5XX Errors

Fatal errors that will prevent anyone, including search engines, from accessing your website. They are normally caused by a programming bug or a server misconfiguration.

4XX Errors

Typically, errors occur because a page does not exist (404), requires authentication (401), or is forbidden (403).

Large Page Size*

Results in higher page load times. Try to minimize the amount of HTML and content, aiming for a page file size less than 1 MB to avoid search engine penalties.

Duplicate Title Tags*

When present, search engines don't know which title to show, negatively affecting ranking.

Missing Title*

The <title> tag is vital because it describes the page's purpose to search engines in just a few words.

Duplicate Titles

A title is a duplicate if it exactly matches the title of another page. Duplicate titles will diminish the quality of a page since it is unclear on which page has more relevance to a given topic.

Duplicate Content

When two pages have very similar text to another page, the quality of both is diminished because search engines are unclear about which page has more authority on the topic. Can lead to both pages being banned from results.

Duplicate Descriptions

Meta descriptions are hidden tags that describe the purpose of a page. Used by search engines for the site listing and to determine the page topic. Descriptions should be unique and use topical keywords to describe the content.

Broken Links

Broken Links: A link is considered broken when the page cannot be accessed. This could be because it does not exist or there is an error trying to connect to it. Make sure the URL is entered correctly and that you resolve any issues on the page. Excessive broken links will not only impact your visitors' experience, but they may also cause search engines to diminish the importance of your website.

Broken Resources

Resources (image, script, style sheet) that won't load are considered broken. This can occur if the file is missing, too large, or timing out when loading.

Page contains link relation conflicts

Mixed commands to search engines whether to index or not index your page can lead to URLs not being indexed, reducing overall search ranking

Page contains a redirect chain*

Redirect chains can delay or reduce page crawling, increase load time, and cause loss of link equity.

Page contains canonical links to broken pages

Canonical links point to broken pages that respond with 4XX or 5XX code. This can confuse search engines, and causes them to ignore canonical links.

Recursive Canonical Error

The page contains rel='canonical' tag to another page, which in turn, refers back to the initial page. Confuses search engines and negatively impacts ranking.

Canonical Chain

The page has a canonical tag referring to a page, which in turn, has a canonical tag referring to a different page. Confuses search engines and negatively impacts ranking.

Page contains canonical links to redirects

When a canonical link points to a redirect, it sends a conflicting message to search engines. This can lead to incorrect URLs being indexed, resulting in potential duplicate content issues.

Page is not Canonical

Canonical tags help to avoid duplicate content when an unique content is accessible via multiple urls. Defining a correct canonical tag for all pages will keep them away from possible duplicate issues.

Low Readability Rate

Readability is a major factor in page content by making your content understandable. Pages with low readability have scored less than 15 points on the Flesch–Kincaid readability test. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Missing Alt Attributes

An alt attribute is used to describe an image in a textual context. Search engines may interpret an alt tag to identify the purpose of the image. This is a great way to increase your page relevance as it relates to a topic. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Irrelevant Description

The page description tag is irrelevant to the content of a page. This can result in a negative user experience, which can harm your overall site's SEO ranking. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Irrelevant Title

The page title is irrelevant to the content of a page. This can result in a negative user experience, which can harm your overall site's SEO ranking. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Low Word Count

This test fails if the number of words on a page is less than 200. If a page does not have much content, it is hard for a search engine to properly assign a topic to it and may not bother indexing it. Try to make use of relevant content while using as many keywords as possible.

Depreciated HTML Tags Used

Depreciated HTML tags may no longer be supported by modern browsers, leading to an overall negative user experience. These tags should be updated to supported tags whenever possible. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Long Title

Any title with more than 65 characters is generally considered to be too long. Most search engines and sites will automatically shorten such a long title. A long title could penalize your site especially if you are keyword stuffing. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Short Title

Generally, using short titles on web pages is a recommended practice. Having a title containing more than 30 characters should provide enough information about what your web page is about and assist your page’s potential to show up in search results for different keywords. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Duplicate Meta Tags

The page has more than one meta tag of the same type. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Low Content Rate

The amount of text compared to HTML tags represents your text to HTML ratio. This test will fail if the ratio is less than 10%. A search engine can only look at your text to determine the page's relevance. If there is an abundance of HTML compared to actual content, it will have difficulty segmenting the content. Furthermore, too much HTML may cause your page to load much slower. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Flash Content Used

It is generally a bad idea to use flash on your website. It isn't possible for a search engine to interpret flash content and may skip over your page when crawling it. Furthermore, it creates a bad user experience as they will have to wait for it to load and may not be able to see anything on their mobile device.

SEO Friendly URL

The page does not contain an SEO-friendly URL. Pages are not SEO-friendly if they contain special characters, dynamic parameters, are greater than 120 symbols, or are not relevant to the page. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Frames Used

Using HTML frames are considered to be dated and should be avoided. It is difficult for a search engine to read them and creates a bad user experience. Try to remove any frames from your pages in favour of better and newer methods to accomplish the same thing.

Page contains render blocking resources

Render blocking resource are static files that stop the downloading of additional resources until it is completed. Render blocking resources can increase load and wait time, negatively affecting user experience, and for that reason, they should be avoided if possible. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Low Character Count

Indicates whether the page has less than 1024 characters. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Page contains a meta refresh redirect

The page has a <meta http-equiv=”refresh”> tag that instructs a browser to load another page after a specified time span. From an SEO point of view, a meta refresh redirect is not the most optimal way of redirecting because it is actually a page refresh rather than a redirect. It is recommended that 301 redirects be used instead. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag. Keywords contained in the meta keywords tag are irrelevant to the content of a page. This can result in a negative user experience, which can harm your overall site's SEO ranking. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Irrelevant Meta Keywords

Keywords contained in the meta keywords tag are irrelevant to the content of a page. This can result in a negative user experience, which can harm your overall site's SEO ranking. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Has misspelled content

Spelling mistakes can negatively affect user experience. Spell-checking should always be performed before publishing content to the web.

High Content Rate

Indicates whether a page has the plaintext size to page size ratio of more than 0.9. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Page Contains Lorem Ipsum Content

Lorem Ipsum content is placeholder text for determining page layout. Lorem ipsum text should be replaced with unique and relevant website content, otherwise search engines may find the page not relevant or duplicate. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Page does not have internal links pointing to it

Orphaned pages stand a very, extremely low chance of ranking well in SEO terms. This tells search engines that the pages are unimportant and (likely) unworthy of indexation.

Missing H1

H1 tags are considered to be the main heading of a page and are used to help define the topic of the page. Creating a descriptive heading is an effective way to improve your search engine presence and make it easier for a user to navigate your page. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Meta Robots Blocking Crawlers

The page’s ‘meta robots’ tag contains “nofollow” parameter instructing crawlers not to follow the links on the page.

Missing Meta Description

A meta description is a hidden tag that describes the purposes of a page. Search engines may use this description in the results listing and in determining the topic of the page. Make sure each of your pages has a meta description that is unique and topical. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Page contains HTTP links

HTTPS page has links to HTTP pages. HTTPS pages provide a rankings boost for your site, and linking to less secure links can negatively impact your SEO ranking. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Too Many On-Page Links

This test will fail if a page has more than 200 links. Having too many links on a page can overwhelm the user and offer too many exit options. Search engines also have a limit on the numbers of links that they crawl on a page.

Redirect Links

Links to redirected pages involve a network overhead and potentially slower navigation for the end user. It could also negatively impact the SEO. For this reason it's generally preferred to have direct links rather than redirects. A slow page can be frustrating for a user and will lower your relevance in the eyes of a search engine. Most users will not put up with a slow page and go elsewhere. A search engine understands this and will do the same. This test fails if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load the page.

Slow Page Load

A slow page can be frustrating for a user and will lower your relevance in the eyes of a search engine. Most users will not put up with a slow page and go elsewhere. A search engine understands this and will do the same. This test fails if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load the page.

Encoding not Declared

Specifying an encoding for a page will ensure that each character is displayed properly. Generally this usually set to utf-8 but depending on the language of the page, this could be different. Example: <meta charset='utf-8'>. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

Doctype not Declared

A doctype is the first thing that appears in your page's source code and instructs a web browser which version of HTML you are using. If this is not specified then your code could be interpreted incorrectly and become uncrawlable.

Missing Https Redirect

Every website should be accessible securely with an https url. In order to make sure that you're always using https, your website should redirect any request from http to https.

Missing Favicon

Although a missing favicon will not have a direct affect on SEO, but having a favicon for your site will provide increased usability by showing your icon in bookmarks and browser tabs. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.

High Waiting Time

Indicates whether a page waiting time (aka Time to First Byte) exceeds 1.5 seconds. A slow page can be frustrating for a user and will lower your relevance in the eyes of a search engine. Most users will not put up with a slow page and go elsewhere. A search engine understands this and will do the same.

High Character Count

Indicates whether the page has more than 256,000 characters. Large character counts can impact site performance, decreasing overall SEO. Please note: Because this test is connected with search optimization and content, it may fail if the page is missing its canonical tag.