How to Fix SEO Issues on Your Website with OpDeck's Audit Tool

If you're wondering how to fix SEO issues on a website, you've come to the right place. SEO problems can quietly drain your organic traffic, push your pages down in search rankings, and make it harder for potential visitors to find you. The good news is that most common SEO issues are entirely fixable once you know what to look for — and with the right tools, you can identify and resolve them faster than you might think. This guide walks you through a practical, step-by-step approach to diagnosing and fixing the most impactful SEO problems on any website.

Why SEO Issues Are Costing You Traffic Right Now

Before diving into fixes, it's worth understanding why SEO issues matter so urgently. Search engines like Google crawl your pages and evaluate dozens of signals — title tags, meta descriptions, heading structure, page speed, mobile usability, structured data, and more. When any of these signals are broken, missing, or poorly configured, your pages lose ranking potential.

The frustrating part is that many of these issues are invisible to the naked eye. A page might look perfectly fine when you visit it in a browser, but underneath the surface, it could have duplicate meta tags, missing canonical URLs, broken heading hierarchies, or thin content that search engines quietly penalize.

That's why the first step to fixing SEO issues isn't guessing — it's auditing.

Step 1: Run a Comprehensive SEO Audit

The most efficient way to start fixing SEO issues on a website is to run a structured audit that covers all the major ranking signals at once. Rather than checking each element manually (which is time-consuming and error-prone), use a dedicated tool that gives you a complete picture in seconds.

OpDeck's SEO Audit tool analyzes your page across all the critical SEO factors — meta tags, heading structure, content quality signals, keyword usage, canonical tags, image alt attributes, and more. You simply enter your URL and get a detailed breakdown of what's working and what needs attention.

What the Audit Checks

When you run the SEO audit, it evaluates:

Title tags — Are they present, the right length, and descriptive?
Meta descriptions — Do they exist and fall within the recommended character range?
Heading hierarchy — Is there a single H1? Are H2s and H3s used logically?
Image alt text — Are all images tagged with descriptive alt attributes?
Canonical tags — Is the canonical URL set correctly to avoid duplicate content issues?
Open Graph and social metadata — Are social sharing tags properly configured?
Content signals — Is there enough substantive content on the page?

Once you have the audit results in front of you, you can start working through each issue systematically. The sections below cover how to fix each category.

Step 2: Fix Title Tag and Meta Description Issues

Title tags and meta descriptions are the first things users see in search results. They're also among the most commonly broken SEO elements on websites.

Fixing Missing or Duplicate Title Tags

Every page on your site needs a unique, descriptive title tag. If the audit flags missing title tags, you need to add them immediately.

In HTML:

<head>
  <title>How to Bake Sourdough Bread at Home | BreadBaker.com</title>
</head>

In WordPress (using Yoast SEO or Rank Math): Navigate to the page editor, scroll to the SEO plugin section at the bottom, and fill in the "SEO Title" field manually.

Title tag best practices:

Keep it between 50–60 characters
Include your primary keyword near the beginning
Make each title unique across all pages
Avoid keyword stuffing — write for humans first

If the audit shows duplicate title tags across multiple pages, audit your CMS templates. Often, duplicate titles come from template-level settings that apply the same title to category pages, tag pages, or paginated archives.

Fixing Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions don't directly influence rankings, but they do affect click-through rates — which indirectly affects SEO performance. A missing or auto-generated meta description often results in Google pulling random text from your page, which looks unprofessional in search results.

<meta name="description" content="Learn how to bake sourdough bread at home with our step-by-step guide. From starter to scoring, we cover everything a beginner needs.">

Meta description best practices:

Aim for 150–160 characters
Include a natural mention of your target keyword
Write a compelling summary that encourages clicks
Never duplicate meta descriptions across pages

Step 3: Resolve Heading Structure Problems

Heading hierarchy is one of the most overlooked SEO issues on websites. Search engines use headings to understand the structure and topic of your content. A broken heading structure sends confusing signals.

Common Heading Issues and Fixes

Problem: Multiple H1 tags on one page

Each page should have exactly one H1 tag. If your audit shows multiple H1s, review your page template. Sometimes themes or page builders accidentally add a second H1 through visual elements like hero banners or section headers.

Fix it by changing extra H1 elements to H2 or H3:

<!-- Wrong -->
<h1>Welcome to Our Website</h1>
<h1>Our Services</h1>

<!-- Correct -->
<h1>Welcome to Our Website</h1>
<h2>Our Services</h2>

Problem: Skipped heading levels

Jumping from an H2 directly to an H4 creates structural gaps that confuse both search engines and screen readers.

<!-- Wrong -->
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
<h4>Installation Steps</h4>

<!-- Correct -->
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
<h3>Installation Steps</h3>

Problem: No H1 at all

If the audit finds no H1 on a page, add one that clearly describes the page's main topic and includes your primary keyword.

Step 4: Fix Image Alt Text Issues

Every image on your website should have a descriptive alt attribute. Alt text serves two purposes: it helps search engines understand what the image shows, and it makes your site accessible to visually impaired users.

Adding Alt Text in HTML

<!-- Wrong: missing alt text -->
<img src="sourdough-bread.jpg">

<!-- Wrong: empty alt text for content images -->
<img src="sourdough-bread.jpg" alt="">

<!-- Correct -->
<img src="sourdough-bread.jpg" alt="Freshly baked sourdough bread with a golden crust on a wooden cutting board">

Adding Alt Text in WordPress

In the WordPress media library, click on any image and fill in the "Alt Text" field on the right side panel. For images already embedded in posts, click the image in the editor and look for the alt text field in the block settings.

Alt Text Best Practices

Describe what the image actually shows — be specific
Include relevant keywords naturally, but don't force them
Keep it under 125 characters
For purely decorative images (like dividers or background patterns), use an empty alt attribute (alt="") so screen readers skip them

Step 5: Address Canonical Tag Problems

Canonical tags tell search engines which version of a URL is the "official" one. Without them, you risk duplicate content issues — especially on e-commerce sites where the same product might appear under multiple category paths, or on blogs where content appears on both the post page and archive pages.

Setting Canonical Tags in HTML

<head>
  <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/sourdough-bread-recipe/" />
</head>

Common Canonical Issues to Fix

Self-referencing canonicals missing: Every page should have a canonical tag pointing to itself, even if there's no duplicate. This prevents search engines from making their own assumptions.

Canonical pointing to a different domain: If your site recently migrated from HTTP to HTTPS, check that canonicals point to the HTTPS version, not the old HTTP URLs.

Canonical conflicts with hreflang: On multilingual sites, canonical and hreflang tags can conflict. Make sure your canonical points to the correct language version of each page.

Step 6: Fix Thin Content Issues

Thin content — pages with very little substantive text — is one of the most significant SEO issues on websites that rely heavily on visual design or short-form pages. Google's algorithms actively look for depth and quality of information.

What Counts as Thin Content?

Pages with fewer than 300 words of body text
Pages that duplicate content from other pages on your site
Automatically generated pages with little unique value
Category or tag pages with no descriptive text

How to Fix It

Add substantive introductory text to category and archive pages. Even 150–200 words explaining what the category covers can make a significant difference.

Expand short pages by adding more detailed information, FAQs, examples, or related topics. Ask yourself: does this page fully answer the question a visitor might have?

Consolidate thin pages — if you have multiple very short posts on closely related topics, consider merging them into a single comprehensive guide and redirecting the old URLs.

Add structured FAQs using proper heading tags. This not only adds content depth but also creates opportunities for featured snippets in search results.

Step 7: Resolve Technical SEO Issues That Affect Crawling

Even if your on-page content is perfect, technical problems can prevent search engines from properly crawling and indexing your pages.

Check Your Robots.txt File

Your robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which pages to visit and which to skip. A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block your entire site from being indexed.

# Correct: allow all crawlers
User-agent: *
Disallow:

# Wrong: accidentally blocks everything
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Visit https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt to check your current configuration.

Verify Your XML Sitemap

A sitemap helps search engines discover all the pages on your site. Make sure:

Your sitemap exists at https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
It's submitted to Google Search Console
It only includes pages you actually want indexed (not admin pages, thank-you pages, etc.)
It's updated automatically when you publish new content

Fix Broken Internal Links

Broken internal links (links pointing to pages that return 404 errors) waste crawl budget and create a poor user experience. Use a crawler tool to identify them, then either fix the link target or set up a 301 redirect from the broken URL to the correct one.

Implement HTTPS Across Your Entire Site

If any pages on your site still load over HTTP, this is a critical issue. Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal. Make sure all pages redirect from HTTP to HTTPS, and that all internal links, canonical tags, and sitemaps reference the HTTPS version.

Step 8: Optimize for Mobile and Page Speed

While these aren't strictly "on-page" SEO issues, they directly impact your rankings because Google uses mobile-first indexing and Core Web Vitals as ranking factors.

Mobile Optimization Checks

Ensure your site uses a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes. Text should be readable without zooming, buttons should be large enough to tap, and content shouldn't overflow the viewport horizontally.

Page Speed Improvements

Slow pages rank lower and have higher bounce rates. Common fixes include:

Compress images using WebP format and appropriate dimensions
Enable browser caching with proper cache-control headers
Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML to reduce file sizes
Use a CDN to serve assets from servers closer to your users
Defer non-critical JavaScript to improve initial page load time

How to Fix SEO Issues on a Website Efficiently: Building a Repeatable Process

Fixing SEO issues isn't a one-time task — it's an ongoing process. Websites change constantly: new pages get added, content gets updated, plugins get installed, and templates get modified. Any of these changes can introduce new SEO problems.

Here's a practical cadence to stay on top of it:

Weekly: Check Google Search Console for crawl errors, manual actions, or sudden drops in impressions.

Monthly: Run a full SEO audit using OpDeck's SEO Audit tool on your key pages — homepage, main service pages, top-performing blog posts. Review the results and prioritize any new issues that appeared.

Quarterly: Do a broader content audit. Identify pages with declining traffic, thin content, or outdated information. Update, consolidate, or redirect as needed.

After major changes: Whenever you redesign your site, migrate to a new CMS, or make significant structural changes, run a full audit immediately to catch any issues introduced during the transition.

Prioritizing Which Issues to Fix First

Not all SEO issues carry equal weight. When you have a long list of problems to address, work in this order:

Critical technical issues — anything blocking indexing (robots.txt, noindex tags, broken canonicals)
Missing title tags and meta descriptions — high impact, quick fixes
Duplicate content issues — can significantly dilute ranking power
Thin content — requires more time but has high long-term value
Image alt text and heading structure — important for accessibility and content signals
Page speed and Core Web Vitals — often requires developer involvement

Conclusion

Learning how to fix SEO issues on a website is one of the highest-ROI skills you can develop as a site owner or digital marketer. Most of the problems covered in this guide — broken title tags, missing alt text, poor heading structure, thin content, canonical issues — are entirely fixable without advanced technical knowledge. The key is knowing where to look and having a systematic process for working through them.

The fastest way to get started is to run a proper audit so you're working from real data rather than guesswork. OpDeck's SEO Audit tool gives you an instant, comprehensive breakdown of exactly what's wrong with any page and what needs to be fixed. Visit opdeck.co to run your first audit today — it takes about 30 seconds and could reveal issues that have been silently costing you traffic for months.