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Below is a list of both on-page and on-site issues we consider of importance when taking on a new white label SEO client or direct client.
These are also ongoing issues to pay attention to throughout the entire span of the white label services campaign.
Much can change throughout the course of a search engine optimization campaign. Several of those are changes to the website’s management team or the addition of non-versed content creators.
There have been many times over the course of my career in a traditional and local SEO agency where rankings were soaring and then they tanked.
Why? Because our new team of content creators was slapping up new content without search engine optimization review. Or, maybe they just cloned existing pages, metadata and all, and only changed to body content thus creating duplication errors.
It could be one of many different things so you must monitor your white label SEO services campaigns constantly.
Duplicate Page Titles
A title is considered to be a duplicate if it matches the exact title of another page. Duplicate titles will diminish the quality of a page since it is unclear on which page there is more relevance to a given topic. Furthermore, it may also confuse the user when navigating your site.
Duplicate page titles are considered an on-page optimization issue.
Short Page Titles
Page titles containing 10 characters or less do not provide enough information about what your web page is about and limit your page’s potential to show up in search results for different important keywords.
Short page titles are considered an on-page optimization issue.
Long Page Title
Any title with more than 70 characters is generally considered to be too long. Most search engines and sites will automatically shorten such a long title, known as truncation. A long title could penalize your site especially if you are keyword stuffing.
Keep in mind that the point of character truncation is different for mobile versus desktop.
Long page titles are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Missing Page Title
A <title> tag is one of the most important components of a page. It is often used as a link to your page on a search engine results page and is meant to describe the purpose of the page in a few words.
Missing page titles are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Duplicate Meta Descriptions
A meta description is a hidden tag that describes the purpose of a page. Search engines may use this description in the listing for your site and in determining the topic of the page. If the same description is used on other pages, it may be is difficult to differentiate between pages. Make sure meta descriptions are unique and use topical keywords to describe the content of the page.
Duplicate meta descriptions are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Missing Meta Description
The meta description is a hidden tag that describes the purpose of a page. Search engines may use this description in the results listing and in determining the topic of the page. Make sure each of your pages has a meta description that is unique and topical.
If your page is missing a meta description, then the search engine will create its own version in its search engine results pages.
You may not like the results and neither may a potential visitor that sees your results on a search engine results page.
Missing meta descriptions are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Long Meta Descriptions
Long meta descriptions result in truncation of your meta description on a search engine results page and may have a negative impact on how a searcher views your results snippet and may even have a negative impact on your search engine optimization results.
Much like long page titles, the point of character truncation is different for mobile versus desktop.
Long meta descriptions are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Duplicate Content
A page is considered to have duplicate content if it contains very similar text to another page. Duplicate content will diminish the quality of a page since it is unclear on which page there is more relevance to a given topic. Since there would be no purpose for a search engine to index the same page twice, it may ultimately lead to banning both pages from the results.
Duplicate content is considered both an on-page and on-site search engine optimization issue.
Multiple H1 Tags
It is best to have only one H1 tag on a page to specifically define its topic. Multiple H1 tags can confuse a search engine or a user in determining the focus of the page.
Multiple H1 tags are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Matching H1 Tags and Page Title Content
Using the same title as your H1 content is an ineffective way of defining the page topic. Use this opportunity to create two distinct phrases that illustrate the purpose of the page.
Matching H1 tags and page title content are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
[bctt tweet=”There have been many times over the course of my career where rankings were soaring and then they tanked.” username=”ThatCompanycom”]Missing H1 Tags
H1 tags are considered to be the main heading of a page and are used to help define the topic of the page. Creating a descriptive heading is an effective way to improve your search engine presence and make it easier for a user to understand your page.
Missing H1 tags are considered an on-page search engine optimization issue.
Redirect Internal Links
Links to redirected pages involve a network overhead and potentially slower navigation for the end-user. This can also negatively impact the SEO of the page. For this reason, it’s generally preferred to have direct links rather than redirects.
Do not confuse this with a 301 permanently moved redirect for inbound links. Most web developers that I have worked with call it a day when creating 301 redirects and leave the on-site internal links to also be redirected in this fashion.
NO! Do not be lazy and impact your search engine optimization campaign results. Find those links and repoint them properly!
Redirected internal links are considered both an on-page and on-site search engine optimization issue.
Broken Internal Links
An internal link is one that points to another page that exists on your server and is considered broken when the page cannot be accessed. This could be because it does not exist or there is an error trying to connect to it. Make sure the URL is inputted correctly and that you clear up any issues with the page. Excessive broken links will not only impact your visitors’ experience, but it may also cause search engines to diminish the importance of your website and your search engine optimization campaign results.
These types of errors may also show up as 4xx errors in your site audit reports.
Broken internal links are considered both an on-page and on-site search engine optimization issue.
4XX Errors
These errors normally occur because a page does not exist (404), it requires authentication (401) or it is forbidden to access the page (403). Make sure you deal with each type of code appropriately to ensure the page can be crawled for the best search engine optimization results.
4xx errors are considered an on-site search engine optimization issue.
5XX Errors
These are fatal errors that will prevent anyone, including search engines, from accessing your website. They are normally caused by a programming bug or a server misconfiguration.
5xx errors are considered an on-site search engine optimization issue.
Robots.txt Blocking Crawlers
A Robots.txt file gives instructions to any web crawlers, including search engines, on which pages of a website they should crawl. This way you can choose which pages you would want to be indexed on Google for example. Any errors in this file could cause a search engine to not index your website at all.
Believe it or not, I recently took on a new white label SEO client whose developer/search engine optimization expert was blocking Google from crawling his site for over 15 years!
Blocking crawlers in your robots.txt errors are considered an on-site search engine optimization issue.
Missing Canonical Tag
Canonical tags help to avoid duplicate content when unique content is accessible via multiple URLs. Defining a correct canonical tag for all pages will keep them away from possible duplicate issues.
Missing canonical tags are considered both an on-page and on-site search engine optimization issue.
You can start evaluating the search engine optimization performance of your site from any point listed above, however, I generally begin with the page title issues at the onset of any new search engine optimization campaign.
