How to Do a Technical SEO Audit

What a technical SEO audit actually checks

A technical audit is not a content or backlink review — it's a diagnostic of whether search engines can efficiently crawl, render, and index your site, and whether the pages that get indexed are fast and structured enough to rank. Skipping it before investing in content or links is like decorating a house with a cracked foundation.

Step 1: Crawl the site

Run a full crawl with a tool like Screaming Frog, configured to crawl as Googlebot (both desktop and mobile). Pull:

• Status codes (3xx, 4xx, 5xx) across all internal links
• Redirect chains and loops
• Duplicate title tags, meta descriptions, and H1s
• Thin or near-empty pages
• Crawl depth — how many clicks from the homepage each page sits at

Step 2: Check indexation and coverage

In Google Search Console's Page Indexing report, compare indexed vs. excluded pages. Pay close attention to:

• "Crawled — currently not indexed" — often a sign of thin or duplicate content
• "Discovered — currently not indexed" — frequently a crawl-budget or internal-linking problem
• Whether your XML sitemap only lists canonical, indexable URLs — sitemaps padded with redirects or noindex pages waste crawl budget and erode trust signals

Step 3: Audit Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure real-world loading and interaction experience. Check field data (CrUX, via PageSpeed Insights) rather than lab data alone, since lab scores can look fine while real users have a slow experience.

Common fixes: reserving space for images/ads to cut CLS, deferring non-critical JavaScript to improve INP, and optimizing the LCP element specifically (often a hero image or heading) rather than the page broadly.

Step 4: Review site architecture and internal linking

Map crawl depth against page importance — priority pages buried five clicks from the homepage are a common, fixable cause of underperformance. Identify orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them) and cannibalizing pages that compete for the same query, as covered in the e-commerce internal linking case study.

Step 5: Validate structured data

Run key templates through Google's Rich Results Test and check for schema errors or missing required fields. Prioritize schema for your actual content types — Product and Review for e-commerce, Article for blog content, LocalBusiness for physical locations.

Step 6: Check duplicate content and canonicalization

Faceted navigation, URL parameters, and print/AMP versions frequently create unintended duplicate content. Confirm canonical tags point to the correct preferred URL, and that parameter-driven duplicates aren't competing with the canonical version in the index.

Step 7: Mobile usability and HTTPS

Confirm the site passes mobile usability checks in Search Console and that HTTPS is enforced sitewide with no mixed-content warnings — both are baseline trust and ranking factors.

Prioritizing what you find

A technical audit routinely surfaces dozens of issues. Rank them by estimated traffic or revenue impact against effort to fix — a broken canonical on your top revenue-driving category page outranks a duplicate meta description on a low-traffic archive page, even if both show up as "errors."

Common mistakes

• Fixing whatever's easiest first, instead of what matters most
• Relying only on lab performance data, missing real-user (field) data
• Auditing once and never re-checking after a migration or major site change

For the exact process used on a live migration — including how redirect issues were caught and fixed within a day — see the wine e-commerce SEO case study, or explore the full Technical SEO Audit service.

FAQ

How long does a technical SEO audit take?

For most small-to-mid-sized sites, plan for 1–2 weeks from kickoff to a delivered, prioritized report. Larger e-commerce catalogs or sites with log-file analysis can take longer.

What tools do I need for a technical SEO audit?

At minimum: a crawler (Screaming Frog), Google Search Console, and a Core Web Vitals tool (PageSpeed Insights or Chrome DevTools Lighthouse). Ahrefs or Semrush add backlink and keyword-gap context.

Can I do a technical SEO audit myself?

Yes, for a small site with basic tooling knowledge. The hard part isn't running the crawl — it's correctly prioritizing dozens of findings by actual revenue and traffic impact, which is where experience matters most.