When a website struggles to rank in search results, the issue is not always related to content or backlinks. In many cases, underlying technical problems prevent search engines from properly crawling, indexing or understanding the website.
Technical SEO focuses on the structural and technical factors that influence how search engines interact with a site. When these elements are misconfigured, even well-written content may fail to appear in search results.
This article explains several common technical SEO issues that can prevent websites from ranking and how they can be diagnosed.
Crawling Problems
Search engines must first be able to crawl a website before its pages can be indexed.
Crawling issues may occur when:
- pages are blocked by robots.txt rules
- internal linking is weak or incomplete
- site navigation prevents search engines from discovering pages
- crawl errors prevent access to important content
Ensuring search engines can access and navigate a website effectively is a fundamental part of technical SEO.
Indexing Issues
Even if a page can be crawled, it may not always be included in Google’s index.
Common causes of indexing problems include:
- pages marked with a noindex directive
- incorrect canonical tags pointing to other pages
- duplicate content causing Google to ignore pages
- low-value pages that Google chooses not to index
Indexing problems are often identified using the Page Indexing report in Google Search Console.
Site Speed and Performance Problems
Page speed and performance are important components of both user experience and search visibility.
Websites with slow loading times or unstable layouts may struggle to meet Google’s Core Web Vitals standards.
Performance issues may be caused by:
- large or unoptimised images
- excessive JavaScript
- inefficient server response times
- poorly optimised themes or plugins
Addressing these issues can significantly improve website performance.
Structured Data and Schema Markup Errors
Structured data helps search engines understand the content and purpose of a webpage.
When schema markup is implemented incorrectly, search engines may ignore it or report errors in Google Search Console.
Common schema issues include:
- missing required properties
- invalid structured data formatting
- conflicting schema generated by multiple plugins
- incorrect schema types used for page content
Resolving these issues helps search engines interpret the website more accurately.
Duplicate Content and Canonicalisation Issues
Duplicate content occurs when similar or identical pages appear at multiple URLs.
This can confuse search engines and prevent them from determining which page should be indexed.
Common causes include:
- incorrect canonical tags
- URL parameters creating duplicate pages
- category and tag archives generating duplicate content
- multiple versions of the same page
Proper canonicalisation helps search engines identify the correct version of a page.
JavaScript Rendering Problems
Many modern websites rely heavily on JavaScript to generate page content.
However, search engines may sometimes struggle to fully render JavaScript-based pages.
This can lead to situations where:
- content is not visible to search engines
- internal links are not discovered
- structured data is not processed correctly
Technical analysis is often required to determine whether rendering issues are affecting a website.
Diagnosing Technical SEO Issues
Because many technical SEO problems occur behind the scenes, identifying them often requires a detailed technical review.
Diagnosing these issues typically involves analysing:
- crawl behaviour
- indexing reports
- site performance metrics
- structured data validation
- internal linking and site architecture
A comprehensive technical SEO audit can help identify the root causes of these issues and provide recommendations for resolving them.
Need Help Diagnosing Technical SEO Issues?
If your website is struggling to rank and the cause is unclear, the issue may be related to technical SEO.
MarkIT Space provides technical SEO audits and website diagnostics to identify and resolve issues affecting search visibility.