SEO is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. It can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages, which means more traffic and more leads. However, SEO is not easy – it requires a lot of hard work and dedication. Unfortunately, many problems could be affecting your SEO efforts and undoing all your hard work.
Cannibalization
CannibalizCannibalization is when at least two pages on your site are seeking similar catchphrases. This can happen if you have two very similar pages, or if you have a page that is targeting a keyword that is also being targeted by your home page. Cannibalization can hurt your SEO efforts because it can split your link equity and make it difficult for search engines to determine which page is the most relevant for that keyword.
You probably have enough trouble competing with other websites, so don’t make the mistake of pitting your own pages against each other too.
Duplicated Content
Next, this is when you have multiple pages on your website that contain the same or very similar content. This can happen if you have two versions of a page (e.g., a printer-friendly version) or if you have pages with very similar product descriptions.
This can be an issue because it can again split your link equity and it also confuses search engines as to which page they should be ranking. If you have duplicated content on your website, you need to make sure that you use a canonical tag on your pages. This is a line of code that tells search engines which page is the “master” page and which one is the duplicate.
If you have identical landing pages, create unique content for each so that this problem doesn’t impact your SEO efforts.
Old Sitemaps
If you have an old sitemap, chances are that it is not accurate. This can be a problem because it will list pages that no longer exist on your website and it will not list new pages. This can cause search engines to have a difficult time crawling your website, which can impact your SEO efforts.
To fix this problem, you need to create a new sitemap and submit it to Google. These days, you’ll find plenty of tools that can generate a sitemap on your behalf. Otherwise, team up with an SEO pro like King Kong to overcome all SEO challenges and put your website in a much stronger position.
Broken Links
If you have broken links on your website, it can negatively impact your SEO. Broken links are those that lead to a 404 error page. When someone clicks on a broken link, they’ll be taken to a page that doesn’t exist. Not only is this frustrating for users, but it can also make it difficult for search engines to index your website properly.
To fix this problem, you need to identify and remove all broken links from your website. After all, Google wants users to have positive experiences rather than get frustrated.
Improper Schema
To finish the list, a schema is a type of code that can be added to your website to help search engines understand your content better. If you don’t have a proper schema, it can create some issues with your SEO. Fortunately, this is a simple issue to fix. You can utilize an instrument like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to add composition to your site.
By following these tips, you can improve your SEO and get your website ranking higher in search engines. However, keep in mind that SEO is an ever-changing field, so you need to stay up to date with the industry!
