The 7 Technical SEO Errors Killing Your Website's Google Rankings
Your website looks professional. The design is clean, the branding is on point, and you've invested thousands of dollars into making it look exactly right. But there's a problem: it's not showing up on Google, and the few visitors you do get aren't converting into customers.
Here's the uncomfortable truth most web designers won't tell you: a beautiful website means nothing if Google can't properly crawl, understand, and rank it. And right now, there's a good chance your site has technical issues that are actively preventing you from ranking well, regardless of how much content you publish or how many social media posts you share.
At Lucid Media, we've audited hundreds of New Zealand business websites, and we see the same critical errors over and over again. The frustrating part? Most of these issues are completely fixable once you know they exist. Let's walk through the seven technical SEO errors that are most likely holding your website back from the Google rankings it deserves.
1. Glacial Page Load Times
When someone clicks on your website in Google's search results, how long do they wait before your page actually loads? If the answer is more than three seconds, you're losing customers before they even see your content.
Google has made page speed a direct ranking factor because they know user behaviour: slow sites get abandoned. When your homepage takes six seconds to load because it's buried under massive unoptimised images, video backgrounds, or bloated code, Google sees visitors clicking the back button and returning to search results. That sends a clear signal that your site isn't providing a good experience.
This is particularly common on New Zealand business websites that were built with design-first thinking rather than performance-first thinking. Your designer chose those high-resolution hero images because they look stunning, but they never compressed them properly. Your developer added multiple plugins and scripts because they were easy solutions, not efficient ones.
We regularly see business websites scoring 20-30 on Google's PageSpeed Insights when they should be hitting 90+. That's not just a minor issue. That's a fundamental problem that's costing you rankings and revenue every single day.
What to check: Run your website through Google PageSpeed Insights. If you're seeing scores below 70 on mobile (which is what Google primarily uses for ranking), your page speed is actively hurting your rankings.
2. Mobile Responsiveness Failures
Over 60% of Google searches in New Zealand happen on mobile devices. If your website doesn't work properly on a smartphone, you're invisible to the majority of your potential customers.
But here's where it gets tricky: "mobile responsive" doesn't just mean your site technically loads on a phone. It means the experience is genuinely usable. We've seen plenty of websites that claim to be mobile-friendly but have text that's too small to read without zooming, buttons that are too close together to tap accurately, or content that requires horizontal scrolling.
Google tests for these specific usability issues because they directly impact whether someone can actually use your site. When your mobile experience is poor, Google knows it, and they adjust your rankings accordingly. This is especially damaging for local businesses trying to rank for "near me" searches, which are almost exclusively mobile.
The most common mobile failures we find: navigation menus that don't work properly on touchscreens, contact forms that are difficult to fill out on small screens, and crucial content hidden below the fold on mobile devices.
What to check: Actually use your website on your phone. Don't just look at it, use it. Try to complete your most important conversion action (booking a call, submitting a form, making a purchase) on a mobile device. If it's frustrating for you, it's frustrating for your customers.
3. Broken Links and 404 Errors
Dead links on your website send two terrible signals to Google. First, they suggest your site isn't being maintained, which raises questions about whether your content is current and trustworthy. Second, they create a poor user experience that Google specifically penalises.
This often happens when businesses redesign their websites without implementing proper redirects. You launch your new site, all the URLs change, and suddenly all the old links that existed on the web (in directories, in other people's blog posts, in your own old content) now lead to 404 error pages.
We've audited sites with hundreds of broken internal links simply because pages were moved or deleted without updating the navigation structure. Even worse, some businesses have broken external links on their most important pages, sending potential customers to dead ends instead of the next step in their journey.
What to check: Use a crawling tool or manually check your main pages for broken links. Pay particular attention to your navigation menu, footer links, and any important landing pages. Every broken link is a conversion opportunity you're throwing away.
4. Missing or Poorly Written Meta Tags
Title tags and meta descriptions might seem like minor details, but they're actually critical communication tools between your website and Google. They tell search engines what each page is about and give users a reason to click on your result instead of your competitors'.
The most common mistakes we see:
- Duplicate titles across multiple pages: Every page on your site using the same title tag (often just your company name) means Google has no idea how to differentiate your pages in search results.
- Missing meta descriptions: When you don't write your own description, Google creates one by pulling random text from your page, often resulting in descriptions that make no sense or don't compel anyone to click.
- Keyword stuffing: Cramming your title tag with every keyword variation you can think of doesn't help. It looks spammy and reduces click-through rates.
- Generic, uninformative titles: "Home" or "Services" as a page title tells Google nothing about what you actually offer.
For a plumbing business in Auckland, the difference between a title tag that says "Home | Smith Plumbing" and one that says "Emergency Plumber Auckland | 24/7 Service | Smith Plumbing" is the difference between being invisible and being found when someone needs you.
What to check: View the source code of your main pages and look for the and tags. Are they unique for each page? Do they accurately describe what's on that page? Do they include the keywords someone would search for?
5. Improper Use of Header Tags
Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) aren't just about making text bigger. They create a logical content structure that helps both users and search engines understand what your page is about and how information is organised.
The technical SEO errors we see most often:
- Multiple H1 tags on a single page: You should have one H1 per page, clearly stating the main topic. Multiple H1s confuse the hierarchy.
- Skipping heading levels: Going from H1 to H3 without an H2 breaks the logical structure.
- Using headers for visual styling instead of content structure: Making text larger by using H2 tags when it's not actually a section heading creates false signals about content importance.
- No headers at all: Long blocks of text with no structural organisation are difficult for users to scan and impossible for Google to properly understand.
When you properly structure your content with headers, you're essentially creating a table of contents that Google can read. This helps your pages rank for the specific topics covered in each section, not just the main topic of the overall page.
What to check: Look at the structure of your main content pages. Is there a clear hierarchy? Can someone skim just the headings and understand what the page covers?
6. Lack of SSL Certificate (No HTTPS)
If your website URL starts with "http://" instead of "https://", you have a serious problem. Google has made HTTPS (the secure version of HTTP) a ranking signal, and modern browsers actively warn users when they visit non-secure sites.
This became a standard requirement years ago, but we still occasionally encounter New Zealand business websites running on old hosting setups without SSL certificates. When potential customers see "Not Secure" in their browser bar, many will immediately leave your site. Google sees that behaviour and adjusts your rankings accordingly.
Beyond rankings, running an insecure website is a genuine liability issue if you collect any customer information through forms. Even basic contact forms should be transmitted securely.
What to check: Look at your website URL in the browser. You should see a padlock icon and "https://" at the beginning of the address. If you don't, contact your web host immediately to install an SSL certificate (most hosts provide this free through Let's Encrypt).
7. Poor Site Architecture and Navigation
How easily can someone (or Google's crawler) find any page on your website within three clicks from the homepage? If important pages are buried deep in complex navigation structures, they're unlikely to rank well regardless of their content quality.
Common site architecture problems:
- Orphaned pages: Important pages that aren't linked from anywhere else on your site, making them nearly impossible for Google to discover and rank.
- Overly complex navigation: Menus with so many options that users get overwhelmed and Google can't determine which pages are most important.
- No internal linking strategy: You publish great blog content but never link it from service pages or other relevant content, so it exists in isolation.
- Confusing URL structures: URLs like "yoursite.co.nz/page1/index.php?id=847" instead of clear, descriptive URLs like "yoursite.co.nz/plumbing-services-auckland"
Your site architecture should make it obvious which pages are most important (typically service pages and key landing pages) and ensure that every page can be reached through a logical navigation path.
What to check: Mentally map out how someone would navigate from your homepage to find your most important offerings. If it takes more than two or three clicks, or if the path isn't obvious, your architecture needs improvement.
The Real Cost of Technical SEO Errors
Here's what these technical issues actually mean for your business: you're paying for a website that actively works against you. Every month, potential customers in your area are searching for exactly what you offer. They're ready to make a purchase decision. But they're finding your competitors instead of you because your website has fundamental technical problems.
And the frustrating part? Your competitors probably aren't technical geniuses. They just have websites that are built with SEO as a foundation rather than an afterthought. They load quickly, work properly on mobile, have clean code, and give Google clear signals about what they offer and who they serve.
How Lucid Media Approaches Technical SEO
When we conduct a website audit, we're not looking for perfection. We're identifying the specific technical issues that are most likely preventing your site from ranking well and converting visitors into customers. Our approach through the Lucid Launch System includes comprehensive technical audits that examine every element affecting your search performance.
The technical foundation comes first because it doesn't matter how good your content is if Google can't properly crawl and index your site. We systematically address page speed issues, mobile responsiveness problems, broken elements, and structural problems before moving into content optimisation and link building.
Most of these technical errors are completely fixable, often within a few days of focused work. The difference in performance can be dramatic. We regularly see businesses move from page three of Google to page one simply by addressing technical SEO issues that were holding them back.
Ready to Fix Your Website's Technical Issues?
If you're recognising your website in these descriptions, the good news is that these problems are solvable. The bad news is that they won't fix themselves, and every day they persist is another day you're losing potential customers to competitors.
At Lucid Media, we specialise in identifying and fixing exactly these kinds of technical SEO problems for New Zealand businesses. Our comprehensive website audits reveal not just what's broken, but why it matters and how to fix it.
Book a call with us today. We'll discuss your website's current performance, identify the technical issues most likely holding you back, and show you exactly what needs to happen to get your site ranking where it should be.
No pressure, no hard sell—just an honest conversation about whether we can help your business grow through better technical SEO.
Jason Poonia