1 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

The Short-and-Sweet
Marketer’s Guide to

THE BASICS OF
technical SEO
 2 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

introduction
SEO is a powerful tool. The funny thing about it though, you can do everything
right and still not succeed. At least, not to the level you should.

Your content can be stellar, authoritative and deliver irresistible CTAs, but little,
unseen technical difficulties can undermine it. You’ll go crazy trying to figure out
how to boost your ranking while the reality is you only need a minor technical
correction.

That’s why we’ve assembled this guide on technical SEO for you. let's get
It covers essential technical SEO elements to look out for, and it’s short at only 7
chapters. The sweet part is that the articles were written by technical SEO experts
started!
in clear, straight-forward language. Really, it’s an easy, quick read.

So, get started, read the guide and apply it. Then watch your content and SEO
results shine. Keep the guide handy and refer back to it; these technical elements
aren’t going to change anytime soon. Hey, if you want, feel free to share the links
to the included articles with co- workers, associates and friends.
3 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

To get you on your way, here’s a quick table of contents. On the last
page, we offer some additional resources you can take advantage of
after you’ve read through our guide.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Internal & External Links 4
Redirects & Canonical Tags 6
301 & 302 Redirects 10
Relative & Absolute URLs 12
Common Technical SEO Issues 14
Site Audits 23
Internal Links Audits 26
Additional Resources 30
 4 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

internal & external links

This article explains what internal and external links are, why they are important,
the benefits of each and how to use them effectively. See the original article
at this link to read online or share.
WHY ARE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINKS
IMPORTANT FOR SEO?
Originally published on April 5, 2017
An internal link is a hyperlink that directs the reader to another page on your
website, whereas an external link is a hyperlink that directs the reader to a
reputable page on a different website. External links may seem counter intuitive
— after all, you don’t want customers clicking on links that direct them away from
your site. However, linking to trustworthy material helps you come across as an
authority and can help Google figure out what your content is about, for SEO
purposes.
These links are more accessible to viewers, and they increase the authority
of your web pages and overall site. Internal links are often used as a call-to-
action. For example, they might prompt a viewer to read or learn more about
a topic by clicking on the internal link, or else ask a viewer to contact you or
schedule a visit.
Your website’s visibility and rank on a search engine can be improved by
adding internal links. The anchor text — the text of the hyperlink — should be a
specific and descriptive group of words that will help a search engine bot to
better “crawl,” or understand, your web page. Internal links will help a bot find
other web pages on your site, too. A web page that is easy to navigate — for
users and search engine bots — will properly index. This means that the web

Also important to keep in mind is that other companies can provide external links
to your website in their own content. For instance, if you publish a very useful blog
post, another company may link back to it as a source for their own blog. These
types of links to your site are key, as they boost your ranking in Google’s search
algorithm.

BENEFITS OF INTERNAL LINKS

Internal links on a web page will help a viewer to stay engaged with your
website longer. This may encourage them to become a customer or follower.
 5 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

BENEFITS OF EXTERNAL LINKS IMPROVING YOUR SEO STRATEGY

The quality and quantity of the external links that you use matters. Adding
trustworthy and informative external links to your pages will help improve the
credibility of your website, whereas adding poor-quality links will hurt your site.
Linking to outside websites will not hurt your page rank as long as the content
you’re linking to is valuable. An external link is more valuable if it links to a popular
(highly-ranked) and relevant (related to the content on your page) web page.
Valuable external links will also help to improve the authority of your website, by
providing a viewer with references.
There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when search engines like
Google have the power to determine which sites are ranked higher and are thus
more visible to a viewer. Internal and external links are an important component
of a strong SEO strategy. It may take time to master this process, but the effort
will be worth it: you’ll boost traffic to your site and improve your site’s rank on the
search engine’s results page.

Whenever you link to another site, that site will see that you’re linking to them.
Then, they are likely to return the favor by linking to your site in their content.
External links from other websites that link to your site further improve your
site’s credibility because they prove that your content is valuable. External links
are a great way to reach out, make connections, and get your content out there.
This type of external link is a great source of free traffic for your website, and, as
mentioned above, is a crucial element of Google’s search engine algorithm.
 6 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
301 redirects & canonical tags
This article explains what 301 redirects and canonical tag are, when to use them,
and common mistakes to look out for to ensure they do not stall your SEO effort.
See the original article at this link to read online or share.
WHEN TO USE A 301 REDIRECT VS. 302 REDIRECT
Originally published on August 30, 2016
Webmasters have invariably substituted 302 redirects for a 301 redirect and have
caused issues for a website. Search engines handle each redirect differently and
may need to determine if one was used by mistake. The wrong redirect can cause
a loss of traffic to the website. Know the difference between 301 and 302 redirects
and follow best practices to optimize website SEO performance.
WHAT ARE 301 REDIRECTS?
301 redirects help search engines (and users) find content that has moved to
a new URL. It’s like moving and giving the post office a change of address: it
shows that the content of the page has permanently moved somewhere else.
WHEN TO USE 301 REDIRECTS?
• When users access your site through multiple URLs
Let’s say your home page can be reached via http://site.com/home, http://
site.com, or http://www.site.com. It’s important to pick one URL as your
canonical (preferred) destination and utilize 301 redirects to route traffic
from the other URLs to the preferred URL. You can also use Google Search
Console to set your preferred domain.
• When you need a seamless transition when migrating your site to a new
domain.
301 redirects can effectively redirect results from the former site’s URLs to
the new ones.
• When you’re merging two websites.
Use 301 redirects to link outdated URLs to the correct pages.
 7 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
AVOID THESE 301 REDIRECT MISTAKES
• Using 302 instead of 301
Often times developers implement a temporary 302 redirect instead of a
permanent 301 redirect (learn more about them here), which make the link
juice lose its flow.
• Redirecting ALL pages to a single URL in a migration
For example, if your website is migrating 500 pages, each page should
have its own 301 redirect to the relevant page on the new site. A
common mistake is to redirect all 500 pages to a single URL, typically the
homepage.
• Missing 301 redirects for EVERY iteration of your domain
Since http://site.com and http://www.site.com create different versions of
the URL, be sure to set up a redirect from all of the different iterations of
your brand’s domain. So, if your preferred domain is www.site.com yet you
type or direct to site.com, you will get an error that this site doesn’t exist.
WHAT ARE REL=CANONICAL TAGS?
The rel=canonical tag, often called “canonical link”, is an html element that
helps webmasters prevent duplicate content issues. A rel=canonical tag lets
search engines know that certain similar URLs are actually one and the same.
It does this by specifying the “canonical URL” as a preferred version of the
page.
Like 301 redirects, these tags are also inserted into the header of your page,
but they lead search engines to the canonical URL, where the original content
(that should be ranked) lives.
In other words, use rel=canonical tags to push search engines to your most-
complete content (your canonical URL), when you have multiple URLs for the
same topic or item.
Rel=canonical tags pass the same amount of link juice as a 301 redirect and
can be implemented quickly. Of course, it’s vital to determine your canonical
URL first.
 8 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
WHEN TO USE REL=CANONICAL TAGS
• When your site generates dynamic URLs, temporary URLs generated from
specific user searches, for the same product or item.
For example: https://www.site.com/product?category=paper&color=white
https://www.site.com/paper/white/whitepaper.html
• When your blog system automatically creates multiple URLs when you
post one post under multiple categories or sections.
Rel=canonical tags help search engines push the URLs of each category
to your canonical URL, for example: http://www.blog.example.com/
category1/blog-post-name http://www.blog.example.com/category2/blog-
post-name
• When your server is configured to load the same content for the www/
non-www subdomain or the http/s protocol.
Rel=canonical tags help search engines push both of these URLs to your
canonical URL, for example: http://www.site.com/example https://www.
site.com/example
• When you have a lot of syndicated content. Content syndication lets you
drive traffic by sharing your blog on other sites and publishing other
blogs on your site.
Rel=canonical tags can push search results—from those various blogs, web
feeds and the like— to your canonical URL.
 9 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

AVOID THESE REL=CANONICAL MISTAKES

• Writing absolute URLs as relative URLs. • Typos, unintended and multiple declarations
An Absolute URL uses the entire address on the page that you link to. It’s always wise to double-check your work—especially if you’re picking up a
template, setting multiple rel=canonical tags to different URLs or using an
For example: <a href = http://www.site.com/xyz.html> SEO plug-in with default rel=canonical tags.

A relative URL uses the “relative” path, not the full address. It assumes that
the page you type in is on the same site.
For example: <a <href = “/xyz.html”>
If you mistakenly use a relative URL, the search engines might ignore your
rel=canonical tag. So, be sure to specify the full absolute URL. You can read
more about absolute and relative URLs here.
At the end of the day, use caution when implementing 301 redirects
and rel=canonical tags. Used correctly, they can turn duplicate content
into seamless search results. Used incorrectly, they have the potential to
impede search performance and harm your site. It’s always good to test on
a small set of URLs first to make sure you get the visibility you want, before
implementing either of these solutions across your site.

• Setting the canonical URL to the first page of a paginated series.

If you do this, the search engines will only index the first page, skipping the
content on subsequent pages. It’s best to specify a URL that has all of the
content on a single page.

For example:
SINGLE PAGE WITH ALL CONTENT
example.html?page=all

PAGE 1 CONTENT PAGE 2 CONTENT PAGE 3

example.html?page=1 example.html?page=2 example.html?page=3
 10 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

301 & 302 Redirects

This article explains what 301 and 302 redirects are and when to use them for the
best SEO results. See the original article at this link to read online or share.
WHEN TO USE A 301 REDIRECT VS. 302 REDIRECT
Originally published on August 30, 2016
Webmasters have invariably substituted 302 redirects for a 301 redirect and have
caused issues for a website. Search engines handle each redirect differently and
may need to determine if one was used by mistake. The wrong redirect can cause
a loss of traffic to the website. Know the difference between 301 and 302 redirects
and follow best practices to optimize website SEO performance.
WHEN TO USE 301 REDIRECTS?
A 301 redirect is a permanent move. This is not useful for temporary changes
or instances of A/B testing. The 301 Redirect is used when:
• Links to any outdated URLs need to be sent to your desired page. A case in
point would be the merging of two websites.
• There are several URLs used to access your site. Select a single URL as a
canonical and preferred destination and use your 301 redirects to direct
traffic to the preferred URL.

WHAT IS A 301 REDIRECT? • You’ve moved your site to a new domain, and you want to make the
transition as seamless as possible.
A 301 redirect is used to make sure that search engines and users are sent
to the correct page. A 301 status code is used when any page has been • HTTP to HTTPS migration
permanently moved to another location. Users will now see the new page
as it has replaced the old paget. This will change the URL of the page when
Your previous page will be replaced, and the new page will be shown in your
it shows in search engine results. For websites hosted on servers that run
Apache, website developers or owners need to access the .htaccess file search engine results with a 301 redirect.
within the server. If your site is hosted on a server running other software,
check with your site-host for more details.
11 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

WHAT IS A 302 REDIRECT?

A 302 redirect is a temporary change and redirects users and search engines
to the desired page for a limited amount of time until it is removed. It may
be shown as a 302 found (HTTP 1.1) or moved temporarily (HTTP 1.0). A 302
redirect can be done using a meta tag or Javascript, rather than accessing
server files and expending additional time and effort needed for a 301
redirect.
There are webmasters that use 302 redirects rather than 301 redirects. Some
may hope to avoid the Google aging delay associated with a 301 redirect.
This becomes an issue for Google that has to consider whether or not a 302
or 301 redirect was actually intended as they want to improve search engine
experience and webmasters have regularly used a 302 redirect when a 301
redirect was appropriate. This can cause issues for search engine ranking and
more. Problems such as continued indexing of the outdated URL and division
of link popularity between the URLs can occur.
302 redirects are temporary and used when webmasters need to assess
performance or gather feedback. They are not to be used as a permanent
solution.
HOW DO 301 AND 302 REDIRECTS IMPACT YOUR SEO?
What will happen to your “link juice” using 301 and 302? Matt Cutts in a video
has said that use of 301 redirects will not create a loss in link juice. There are
skeptics that claim that a 301 redirect may result in a 15 percent loss in “link
juice.” When a 302 redirect is used there should be no impact to PageRank,
Page Authority, and Traffic Value.Using a 302 redirect by mistake can cause
confusion and negatively impact search engine visibility. Which redirect is
better? Each redirect serves a different purpose. For a permanent change
that will rank for SEO, a 301 redirect is necessary and understood by search
engines.

WHEN CAN A 302 REDIRECT BE USED?

There are times when a 302 redirect is useful. Add a 302 redirect for:

• A/B testing of a web page for functionality or design.

• Getting client feedback on a new page without impacting site ranking.

• Updating a web page while providing viewers with a consistent

experience.
 12 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

Relative & Absolute URLs

This article defines relative and absolute URLs, and the why and when to use them. RELATIVE URL
See the original article at this link to read online or share. The relative URL, on the other hand, does not use the full address. It assumes
that the page you type in is on the same site. An example of a relative URL
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A RELATIVE AND AN would look like this:
ABSOLUTE URL?
Originally published on August 4, 2016 <a href = “/xyz.html”>
The way that you structure your URL is absolutely essential to your site. It is the
address to your site and its subpages. It’s the way Google, Bing, and other search WHY CHOOSE RELATIVE URL?
engines land on your site. No matter what, you do not want any redundant URLs • Quicker Coding
or links that are broken on your website.
Large websites are made much easier to code when you shorten your URL into
You have two basic choices when it comes to the selection of URLs - absolute a relative format.
URL and relative URL. If you choose the wrong type, it will not only make the site
difficult for search engines to crawl but also affect your SEO strategy. • Staging Environment
If you are using a content management system that has staging environment
Relative vs. Absolute URL with its own unique domain like WordPress or SharePoint, then your entire
website is replicated on that staging domain. The relative format allows the
<a href = /xyz> <a href = http://www.example.com/xyz> same website to exist on staging and production domain, or the live accessible
(Relative) (Absolute) version of your website, without having to go back in and recode all of the
URLs. This not only makes coding easier for a web developer but also serves as
ABSOLUTE URL a time saver.

Absolute URL requires you to place the entire address on the page that you • Faster Load Times
link to. An example of an absolute URL would look like this:
Pages that use a relative URL will load more quickly than pages using absolute
<a href = http://www.example.com/xyz.html> URLs, for the most part, although the difference is miniscule at best.
 13 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
WHY CHOOSE ABSOLUTE URL?
• Foils Scrapers
An absolute URL makes it harder for people to scrape information from your
website using scraper programs. If you have all of your internal links as relative
URLs, it would be very easy for a scraper to simply scrape your entire website
and put it up on a new domain.
• Disallows Duplicate Content
It’s very important to have absolute URLs in order to avoid duplicate content
issue. Imagine you have multiple versions of root domains that are indexed in
Google without a canonical tag point to correct version of the site.
For example:
http://www.example.com https://www.example.com
http://example.com https://example.com
According to Google, these are 4 different sites and Google could potentially
enter your site on any one of these four pages. At this point if all of the internal
links are relative URLs, they can then crawl and index your entire site using
whatever format these are eventually resulting in a duplicate content issue.
• Improve Internal Link Strategy
While coding URL, you do want to think about internal linking. If you have a
<base href> tag that was implemented wrong on the site along with relative
URLs, it will create a page that will land on 404 error page.
For example: on your category page http://www.example.com/category/xyz.
html, you have base href tag that reads:
<base href=”http://www.example.com/category/xyz.html”/> and relative URLs
internal link(/category/abc.html). When Google crawls your internal links, it will
result in 404 error page as shown below.
http://www.example.com/category/xyz.html/category/abc.html With the use of
Absolute URLs, you are avoiding this type of situation.
• Helps with Crawling
Google crawlers follow the internal links on your pages to crawl more dip
pages on your site. There is a limited number of URLs that Google crawlers
crawl due to the actual cost involved in it. Based on this fact if you have a
million pages on your site and during the crawl if Google comes across an
issue more frequently, then it would be more logical for them to leave the site.
This situation can be avoided by using the absolute URL to help Google
streamline the crawling process, which will not only save time but also
encourage it to come back more often and crawl more pages.
Make sure that you pick the appropriate strategy according to your SEO needs.
For the most part, it will be absolute URLs as it definitely has more pros than
cons and will help improve your site’s SEO. However, there are times you will
use relative URLs as well depending on the need of your site.
 14 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

common technical seo issues These 15 common technical SEO fixes are often overlooked, yet
straightforward to fix and crucial to boost your search visibility and SEO
success.
In this article, we cover 15 common technical SEO issues and how to correct and
prevent them. See the original article at this link to read online or share. 1. NO HTTPS SECURITY
Site security with HTTPS is more important than ever. In October 2017,
15 COMMON TECHNICAL SEO ISSUES AND Google began rolling out a “not secure” warning in Chrome every time a web
HOW TO SOLVE THEM user lands on an HTTP site.
Published on March 30, 2019

seoClarity has been executing site audits for many years and sometimes our To check if you’re site is HTTPS, simply type your domain name into Google
clients tell us how frustrating it can be to come across the same common SEO Chrome. If you see the “secure” message (picture below), your site is secure.
issues over and over again.

This post outlines the most common technical SEO problems that seoClarity
has encountered while doing hundreds of site audits over the years.
Hopefully, our solutions help you when you come across these issues on your However, if your site is not secure, when you type your domain name
site. into Google Chrome, it will display a gray background—or even worse, a
red background with a “not secure” warning. This could cause users to
When we talk about “technical SEO,” we’re referring to updates to a website immediately navigate away from your site.
and/or server that you have immediate control over and which have a direct
(or sometimes indirect) impact on search engine crawling, indexation and
ultimately: search rankings. Technical SEO includes components like page
titles, title tags, HTTP header responses, XML sitemaps, 301 redirects, and
metadata. How to Fix It:

Technical SEO does NOT include analytics, keyword research, backlink profile • To convert your site to HTTPS, you need an SSL certificate from a Certificate
development or social media strategies. Authority.
• Once you purchase and install your certificate, your site will be secure.
 15 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
2. SITE ISN’T INDEXED CORRECTLY
When you search for your brand name in Google, does your website show up? If
the answer is no, there might be an issue with your indexation. As far as Google is
concerned, if your pages aren’t indexed, they don’t exist—and they certainly won’t
be found on the search engines.
Not sure how to check? Here’s how:
Type the following into Google’s search bar: “site:yoursitename.com” and
instantly view the count of indexed pages for your site.
How to Fix It:
• If your site isn’t indexed at all, you can begin by adding your URL to
Google.
• If your site is indexed, but there are many MORE results than expected,
look deeper for either
• Site-hacking spam or old versions of the site that are indexed instead of
appropriate redirects in place to point to your updated site.
• If your site is indexed, but you see quite a bit LESS than expected, perform
an audit of the indexed content and compare it against which pages
you want to rank. If you’re not sure why the content isn’t ranking, check
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to ensure your site content is compliant.
• If the results are different than you expected in any way, verify that your
important website pages are not blocked by your robots.txt file (see #4
on this list). You should also verify you haven’t mistakenly implemented a
NOINDEX meta tag (see #5 on this list).
 16 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

3. NO XML SITEMAPS How to Fix It:

XML sitemaps help Google search bots understand more about your site pages,
so they can effectively and intelligently crawl your site.
Not sure how to check? Here’s how:
Type your domain name into Google and add “/sitemap.xml” to the end, as
pictured below.
• If your website doesn’t have a sitemap (and you end up on a 404 page),
you can create one yourself or hire a web developer to create one for you.
The easiest option is to use an XML sitemap generating tool. If you have
a WordPress site, the Yoast SEO plugin can automatically generate XML
sitemaps for you.
4. MISSING OR INCORRECT ROBOTS.TXT
A missing robots.txt file is a big red flag—but did you also know that an improperly
configured robots.txt file destroys your organic site traffic?

Not sure how to check? Here’s how:

If your website has a sitemap, you will see something like this:
To determine if your robots.txt file is incorrect, type your website URL into your
browser with a “/robots.txt” suffix. If you get a result that reads “User-agent: *
Disallow: /” then you have an issue.

How to Fix It:

• If you see “Disallow: /”, immediately
talk to your developer. There could
be a good reason it’s set up that
way, or it may be an oversight.
• If you have a complex robots.txt file,
like many e-commerce sites, you
should review it line-by- line with
*Photo credit for robots.txt bad file: https://en.wikipe- your developer to make sure it’s
dia.org/wiki/Robots_exclusion_standard correct.
 17 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

5. META ROBOTS NOINDEX SET 6. SLOW PAGE SPEED

When the NOINDEX tag is appropriately configured, it signifies certain pages are
of lesser importance to search bots. (For example, blog categories with multiple
pages.) However, when configured incorrectly, NOINDEX can immensely damage
your search visibility by removing all pages with a specific configuration from
Google’s index.
It’s common to NOINDEX large numbers of pages while the website is in
development, but once the website goes live, it’s imperative to remove the
NOINDEX tag. Do not blindly trust that it was removed, as the results will destroy
your site’s visibility in search.
Not sure how to check? Here’s how:
• Right click on your site’s main pages and select View Source Code. Use the
Find command to search for lines in the source code that read “NOINDEX” or
“NOFOLLOW” such as:
<meta name=”robots” content=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>
If your site doesn’t load quickly (typically 3 seconds or less), your users will go
elsewhere. Site speed matters to both your users’ experience and to Google.
Not sure how to check? Here’s how...
• Use Google PageSpeed Insights to detect specific speed problems with your
site. (Be sure to check desktop as well as mobile performance.)
• If you don’t want to spot check, use seoClarity Page Speed insights to scan
your site.
How to Fix It:
• The solutions to site speed issues can vary from simple to complex. Common
site speed solutions can include image optimization/compression, browser
caching improvement, server response time improvement and JavaScript
minifying.
• Speak with your web developer to ensure the best possible solution for your
site’s particular page speed issues.

• If you don’t want to spot check, use Clarity Audits, seoClarity’s site audit tool to
scan your entire site.

How to Fix It:

• If you see any “NOINDEX” or “NOFOLLOW” in your source code, check with
your web developer as they may have included it for specific reasons.
• If there’s no known reason, have your developer change it to read <meta
name=”robots” content=” INDEX, FOLLOW”> or remove the tag altogether.
 18 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
7. MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF THE HOMEPAGE
Remember when you discovered “yourwebsite.com” and “www.yourwebsite.com”
go to the same place? While this is convenient, it also means Google may be
indexing multiple URL versions, diluting your site’s visibility in search.
How to Fix It:
• First, check if different versions of your URL successfully flow to one standard
URL. This can include HTTPS and HTTP versions, as well as versions like “www.
yourwebsite.com/home.html.” Check each possible combination. Another way
is to use your “site:yoursitename.com” to determine which pages are indexed
and if they stem from multiple URL versions.
• If you discover multiple indexed versions, you’ll need to set up 301 redirects or
have your developer set them up for you. You should also set your canonical
domain in Google Search Console.
8. INCORRECT REL=CANONICAL
Rel=canonical is particularly important for all sites with duplicate or very similar
content (especially e-commerce sites). Dynamically rendered pages (like a
category page of blog posts or products) can look like duplicate content to
Google search bots. The rel=canonical tag tells search engines which “original”
page is of primary importance (hence: canonical)—similar to URL canonicalization.
How to Fix It:
• This one also requires you to spot check your source code. Fixes vary
depending on your content structure and web platform. (Here’s Google’s
Guide to Rel=Canonical.) If you need assistance, reach out to your web
developer.
Investigating these eight common technical SEO solutions is the best way to
quickly improve your SERP visibility and can have a hugely positive impact on
your site.
 19 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

9. DUPLICATE CONTENT 10. MISSING ALT TAGS

With more and more brands using dynamically created websites, content Broken images and those missing alt tags is a missed SEO opportunity. The image
management systems, and practicing global SEO, the problem of duplicate alt tag attribute helps search engines index a page by telling the bot what the
content plagues many websites. image is all about. It’s a simple was to boost the SEO value of your page via the
image content that enhances your user experience.
The problem with duplicate content is that it may “confuse” search engine
crawlers and prevent the correct content from being served to your target How to Fix It:
audience. Unlike content issues like too little or “thin” content where you don’t
Most SEO site audits will identify images that are broken and missing alt tags.
have enough content on a page (at least 300 words), duplicate content can occur
Running regular site audits to monitor your image content as part of your SEO
for many reasons:
standard operating procedures makes it easier to manage and stay current with
image alt tags across your website.
• Ecommerce site store items appear on multiple versions of the same URL.
• Printer-only web pages repeat content on the main page.
• The same content appears in multiple languages on an international site.

How to Fix It:

Each of these three issues can be resolved respectively with:
• Proper Rel=Canonical (as noted above)
• Use and proper configuration (instructions for setup also noted above)
• Correct implementation of hreflang tags

Google’s support page offers other ideas to help limit duplicate content including
using 301 redirects, top-level domains and limiting boilerplate content.
 20 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

11. BROKEN LINKS Structured data is a simple way to help Google search crawlers understand the
content and data on a page. For example, if you’re page contains a recipe, an
Good internal and external links show demonstrate to both users and search
ingredient list would be an ideal type of content to feature in a structured data
crawlers that you have high quality content. Over time, content changes and once
format. Address information like this example from Google is another type of data
great links break. Broken links create a poor user experience and reflect lower
perfect for a structured data format.
quality content, a factor that can affect page ranking.
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
How to Fix It:
{
While internal links should be confirmed every time a page is removed, changed “@context”: “https://schema.org”,
or a redirect is implemented, the value of external links requires regular “@type”: “Organization”,
monitoring. The best and most scalable way to address broken links is to run “url”: “http://www.example.com”,
regular site audits. “name”: “Unlimited Ball Bearings Corp.”,
“contactPoint”: {
Our Site Audit will help you find the pages where an internal link exists and you “@type”: “ContactPoint”,
can then fix those links by replacing the broken link with the correct / new page. “telephone”: “+1-401-555-1212”,
“contactType”: “Customer service”
Use Link Explorer to find all external links that are broken. From there, you can }
reach out to the sites with broken links and provide them with the correct link or }
new page. </script>

12. NOT ENOUGH USE OF STRUCTURED DATA How to Fix It:

Google defines structured data as: As you roll-out new content, identify opportunities to include structured data in
the page and coordinate the process between content creators and your SEO
“a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying team. Better use of structured data may help improve CTR and possibly improve
the page content…” rank position in the SERP. Once you implement structured data, review your GSC
report regularly to make sure that Google is not reporting any issue with your
structured data markup.
 21 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
13. MOBILE DEVICE OPTIMIZATION
In December 2018, Google announced mobile-first indexing represented more
than half of the websites appearing in search results. Google would have sent you
an email when (or if) your site was transitioned. If you’re not sure if your site has
undergone the transition, you can also use Google URL Inspection Tool.
Whether Google has transitioned you to mobile-first indexing yet or not, you need
to guarantee an exceptional mobile user experience. Anyone using responsive
website design is probably in good shape. If you run a “.m” mobile site, you need
to make sure you have the right implementation on your m-dot site so you don’t
lose your search visibility in a mobile-first world.
How to Fix It:
As your mobile site will be the one indexed, you’ll need to do the following for all
“.m” web pages:
• Guarantee the appropriate and correct hreflang code and links.
• Update all meta-data on your mobile site. Meta descriptions should be
equivalent on both mobile and desktop sites.
• Add structured data to your mobile pages and make sure the URLs are update
to mobile URLs.
14. MISSING OR NON-OPTIMIZED META DESCRIPTIONS
Meta descriptions are those short, up to 165-character content blurbs that
describe what the web page is about. These little snippets help the search
engines index your page and when written well can stimulate audience interest in
the page.
It’s a simple SEO feature, but a lot of pages are missing this important content.
You might not see this content on your page, but it’s the most important that helps
the user know if they want to click on your result or not. Like your page content,
meta descriptions should be optimized to match what the user will read on the
page.
How to Fix It:
There are a couple of ways to address this issue:
For pages missing meta descriptions: run an SEO site audit to find all pages that
are missing meta-descriptions. Determine the value of the page and prioritize
accordingly.
For pages with meta descriptions: evaluate pages based on performance and
value to the organization. An audit can identify any pages with meta-description
errors. High value pages that are almost ranking where you want should be
optimized first. Any page that undergoes an edit, update or change should also
have the meta description updated at the time of the change too. It’s important to
make sure that meta descriptions are unique to a page.
 22 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO
15. USERS SENT TO PAGES WITH WRONG LANGUAGE
In 2011, Google introduced the hreflang tag for brands engaged in global SEO
to improve user experience. Hreflang tags signal to Google the correct web
page to serve to a user based on language or location of search. It’s also called
rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”. The code looks like this:
<link rel=”alternate” href=”http://example.com” hreflang=”en-us” />
Hreflang is one of several international SEO best practices including hosting sites
on local IPs and connecting with local search engines. The benefits of serving
locally-customized content to users in their native language, however, really
cannot be understated. Using hreflang tags requires a fair amount of detail work
to ensure all pages have the appropriate code and links with errors not being
uncommon.
How to Fix It:
Google provides a free International Targeting Tool and there are a variety of
third-party tools you can use as well. For instance, with our site audits, you can
in-depth HREFLang audit and verify your implementation with cross-checks of
referenced URLs. seoClarity’s HREFLang audit capability displays the count of
hreflang tags found and lists the errors with specific tags.
Fixing hreflang errors effectively involves two steps:
• Guaranteeing the code is correct. A tool like Aleyda Solis’ hreflang Tags
Generator Tool can simplify the effort.
• When updating a page or creating a redirect, update the code on all pages
that refer/link to it.
 23 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

Site Audits
In this article, we explain what a site audit involves, the different types of site audits
and the benefits of doing a site audit. See the original article at this link to read
online or share.

WHAT IS A SITE AUDIT? WHAT EXACTLY IS AN SEO AUDIT?

Originally published on March 6, 2018
Over the last couple of years, Google has made a variety of updates to its
algorithm in terms of how they evaluate a site to show in their organic search
engine results page (SERPs). Page speed is one of the recent ranking factors
including the AMP Project, which aims to make the web better for all. The
more advanced Google’s algorithms are, site audits become a major necessity
for businesses, resulting in half- year to yearly reviews of its website. Recently,
Google has even re-upped its Lighthouse Chrome extension to improve its
already vibrant features for SEO auditing, knowing how important it is for
businesses.
In a simplest term, an SEO audit is a process for evaluating the search
engine friendliness of a website in many areas. This evaluation is based on
if a website shows up on the SERPs. Just like when auditing for a business
for following all the rules and regulations set out by the government, SEO
auditing must dot every “I” and cross every “T” to determine what issues need
to be worked through for the website. Also, SEO audits can be performed
to see if there area areas for improvement within the website as well. This
report card, of sorts, helps to identify a site that is clean and easy to operate
compared to one that may have issues.
 24 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

TYPES OF SITE AUDITS

There are so many audit types to choose from. However, there are a few audits
that will tell you what’s working on your current website, what’s falling short and
how you can improve your site for the opportunity to rank. These focuses include:
• Site health audit - assesses the architecture and usability of a website.
(oversees onsite, technical, page speed, internal and external links, and other
factors)
• Site security audit - It identifies vulnerabilities to security breaches. A security
audit prevents compromising sensitive information of a business or its visitors.
• Conversion rate optimization audit - helps businesses understand how visitors
move through your website, what actions they take (filling out a form, purchase
products or otherwise) and what stopping the users from completing the end
goals.
• Google penalty and recovery audit - identification of a penalty, which is either
a manual or algorithmic issue, is assessed with a process to present solutions
for site recovery.
• Competitor website audit – Knowing what your competitors are doing is one
of the most important ways to stay ahead in your industry. By auditing your
competitor’s website, you can find insights and opportunities to implement
into your own digital marketing strategy.
• Content audit – Duplicate content may signal some structural issues within
your site, preventing Google from understanding what they should rank for
your site and what matters most on your site. Websites with duplicate content
sometimes is impacted by search engine ranking factors. This is a common
issue for many large enterprise websites and therefore, it is imperative to audit
and produce authentic, robust, engaging, and unique content to the best of
your abilities.
25 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

WHY DO I NEED A SITE AUDIT? CONCLUSION

The changes to search engines over the years are vast on how search results
are computed and how they perform. In the beginning, an individual would just
include a keyword in the title and header tags, along with the content for the
page. Gain and earn some some backlinks and your site would easily move up the
SEO rankings.
Today, everything has changed! Business owners and marketing leaders who
have been marketing a product or service for awhile have a hard time keeping
up with the demands of SEO. Instead of a handful factors a decade ago, there are
now hundreds of search engines factors to consider.
Site audits need to take precedence after you’ve invested in building your site
and the content. If you aren’t seeing seeing the traffic results that are expected for
your business from the organic results or if you’ve seen a decline in organic traffic,
it’s important that you invest in doing site audits. To have continued success with
SEO, audits help check for errors and issues that can be addressed. An audit gets
down to the root of the problems, so changes can be made to enhance the search
visibility of your site. Learn more about how and what to prioritize in a site audit.

Recent additions that factor into SEO include:

• Content
• Responsiveness
• Page speed
• Authority
• Technical code
 26 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

Internal link audits

This article covers the value of internal links and the importance of the internal link
audit to guarantee your links enhance rather than take away from your SEO effort.
See the original article at this link to read online or share.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO AUDIT YOUR
INTERNAL LINKS
Originally published on November 28, 2017
HOW SHOULD YOU STRUCTURE YOUR WEBSITE?
Your internal linking structure should follow a pyramid formation. Your home
page rests at the top. Directly beneath lie cornerstone pages or category
pages that link deeply to relevant blog posts or product pages. All pages
directly within one link of the home page will be perceived as the most
important to search engines.

In the past, we’ve talked about internal linking and why it is important for
SEO. If you missed that one, you can read it here.

In this post, we will dive into internal link analysis, and why you should audit
your internal links to get the maximum benefit. Unless they are external, you
have the complete control over the links when they are internal.

WHAT IS AN INTERNAL LINK?

Internal links are links that point from one page on a domain to a different
page on the same domain.
 27 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

THE BENEFITS OF INTERNAL LINKS BROKEN LINKS

A comprehensive internal linking structure provides a richer SEO profile and end- Find any links to internal pages that return 404. Simply identify the parent pages
user experience for your website. Internal links: on the website and update the link with 200 Ok pages.

1. Open pathways to web pages previously less accessible to search engine

spiders.
2. Help organize web pages categorically based on the keyword used in the link’s
URL and anchor text.
3. Improve user navigation by providing further ways to interact with your site.
4. Use anchor text keywords to aid user intent.
5. Pass “link juice” between web pages (a purported ranking factor).
6. Organize site architecture and communicates to search engines your most
important web pagtes.
7. Help promotional campaigns by visibly highlighting or featuring links on a
home page or next to content.

WHY IS AN INTERNAL LINK AUDIT SO IMPORTANT?

For eCommerce sites, it is normal to have products or category pages that are no
longer available or new products and category pages added to the site. For sites
with thousands of pages, a thorough internal link analysis will provide you with
several important types of information. Some of this information reveals existing
or potential problems which should be addressed quickly to ensure a good
customer experience.

seoClarity has a site audit technology that also does an analysis on your internal
links. You can learn more about our Clarity Audits here.
 28 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

INTERNAL 301/302 REDIRECTS
If your website has a lot of internal 301/302 redirects, there’s a chance that your
deeper pages may not be receiving as much link equity as they could be. While
Google claims there is no link equity lost in 3xx redirects, why leave this up to
chance? I would rather be 100% sure that internal links are passing their full
value throughout the website. Besides link equity, it will also help with your crawl
budget as Google spiders will not have to crawl the link twice.
CHECK FOR PAGES WITH MORE THAN 100 LINKS
While Google has never confirmed the maximum number of links that should
be on any given page, more than 100 links (including those in the headers and
footers) is overwhelming for a reader and looks spammy to search engines. Find
all these pages with more than 100 links using and limit the number of links,
ensuring less than 100 per page. Not doing this places your website at risk of
losing the ability to have additional pages crawled.

To identify this, simply run a site crawl and collect all the links that are either 301
or 302 redirects. Here’s an example of that detail using Clarity Audits.

Often, these are instances of internal redirects in key areas such as the primary/
secondary navigation, footer or sidebar links. This is great because, with one
change, you can eliminate a large quantity of these internal 301 redirects. While
you’ll want to fix as many as possible, I recommend you start there.
29 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

IDENTIFY PAGES FOR BETTER INTERNAL LINKING FINAL THOUGHTS

Discover pages that are not linked as often as they should be and recognize When we think about links, we often ignore the internal links that drive value to
quickly the pages of little importance that have an overabundance of links. the site. Internal linking is a highly valuable strategy, both for SEO and for your
site’s bottom line. Pay careful attention to how your links bind your pages to one
another and try to keep your navigation as intuitive and convenient as possible.

To reduce bounce rates and increase engagement, consider prioritizing links to

pages that already have good engagement, but that have fewer internal links
pointing to them.
30 The Short-and-Sweet Marketer’s Guide to the Basics of Technical SEO

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
While Technical SEO doesn’t have to be hard, it does require you to monitor
and pay attention. If there is any way we can help, please let us know.
Our Professional Services team excels at finding solutions for even the
biggest SEO challenges.

Alternatively, if you’d like to read more about Technical SEO, Content

Marketing or How to Get More from Your SEO data, please feel free to check
out any of the following articles:

Search Experience Optimization

Take a better approach to SEO with our technical SEO framework.

The Content Marketers Guide to a Data-Driven Content Strategy

De-clutter the content chaos in your organization with a data-driven
strategy that is sure to help you understand how to create optimized
content for your audience.

Content Fusion
Gain insight into keyword –relevance based on semantically related terms
for any of your competitive topics.

www.seoclarity.net

sales@seoclarity.net

773-831-4500