Who this case is for
If your site has plenty of articles and slowly growing clicks, but rankings will not move and you are thinking of buying backlinks, this case suggests checking the site itself first.
The client is a supplier of laser welding machines and industrial equipment that prefers not to be named. Its team had produced better content than most competitors, with more than 120 articles and demo videos, and Google had started citing its product pages in AI Overviews.
Why we started with the site, not backlinks
The client planned to continue with backlinks and wanted to keep part of the budget for that, so we took on only the work that had to come first: one month of technical fixes.
If Google cannot index pages properly and the site is slow, even good links cannot do their full job. Competitor data supported this: some sites on page one had domain authority close to the client’s yet about 40 times the traffic, thanks to pages that matched searches, loaded fast and had clear product structures.
Problems found, and how we fixed them
1. Google indexed only 22% of pages
Problem: Google knew 711 URLs but indexed only 156, though the sitemap listed just 185. The main cause was 434 duplicate URLs created by a widget each time a person or bot opened a page, so Google kept crawling URLs it did not need.
Fix: We shut off the source of the duplicates and told Google clearly which pages are the real ones to index.
2. The site was slow for real users
Problem: Real-user Core Web Vitals showed 0 URLs passing, and poor URLs rose from about 30 to 73 while several tracking and ad scripts were added.
Fix: We removed duplicate or unused scripts and reordered loading so the main content appears first, on both the homepage and product pages.
3. Old product pages became 404s
Problem: Old models were deleted without redirects, some still named in Google’s AI answers, and menu links pointed to URLs that redirected again.
Fix: We redirected old pages to their closest product match and pointed menu links straight to their destinations.
4. Page signals that confused Google
Problem: Category canonicals conflicted with the sitemap, category pages had no H1 or meta description, and the page language was set to English although the content was Thai.
Fix: We made every signal point the same way, added headings and descriptions to category pages, and set the correct page language.
5. Inconsistent business details
Problem: The company name on Google Maps did not appear on the site, the phone number appeared in several formats, and the homepage had no business data Google could read.
Fix: We made the name, phone and address consistent everywhere and added business structured data.
6. Duplicate tracking tags
Problem: Several analytics and ad tags overlapped, slowing the site and making the numbers hard to trust.
Fix: We cleaned them up so only the tags in real use remain.
A note on backlinks (outside the scope)
About 90% of linking domains were spam, the pattern of cheap link packages, so we advised the client’s team to choose links from relevant Thai industry sites instead.
The technical details are tailored to each site, so we do not go deeper in this case.
Results still being measured
Technical work like this does not show results in a day, because Google has to recrawl first. We are tracking:
- The share of indexed pages against pages Google knows
- Duplicate URLs and 404s in Search Console
- Pages passing real-user speed thresholds
- CTR and clicks on product pages
We will update this case once a full cycle of post-fix data is available.
Checklist before paying for backlinks
- What percentage of your pages does Google index?
- Are there odd URLs you never meant Google to find?
- Do your pages pass real-user Core Web Vitals?
- Are the links you bought from real sites or spam?
- Have deleted product pages been redirected?
FAQ
We have lots of articles, so why are rankings stuck? Articles are only one part. If Google cannot index pages fully or the site is slow, good articles cannot have their full effect.
Should we build backlinks? Yes, from sites genuinely related to your business, but fix the site first and avoid cheap packages from spam domains.
Is one month of technical work enough? It is enough to lay a foundation for correct indexing. Merging pages that compete with each other and improving content is the next step.
Want to know where your site is stuck?
Message our freelance team on LINE OA or see our SEO audit service.