Technical SEO doesn’t get the spotlight it deserves. Content strategy and keyword research to take up most of the focus, but it’s the backend health of a website that determines whether any of that work pays off. A well-written blog post means nothing if search engines can’t find, crawl or index the site it lives on.
A lot of websites lose traffic simply because of crawlability, indexing and metadata issues that go unnoticed for months, sometimes even years. These problems don’t announce themselves obviously, instead they erode visibility slowly, page by page – until a marketing person notices traffic plateauing despite quality content output.
Fortunately, technical SEO errors are fixable, and a structured approach to resolving them can drive substantial traffic increases. A recent case from a global B2B technology company illustrates this well. After addressing foundational crawl and indexing issues followed by metadata updates, the company saw a 121% month-over-month increase in organic traffic and a 229% increase in Google Search Console impressions.
This blog isn’t going to help by breaking down what technical SEO is, the most common errors that threaten organic traffic and the order in which to fix them.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the optimisation of a website’s infrastructure, code and server configuration to help search engines crawl and index its content. It focuses on the backend of a website rather than the words on the page.
This is the key distinction between technical SEO and on-page SEO. On-page SEO deals with content and keyword relevance – what you say and how you say it – meanwhile technical SEO deals with whether search engines can access what you’ve said in the first place.
Technical SEO is the work of optimising a website’s infrastructure so search engines and AI systems can crawl, render, index and cite its content. That last point is becoming increasingly important. As search expands into AI-generated answers through tools like ChatGPT and zero click searches with Google AI Overviews, technical fundamentals determine whether your content is eligible to be referenced.
Poor technical health can tarnish rankings despite great content. A site riddled with broken links, slow load times or indexing errors will struggle to rank, regardless of how relevant or well-written its content is.
Common technical SEO errors that decimate organic traffic
There are certain recurring issues in technical audits. Left unaddressed, they can derail a website’s organic growth.
404 errors and broken links
Broken links and 404 internal errors prevent search engines from crawling pages properly and create a frustrating experience for users.
Redirect chains that waste crawl budget
A redirect chain happens when one URL redirects to another, which redirects to another, and so on. These chains waste crawl budget and slow page load times, both of which damage user experience and search engine efficiency.
Orphaned URLs
Orphaned pages are pages with no internal links pointing to them, which makes it difficult (sometimes impossible) for crawlers and users to find them. Even high-value, high-traffic pages can become effectively invisible if internal linking doesn’t support them.
Missing or duplicate metadata tags
Metadata like page titles and meta descriptions help search engines and users understand what a page is about before they go to your website. Missing, duplicate, or overly long metadata weakens click-through rates and can create ranking confusion.
Poor site structure and internal linking
An effective site structure organises pages so crawlers can find content quickly and easily, with important pages no more than 3 clicks from the homepage. Poor structure creates orphaned pages, reduces a links power and makes it harder for search engines to understand how topics relate to one another across a site.
Slow page speed and Core Web Vitals issues
Page speed is a ranking factor on mobile and desktop devices. Google’s Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift) measure user experience, and poor scores can lead to a decrease in rankings even when content quality is strong.
Mobile usability problems
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily evaluates the mobile version of a webpage for indexing and in turn ranking. If content, links or structured data are missing from the mobile version, that content effectively doesn’t exist for ranking purposes, regardless of how complete the desktop version is.
How should you sequence your technical SEO fixes?
Knowing which errors to fix and in what order is as important as knowing they exist. A long list of technical issues doesn’t tell you where to start, and tackling the wrong ones first can delay results for months.
Why should you fix crawl and indexability issues first?
Start with an in-depth crawl and indexability work before anything else. Fix 404 errors, ensure pages are correctly set to index(or noindex), broken links and redirect chains before considering optimising metadata. Even the best-written titles and descriptions are worthless if search engines can’t discover, crawl, render and index the pages they sit on.
When should you tackle metadata and content improvements?
Once important pages are discoverable and properly indexed, move on to metadata optimisation and content improvements. Attempting metadata improvements while crawl and indexing issues remain unresolved risks wasting that effort entirely, since search engines may never fully process the pages being optimised.
Keep your technical foundation strong
Technical SEO is the foundation of organic growth. Without it, even exceptional content struggles to reach its audience. SEO’s should conduct regular audits to spot errors before they become larger, costly problems. Tools that crawl your site and flag issues make this process far more manageable than manual checks – I personally love Screaming Frog for this.
Ultimately, a technically sound website and quality content must work together. Prioritising high-impact fixes like crawlability and indexing ensures your content has the chance to be seen, read and cited by search engines and emerging AI systems alike. Technical health requires ongoing discipline rather than a one-time setup, so get in touch with WorkPR for a technical SEO audit today to build a solid foundation for sustainable growth.
