What are the top website SEO Health issues?

On-Target offers expert solutions to fix top website SEO issues, to improve your site's ranking and visibility with our SEO services.

SEO - Internet Concept Magnifying Glass with SEO and Growth Chart Icon on Old Paper with Red Vertical Line Background.Top Website SEO Health Issues

Duplicate Pages

Duplicate pages are identified when two or more pages contain 85% or more identical content. This can negatively impact SEO in several ways. For one, Google generally displays only one version of duplicate pages in search results, filtering out others from its index. The page that ranks may not always be the one you intend to showcase. Additionally, search engines may interpret duplicate content as a tactic to manipulate rankings, leading to a downgrade in visibility or, in extreme cases, a ban from search results.

Duplicate content can also dilute the effectiveness of your link profile, spreading backlinks across similar pages rather than consolidating them to boost the authority of a single page.

Missing meta description

While meta descriptions don’t directly impact search rankings, they play a crucial role in how your page appears in search results. Search engines use meta descriptions to give users a brief overview of your page’s content, which can influence whether they decide to click. If a page lacks a meta description, search engines will typically display the first sentence of the page instead, which may not be relevant or engaging to potential visitors. Crafting a clear, compelling meta description can improve click-through rates by helping users understand what your page offers.

Duplicate title tags

Our crawler flags pages with exact duplicate <title> tags, which can create issues for search engines in identifying which page to prioritize for specific search queries. Duplicate titles reduce the likelihood of a page ranking well, as search engines may struggle to determine the most relevant page, potentially impacting visibility in search results or even risking a penalty. Additionally, identical <title> tags can confuse users, making it unclear which page best matches their intent.

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Low word count

This issue occurs when a webpage contains fewer than 200 words. The amount of text on a page is a quality indicator for search engines, as they aim to deliver comprehensive information to users. Pages with more extensive content are generally more informative and therefore tend to rank higher in search results compared to pages with low word counts.

Low text to HTML ratio

The text-to-HTML ratio measures the amount of text content on a webpage compared to the amount of code. This issue arises when the ratio is 10% or lower. Search engines prioritize pages with substantial content, so a higher text-to-HTML ratio improves your chances of ranking well. Additionally, less code enhances page load speed, which positively impacts both user experience and search rankings, and enables search engine bots to crawl your site more efficiently.