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How-to guide · 5 steps

How to Fix Technical SEO Issues (Common Fixes Explained)

Technical SEO issues are the silent killers of organic traffic. You can publish great content every week and still see rankings plateau because of crawl errors, duplicate pages, or slow load times. Fixing technical issues is usually the fastest way to see ranking improvements — here's how to approach it.

Redirects and canonicals: which fix to use

301 redirect

  • The old URL should disappear
  • Visitors and crawlers are sent elsewhere
  • Use for moved or merged pages
  • Avoid chains: point straight to the final URL

Canonical tag

  • Both URLs stay reachable
  • Signals which version to index
  • Use for parameters and near-duplicates
  • A hint to search engines, not a command
Two of the most common technical fixes in this guide solve different problems; picking the wrong one leaves duplicates indexed or users stranded.

  1. Step 1: Identify all technical issues with a full crawl

    Before fixing anything, get a complete picture. Crawl your site and export all issues grouped by type. This prevents you from fixing symptoms while ignoring the root cause — for example, fixing individual 404s when the real issue is a broken redirect chain.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Site Audit produces a prioritised issue list with clear severity labels and step-by-step fix guidance for each issue type. It helps you get from 'something is wrong' to 'here's what to fix'.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)

  2. Step 2: Fix redirect chains and broken redirects

    Redirect chains (A → B → C) dilute link equity and slow your pages down. Every redirect should be a direct 301 from the old URL to the final destination. Use your server's .htaccess or redirect rules to clean these up.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Site Audit flags redirect chains and loops so you can see where a chain breaks. Fix these before worrying about anything else.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)

  3. Step 3: Resolve duplicate content with canonicals

    For every page with duplicate or near-duplicate content, add a canonical tag pointing to the primary version. This tells Google which version to index and rank. Common culprits are URL parameters, session IDs, and www vs non-www variations.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush detects canonical issues across your entire site — including pages where the canonical tag points to the wrong URL. Rank Math makes it easy to add canonicals in WordPress without touching code.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Rank Math Pro (from €7.99/mo billed yearly)

  4. Step 4: Improve page speed for your slowest pages

    Use PageSpeed Insights to find your slowest pages. The most common fixes are: compress and resize images (use WebP format), defer non-critical JavaScript, enable browser caching, and use a CDN. Each fix compounds.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Site Audit Core Web Vitals report identifies which specific pages have speed problems and what's causing them — so you're not guessing at which images or scripts to optimise.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)

  5. Step 5: Fix indexation issues — check what's in Google's index

    Go to Google Search Console and run a Coverage report. Look for pages marked 'Excluded' or 'Error'. Common issues are: pages blocked by robots.txt, noindex tags left on accidentally, and pages not submitted to the sitemap.

    Tool for this stepSE Ranking

    from £95/mo

    SE Ranking's technical audit pairs well with Search Console data — it flags pages that are blocked from indexing and explains why. Fixing indexation issues is often the fastest route to recovering lost traffic.

    SE Ranking plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)