Regardless of the nature of errors, the ultimate consequence is a slowed-down website. Persistent occurrences may lead to a decline in search engine rankings, rendering your SEO endeavors futile.
This blog aims to shed light on the most prevalent website errors affecting SEO, providing insights into how to address these issues and more.
Broken Links: Deal With them Immediately
A broken link fails to redirect users to their intended webpage when clicked.
Why is it detrimental for SEO?
When Google web spiders or bots index your website, they follow these links to gather information.
Encountering a broken link during indexing is a negative signal for SEO. It implies that your website won’t rank high on search engines until you rectify the broken link.
Fixing the Broken Link Problem
To fix a broken link, you first need to identify it. Google won’t magically reveal which link is broken, will it? The most effective way to examine a website for errors and broken links is through Google Analytics or SEO tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush. Compile a list of all identified broken links. Now, it’s time to take action against these links.
Here are steps to address and fix broken links:
- Replace Broken Links with Live Ones: This is the best method if you don’t have several broken links on your website
- Remove All Broken Links: If you observe that the links are pretty old (4-5 years old), just remove them
- Reach Out to the Linking Site: If it’s a broken backlink, contact the site you linked to and ask them to fix the link
- Redirection: In case of a broken internal link, 301 redirect the link to the live one
TLS Certificate Error: An Important One
TLS is a digital certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA), signifying that the owner possesses a specific domain, and it is a secure one.
In simple terms, if your website lacks a TLS certificate, its URL would start with HTTP instead of HTTPS.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is outdated technology and overlooks the security of data traveling online from one device to another.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) encrypts the data, providing protection against potential hacks.
In 2014, Google announced its priority to rank websites with HTTPS URLs higher than those with HTTP.
When encountering a “void TLS certificate” error on your site, several reasons could be behind it:
- Misconfiguration of Certificate: If you don’t follow all the steps correctly, manual installation of the certificate can give you this error.
- Domain Mismatch: In case of a mismatch between the bought domain name and domain name you’ve issued a TLS certificate to, you will get an error.
- Identity Verifying Issues: If the certificate authority can’t verify your identity, you can’t install the certificate
- Incorrect Date or Time On Your Desktop: TLS certificate are issued on a timely basis, so if the date and time on your desktop isn’t correct, you won’t be able to issue it
- Old Version Certificate: If your certificate leverages Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1), it might be flagged as invalid as SHA-1 is outdated
Resolving TLS Certificate Issues
- Check date and time on your desktop
- Check for configuration errors and vulnerabilities with online SSL tools
- Check domain mismatch
- Get the certificate from a trustworthy and established CA
Website Load Speed: Don’t Keep Your Visitors Waiting
According to Think With Google, a mere 2-second increase in load time can result in a 32% increase in bounce rate.
Google has also emphasized that page load speed is a crucial ranking factor it considers when ranking a website.
Several factors could contribute to poor website loading speed, including:
- Unoptimized images
- Javascript issues
- Excessive HTTP requests
- Your website doesn’t leverage any caching tool
- Lack of gZIP compression
- Too many ads
- Lack of CDN service
- Bad hosting
How to Reduce Page Load Speed to Improve SEO?
- Choose a hosting that’s performance-focused
- Compress and optimize all website images
- Try reducing redirects
- Enable browser caching
- Minify CSS, Javascript, and HTML files
- Eliminate unnecessary plugins and keep everything updated
Mobile Compatibility: Don’t Miss It
It’s evident that a poorly optimized mobile site won’t rank well on Google. In 2013, Google announced its intention to penalize websites with a subpar mobile experience. When launching a website, ensure that mobile optimization is a priority. How can you achieve this? Here are some tips:
- Test your website with the Google page speed insight tool and see what’s wrong
- If WordPress powers your site, use a mobile-responsive theme
- Redesign pop-ups for mobile devices
Duplicate Content: Time to Revamp Your Content Plan
Duplicate content doesn’t have a significant impact on your SEO, but it can lead to lower search engine rankings.
When there’s an abundance of similar content across your website, it’s referred to as canonicalization.
Duplicate content poses three primary issues for Google crawlers and bots:
- The bots get confused between which page to include/exclude from their indices
- The bots don’t know if they’re supposed to direct the link metrics to one page or keep it separate
- They get confused between which version should rank for the targeted keyword
Some of the reasons why your website generates duplicate content unknowingly are:
- URL variations for the same page
- Your site has different versions www.site.com & site.com
- Targeting the same keyword number of times with writing almost similar content
Resolving Duplicate Content Issue As A Webmaster
- 301 redirect is the best method to get rid of duplicate content
- Use Rel= canonical to give search engine bots a hint of treating the page as a copy of the specified URL
- Leverage the code <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow”> to tell search engine bots not to crawl the page
Website Errors Codes that Might Affect Your SEO
Site error codes may not have a direct impact on your SEO, but they can lead to potential loss of traffic. Let’s discuss some common errors you might encounter as a web designer.
404 Not Found
Approximately 73% of visitors who encounter 404 error pages are likely to leave the website and may not return. Despite being a manageable issue, the task of fixing 404 errors is sometimes overlooked.
A 404 error is a standard HTTP status code that appears when a user attempts to access a URL that does not exist or if the server cannot locate the requested resource at that specific moment.
To identify and address 404 errors on a website, one effective method is using Google Search Console. Additionally, website error checker tools like Screaming Frog can help in detecting and managing such errors.
400 Bad Request
A 400 Bad Request error occurs when the client’s request is incorrect, corrupt, or incomprehensible to the server. It’s important to note that this is a client-side error, and there’s limited action the website owner can take.
The error may be triggered by various factors, including:
- Wrongly written URL or the URL contains unrecognizable characters
- Invalid or expired cookie
- You try to upload a file to your website that’s too large
To fix 400 Bad Request errors:
- Clear browser cache and cookies
- Flush your DNS
- Restart your device and try again
500 Internal Server Error
When encountering a 500 error page, it indicates that your web server is experiencing issues, but it is unable to identify the specific cause of the error.
This error can be caused by:
- Broken .htaccess file
- Some permission error
- Broken third-party theme or plugin
- PHP memory limit might’ve exceeded
To tackle this error:
- Try refreshing the page
- Wait for some time and come back later
- Leverage the tool down for everyone or just me to see if the website is down for you or everyone
- Delete your browser cookies
403 Forbidden
You see a 403 error when someone tries accessing a webpage that they’re not allowed to.
There are only two possible reasons why your visitors see this error:
- You, as a webmaster, have set up proper access permissions and decided to keep the website private
- You have set up permission improperly, and the visitors getting denied when they really shouldn’t be
As a webmaster, you only have one option to overcome this error. Check if you accidentally enabled access permission on the webpage.
503 Service Unavailable
When your webserver can’t handle a request at that moment, it displays a 503 error.
There are five things you can do to rectify this error:
- You can reboot your server to release the congestion in the server chains
- Ensure if there’s any maintenance going on with your webserver
- Check your firewall configuration and see if that’s down – try fixing it
- Check application logs and server logs
- Check your website’s code for any bugs
