How to Find and Fix Common Technical SEO Issues

The 5-Step Technical SEO Troubleshooting Workflow

When an SEO audit reveals dozens of warnings, it is tempting to jump between issues haphazardly. Instead, successful engineering teams follow a systematic diagnostic workflow that prioritizes high-impact crawl blockers before polishing cosmetic tags.

Discover & Inventory

Run an automated audit using our Website Health & SEO Checker to catalog all HTTP responses, metadata directives, and structural warnings across your landing pages.

Triage by Severity

Categorize findings into Critical (crawling blockers like 500 errors or noindex directives), High (missing titles or broken canonicals), and Medium/Low (image lazy-loading or length optimizations).

Inspect Code & Server Logs

Review your template source files, server redirect rules (.htaccess, Nginx, or next.config.js), and edge DNS configurations to locate the root cause.

Apply Code Remediation

Update HTML templates, configure permanent 301 redirects, implement valid Schema.org JSON-LD scripts, and commit fixes to your version control repository.

Re-Audit & Verify

Re-run the audit tool immediately after deploying to verify that the health score increases and all flagged warnings are fully resolved.

Common Technical SEO Issues & How to Fix Them

Issue #1: Missing or Truncated Title Tags

Symptoms: Title under 30 characters or exceeding 65 characters

Google displays approximately the first 50–60 characters (or ~600 pixels) of a page title. Titles that are too short fail to establish context, while titles that are too long get truncated with an ellipsis (...) in SERPs.

// Recommended HTML Title Implementation<title>Primary Keyword - Secondary Benefit | Brand Name</title>

Fix: Target a length between 45 and 60 characters. Place your primary keyword near the beginning of the title and conclude with your brand name.

Issue #2: Missing or Ineffective Canonical URLs

Symptoms: No rel="canonical" tag present or mismatched URLs

Without an explicit canonical tag, search engines treat https://example.com/page, https://example.com/page/, and https://example.com/page?ref=twitter as separate documents, splitting link equity.

// Recommended Canonical Tag<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.silixen.shop/blog/my-guide" />

Fix: Ensure every indexable page contains an absolute, self-referential canonical URL matching the exact HTTPS protocol and canonical trailing-slash convention.

Issue #3: Multiple or Missing H1 Headings

Symptoms: Page contains 0 H1 tags or more than one H1 element

A common template bug occurs when both the site logo and the article title use <h1> tags. Search crawlers expect a single authoritative H1 that defines the core topic of the current page.

// Correct Hierarchy Pattern<h1>Core Topic of the Page</h1>
<h2>Subtopic Major Section</h2>
<h3>Granular Subsection</h3>

Fix: Reserve the <h1> tag exclusively for the primary page title. Replace header logo <h1> elements with a simple <div> or <span>.

Issue #4: Malformed JSON-LD Structured Data

Symptoms: JSON syntax errors or missing required Schema.org properties

Trailing commas or unescaped double quotes inside dynamically generated JSON-LD break JSON parsers, causing Google to ignore rich result directives completely.

// Valid Next.js JSON-LD Injection<script
type="application/ld+json"
dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: JSON.stringify(schemaObject) }}
/>

Fix: Always construct schemas as JavaScript objects and serialize them with JSON.stringify() rather than manually concatenating raw strings.

Diagnostic Utilities to Keep in Your Arsenal

Website Health & SEO Checker

Scan any URL for technical SEO scores, HTTPS status, headings, and structured data.

Domain & DNS Lookup

Verify nameserver propagation, MX email records, SPF TXT lines, and CAA security records.

Website Uptime & Status Checker

Test live server availability, TTFB latency, and SSL certificate expiration dates.