What are the Most Common On-Page SEO Issues and How Can You Fix Them?

Getting your on-page SEO right is so important these days, particularly if you’re trying to establish a strong online presence on search engines. And let’s face it, if you’re not trying todo that, you should be!

SEO isn’t just about using the right keywords in your content though. Nor can you simply rely on your website building program to do all of the work for you. Here’s 3 of the most common on-page SEO issues, and how you can fix them.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is exactly as the name suggests. It refers to sections of content which are the same, either elsewhere on your website, or on other pages around the web. There’s two schools of thought about this. One is that Google punishes sites for using duplicate content.The other is that there’s no ranking-down as a result of it. Regardless, duplicate content should be avoided.

Firstly, if the content is within your own site, Google can’t determine which page ranks on search results and they may even compete with each other. The same issue is true for other websites. You’ll be battling it out for search ranking, and it may come down to who has the most complete on-page SEO optimisation.‍

The fix: Run an SEO audit using an online tool, or enlist some SEO specialists to check your site. This will help you identify duplicate content and address it accordingly. If you’ve deliberately copied content from elsewhere online, this should be removed.

Broken Links

In short, broken links will get you ranked down on most search engines. This is because search engines are trying to create the best user experience, and broken links are frustrating for users. If you never remove pages within your own website, internal links should usually never be a problem. However, if you’re linking to other websites, remember you have no control over what they do.

In addition, when search engine bots crawl your site for indexing purposes, they don’t go through every page. They’ll take a sample of your website. In this sense, broken links are a waste of your crawl allotment, and you could be missing the opportunity to be indexed for pages and links you really want to rank for. (This also applies for duplicate content.)‍

The fix: Most analytic tools allow you to crawl your website and check for broken links. If you find any, remove them immediately, or redirect them to working pages. This should be done regularly, particularly if you use a lot of external links.

Incorrect Alt Tags

Alt tags form an important part of your on-page SEO, because they describe the images you’ve included. If your image tags are either missing, or don’t relate to the content onscreen, search engines have trouble categorising it.

Images are often used as links to other pages, for example, linking an image to a more detailed description of a product. If these are broken, it’s the same as having broken links, so image links need to all be working perfectly.

‍The fix: You can use tools to do a site audit, but for a manual solution you can check every image on every page, and make sure the alt tags are relevant to the image and page content. If images are being used as links to other pages, ensure the links are working correctly.

Need Expert On-Page SEO Help?

Don’t fall behind the pack because your on-page SEO isn’t hitting the mark. We offer a range of SEO services, and we can also help with website design management. When you choose to work with Cemoh, our experts ensure your on-page SEO is doing what it’s supposed to – driving traffic to your website. Contact us here to find out more about how we can enhance your online presence by optimising your website today.