition, partial rendering results in a poor UX for your visitors. And this could negatively affect your search engine ranking.
A common problem with website speed is a 404 error code. 404 is the error code indicating that the server failed to serve the page. It can be confusing to determine which one to look for. It can be a complicated puzzle – if a page is serving an error message, it’s likely that the server side code is showing up on the client-side as well. If you find that 404 is the error code you’re after, you should investigate the cause. This may be an issue with the site’s server, or a server outage.
CSS Manipulation & Hidden Content
CSS manipulation and hidden content are a few of the major issues that SEO audits look for. Hidden code can be benign or sinister. Hidden content can be problematic in many ways, including when a developer places a link in a comment, or copies CSS and does not change it. In either case, the content will remain hidden until Google finds it. Here are some tips for preventing hidden content and ensuring that your site performs well in SEO audits.
Some marketers hide content using misdirection. The purpose of this method is to force users to the bottom of a funnel. Limited navigation menus on websites allow website owners to steer users to a specific section. These menus are usually customized to the subject matter of the page and are intended to keep users within the specific section. In addition to this tactic, hidden content can lead to a Google penalty.
Meta Robots Problems
When it comes to auditing your website for errors, meta robots can either help or hinder. For non-seos, this can be a confusing topic. Fortunately, there are a few simple solutions you can use to make your site more search engine friendly. Read on to learn about some of the most common problems with meta robots and how to fix them. Also, read on for tips on how to avoid mistakes when implementing meta robots. http://battlebrothersgame.com/forums/users/backlinkboss/
First of all, be sure to check for the presence of the robots meta tag. Meta robots directives tell search engines which pages to crawl and which to ignore. Using the wrong directive can have disastrous effects on your rankings. Make sure to include only the pages that need to be crawled by the search engines. For example, press release pages should have index follow directives. If your press release page has no index link, you can use noindex nofollow to tell search engine spiders not to crawl it. Google Developers has a great explanation on this problem.
Multiple Head Elements – Title Tags & More
Whenever you perform an SEO audit, you should look for duplicates of multiple head elements – title tags, meta descriptions, and more – in your website’s source code. Duplicates mean that your web pages have two or more different titles, and this confuses search engines. To avoid this problem, make sure your source code only contains one title tag.
Depending on your website’s structure, it may be necessary to have multiple H1 headings. The first one is the most prominent text element, and is usually the first visible header. The H1 tag fulfills the same purpose as the title tag – it tells readers what to expect from your page. To draw the reader in, make the headline compelling.
Other HTML content, such as Meta Tags, should not be hidden in source code. These are the easiest wins for SEO. The best way to check for these is to use a web page analysis tool like Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider. This tool will locate duplicate titles and header tags. It can even find duplicate content in HTML documents. If you need more information, use a CMS to create additional HTML content.
Excessive Script Code
When it comes to performing an SEO audit, you don’t need to be a web developer to perform this task, but you do need to have an understanding of how the code is interpreted. Search engines like Google love structured data, which allows them to better understand web pages. Structured data also allows them to include richer results and special features in their search results. If you’re unsure whether your website has enough structured data, you can use tools to find out. backlink
Analytics Tagging Problems
While most SEO experts agree that SEO is all about content, sometimes Analytics Tagging issues are overlooked. This is because it can be very difficult to spot problems with marketing tags without a professional SEO audit. A technical SEO audit will take a look at the tags on your site and recommend a solution to fix them. Such a solution can protect your eCommerce website from a potentially disastrous website outage, as servers can experience overload and monitors can go out.
The first thing an SEO audit should look for is a bloated website’s analytics tags. Google Analytics and Omniture both use tracking pixels to collect data on visitors. This is a common problem because people tend to forget about these tags after a few months. This is especially important since most people are on the go when shopping. They need a fast site, so an old pixel will result in a slower website.
Malformed Anchors and Canonicals
If you see a link with a broken or misformed anchor in your source code, it’s time to investigate why this happens. Sometimes it’s as simple as mistyping the dot notation. The resulting broken link could affect thousands of other links. In addition, malformed anchors will cause your website to fail to be crawled by search engines. Here are some possible fixes.