On-Page SEO Audit Playbook: Fix Duplicate Titles, Thin Content, Cannibalization, and Broken Internal Links

Introduction

If your website is getting less traffic than it should, the problem often isn't mysterious — it's on-page issues that quietly undermine rankings and conversions. This playbook walks busy founders and marketers through a practical, prioritized on-page SEO audit you can run in 30–90 days to unblock growth and capture more leads.

Why these five issues matter

Duplicate metadata, thin content, content cannibalization, broken internal links, and UX problems are common and high-impact. They confuse search engines, waste crawl budget, dilute authority, and frustrate visitors — all of which reduce organic visibility and conversions. Fixing them gives strong ROI for the time invested.

Quick diagnostic workflow

Run this fast checklist to find your biggest wins:

1. Crawl the site with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to export titles, meta descriptions, H1s, response codes, and word counts.
2. Pull Google Search Console data for impressions, clicks, and queries tied to each URL.
3. Map internal links and find orphan pages; compare sitemap to actual pages.
4. Check Core Web Vitals with Lighthouse and review mobile usability in GSC.
5. Prioritize by traffic potential, conversion value, and implementation effort.

These five steps help you focus on pages that will move the needle.

Detect and fix duplicate metadata

Symptom: many pages share the same title or meta description (e.g., "Home | Company") or use templated strings. This causes crawler confusion and lowers CTR.

How to fix: - Edit titles for your top 50 landing pages to be unique and intent-aligned. - For multiple pages serving the same intent, consolidate with 301 redirects or canonical tags. - Use meta robots noindex for thin archive pages or auto-generated filters that add no value.

Practical tip: For product catalogs, include product name + primary benefit + category in the title to make each page distinct.

Beef up thin pages

Thin pages are those that don’t satisfy searcher intent or offer unique value. Word count alone isn’t the rule, but under 300 words is a good flag.

How to remediate: - Expand content with clear headings, FAQs, examples, use cases, and structured data. - Add contextual internal links from authority pages. - If a page has no long-term value, use a 301 redirect or serve a 410 where appropriate.

A high-traffic thin page is often the best place to invest time — expanding one such page can lift traffic more than optimizing many low-impact pages.

Find and fix content cannibalization

If GSC shows the same queries pointing to several URLs, your pages may be competing with each other. This dilutes rankings.

How to resolve: - Create a keyword map and assign each query to a single target URL. - Consolidate similar pages via 301 redirects and update internal links. - Use canonical tags only when pages must remain live for UX but shouldn’t compete for search.

Consolidation usually beats optimizing each competing page independently.

Repair internal links and UX blockers

Internal links distribute authority and help crawlers prioritize pages. Broken internal links and orphaned pages waste crawl budget and cause missed opportunities.

Fix steps: - Repair internal 4xx/5xx links found in your crawl (restore, redirect, or remove). - Add contextual links with descriptive anchors from high-authority pages to priority pages. - Update your sitemap and resubmit to Google Search Console.

Also check Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, and intrusive interstitials — these directly impact rankings and conversions.

Prioritized quick actions (30–90 days)

• Fix title tags on your top 50 landing pages.
• Consolidate or canonicalize clear duplicate URLs for your top 10 keywords.
• Expand 10 thin, high-potential pages with FAQs and examples.
• Add 5 internal links from top-performing posts to priority pages.
• Repair all internal 4xx links flagged in your crawl and resubmit the sitemap.

These actions yield measurable improvements quickly when tracked properly.

Measuring success

Track these KPIs weekly for remediated pages: - Impressions and clicks in Google Search Console. - Average position for target keywords. - Crawl errors and indexation counts. - Core Web Vitals for top landing pages. - Conversion rate or goal completions after changes.

Always export raw data (crawl logs, sitemap, GSC CSVs) before making changes so you can measure impact and roll back if needed.

Next steps

If you want a repeatable audit process and implemented fixes, learn more at https://prateeksha.com. Read practical guides and case studies on our blog: https://prateeksha.com/blog. For the full playbook and a downloadable action list, see https://prateeksha.com/blog/on-page-seo-audit-playbook-fix-duplicate-titles-thin-content-cannibalization-broken-internal-links.

Conclusion

Start by exporting your data, crawl the site, and fix duplicates and broken links on high-impact pages first. Consolidate cannibalized content and expand thin pages that drive conversions. Track results and iterate — small, prioritized fixes often deliver the fastest win.