Top 5 Technical SEO Issues To Audit Regularly

Keeping your site in top shape for search engines requires more than just great content. Technical SEO is the backbone that ensures your pages are crawled, indexed, and presented correctly. As Google’s algorithm becomes more sophisticated, there are a few crucial elements that can make or break your site’s performance.

In this post, we’re diving into the Top 5 Technical SEO Issues you need to check right now to keep your website running smoothly and ranking higher.

1. Noindex & Crawlability

First up, let’s talk about crawlability. Your website might have amazing content, but if search engines can’t crawl or index it, it’s like shouting into the void. This is where checking your noindex tags and robots.txt files becomes critical.

Make sure that only the pages you want to block from being indexed are marked with noindex. If your important pages are mistakenly blocked, they won’t show up in search results, no matter how well they’re optimised.

The most common situation where we find noindex tags in the wrong place is during a major update. This happens when the dev team moves changes from staging to live.

Most of the time, this happens because the developer turned on a site-wide noindex. This prevents crawlers from accessing the staging site while developers work on it. They often forget to turn it off before going live.

Here's what a standard noindex tag looks like in the HTML:

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You can quickly check your HTML for a noindex by opening your page in your favourite browser. Then, right-click and select "View Source." Then type CMD+F (mac) or CTRL+F (Windows) to search for noindex. If nothing comes up, then your page doesn't have a noindex tag.

Pro tip: Use Google Search Console to spot any noindex tags or crawling issues before they become a problem.

2. Incorrect Canonical URLs

Duplicate content can hurt your rankings, which is why canonical URLs are so important. They tell search engines which version of a page is the original or the preferred one. This is especially crucial for e-commerce sites with product variations or sites with paginated content.

Canonical URLs live in the html source of each of your pages, and every page should have one. Here's what they look like:

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Double-check that your canonical tags point to the right version of each page; generally, each page should have a canonical link tag that points to itself unless the page is a duplicate of another page, in which case you should ensure the canonical URL points to the original page. This ensures your SEO efforts aren’t split across multiple versions of the same content, and Google knows exactly which one to rank.

3. Incorrect Hreflang Tags

This is a great one to check consistently if you have an international ecommerce site or if you’re running a multilingual or international website. Up-to-date and correct hreflang tags are a must-have. These tags tell search engines which language and regional version of a page to show to users in specific countries.

An incorrectly implemented hreflang tag can lead to users in the wrong region seeing the wrong version of your page. It can and does also confuse Google, reducing your chances of ranking well in different markets.

Make sure your hreflang tags are set up correctly so your audience gets the right content in the right language.

Here's an example of hreflang tags on one of our client ecommerce sites:

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Common issues:

• Incorrect Language or Country Codes (site owners and developers love to invent their own country codes). This is why it's good to ensure you run your hreflang tags through a validation process before publishing.
• Missing Self-Referencing Hreflang Tag
• Mismatched URLs
• Missing Hreflang Tags for Certain Pages
• Inconsistent Use of Hreflang Tags Across Pages
• Conflicting Canonical and Hreflang Tags
• Using Hreflang Tags for the Wrong Page Type
• No Return Hreflang Tag
• Incorrect Application for Regional Targeting
• Overcomplicating Hreflang Implementation

We like to use Screaming Frog to check for hreflang issues. Check out their helpful guide with step-by-step instructions on how to audit your hrefl lang tags.

4. Google Rendering Issues

Your site might look great to users, but what about to Googlebot? Rendering issues can occur, particularly on JavaScript-heavy sites, meaning Google might not be able to see or index your content properly.

Does your Google render look different to what you see on a real device? Here's some common issues we've found that cause issues for Google renders in Google Search Console and Google's Rich Snippets Testing Tool:

• Web banners with no max-height specified in the CSS for specific screen sizes
• Sticky footers with 100vh
• Sites that rely on javascript for rendering page content (use a service like prerender.io to fix this without having to redevelop your entire site).
• Content hidden behind user actions
• Slow page load times
• Lazy loading implementation errors (lazy loading your above-the-fold content is a big no-no!).

You can use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to view how Google renders your pages. If there’s a discrepancy between what your users see and what Google sees, that’s a red flag. Ensuring your site’s content is fully visible to crawlers will help prevent indexing issues.

5. Failed Core Web Vitals

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Finally, don’t forget Core Web Vitals. These metrics are now an essential part of Google’s ranking algorithm, focusing on how users experience your site in terms of loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). A slow site, or one that’s janky and unstable, will have users bouncing off fast—and Google takes note of that.

Final Thoughts

Technical SEO isn’t glamorous, but it’s the foundation that helps your content shine in search engines. By staying on top of these five critical issues—Noindex & Crawlability, Incorrect Canonical URLs, Incorrect Hreflang Tags, Google Rendering Issues, and Core Web Vitals—you can keep your site running at its best and ranking well in the process.

Need help with your site's technical SEO? Get in touch with us at WebRefresh—we're here to ensure your website is fully optimised for both search engines and users.

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