A technical site audit is essential for ensuring your website excels in search engines. Many sites suffer from silent problems that prevent them from ranking, even if their copy is high-quality. One frequent issue is broken links. These can be site links that lead to error pages or outbound links that have been removed. Broken links negatively impact visitors and confuse search engine crawlers. To fix this, use a tool like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to locate and fix these links, or set up 301 redirects to guide users and bots correctly.

Another common pitfall is repeated content. This occurs when multiple pages have the overlapping information, which confuses ranking algorithms over which version to prioritize. Frequent culprits include query strings, www vs non-www versions, and printer-friendly pages. Effective fixes include using canonical tags, setting up 301 redirects, or blocking duplicate pages.

Delayed rendering is another major barrier. Pages that exceed 3-second load time increase bounce rates and hurt rankings. To improve speed, optimize image files, minify CSS and 横浜市のSEO対策会社 JavaScript, leverage client-side storage, and deploy a CDN. Also, consider switching to a faster hosting provider if your current one is underperforming.

Mobile responsiveness is critical since over 60% of traffic happen on smartphones. A site must respond dynamically to various device resolutions. Use the Mobile Usability Report to audit your site. If problems are found, adjust media queries, ensure text is readable, and optimize interactive elements to click comfortably.

Improper use of robots.txt or crawl instructions can accidentally block search engines from crawling key content. Audit your directives to ensure they’re not limiting organic discovery. Also, verify your XML sitemap and submitted to search engines. A well-maintained sitemap helps crawlers discover all your pages.

URL structure matters too. Unclean web addresses with unnecessary parameters are confusing to navigate. Simple, keyword-rich links are strongly favored. Use URL forwarding to update old URLs.

Finally, verify your SSL status. If your site uses unencrypted connection, search engines may flag it as unsafe. Migrate to SSL by installing an SSL certificate and redirecting all HTTP traffic to HTTPS. This not only improves trust but is also a Google ranking criterion.

Fixing these crawl and index problems may not seem flashy, but they form the backbone for improved search performance and user experience. Ongoing monitoring help catch problems early and ensure sustained SEO health.