We’ve compiled a list of some of the most common website errors we’ve come across during our experience with technical audits and website assessments, and the steps you can take to fix them.
HTTP errors can be a major disappointment for website visitors. We’ve all experienced them ourselves and know first hand how annoying it can be to browse a website and then BAM! You hit a wall with an HTTP error.
These errors are messages from web servers indicating that something has gone wrong (obviously!), and there are a few specific types that are most common:
401 (Unauthorized) This error occurs when someone tries to access a page for which they are not authorized. You can usually fix this error by reviewing the URL of the page that is causing the error; It is possible that the clicked link is only for authorized users (for example, users who have a login with a valid user ID and password).
403 Forbidden) This error occurs when a server will not fulfill the request because the user does not have permission to access it. Slightly different from a 401 error, a 403 error identifies that a user May Must be logged in with valid user id and password but do not have authorization to access specific page. Typically, this means that the user needs to update the access to their user account by the website administrator.
404 Not Found) This error is one that most people see regularly. A 404 error occurs when a user tries to access a webpage that doesn’t exist (or doesn’t anymore). This error can be caused by broken links, incorrect URLs, or a redirected page that is no longer valid. However, this error can be easily fixed by reviewing all of these crawl errors in Google Search Console, and re-directing the broken link in your website’s WordPress or content management system, or letting your web developers add in redirects for you. can go.
500 Internal Server Error) This error is another very common message displayed to a lot of users, and it is a common error message for any kind of internal server error that cannot be easily defined. This error can usually be corrected when the user refreshes their web browser (if the error is related to the server being busy and unable to process requests quickly), deletes their cookies, or Visits the page at other times, possibly when the server is not so overloaded. However, on your part, you can usually troubleshoot the cause of the error through your WordPress or content management system, and follow the steps to diagnose and fix the problem.
504 (gateway timeout) Another common one, a 504 error refers to a gateway timeout, which occurs when one server does not receive a timely response from another server while it was trying to load a page. Most of the time this problem is not the fault of a website, but there are a few ways to troubleshoot the error. If this is the result of a corrupted database and your website is on WordPress, you can install and run a plugin such as WP-DBManager to repair and optimize your database. It could also be a problem related to your .htaaccess file within WordPress. Or you can try contacting your hosting company to see if the problem is on their end.
The page title tells visitors what the page they are visiting is about, and will be truncated by most search engines and web browsers if the title is longer than 70 characters. Similarly for your meta description, the maximum character count is around 155; Any words over that number will be removed and replaced with a “…”, which is not as attractive for visitors to come to your site.
Luckily, there are easy solutions to both of these SEO-problems, and they involve brainstorming to help you come up with keyword-rich titles and descriptions that describe what each of your pages is about in short-lived detail.
Search engines process text more easily than they process images, so they’ll skip your images if they’re missing ALT text tags.
Luckily, there’s another easy solution: just filter through the images. wordpress Or your other content management system and add keyword-rich, descriptive titles to each of your website images. To make this one step easier in many content management systems, be sure to name and save your images properly before uploading.
Search engines like to return results from websites that are active and long-standing. Having your domain name registered for several years shows a commitment to your business, your site, and your content.
Review your current domain registration and renew it annually to ensure that your site is not considered ‘spammy’.
Duplicate content can compete with each other on your site, and will cause search engines to return results for only one page instead of all of them.
To mitigate this, make sure you are using unique metadata (title and description) for each of your pages. You can use some online tools like Siteliner to scan your website and edit any duplicate content easily.
If you’ve set up conversion forms on your website (e.g.: “Submit your information and one of our sales reps will be in touch”), they should be concise enough that your visitors won’t have a major problem filling them out. You don’t want to scare potential leads by asking them too many questions, such as their address, phone number, questions about their role in the workplace, gender, age, etc.
Since conversion forms are only meant to collect enough data to get leads and then for businesses to be able to get in touch with those potential leads, consider shortening your form to only ask for the necessary information (ie. : name, email address, company name, etc.).
It’s a common error that Goldilocks would understand: You don’t want too much text on your web pages and you don’t want too little text… you want your webpage to be text. just right, A worrying and busy page runs the risk of looking spammy and overwhelming to visitors, and a sparse page can make your site look unprofessional, incomplete, and have a low word count can negatively impact your SEO.
Review all page content to make sure it is keyword-rich and provides visitors with relevant, interesting information about your products or services in a well-written form. Avoid adding text just to add to it, unless it’s really relevant to what you’re trying to convey.
Your Analytics account and Search Console account are a wealth of important information. The data coming through those accounts will help you understand everything you need to do or focus on to maximize your website traffic and conversion rates.
Have you experienced a sudden slowdown in website conversions? Perhaps the website suddenly stops through form submission? Accessing your website analytics can help you understand these issues, and more: Perhaps a website link is broken, or your site’s performance is slower than usual, causing more and more people to visit your site soon after. leave. Or maybe a recent landing page redesign just isn’t working, and it makes more sense to revert to the old, high-conversion option?
Instead of speculating or guessing at what might be causing slow traffic to your website, a simple review of your Analytics or Search Console accounts can usually pinpoint the problem right away… and the steps listed above will help you. Help troubleshoot and fix those issues to make your website functional, optimized, and ready for visitors once again.
