When it comes to tech SEO, you may often find yourself with a list of detected issues and limited resources to address them all. A useful perspective to help prioritize these tasks is the concept of "Technically Wrong, But Worth Fixing?" (TWBWF).
... to help prioritize these tasks is the concept of "Technically Wrong, But Worth Fixing?" (TWBWF)
SEO tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb can identify technical issues on your site, but determining the impact of these issues on overall visibility isn’t always straightforward.
Before jumping to fix every issue, consider asking the following questions to gauge whether the issue is truly worth addressing:
Questions to Ask
Is the issue preventing the page from appearing in search results? If the issue is blocking visibility, it may be affecting traffic potential directly.
Is it impacting commercially important areas of the website or diverting Google's attention from key sections? Issues on important pages (e.g., category or product pages) may be more critical than those on lesser-viewed sections.
Is the issue stopping search engines from understanding the content or the value of the affected pages? If search engines can’t comprehend the content, the page might struggle to rank well.
Is the issue affecting a single page, a particular template, or the entire site? A site wide issue may have a broader impact, while a single-page issue might be less urgent.
Is the issue impacting how Google crawls the affected pages? Understanding crawl behaviour (often through crawl logs) can reveal if the issue is leading to inefficient use of crawl budget.
These questions are a starting point, and often, issues are interconnected in complex and nuanced ways. By asking these questions, you can begin to weigh the importance of each issue and better prioritize your SEO efforts.
Final Thoughts
Not every technically "wrong" issue is a high priority. But by applying a TWBWF perspective, you can better allocate resources and focus on fixes that genuinely improve your site's visibility and performance.