Optimizing Your Website for Better SEO: A Case Study and Action Plan
Introduction
Building a website with valuable content is a significant achievement, but without proper SEO strategies, even the best content may go unnoticed by search engines. If you’ve launched a site that users love but find it’s not ranking well or being crawled by Google, don’t despair. This article discusses common SEO pitfalls through a real-world example and provides actionable steps to recover and improve your website’s visibility.
Case Study Overview
The website in question is a multilingual Lotto Number Generator platform, featuring various tools like number generators, storage, simulators, and odds calculators. With hundreds of pages across multiple languages, the site serves a global audience interested in lotteries such as Canada Lotto 6/49, Toto 649, and others.
Initial Challenges
Despite positive user feedback, the site faced significant SEO issues that prevented Google from effectively crawling and indexing its pages. Key problems identified included:
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Duplicate Content Across Pages
Initially, content across different tools and pages was largely identical, with only minor variations in titles and meta descriptions. This caused search engines to flag duplicate content, reducing crawl efficiency. -
Ineffective Canonical Tag Implementation
The site’s canonical tags were incorrectly set to the English version for all language variants, leading to confusion about the preferred versions for indexing. -
Improper Schema Markup Usage
JSON-LD structured data was misapplied, with all pages marked as articles rather than their appropriate types, such as WebApplication for interactive tools.
Strategies for Resolution and Optimization
Addressing SEO issues requires a comprehensive approach. Here are recommended steps based on the case scenario:
A. Eliminate Duplicate Content
– Unique Content Development: Craft unique introductions, descriptions, and content snippets for each page.
– Content Differentiation: Add specific details or contextual information relevant to each tool or lottery type.
– Use canonical tags correctly to indicate the preferred version of each page, especially when similar content exists.
B. Correct Canonical Tag Implementation
– Set canonical URLs to point to the respective language and version of each page.
– Avoid using a single canonical for all language variants to prevent dilution of SEO signals.
C. Apply Appropriate Schema Markup
– Use the correct schema.org types:
– WebApplication for tools and simulators
– Article for blog posts and news content
– Implement structured data consistently and validate using tools like Google’s Rich Results Test to ensure compliance.
D. Enhance SEO Fundamentals