Note: This analysis is intended exclusively for educational and informational purposes. All observations are based on publicly available information and do not involve access to any internal data. For more details, please refer to our Disclaimer page.
Table of Contents
This is an audit where I didn’t find anything particularly damaging from a technical SEO standpoint – though that doesn’t mean there are no issues, just no major ones.
At the end I’ll also take a look at the niche site catenapascupas.ro. I chose to include it in this analysis because it’s associated with catena.ro, and because it’s built on a different platform.
1. Internal 404 links
Since this site is built on a different CMS from all the others I’ve audited, we don’t have the Magento-specific duplicate page problem or the WordPress-specific empty image page issue found in the Libertatea.ro news website audit.
So we’ll start with the lower-hanging fruit – issues that have the highest positive impact if fixed – internal 404 links. According to ahrefs, there are 511 internal links pointing to 404 Not Found pages.
How to efficiently fix internal 404 errors
Fixing issues like internal 404s follows the same approach as any SEO problem – prioritization. We prioritize based on which pages receive the most traffic, both the pages that contain those internal 404 links and the 404 pages themselves that are still indexed and receiving some traffic.
The most accurate way to do this is through Google Search Console, though ahrefs can also be used.
2. External 404 links
I can’t see the exact real number here since ahrefs is slow to update – a 404 external link that was appearing across thousands of pages appears to have been recently fixed by the Catena team.
Setting that resolved link aside, the numbers suggest approximately 11,857 minus 8,483 links – leaving a potential total of around 3,374 external links still pointing to non-existent pages.
Below are 3 examples of external 404 links that remain unresolved – which is why I assumed only the 8,483 links were fixed, while the remaining ones up to the total of 11,857 broken links are still live on the site.
https://www.catena.ro/simptome-care-indica-prezenta-parazitilor-intestinali#:~:text=aboutkidshealth
https://www.catena.ro/diaree-cauze-tratament-preventie#:~:text=healthywater
https://www.catena.ro/durere-de-cap-in-zona-tamplelor-cauze-si-remedii#:~:text=vinmec
Google would prefer to remove these external 404 pages from its index, but finding them still referenced on authoritative sites like Catena makes that process harder.
In my view, the sheer volume is problematic – any signal that site owners are making Google’s job more difficult can negatively affect site performance.
How to efficiently fix external 404 errors
I would prioritize external 404 links that have catena.ro as their only backlink – meaning Catena is the only site still keeping those pages “alive” despite them no longer existing.
Multiple URLs can be analyzed at once using the Batch Analysis tool in ahrefs – this lets you quickly identify which pages have just a single backlink from Catena, and those are the ones to address first.
3. Backlinks pointing to 404 pages
A common issue found across several of my audits – including the Dedeman.ro one – catena.ro also has quality backlinks pointing to pages that no longer exist. These can be easily resolved with a redirect to a relevant equivalent page.
For example, there’s a backlink from the Apple App Store pointing to a Terms & Conditions page that no longer exists on catena.ro – but there is an equivalent Privacy Policy page that also covers terms and conditions.
A simple Google search for a term like…
site:www.catena.ro tratament ten gras predispus la acnee
…will surface multiple relevant pages that could serve as redirect targets for the ‘acne’ 404 pages shown in the screenshot – particularly useful when editing the backlink directly isn’t possible or practical. (This SEO process is known as Link Reclamation.)
4. Unusual .pdf pages (partially resolved)
This is an issue that the site’s webmasters have since addressed – the .pdf pages with unusual titles that I originally flagged.
The fix appears to have been applied recently, as these pages are still indexed in Google but now return a 404 when accessed.
.pdf pages with no meta details
There are still quite a few files on catena.ro, and among them it’s easy to find ones that don’t appear particularly useful for Google users and haven’t been optimized with that in mind.
Other unusual .pdf pages
I also found what appears to be a document more suited to internal use than public access – a file containing a large list of email addresses and phone numbers that I couldn’t find anywhere else online. (Details intentionally redacted.)
In the same category, I found indexed PDFs on catena.ro in a language other than Romanian – though these are likely intended for a Hungarian-speaking audience.
5. Two separate search boxes on the site
Not strictly an SEO issue, but a layout and UX one. I’ve never seen a site with two separate search boxes before – and I suspect the reason it’s not a common practice is that it’s simply not optimal.
The logic behind it makes sense – one box for products, one for articles. But when you search in the first box, the results page already lets you filter between articles and products – which makes the second search box redundant.
6. 301 and 404 links in the footer and header
These 301 and 404 errors deserve their own mention because, appearing in both the header and footer, they’re present on every single page of the site.
There’s one 301 and one 404 in the footer, and one 301 in the main navigation menu.
- SEO Tip: To quickly find broken links on any site, use the Chrome extension Check My Links.
These 404 and 301 errors are common across the sites I’ve audited, as they’re typically links to external sites like ANPC and the European Commission that have since changed their URLs.
What’s different in this case is the 301 redirect found in catena.ro’s main navigation menu.
These are among the easiest issues to fix on any site – errors in the header and footer can be resolved in minutes, instantly cleaning up broken links across thousands or even tens of thousands of pages.
- SEO Tip: To inspect 301 redirect and 404 details across multiple URLs at once, use httpstatus.io.
Other minor issues found
A few additional low-priority findings worth a brief mention.
7. Non-secure http pages
A very small number of such pages found compared to other audits – the Dedeman audit, for example, turned up 26 indexed non-secure links. Here, we have only two such links indexed in Google.
site:catena.ro -inurl:https
8. Pages with incorrect or vague titles
A more specific issue – three category pages under ‘acne’ share the same generic title: ‘
Treatment | Catena' and 'Hydration | Catena'. ('Tratament | Catena' and 'Hidratare | Catena'
- SEO Tip: To display full URLs in Google search results, use the Chrome extension Remove Breadcrumbs.
site:www.catena.ro/acnee/tratament OR site:www.catena.ro/acnee/intretinere OR site:www.catena.ro/acnee/hidratare
9. Inconsistent brand name
The Catena brand name appears in page titles in two different formats – ‘Catena.ro’ and simply ‘Catena’. There’s also a third variant where the brand name doesn’t appear at all.
Interestingly, in all three cases Google has rewritten the titles to remove the brand name entirely – which suggests Google is overriding them anyway, so this isn’t a particularly worrying issue.
site:www.catena.ro/vitamina-c-1000-mg-30-comprimate-beres OR site:http://www.catena.ro/remostabil-x-30-capsule OR site:https://www.catena.ro/naturalis-calciu-lactic-x-50-comprimate
What I appreciate about catena.ro
Apart from the negatives, it’s worth highlighting what the webmasters do well.
- The calculators section - a series of genuinely useful tools like 'Weight Calculator' and 'Optimal Hydration Calculator'.
- Consistent social media presence - social media is an increasingly important marketing channel, and Catena uses it regularly.
- Interactive catalogue pages - a unique feature where users can browse product catalogues and reserve items directly from within the catalogue. Example here.
Analysis of catenapascupas.ro
As mentioned at the start, I’ll also take a brief look at catenapascupas.ro – a site dedicated to the medical rehabilitation niche. I’ll keep my observations limited since this is a newer site.
The first thing worth noting is that catenapascupas.ro is built on Magento – which unfortunately means we’ll find similar technical issues to those uncovered in the FarmaciaTei and DrMax audits.
1. Indexable filter/sort pages
This issue appears to be in the process of being resolved – accessing these pages now returns a 404 error. However, as shown in the screenshot, they’re still indexed. The team behind the site addressed this between the video being recorded and this article being written.
Since these are now 404 pages, Google will eventually deindex them – they were indexed in the first place because they previously contained actual content.
To see the original issue, check the YouTube video at the 27:00 mark, where products were still being displayed on those pages.
2. Indexed and duplicate tracking pages
The same issue found across other Magento-based site audits – duplicate URLs with tracking parameters are being indexed.
Even though canonical tags have been correctly applied, these pages are still indexed – most likely because the tracking URLs are referenced somewhere online, such as on social media, or because there are internal links pointing to them.
3. A product that doesn't seem to belong?
A more subjective observation, since I’m not aware of the full context around their product listing decisions – but one product caught my attention as seemingly out of place for this site’s niche.
It’s a hair curler – a beauty product. This doesn’t seem like a natural fit for catena.ro in general, let alone for catenapascupas.ro, which appears to be focused specifically on medical rehabilitation products.
Conclusion
The issues on catena.ro are fewer and less serious than those found on the other sites in this series. What makes it particularly interesting is that Catena is the only one not built on Magento or WordPress.
The internal and external 404 links are the technical issues most worth addressing first.
On catenapascupas.ro, I would focus on identifying the root cause of the indexed tracking parameter pages.
Overall, credit where it’s due – despite running on what appears to be a more stripped-back CMS, catena.ro has the fewest technical SEO issues of any site I’ve audited in this series.
What did you think of this technical SEO analysis? Did anything stand out or surprise you? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
For SEO services, visit my Technical SEO Audit page.
My name is Andrei and in 2014 I made my first money online through websites and SEO. I currently offer SEO services for Romanian and English-language websites. Learn more about my SEO approach on my YouTube channel with SEO tutorials. For more SEO education, check my SEO blog or my SEO case studies.
