Technical Site Audits: How to Identify and resolve common issues

In the evolving landscape of digital marketing, maintaining a website that delivers optimal performance is paramount. A technical site audit is a critical process for identifying and resolving issues that can hamper your website's effectiveness.

This article delves into the intricacies of conducting thorough technical site audits, highlighting common problems such as indexing issues, 404 error codes, improper rendering, low page load speed, broken links, and more.

Additionally, this article will also provide expert recommendations to rectify these issues and enhance the website's performance and user engagement, supported by real-world scenarios and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Indexing Issues

Identification: Indexing issues prevent search engines from properly crawling and indexing your web pages, leading to poor visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Common indexing problems include pages with 'noindex' tags, orphaned pages, and duplicate content.

Tools that can be used to detect such issues are:

• Google Search Console
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider
• Ahrefs Site Audit

Real-Scenario: A medium-sized e-commerce website noticed a 20% drop in organic traffic over six months. A technical audit revealed that several key category pages were not indexed due to a misconfigured 'noindex' tag.

What are smart recommendations:

1. Check Crawl Status: Identify which pages are being indexed and which are not through tools.
2. Remove 'Noindex' Tags: Make sure that essential pages do not have 'noindex' tags.
3. Remove Duplicate Content: Use canonical tags to handle duplicate content pieces.
4. Create XML Sitemaps: Ensure all pages are listed in your XML sitemap and submit through Google Search Console.

What was the outcome? After correcting the 'noindex' tags and resubmitting the sitemap, the e-commerce site saw a 15% increase in organic traffic within a span of 90 days.

404 Error Codes

Identification:404 errors occur when a page cannot be found. These errors impact users' experience and on site's SEO.

Tools that can be used to detect such issues:

• Google Search Console
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider
• Broken Link Checker like httpstatus.io

Real-Scenario: A news website experienced high bounce rates on articles linked to older content in one of the sports websites. A technical audit found that 10% of these links led to 404 errors.

What was recommended?

1. Regularly monitoring for 404 errors using Google Search Console.
2. Implement 301 redirects for any removed or relocated pages, assuring users and search engines are re-directed to the correct page.
3. Create a user-friendly custom 404 page to enable users to locate what they’re looking for.

Outcome observed: Deployment of the 301 redirects minimized bounce rates by 12%, improving overall user engagement.

Improper Rendering

Identification: Improper rendering happens when web pages do not display correctly across different browsers and devices, leading to a pathetic user experience.

Tools that can be used to detect such issues:

• Google Mobile-Friendly Test
• BrowserStack
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Real-Scenario: A travel blog's mobile traffic conversion rate was significantly lower than its desktop counterpart. A technical audit reflected that image SEO was barely deployed for mobile, causing unstable rendering and poor load times.

What was recommended?

1. Ensure a responsive website with design adjusting seamlessly across different screen sizes.
2. Testing website on multiple browsers and devices, regularly to identify rendering issues.
3. Minimize /and combine CSS and JavaScript files to minimize rendering time.

Outcome observed: With image SEO, also ensuring responsive design, the mobile conversion rate surged by 18% within a span of 60 days.

Low Page Load Speed

Slow page load speeds can significantly impact user experience and SEO. Pages that load slowly often increase bounce rates and lower engagement.

Tools that can be used to detect such issues:

• Google PageSpeed Insights
• GTmetrix
• Pingdom

Real-Scenario: An online news magazine faced a high bounce rate of 65% on its feature articles. A technical audit revealed that large, uncompressed images and excessive third-party scripts were impacting page load times.

What was recommended?

1. Optimize, compress, and resize images to reduce load times.
2. Deploy/use browser caching to store frequently used files on users' devices.
3. Minimize the number of elements on a page to reduce HTTP requests.
4. Distribute content across multiple servers to minimize load times.

Outcome observed: Optimizing images and minimizing third-party scripts reduced the bounce rate by 50%, enhancing reader retention.

Broken Links

Broken links are a kind of dead end for users and search engines, resulting to poor user experience and SEO.

Tools that can be used to detect such issues:

• Screaming Frog SEO Spider
• Ahrefs Site Audit
• Broken Link Checker

Real-Scenario: A client's website had numerous outdated internal links, leading to a significant number of broken links. This issue surfaced during the audit after a decline in user engagement metrics.

What was recommended?

1. Conduct regular audits. Keep identifying broken links. Take timely measures to fix those links.
2. Deploy 301 redirects for broken links directing to the most relevant pages.
3. Ensure all internal links are duly updated and routed to active pages.

Outcome observed: Fixing broken links and updating internal links improved the average session duration by 25%, enhancing user engagement.

Advanced Tips: Enhanced Online Engagement and Traffic

1. Deploy Structured Data Markup: Structured data helps search engines understand content better, potentially leading to rich snippets and enhanced SERP visibility.
2. Optimize for Mobile-First Indexing: Considering Google's mobile-first indexing approach, ensure the website is optimized well on mobile devices.
3. Secure Site with HTTPS: Ensure the site uses HTTPS. It secures data and improves trustworthiness.
4. Content Quality: Update the site regularly with high-quality, relevant content. It engages users well and improves SEO.
5. User Experience (UX): Keep doing UX improvements like intuitive navigation, call-to-actions, and ideal fast load time. Keep users engaged.
6. Backlink Analysis: Regularly analyze backlink profiles. Identify and remove harmful links. Build high-quality backlinks.

Conclusion

Technical site audits are an ongoing process. It is crucial for maintaining an enhanced website performance. Regularly surfacing and resolving issues like 404 errors, indexing problems, low page load speeds, improper rendering, and broken links can significantly improve SEO performance, user experience, and online engagement.

Follow the recommendations provided above to ensure the website remains at the forefront of the digital competition, driving traffic, leads, sales, and engagement.

By consistently applying the mentioned practices, websites deliver exceptional performance and foster growth in the digital age.