SEO (search engine optimization) has evolved and become one of the most exciting disciplines over time. Despite this, it is one of the least transparent and least understood aspects of effective digital marketing. It includes On-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical factors such as HTTPS, site speed, robot.txt, sitemaps, URLs, redirecting URLs, duplicate content, canonical tags, structured data, and site status codes. Meta tags, Link Building, and the factors pertaining to the content. By addressing website-affecting SEO factors, you can immediately increase your website’s online traffic.
Conduct an audit of your entire website to identify and analyze these issues. It involves an audit of all internal and external resources, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, text, videos, and images, among others. Utilize SEO tools that crawl a website like a search engine film freeway, adhering to the robots.txt directives. I discovered SEO PowerSuite, Smart SEO Auditor, and SEMRush to be extremely useful tools. These are easy to use and simple. They cover all aspects of SEO, including technical audit, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization.
We’ve outlined some common SEO issues and their solutions below.
- Issues with Crawlability and Indexing
- Incorrect Redirections
- Coding and technical considerations
- Unsuitable URLs
- Links not properly made
- Images not designed for robots to read
- On-Page Elements
- Website localization
- Indexability and Crawlability
It is a crucial technical SEO factor that influences website rankings. Crawlability is the ability of a search engine to access a website, and indexing is the process of analyzing and including those collected pages in an index. Remove crawlability issues from your website so that it appears in search engine results. You can invite Crawlers (spiders) directly to access your website’s content, or they can reach your site by following links (Internal links) between pages on your site or links from other sites to your site. However, broken links and dead ends result in crawlability issues. Consequently, search engines cannot access specific content on your website.
What factors influence crawlability and indexing?
- Site Structure
- Internal link framework
- Circular redirects
- Server errors
Incompatible scripts and other technological factors
- blocking access to web crawlers
- How can you make it easier for web crawlers to index your website?
- Submit sitemap to Google
- Strengthen internal links
Regularly update and add new content Avoid duplicating content Accelerate the loading speed of your website
Let us reassure you that there are a number of tools available, such as SEOPower suite, SEMrush, and Google search console, to facilitate the correction of SEO factors affecting website ranking. The Google search console is the location to submit your sitemap and discover the web crawler’s coverage of your website.
Effects of crawlability and indexing issues on SEO
1. Links that are broken and generate a 404 error code
404 frequently indicates a problem on a website. For instance, if a visitor clicks on a broken link on a page, they may encounter a 404 error. It is essential to monitor these errors regularly and investigate their causes, as they may have a negative impact on the user’s perception of the site’s authority.
Note: In some instances, (particularly with older and slower websites), your pages and resources may return status codes 4xx and 5xx because the server was unable to handle the requests while crawling the site. To resolve this issue and ensure that the crawls do not overwhelm your server’s bandwidth, please set the speed for bot visits in the Google console.
2. Server Error with error code 5xx
The server sends 5xx error messages when aware of a problem or error. It is essential to monitor these errors regularly and investigate their causes, as they may have a negative impact on the user’s perception of the site’s authority the org.
Note: In some instances, (particularly with older and slower websites), your pages and resources may return status codes 4xx and 5xx because the server was unable to handle the requests while crawling the site. To resolve the issue and ensure that the crawls do not overwhelm your server’s bandwidth, please navigate to Google console and adjust the crawl rate for bot visits.
3. A Resource that cannot be indexed
If your unique and valuable content is restricted from indexing in your robots.txt file, by Noindex X-Robots tags, or by Noindex Meta tags, then search engines will not crawl and index that content.
This occurs when a crawler is denied access to your site’s pages or resources. There is no link following and no indexing. Consequently, ensure that useful pages can be crawled.
4. 404 page not properly configured
A customized, informative 404 error page can aid in retaining site visitors. It informs users that the page they are attempting to access does not exist, and most importantly, it must return the 404 response code. Ensure that it is set up properly.
According to Google Search Console, if a nonexistent URL returns a status code other than 404 or 410, a real page exists at that URL. Consequently, this URL can be crawled and its content can be indexed. Therefore, time spent by Google bots on nonexistent pages may prevent your unique URLs from being crawled and reduce your crawl coverage by reviews.io.
5. File robots.txt
The Robots.txt file is a collection of commands that instruct robots on which pages should and should not be indexed. However, these are not absolute rules that robots must adhere to. Therefore, there is no assurance that a disobedient robot will not access the content you have restricted. Retrieved from robotstxt.org.
Credit By: Techcrams.com
