XML sitemaps are files that allow search engines to find and understand your website, making it possible to index and show your site to searchers. Every page you want to show up on Google or Yahoo must be in your sitemap, which means creating a map can become tedious if your site has a lot of pages. XML Sitemaps Generator simplifies this process by creating a customized map for you.
Step #16: Find Opportunities to Create 10x Better Content
Tools like heatmaps and user surveys can show you what people really want. Then, invest in creating high-quality, helpful content that people can use. I have helped a client recover from an SEO penalty, and one thing I learned was that it requires patience and a lot of it. From the penalty that appeared in Google Search Console and until it was lifted we waited 8 months. They’re usually quite specific about what the penalty is about, and you have to prioritize to fix it immediately.
If your pages are not being indexed, there are a number of issues that may be causing this. We will take a look at the top few below, but you can also check our other guide for a more in-depth walkthrough. Once your ownership is verified, it is a good idea to check the Site Audit settings before running your first crawl. If you have a bigger site, it is always best to increase the crawl speed before you start. It is also a good idea to perform an SEO audit when you notice that your rankings are stagnant or declining. After years of working with clients, especially as the head of tech SEO for a U.K.
Does the website pass Google’s other Page Experience factors?
- Mobile devices are accounting for a significant portion of internet traffic (62% in Feb 2025), so it’s essential to make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
- There are two common types of page redirects; a 301 redirect which is permanent and a 302 redirect which is temporary.
- Schedule monthly checks to catch harmful links before they tank your rankings.
- For example, when you partner with WebFX, your dedicated account manager conducts an in-depth audit of your site to create a personalized, data-driven strategy.
- An example of a long-tail keyword is “bakeries near Harrisburg, PA.” This specific keyword will attract leads interested in bakeries near Harrisburg.
- Recrawling may take from a few days to several weeks, depending on how often the crawler visits the pages.
Recrawling may take from a few days to several weeks, depending on how often the crawler visits the pages. Requesting a recrawl multiple times will not speed the process up. Keep in mind that you don’t need to force recrawling any time you change something on your website. W3C standards refer to the technical specifications established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These standards encompass protocols, languages, and guidelines that govern various aspects of web development, including HTML, CSS, XML, and more.
Consistency in quality over time is your best ally for regaining rankings and trust. This final step in your SEO audit can help you to understand—without any additional tools—the general health of your website, technical SEO errors, content duplication and so much more. There are two common types of page redirects; a 301 redirect which is permanent and a 302 redirect which is temporary. Internal links that redirect slow down the experience of the user on your website and send SEO Anomaly mixed signals to search engines and should be replaced. Your sitemap is what it sounds like — a map of all the main pages on your website.
The free version of Screaming Frog crawls 500 URLs, but you can upgrade if needed. We’re using Semrush for this step (the Backlink Analytics tool in particular). In fact, our study of 11.8 million search results found that the top result in Google has 3.8x more backlinks than pages in positions 2-10. Rendering is one of the stages of the overall process Google uses to analyze your page content.
Access Google Search Console, navigate to the Enhancements section, and review the status of different types of structured data markup implemented on your pages. Your website may encounter various JavaScript issues, such as rendering errors, unused files, and more. If there are errors or conflicts in the JavaScript code, it can prevent certain parts of the page (or entire page) from loading and rendering properly. Google sees those pages as blank which leads to a decrease in rankings. Clicking on the Mobile section of the Page experience report will automatically switch you to the Core Web Vitals section.
This helped align the content with both user needs and search engine requirements. The first step we took was a thorough backlink audit to identify the toxic links that triggered the penalty. Using Ahrefs and Search Console data combined, we compiled a list of several thousand domains. Each backlink was the typical nonsensical blog post with anchor text scattered throughout.