5 common SEO issues I often find during my audits (and how to fix them)

Every website is different. Every business is different. And every SEO audit I carry out reflects that. There's no copy-and-paste approach, and I treat each project with fresh eyes.

That said, after carrying out a good number of SEO audits for small and medium-sized businesses, certain patterns do start to show. Not every site has all of these issues, and it's rarely one single thing that's holding a website back. SEO is cumulative. It's the sum of many parts working (or not working) together. And once addressed, they can make a real difference. Knowing how your pages are structured, how clearly you’re communicating what you do, and whether search engines can easily understand and trust your site. Once you start looking at it through that lens, it becomes much easier to spot areas for improvement. Don't get me wrong, it doesn’t mean everything needs to be fixed at once. It’s more about identifying where small adjustments can be made that gradually improve visibility and performance over time.

With that in mind, I’ve pulled together five common areas I often come across. Think of them as a simple way to check your website and what might be worth improving. Here are the top 5 SEO issues that often show up in my audits...and how you can turn them into opportunities:

1. Poor website architecture: Pages floating in the Ether

What is website architecture? Think of it like the layout of a building. You’ve got main entrances (your homepage), corridors (navigation and internal links), and rooms (individual pages). If the layout makes sense, people move through it easily. If it doesn’t, they get lost. And the same applies to search engines.

What does it mean for SEO?

When a page isn't linked anywhere on your site and isn't included in your sitemap, it becomes what it's called an "Orphan page". It exists, but it's not properly tied into the rest of your website.

This can happen for many reasons: A page created but never properly published, a blog post that got disconnected after a redesign, or a service page added in a hurry and never linked from the main navigation or anywhere else on the site.

Why is it an SEO problem?

Search engines like Google discover and index your pages by crawling your website, essentially following links from one page to the next. If a page isn't linked to from anywhere, Google may never find it. And even if it does get indexed, a page with no internal links pointing to it is seen as low priority. It receives very little (if any) authority from higher-value pages on your website, which makes it much harder to rank.

From a user experience perspective, if a visitor can't find the page through your navigation or internal links, it's not doing the job you built it for.

How to fix it

Carry out a crawl of your website using a tool like Screaming Frog (there's a free version that covers up to 500 URLs). This will show pages that exist but have no internal links pointing to them. Once you've identified them, decide whether the page is worth keeping. If it is, link to it from a relevant page on your site, add it to your navigation if appropriate, and make sure it's included in your XML sitemap. If it's not needed anymore, redirect it.

A well-structured, well-linked site is much easier for Google to understand...and a much better experience for your visitors.

2. Meta Descriptions: Missing, too long, too short, or too generic

What is a meta description? Meta descriptions are the short snippets of text that appear beneath your page title in Google's search results. They play an important role in encouraging users to click your link and in helping Google understand page context.

What does it mean for SEO?

Think of it as your 30-second pitch to a potential visitor. In audits, I regularly come across meta descriptions that are far too long (Google truncates anything over around 155–160 characters), far too short (sometimes just a couple of words), or so generic they could apply to almost any business ("Welcome to our website. We offer great services at great prices." Sound familiar?). Sometimes meta descriptions are missing altogether.

Why is it an SEO problem?

A truncated meta description gets cut off mid-sentence, which looks unprofessional and loses the message you were trying to get across. A missing or generic one means Google may auto-generate something from your page content, and that's not always the most compelling or relevant snippet.

More importantly, the meta description is a direct opportunity to speak to your audience, address what they're searching for, and give them a reason to choose your link over the others on the page. Leaving that opportunity on the table is a missed chance every single time your page appears in search results.

How to fix it

Write a unique meta description for every page on your website, especially your key service pages, location pages, and homepage. Keep it between 140 and 155 characters, make it relevant to what's actually on that page, and where it makes sense, include a natural call to action. Think: what would make you click?

Top tip

While you’re reviewing your pages, it’s worth checking your image alt text as well. Alt tags help search engines understand your images and improve accessibility. Keep them short, descriptive, and relevant to the image content - not just a string of keywords.

3. Title Tags: The handshake with Google

What are title tags? Closely related to meta descriptions (and something I always look at together with them) is the title tag. This is the blue clickable headline you see in search results, and it's also what appears in your browser tab. If the meta description is your pitch, the title tag is your headline.

What does it mean for SEO?

Title tags are one of the most important on-page SEO elements. They tell Google (and your visitors) exactly what a page is about. And yet, in a surprising number of audits, I find title tags that are too long, duplicated across multiple pages, missing entirely, or simply not optimised for the keywords people are actually searching for.

Why is it an SEO problem?

Google uses the title tag as a strong signal when deciding what a page is about and how to rank it. A title tag that's too long gets cut off. A duplicate title tag means Google struggles to understand which page is more relevant for a given search. And a title tag that just says "Home" or repeats your business name three times is an opportunity completely wasted.

Together, the title tag and meta description form the first impression your website makes in search results. Get them right, and you improve both your rankings and your click-through rate. Get them wrong, and even a well-built website can underperform.

How to fix it

Each page should have a unique, descriptive title tag that includes your primary keyword naturally, without stuffing. Keep it under 60 characters so it doesn't get cut off. For a service page, a format like "Service | Location | Business Name" often works well. For blog posts, lead with the topic. And always write for the human reader first, Google is pretty good at understanding context.

4. Pages that aren’t Indexed: Invisible in Search

What's indexing? This is probably my favourite discovery and the most important one: Pages that aren't indexed. They exist on the website, but they don’t appear in search results at all. In many cases, the website owner isn’t aware of it.

What does it mean for SEO? Well, if a page isn’t indexed, it means search engines haven’t included it in their database, so it cannot appear in search results at all. From an SEO perspective, that makes the page effectively invisible; it won’t rank, attract traffic, or contribute to your website’s performance, regardless of how well it’s optimised. This often points to underlying issues such as low-quality content, poor internal linking, or unclear site structure, so ensuring important pages are indexed is a fundamental first step in any SEO strategy.

Why is it an SEO problem? If a page isn’t indexed, it isn’t eligible to appear in search results...full stop. No matter how well it’s written or optimised, it won’t generate organic traffic. A common scenario is pages sitting in “Crawled — currently not indexed.” This means the page has been discovered, but the search engine has chosen not to include it in the index.

How to fix it Start with Google Search Console. Check your indexing report and look for any relevant pages that aren’t being indexed. If you find pages in “Crawled but currently not indexed,” it’s often a signal rather than a technical error. It can be linked to:

• Thin or low-value content

• Lack of internal links

• Poor overall site structure

• Duplicate or overlapping topics
  

In many cases, improving the quality and clarity of your content, along with the other areas covered in this article, increases the likelihood of those pages being indexed.

It’s also worth submitting an up-to-date XML sitemap. This ties directly back to your site architecture and helps ensure important pages are discoverable. 5. Pages without a clear Intent: The catch-all content problem

This one is a little harder to spot in audit tools, but it's arguably the most impactful. I regularly come across pages on websites that try to cover too much ground. I get it, as a business owner (I'm guilty of that too), we have so much to say about our business and services.

What does that mean for SEO?

Perhaps it started as a services page and grew over time to include everything the business offers. Or maybe it's a blog post that tried to cover five different topics at once. Whatever the cause, the result is a page without a clear intent.

Why is it an SEO problem?

Google works hard to understand what each page on your website is about, so it can match it to the right search queries. When a page tries to be everything at once, Google can't easily categorise it... and it ends up ranking for nothing.

From a user experience perspective, a cluttered, unfocused page is harder to navigate, harder to read, and less likely to convert. Someone who lands on your page looking for a specific answer or service shouldn't have to wade through unrelated content to find it.

How to fix it

Think about the intent behind each page. What is the one thing a visitor should find here, and what action do you want them to take when they arrive? If a page is trying to cover too many topics, consider splitting it into multiple focused pages. Use clear headings to structure your content, and make sure each page has a single, clear purpose.

For SEO, this also ties back to your keyword strategy. Each key page on your site should be optimised around a specific primary keyword or topic. So when someone searches for it, your page is a clear, relevant match.

SEO… and You: What’s next?

If you’ve read through this list and recognised a few of these issues on your own website, don’t worry. These are all very common, and it’s rare for a site to get everything right straight away. What matters is spotting them and improving things step by step.

The good news is that a lot of this can be worked on yourself. SEO doesn’t have to be overly complicated or expensive. But it does take time to understand what to look for and how to fix it properly - and that’s often where things get pushed down the list.

If you’re busy running your business and don’t quite have the time to get into the details, that’s where I can help. Feel free to get in touch to find out more about my SEO audit as part of the discovery work on your website. I work with small and medium-sized businesses across the UK and offer a no-pressure discovery call to get started.