When you begin a search engine optimization project, it’s a good idea to perform a technical audit of your website. A thorough technical analysis will most likely reveal that your website needs improvement in terms of technical SEO.
In this blog post, we’d like to walk you through the 5 most common technical SEO mistakes—and, of course, provide the solutions!
Google penalizes duplicate content. Many websites have similar or identical content on their sites. The solution to this is the canonical URL. A canonical URL sends a signal to Google, indicating which version or page is the original and that it is the one that should appear in the search results.
The canonical URL can point to the page itself, where it was added. But it can also point to another similar page. It sometimes happens that people assign every page on the website a canonical URL that points to the homepage. And this is a major technical error.
The result? You’re essentially telling search engines that only your homepage belongs in the search results. The other pages won’t be indexed. Before you know it, only your homepage will still be findable, and your organic search traffic will drop.
The solution? Simple! Set up all canonical URLs correctly and include them in a schema. Check to see if the page is unique. No similar content? Then give it a self-referencing canonical URL.
Do you have similar or duplicate content? If so, choose which of these similar pages is the most important. Base this decision on how much traffic the page receives, as well as which content is of the highest quality. Assign a canonical URL to all similar or duplicate pages that points to the most important page.
Of course, you should assign a self-referencing canonical URL to your most important page. Want to learn more about canonical URLs? Then read our guide to canonical URLs.
Your new website will be built in a test environment. Of course, you don’t want search engines to index this test environment. After all, you don’t want an unfinished website to appear in search results.
To prevent your test environment from appearing in search results, add the following meta robots tag to your source code: .
On launch day, you unveil your new website. The website works perfectly, but you’ve forgotten one thing: the meta robots tag that specifies that the website shouldn’t appear in search results.
This technical SEO error has disastrous consequences. Your website will no longer be indexed and therefore won’t appear in search results. This tag is powerful, and you’ll see your organic traffic drop.
The solution is simple. Remove the tag! Are you working on a new website? Set a reminder to remove this tag. Or use tools like Semrush, ContentKing, SE Ranking, or Google Search Console.
See also: our complete guide to the robots.txt file.
Do you use Yoast? This WordPress SEO plugin is widely used, and for good reason. With this plugin, you can quickly and easily perform all kinds of SEO tasks, including editing meta descriptions and page titles. It can even do this automatically! That’s incredibly handy, of course, because it ensures that every page has a meta description and a page title.
But there’s a major risk here… Not only are these automatically generated page titles and meta descriptions often poor, but they can also override your unique meta descriptions and page titles. This often happens when someone switches platforms. In such cases, unique meta descriptions and page titles are ignored and replaced with automatically generated ones.
These automatically generated meta descriptions and page titles are generally incorrect. As a result, people searching on Google suddenly see strange text. The result? Users stop clicking on your link, and you drop in the search results.
The solution is simple. Are you switching platforms or installing a different plugin? Check your meta descriptions and page titles in Google and save them in a spreadsheet beforehand, so you can easily add them back later.
Redirects are often used incorrectly. The danger lies in the differences between 301 and 302 redirects.
SEO migrations are always nerve-wracking. It’s not easy, and mistakes are easily made. If you don’t set up redirects correctly, the consequences can be disastrous. But redirects aren’t just used for website migrations.
For example, the 301 redirect is also used for deleted pages. A 301 redirect indicates that the old page has been removed and redirects search engines and visitors to the correct page. Setting this up correctly is important not only because visitors and Google would otherwise encounter 404 error pages, but also because it passes on domain authority.
There’s also a 302 redirect; the 301 and 302 redirects are often confused with each other. The difference is simple: a 301 redirect is permanent. If you delete a page, you set up a 301 redirect to the correct page. A 302 redirect is temporary. If you set one up, Google will assume the page is temporarily offline. That’s why it won’t pass on any domain authority. Additionally, Google will return later to check if the page is back online.
You always want to preserve the domain authority of your pages. Therefore, set up a 301 redirect for any deleted pages. Only use a 302 redirect when the change is truly temporary!
A redirect leads from page A to page B and then back from page B to page A. Which page is the correct one? A search engine doesn’t know. It just keeps going back and forth.
Do you have multiple domains? You don’t want visitors to encounter a 404 error. So it’s important to set up the correct redirect to the right domain. If you don’t, visitors and Google will encounter 404 errors. Plus, Google will assume you’re no longer using the old domain.
Always keep track of which 301 redirects you set up. That way, you’ll know exactly which redirects already exist and avoid these technical SEO mistakes. You can also use a plugin like Redirect Path. This plugin shows you every status code.
We’ve already briefly touched on website migration. The consequences of a botched website migration can be disastrous. Furthermore, it’s very difficult to recover from a migration failure. You build a new website to improve its conversion rate. You build this in the test environment.
The old website has built up a lot of domain authority. And, of course, it appears in search results. That’s why you should set up 301 redirects from the old website to the new one. This indicates that the old domain is no longer in use.
What if you set up these redirects incorrectly? Your organic search traffic will drop rapidly. And, of course, so will your conversion rate and revenue. Are you planning a website migration? Make sure to prepare thoroughly! In our step-by-step guide to an SEO migration, you’ll find exactly how to do it.
In short: good preparation helps you avoid many mistakes and, as a result, a drop in visitor numbers.
With a passion for SEO and an unmatched drive for results, Jarik Oosting is the driving force behind SmartRanking. With over 15 years of experience in the field, he has built an extensive body of knowledge spanning technical SEO to complex site migrations. As the founder of SmartRanking, he has assembled a team of like-minded SEO specialists who help businesses achieve sustainable online growth.
His academic background in information science at the University of Groningen, with a specialization in natural language processing, gives him a unique perspective on the world of SEO. For Jarik, it’s not just about visibility in search engines, it’s about sharing knowledge and guiding businesses toward sustainable online success. That mission also led him to write a Dutch book about GEO.