If you want to boost your search rankings, one of the easiest ways to do it is by making sure you aren’t committing common technical faux pas that will cause your rankings to plummet. Below, you’ll learn about a variety of common SEO techniques that website owners struggle to master. You’ll also get the tips you need to improve your rankings and pull ahead of your competitors.

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Issue 1: Duplicate Content

Avoiding duplicate content is one of the most important things you can do to improve your rankings. When you use the same content as a competitor, Google and other search engines aren’t sure which version is more relevant to a search query, making it possible that a website that shouldn’t rank higher than yours will. Sites with duplicate content suffer in rankings, so it’s best to avoid duplicate content altogether. If your site has duplicate content, using the rel=canonical attribute can help Google determine which duplicate page should be ranked highest.

Issue 2: Broken Images and Absent Alt Tags

Nearly half of websites feature images without alt tags, even though alt tags are essential. By including alt tags, you’ll ensure that your images are described accurately and correctly indexed, thus directing increased traffic to your website.

Broken images, which cause problems similar to broken links, are also an issue because they can create a frustrating experience for users. To fix this issue, make sure to host images that exist in your media library rather than using a third-party image host.

Issue 3: Title Tag Problems

Title tags allow you to concisely and accurately communicate the focus of each of your website pages to search engines and visitors. Duplicate title tags, too much or too little text in the tags, and absent title tags will all cause your rankings to drop.

Here’s a quick and easy tip for writing terrific title tags: make sure they include all keywords you want the page to rank for. In addition, create tags that make sense to human beings and not just search engines.

Issue 4: Meta Description Issues

Meta descriptions are short paragraphs in your webpage’s HTML that describe your content. When someone searches for your site and results pop up, the meta description is the text that appears beneath the URL like a short advertisement for your site.

If you have duplicate meta descriptions or no meta descriptions, this will negatively affect your rankings. Remember that the best meta descriptions are readable, compelling, include keywords you want to rank for, and are between 135 and 160 characters long.

Issue 5: Link Problems

Broken internal and external links as well as excessive links can wreak havoc on your search rankings. Double check your website and make sure all of your links are in working order. Also be on the lookout for pages that are overloaded with unnatural links, as this will negatively affect your users’ experiences.

Always use links to relevant, high-quality sites. Eliminate links that don’t offer value to your readers or that don’t move your SEO strategy forward.

Issue 6: Text-to-HTML Ratio

A site with a low text-to-HTML ratio has more HTML code than readable text for users and will cause your rankings to take a dive. If you can reduce this ratio to a level of 20% at the lowest, you’ll boost your rankings.

It’s also important for your site to include some plain text. Ideally this text should feature high-quality information and be very readable.

To reduce your text-to-HTML ratio, eliminate large amounts of white space, tabs, hidden text, comments in the code, unneeded images, and tables. Use CSS for style and formatting purposes and only use Javascript if you must. Finally, resize your images and maintain a page size below 300 kb. If you follow these steps, your search rankings will soar.

Issue 7: H1 Tags

An H1 tag is very different from a title tag. While a title tag appears in search results, an H1 tag is usually a headline that website users see when they visit your page. Having multiple or missing H1 tags can cause ranking problems, as can including duplicate information in title tags and H1 tags.

To remedy this, make sure you use only one H1 tag per page and use H2 tags to break up articles.

Issue 8: Word Count

Websites with low word counts rank lower in search results than those with higher word counts. This is because Google is prioritizing in-depth content over content that is short or provides little value.

Make sure you include articles on your website that are useful, compelling, readable, and necessary.

Issue 9: Language Declaration Problems

If you don’t include a language declaration that clarifies the default language for your page, your search rankings will suffer.

Not only will declaring the language improve your rankings, but it will help users access translations of your page in their language so they can read it.

Issue 10: Temporary Redirects

Temporary redirects result in outdated pages being indexed the redirect page is disregarded. Temporary 302 redirects should be avoided because they don’t pass link authority on to your redirect page. Permanent 301 redirects, however, will pass on link authority.

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Conclusion

 

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