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How To Do a Technical SEO Audit (Step by Step)

Introduction
Technical SEO audit is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. Without a technically sound website, even the best content and backlinks may fail to rank. This guide walks you through a complete, step-by-step technical SEO audit so you can identify and fix the issues that prevent search engines from crawling, indexing, and ranking your site. You’ll learn which tools to use, what to look for, prioritized action steps, and how to measure improvement. Follow this checklist to improve site health, speed, crawlability, and indexability—so organic traffic can grow predictably.

Quick checklist (at a glance)

1. Set goals and scope
2. Crawl the site and analyze crawl data
3. Check indexing and sitemap
4. Evaluate robots.txt & HTTP status codes
5. Audit site architecture and internal linking
6. Assess on-page technical elements (meta, canonicals, hreflang)
7. Mobile and Core Web Vitals testing
8. Speed optimization and resource compression
9. Security, structured data, and redirects
10. Log file analysis and regular monitoring
11. Define goals, scope, and KPIs

Before you start:

12. Identify business goals: traffic, conversions, international visibility.
13. Scope: entire domain, subfolder, or group of pages.
14. KPIs: crawl errors, indexed pages, organic sessions, Core Web Vitals, page speed, conversion rate.

Document baseline metrics so you can measure progress after fixes.

15. Gather tools and data sources

Essential tools:

16. Site crawler: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or DeepCrawl
17. Google Search Console (GSC)
18. Google Analytics (GA4)
19. PageSpeed Insights / Lighthouse
20. Mobile-Friendly Test
21. WebPageTest.org
22. Bing Webmaster Tools
23. Log file analyzer: Screaming Frog Log File Analyser or custom scripts
24. Server access or CMS admin for fixes
25. Structured data testing: Rich Results Test, Schema.org validator
26. Run a full site crawl
27. Use a crawler to crawl the entire site (set user-agent to Googlebot for parity).
28. Export results for analysis (URLs, status codes, meta, canonical, hreflang, internal links, blocked resources).
29. Key crawl outputs: broken links, redirect chains, duplicate titles/descriptions, noindex pages, long URL paths.

What to look for:

30. 4xx and 5xx errors
31. Redirect chains and loops
32. Duplicate content (same title/meta/content)
33. Orphan pages (no internal links)
34. Excessive parameterized URLs
35. Check indexing and sitemap health

Google Search Console:

36. Coverage report: identify errors (not indexed, server errors, soft 404s).
37. Inspect representative URLs to see last crawl, indexing status, and any warnings.

XML sitemap:

38. Ensure you have an up-to-date sitemap.xml listing canonical URLs only.
39. Sitemap should be <50,000 URLs or compressed. Submit to GSC.
40. Verify that sitemap URLs return 200 and are not blocked by robots.txt or marked noindex.

Indexation checks:

41. site:yourdomain.com and “site:” queries are noisy—use GSC for accuracy.
42. Compare crawl output vs. indexed pages. Large discrepancies need investigation (e.g., heavy noindex, canonical pointing elsewhere, hreflang issues).
43. Audit robots.txt and crawl directives

Robots.txt:

44. Accessible at yourdomain.com/robots.txt and returns 200.
45. Confirm it doesn’t unintentionally block key resources like CSS/JS (which affects rendering).
46. Block only those areas you want excluded (staging, admin, private sections) and ensure staging is protected.

Meta robots and X-Robots-Tag:

47. Identify pages with noindex, nofollow, or HTTP X-Robots-Tag headers.
48. Ensure canonical tags align with indexation intent. Avoid self-referencing canonical mistakes.
49. HTTP status codes, redirects, and canonicalization

Status codes:

50. Fix 4xx client errors for important pages (301 to correct page or restore content).
51. Resolve 5xx server errors with hosting/dev team.

Redirect management:

52. Eliminate redirect chains—prefer single 301 from old URL to final URL.
53. Use 301 for permanent moves and 302 sparingly when temporary.
54. Avoid redirect loops and excessive redirects on key landing pages.

Canonical tags:

55. Use rel=”canonical” on duplicates to signal the preferred page.
56. Ensure canonical URLs are accessible (200) and not pointing to external domains or non-indexable pages.
57. Site structure, URLs, and internal linking

Site architecture:

58. Aim for a shallow structure: important pages reachable within 3 clicks of the homepage.
59. Use clear, descriptive URL structures: lowercase, hyphen-separated, no excessive parameters.

Internal linking:

60. Ensure important pages receive internal link equity (use contextual links).
61. Fix orphan pages by adding links from related content or navigation.
62. Use breadcrumb markup and a logical hierarchy that matches URL structure.

Anchor text:

63. Use concise, descriptive anchor text; avoid over-optimized exact-match anchors sitewide.
64. On-page technical elements

Titles and meta descriptions:

65. Identify missing, duplicate, or overly long/short titles and descriptions.
66. Optimize length: title ~50–60 characters, meta description ~120–160 characters (varies).

Headings and content rendering:

67. Ensure each page has a single H1 and proper H2/H3 structure for readability and semantics.
68. Confirm dynamic JS content is crawlable/rendered correctly (test with Fetch as Google / URL Inspection).

Images and alt attributes:

69. Use descriptive alt text; compress images and serve modern formats (WebP/AVIF) where possible.
70. Serve responsive images via srcset.

Canonicalization of pagination and faceted navigation:

71. Implement noindex or canonical patterns for infinite filter/sort combinations, or use parameter handling in GSC.
72. Mobile friendliness and Core Web Vitals

Mobile-first:

73. Verify responsive design and mobile usability report in GSC.
74. Fix mobile issues: viewport meta tag, font sizes, clickable element spacing.

Core Web Vitals:

75. Measure LCP, FID (or INP), and CLS using PageSpeed Insights, Search Console, and field data.
76. Prioritize fixes:
77. LCP: optimize server response time, critical CSS, image/video optimization, and preloading.
78. FID/INP: reduce main-thread blocking, code-splitting, and defer non-critical JS.
79. CLS: include width/height attributes or CSS aspect-ratio for images, reserve ad space, avoid inserting content above other content.
80. Page speed and resource optimization

Server-level improvements:

81. Use CDN, enable Brotli or Gzip compression, set proper caching headers (Cache-Control), and use HTTP/2 or HTTP/3.

Asset optimization:

82. Minify CSS/JS, combine where appropriate, remove unused CSS, defer or async non-critical JS.
83. Preload important fonts and LCP-critical resources.
84. Implement lazy-loading for below-the-fold images and videos.
85. Security, HTTPS, and mixed content

HTTPS:

86. Ensure full site HTTPS with valid SSL certificate and no mixed-content warnings.
87. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS with 301 redirects and update canonical and sitemap URLs.

Security headers:

88. Implement HSTS, X-Frame-Options, Content-Security-Policy to protect users and avoid penalties related to compromised content.
89. Structured data and rich results

Structured data:

90. Audit schema markup for core content types: Article, Product, Breadcrumb, FAQ, HowTo, Organization, LocalBusiness.
91. Use JSON-LD and test with Rich Results Test.

Common issues:

92. Incomplete or incorrect properties, duplicate markup, or mismatch between visible content and schema. Fix to increase eligibility for SERP features.
93. Internationalization and hreflang

Hreflang implementation:

94. For multilingual sites, ensure hreflang tags are consistent, point to canonical versions, and include self-referential tags.
95. Use x-default for default language pages.
96. Verify with GSC and testing tools to prevent indexing wrong-language pages.
97. Redirects, migrations, and canonical migration checklist

Before migration or major redesign:

98. Map current URLs to new URLs.
99. Implement 301 redirects for every changed URL.
100. Update internal links, sitemaps, and canonical tags.
101. Monitor GSC coverage and traffic closely after migration.
102. Log file analysis and crawl budget optimization

Log files:

103. Analyze bot behavior: crawling frequency, status codes, and resource requests.
104. Identify wasted crawl budget on low-value pages (session IDs, duplicate parameters, filter combinations).

Optimize crawl budget:

105. Block low-value pages via robots.txt or noindex.
106. Use sitemaps and internal linking to highlight important pages.
107. Improve server performance to allow more efficient crawling.
108. Monitoring, reporting, and prioritization

Prioritize fixes:

109. High priority: 5xx errors, redirect chains, mobile errors, indexability blocks, severe Core Web Vitals failures.
110. Medium priority: duplicate content, meta issues, crawl budget waste.
111. Low priority: minor meta adjustments, optional schema enhancements.

Reporting cadence:

112. Weekly during major fixes; monthly for ongoing monitoring.
113. Track KPI changes: index coverage, organic sessions, average position for key queries, Core Web Vitals.
114. Automation and recurring audits

Set up automation:

115. Schedule recurring crawls and GSC checks.
116. Use alerts from GSC and uptime monitoring.
117. Maintain an audit log and change tracker so fixes can be correlated with performance changes.

Internal and external link recommendations
Internal links:

118. Anchor text suggestion: “technical SEO audit checklist” → link to this guide; “improve site speed” → link to speed optimization post.
119. Use contextual linking from related blog posts and cornerstone content to important product or service pages.

External links:

120. Link to authoritative resources:
121. Google Search Central: https://developers.google.com/search
122. Web Vitals: https://web.dev/vitals/
123. Schema.org: https://schema.org/

Set external links to open in a new window (target=”_blank”) with rel=”noopener noreferrer”.

Schema markup recommendation
Provide basic JSON-LD for the article (Article schema) with fields: headline, author, datePublished, image, publisher. Add FAQPage schema for the FAQ section to improve chances of rich snippets.

Image alt text suggestions

124. Hero image: “person conducting technical SEO audit on laptop”
125. Core Web Vitals chart: “Core Web Vitals metrics LCP CLS INP example”
126. Sitemap screenshot: “XML sitemap sample in Google Search Console”

FAQ (for featured snippets)
Q: How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
A: Quarterly for most sites; monthly for large, frequently updated, or high-traffic sites and after significant site changes or migrations.

Q: Can technical SEO issues affect rankings immediately?
A: Some issues, like server errors or sitewide noindex, can cause immediate ranking loss. Performance and indexability improvements typically take time to be reflected in rankings.

Q: Do I need developer access to fix technical SEO problems?
A: Yes—collaboration with developers, DevOps, or your CMS admin is usually required to apply many fixes (redirects, server headers, speed optimizations).

Conclusion and next steps
A comprehensive technical SEO audit identifies blockers that prevent search engines from accurately crawling and indexing your site. Start by collecting baseline data, run a full crawl, prioritize critical fixes (indexability, mobile issues, server errors, and Core Web Vitals), and work closely with developers to implement changes. Automate monitoring and repeat audits to protect organic performance over time. Begin today: run a crawl, check GSC coverage, and address the top three high-impact issues you find. Consistent technical maintenance ensures your content and marketing efforts can convert the traffic you earn.

Call to action
If you’d like a downloadable audit checklist or a template to track fixes and outcomes, download the free technical SEO audit template (internal link: /resources/technical-seo-audit-template). For hands-on help, contact our SEO team for a site health review (internal link: /contact).

Published resources and further reading

127. Google Search Central (developers.google.com/search) — official crawling and indexing guidance.
128. web.dev Core Web Vitals (web.dev/vitals) — performance metrics and fixes.
129. Schema.org (schema.org) — structured data documentation.

Author note
This article was written by an SEO specialist with hands-on technical audit experience across e-commerce, SaaS, and enterprise sites. Implement the steps above in prioritized phases and monitor results to make iterative improvements.