SathiSummarize this blog post with:
Table of contents
- The data at a glance
- A good SEO score can hide template problems
- Common SEO issue #1: links that redirect
- Broken links on more than half the sites
- Half the sites had no structured data
- Titles and meta descriptions: too long, too short, or missing
- Missing H1 on 40% of sites
- The smaller common SEO issues
- How we collected this data
- Common mistakes when fixing these issues
- Run the same SEO audit on your site with DidYouSEO
- FAQ
We looked at the latest full-site crawl of every website audited with DidYouSEO between June and October 2026: 67 sites, 4,976 pages. Most of them scored above 80 out of 100. Most of them also had the same handful of problems, repeated on almost every page.
This post lists the common SEO issues we found, how many sites had each one, and how much of each affected site it covered. For every issue there's the reason it happens and the fix. No site is named; all the numbers are totals.
The data at a glance
| Issue | Sites affected (of 67) | Share of pages, on affected sites (median) |
|---|---|---|
| Links to other sites that redirect | 72% (48) | 90% |
| Links to your own pages that redirect | 70% (47) | 90% |
| Meta description over 160 characters | 57% (38) | 32% |
| Pages under 200 words | 55% (37) | 30% |
| No JSON-LD structured data | 54% (36) | 78% |
| No social sharing image (og:image) | 54% (36) | 47% |
| Broken links to your own pages | 54% (36) | 80% |
| Title over 60 characters | 48% (32) | 30% |
| Title under 30 characters | 48% (32) | 40% |
| H1 missing or empty | 40% (27) | 50% |
| No canonical tag | 37% (25) | 33% |
| Images without alt text | 33% (22) | 38% |
| Structured data with errors | 25% (17) | 100% |
| Broken images | 22% (15) | 60% |
| Meta description missing | 19% (13) | 60% |
| JavaScript file that returns an error | 16% (11) | 80% |
Read the third column carefully. When a site had broken internal links, the median site had them on 80% of its pages. That's not 80 separate mistakes. It's one broken link in the menu or footer, shown on every page.
A good SEO score can hide template problems
58 of the 67 sites averaged 80 or more. Here's the spread:
| Average page score | Sites |
|---|---|
| 90-99 | 23 |
| 80-89 | 35 |
| 70-79 | 7 |
| 50-59 | 2 |
An average is kind to sites with one problem on every page. A broken footer link costs a few points per page, so the score barely moves, but the problem is everywhere. We explain what goes into the number in what an SEO score measures. The useful habit: look at which issues repeat across pages, not just the total.
Common SEO issue #1: links that redirect
This was the most common issue in the whole set. 70% of sites link to their own pages through a redirect, and 72% link out to other sites through one. On affected sites it was on 90% of pages, which again points at the menu, footer or a sidebar.
The usual causes are small:
- Linking to
http://when the site moved tohttps:// - Linking to
/pricingwhen the real URL is/pricing/, or the other way round - Linking to
example.comwhen the site lives onwww.example.com - Outbound links to old URLs that the other site has since moved
A redirect isn't an error, and Google follows it. But every redirect is an extra request for crawlers and a slower click for people. Update the link to the final URL. We covered when each redirect type is right in 301 vs 302 redirects.
We had this exact problem ourselves: badges in our footer pointed at URLs that redirected, so every page on our site got the warning. One edit to the footer fixed all of them.
Broken links on more than half the sites
54% of sites had at least one link to their own pages that returned a 404 or server error. On affected sites, the median was 80% of pages: a broken link in a shared template, not in one article.
These are worth fixing first. A broken link in the menu sends both people and crawlers to a dead end from every page. Our free broken link checker finds them, and how broken links hurt SEO explains what to fix first.
Half the sites had no structured data
54% of sites had no JSON-LD structured data on most of their pages (a median of 78% of pages). Another 25% had structured data with errors, and on those sites the errors were on every page. Again, a template.
Structured data tells search engines and AI tools what a page is: an article, a product, an organization. Schema.org's getting-started guide is the reference, and our schema checker shows what a page has today. We wrote about why it matters for AI answers in schema markup and AI citability.
Titles and meta descriptions: too long, too short, or missing
Titles were split almost evenly: 48% of sites had pages with titles over 60 characters, and 48% had pages with titles under 30. Meta descriptions over 160 characters showed up on 57% of sites, and 19% had pages with no meta description at all.
A note on these limits: Google doesn't have a fixed character limit. Its title link documentation says titles are cut to fit the width of the screen, and the snippet documentation says Google may rewrite descriptions. 60 and 160 characters are a practical guide for what usually shows in full.
Short titles are the bigger miss. A 20-character title like "Home | Brand" wastes the most-read line of your search result. Our SERP preview tool shows how a title and description will look before you publish, and the meta tags guide covers the rest.
Missing H1 on 40% of sites
40% of sites had pages with no H1, or an empty one. On those sites it was half the pages. The usual reasons: the logo is the only H1 and it's an image, or the theme styles headings with plain divs.
The H1 is the page's main heading for people using screen readers and a strong hint for search engines about the topic. Every page should have exactly one, with real text in it.
The smaller common SEO issues
- Pages under 200 words (55% of sites). Often tag pages, contact pages or product pages with only a photo. Not every page needs to be long, but a page you want to rank needs enough text to answer the search.
- No og:image (54%). Links shared on social media and in chat apps show a blank box. The Open Graph protocol defines the tag; we explain the fixes in why link previews break.
- No canonical tag (37%). Without one, Google picks which duplicate URL to index on its own. Google's guide to consolidating duplicate URLs covers it, and so does our canonical tags explainer.
- Images without alt text (33%). Bad for accessibility first, image search second. The W3C images tutorial shows what good alt text looks like.
- Broken images (22%) and broken JavaScript files (16%). Usually a file that was moved or deleted while the template still points to it.
How we collected this data
- Sample: the most recent full-site crawl of each of the 67 websites audited with DidYouSEO between June 29 and October 26, 2026. That's 4,976 pages from 63 accounts. Older crawls of the same site were left out, so a site re-audited five times counts once.
- Size: the median crawl was 10 pages, because the Free plan audits up to 10 pages per run. Larger sites were crawled up to 500 pages.
- Rules: each issue uses the rule written next to it in the table, from the same 40+ checks our site audit runs on every page.
- Left out on purpose: orphan pages (on a 10-page crawl, a page looks orphaned when the pages that link to it weren't crawled), pages missing from the sitemap (inflated by www and non-www mismatches), broken links to other sites (some sites block crawlers and look broken when they aren't), and robots.txt blocking, which our own check overcounted until we fixed it in November 2026.
- Bias: these are sites whose owners chose to run an SEO audit, so they're probably better maintained than average, not worse.
Common mistakes when fixing these issues
- Fixing page by page. If an issue is on 80% of pages, the cause is in a template. Find the shared menu, footer or layout first.
- Chasing exact character counts. A clear 65-character title beats a vague 55-character one. Use the limits as a guide.
- Adding schema without testing it. A quarter of sites had structured data with errors on every page. Test it after you add it.
- Leaving redirects "because they work." They do work. They also add a hop for every crawler on every page, forever. Editing the link takes a minute.
Run the same SEO audit on your site with DidYouSEO
Every number in this post comes from DidYouSEO's site audit. It crawls your site, runs 40+ checks on each page, and groups repeated issues so a template problem shows up as one fix, not 80. The Free plan audits up to 10 pages, no card needed. For the full manual version, use our technical SEO audit checklist.
FAQ
What are the most common SEO issues?
In our audits of 67 websites, the most common were links that redirect (on 70-72% of sites), meta descriptions over 160 characters (57%), thin pages under 200 words (55%), no structured data (54%), no social image (54%) and broken internal links (54%).
Why does one SEO issue appear on almost every page?
Because it lives in a shared template, like the menu, footer or page layout. On sites with broken internal links, the median site had them on 80% of its pages. Fix the template and every page is fixed at once.
Can a site score well and still have SEO problems?
Yes. 58 of the 67 sites averaged 80 or more out of 100, and most still had redirecting links, missing structured data or broken links. A small problem repeated on every page barely moves an average.
How long should a title tag be?
Google has no fixed limit; it cuts titles to fit the screen width. Around 30 to 60 characters usually shows in full. In our data, 48% of sites had titles over 60 characters and 48% had titles under 30.
Which SEO issue should I fix first?
Broken links in your menu or footer, because they send people and crawlers to dead ends from every page. Then redirecting links in the same templates, then missing H1s and meta descriptions on pages you want to rank.
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