For an Internet resource to rise to high positions in search engines, it must correspond to several parameters. We offer the TOP of the main problems associated with the reasons for the insufficiently high place of sites in the search engine results.
Overly “cluttered” structure
When insufficiently experienced web developers take on the work on a site, they often tie its structure to the semantic core. Of course, this figure also matters. But making pages for almost every promising query is going against the basic principles of site usability. In this case, the Internet resource turns out to be too detailed. This does not increase your search engine rankings. On the contrary, search engines “see” such a site worse.
You shouldn’t create extra pages for products that overlap. This decision may seem tactically correct at some stages, but in a strategic context, it is counterproductive. The optimal strategy for working on the structure of the site is very simple – it should be comfortable for the user.
Inattention to the design of the main page
Many entrepreneurs who work in the online trading format focus exclusively on product categories on the site. With this approach, the main page is perceived as a kind of formality. However, this is where potential customers often land when they first visit your site. The information must be relevant and interesting. Of course, this does not preclude the need for SEO content. But the text should be more people-oriented than search engine-oriented. Therefore, reading about “high-quality cardboard boxes” or “the best mobile phones in the segment of low-cost mobile phones at a low price” is unlikely to please anyone.
Regarding the relevance of the product, this is another important aspect. If the home page displays an offer that is out of season (for example, a down jacket in summer), it gives the impression that no one is working on the site and it is “lost in time”.
Insufficiently developed content
Sometimes business owners, looking at the texts posted on the websites of competitors, believe that to write relevant content, banal linguistic literacy is enough. This is not true. Only a competent SEO copywriter can make content that the search engine deems relevant. The text, which seems simple at first glance, contains well-written keywords. It corresponds to several technical parameters and is tested on several specialized programs before being published on the site. Words such as “spamminess” and “wateriness” are unlikely to say anything to a person who is far from writing such texts. And then there is “academic nausea”, “classic nausea”, “naturalness” and much more.
When an SEO specialist in a pre-prepared semantic core with keywords writes texts, he takes into account all these nuances and knows how to achieve the desired parameters or not go to the critical level for each of them. Content, in which “nothing is difficult” for an inexperienced person, is created for a long time and painstakingly.
The other extreme is when content is sacrificed for the sake of SEO parameters. This is a problem for many novice specialists too. The result is texts similar to those mentioned in the example about cardboard boxes and mobile phones.
Another problem is low-quality visual content. In most of its niches, the modern market is crowded. Entrepreneurs who are able to present their products not only informatively, but also beautifully win the battle for the attention of the client. Even if it’s a rod reel or cement.
Plagiarism
If everything is clear with the uniqueness of the text of the main page and categories, then product cards are a separate topic that is often deprived of due attention. It would seem, what new can be said in the technical characteristics of any device? But, leaving the basic technical information, which is not replaced by synonyms without losing meaning, it can be integrated into a unique text. Of course, its uniqueness will not be 100 percent, but it is quite possible to reach the mark of 75-80 percent.
Repetition of pages on the site
This problem is similar to the situation described in the first paragraph of this article. But here we are talking not just about detailing, but about the fact that the same pages lead to the same products. For example, an online cosmetics store has pages for inexpensive cosmetics and natural inexpensive cosmetics. To prevent this from happening, web specialists are better off working on the flawless functioning of search filters than creating duplicate product categories. Even if we do not talk about optimization in technical terms, to the users themselves, such a display of the product seems useless and intrusive.
Technical flaws
This category includes a number of potential imperfections of an Internet resource. They are:
- Mistakes in sitemap.xml compilation. It is based on this instruction card that search engine robots crawl your site. The information included in the map must be regularly updated. If you do not do this, customers of an online store, for example, may display information about product items that have long been out of stock. Moreover, search robots can classify such a resource as suspicious, which will have a very bad effect on its position in the ranking. By the way, for the correct elimination of technical errors, you must use professional tools. However, some of them have regional restrictions. If you are facing such a problem, use tools like VPN connection. They will help solve this and create a secure connection.
- Errors in the process of compiling Robots.txt. Inaccuracies in this basic element of optimization can lead to dire consequences. In the worst case, the site falls out of the index, while at the same time it falls under the sanctions of search engines.
- Inaccuracies in the if-modified-since and last-modified headers. They contain information about the latest changes made to the site. If you do not monitor these headlines on time, search engines will not see that updates have occurred on your site. Several categories of a promising product may remain unnoticed. The result is that you invest in updating the assortment, the potential target audience does not see it, the season passes. That which was new and relevant has to be “sent” to the sale section.
In addition to the above, errors in the coding of different types of content are a common problem. In simple terms, pictures can be indexed as pages with text, and vice versa.
How to eliminate website flaws that interfere with the optimization
To solve the problems of the site that prevent it from displaying in high positions in search engines, you first need to identify them. The list above provides general information regarding common flaws. In each specific case, you need a detailed SEO audit of an Internet resource that can identify the problems present. It takes place in several stages:
- the semantic core is checked – at this stage, a comparison is made of how the content on the site matches the search queries;
- an analysis of the structure of the site from the point of view of usability is carried out – it is important that the user can find what interests him in 1-2 clicks;
- elimination of errors – this concerns specific actions in the two directions mentioned above.
Summing up, it is worth noting that a whole range of factors affects site optimization. Therefore, this issue must be approached comprehensively so as not to lose sight of any important component.