Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the online marketing strategies that can help brands or novice marketers increase Website Traffic and assist with other marketing aspects. It involves optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google and Bing.
Of course, with a strategy that can be started immediately, many beginners who are just starting SEO often encounter technical problems with intricate details. Instead of having their website appear on the first page, they end up facing numerous issues. Therefore, in this article, Relevant Audience will explain the problems to watch out for when doing SEO. Let’s take a look.
1. Problem: Google Not Indexing
The first technical SEO problem that many beginners encounter and is frequently discussed is Google not indexing the website’s pages or taking an excessively long time to index them. This prevents the website pages from appearing in Google’s search results, making it impossible to find the website even after searching. It’s a classic problem that often occurs with beginners starting SEO.
First, you need to understand that every search engine on earth sends bots (Google uses Google Bots) to index or store data on the website pages to be used to rank the website pages.
Basically, to allow Google Bot to index a website page, you need to:
2. Problem: XML Sitemap
An XML Sitemap is like a table of contents for a website that helps create user-friendliness and, for SEO purposes, helps Google Bot understand the website’s structure, the details of each page, and which pages to index for ranking.
A common problem related to Sitemaps is that people often forget to check their XML Sitemap, causing issues with the overall website structure and preventing Google Bot from indexing. The main problems with XML Sitemaps include:
- Broken Pages
- Pages with noindex Tag
- Pages blocked by robots.txt
3. Problem: Duplicated Content
Beginners starting SEO have probably heard about Duplicated Content, or duplicate content, which can affect SEO. One of the most common problems is having duplicate pages on the same website, leading to competition because Google Bot indexes the data, causing traffic to be shared and significantly reducing the efficiency of those pages.
Therefore, regularly checking for duplicate content on the website is essential for beginners starting SEO, especially during updates or adding new pages. You can solve this problem with these methods:
- Create a Canonical Tag to inform Google Bot which page to index.
- Use 301 Redirects from duplicate pages to the main content page to prevent URLs from competing with each other.
4. Problem: Broken Links
Many people probably feel frustrated when visiting a website and encountering an error page or about to start reading content in the next part but clicking on an internal link in the article only to find an empty webpage, unsure if the page has been deleted or what happened.
Broken links are a major disadvantage in SEO because they not only affect user experience but also affect search engine data collection, leading to website scores and potentially impacting rankings. It can be viewed as a low-quality and unreliable website.
5. Problem: Website Performance and Stability
Google has developed Core Web Vitals, an algorithm to measure UX from website usage, which directly affects website rankings. It is divided into three main parts: loading, interaction, and stability. For those who want to understand how to improve their website to meet Core Web Vital principles, you can read more here.
Conclusion
From the 5 basic problems that beginners starting SEO should be aware of, we can tell you that all beginners should list these items in a notebook to prepare to avoid or prepare to deal with these problems that may occur in the future. Remember that neglecting even small basics can lead to problems that may seem insignificant becoming factors that prevent the website from ranking on the first page as desired, and also wasting budget in the long run.
Consult Digital Marketing at Relevant Audience
Relevant Audience is a Digital Performance Marketing Agency that aims to provide digital marketing services to businesses to reach target audiences looking for products or services at the right time, place, and device through various online channels. Our services cover Search Marketing, Social Media Ads, Search Ads, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to Influencer Marketing and are also part of the Google Partners program.
For more information:
Tel: 02-038-5055
Email: info@relevantaudience.com
Website: www.relevantaudience.com
