How to Conduct a Technical SEO Audit in 12 Simple Steps 

Key takeaways: 

  1. A technical SEO audit helps identify critical issues that can impact your website’s search rankings and user experience. 
  1. Regular SEO audits allow you to proactively stay ahead of search engine updates and improve your website’s overall performance. 
  1. By uncovering hidden technical problems in your website that negatively affect SEO, you can make improvements that drive better rankings. 

Is your website in good shape but still struggling to rank? The problem might not be your content—it could be technical issues lurking behind the scenes. Slow load times, broken links, crawl errors, and indexing problems can make search engines bypass your site, no matter how great the content. 

A technical SEO audit helps uncover these hidden issues and gives search engines exactly what they need to crawl, index, and rank your site properly. 

This guide will walk you through the steps to spot and fix SEO roadblocks, so your website runs smoothly and performs at its best. 

Let’s start with the first step—crawling your website to identify what’s holding it back. 

Step 1: Crawl your website to identify technical issues 

Before fixing anything, you need to know what’s wrong. A website crawl works like a search engine bot that scans your website for issues that affect search results like: 

  • Broken links 
  • Duplicate content 
  • Redirect loops 
  • Slow site speed 
  • Missing alt text 
  • Lacking mobile optimization 
  • Missing sitemaps 
  • Broken meta tags 

Using tools like Screaming Frog, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can run a full site crawl to identify problems such as error and status codes (401, 404 etc.), missing alt tags, duplicate pages, and indexing issues. Pay close attention to pages that aren’t being crawled properly, as this could mean search engines are missing important content. 

Once you have a list of issues, you can start making targeted fixes to improve your site’s performance. 

Step 2: Review your robots.txt file and sitemap 

After your initial crawl, make sure your robots.txt and sitemap are high up on your priority items in your audit. 

Your robots.txt is one of the most important files to check, as it alone can make or break your chances to show up in search engines. A simple mistake in your robots.txt file can block search engines from crawling your site, meaning your pages won’t show in Google search results at all. As part of your technical SEO audit, review this file carefully to ensure you’re not accidentally preventing important pages from being indexed. 

Another equally important factor is your XML sitemap. Make sure you submit your XML sitemap to search engines (e.g., to Google via Google Search Console, or to Bing via Bing Webmaster Tools) to help search engines understand your site’s structure clearly. 

This ensures search crawlers will: 

  • Find and index all your pages marked as allowed to be visible in search results 
  • Likely get the most up-to-date content on your pages 

Step 3: Check for HTTPS and secure website setup 

Search engines trust secure websites more, and so do visitors. Ensure your site uses HTTPS by installing an SSL certificate. Mixed content, where your page loads both secure (HTTPS) and insecure (HTTP) content, can trigger warnings and confuse search engines. 

To find these issues, use Google Search Console or browser developer tools. Fixing mixed content and properly configuring your SSL certificates are important for a technical SEO audit checklist. A secure website signals to search engine bots that your site is trustworthy. 

Step 4: Analyze site speed and improve load times 

Slow site speed frustrates users and negatively impacts search engine rankings. Google’s Core Web Vitals specifically measure factors that affect the user experience such as: 

  • Loading speed 
  • Interactivity 
  • Visual stability of website pages 

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix can quickly identify what’s slowing your site down. You can improve site speed by: 

  • Compressing images 
  • Enabling caching 
  • Simplifying code  

Optimizing your site’s speed enhances user experience and ensures your site ranks better with search engines. 

Step 5: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly 

Google prioritizes websites optimized for mobile devices, making mobile compatibility important for a technical SEO audit. Test your website using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and fix issues like touch elements being too small or content that’s difficult to read. 

Mobile optimization significantly affects Core Web Vitals scores, directly impacting your site’s performance and rankings. Ensuring mobile pages are accessible and user-friendly helps search engines rank your site higher. 

Broken links lead visitors and search engine bots to dead ends. Regularly identifying and fixing 404 errors, broken internal links, and redirect loops should be part of every technical SEO audit checklist. Tools like Google Search Console can help you easily spot these issues. 

For permanent URL changes, set up 301 redirects; use 302 redirects only for temporary URL changes. Maintaining a clear internal linking structure helps search engines easily crawl and index your content, boosting your site’s performance in search engine results pages. 

Step 7: Optimize your website structure for easy crawling 

Clear site architecture helps search engines crawl your website more effectively. Simplify your URL structure, keeping URLs short and logical. Avoid complex or random URL formats and ensure all the pages are reachable through clear internal links. 

Identify and fix orphaned pages by adding incoming internal links. Proper site structure supports search engines in crawling your site efficiently, improving your rankings and overall technical SEO. Conducting log file analysis can also reveal additional crawling issues, especially important when setting up a new site. 

Step 8: Add structured data to boost visibility 

In your technical SEO audit, don’t overlook structured data (also known as schema markup). This helps search engines quickly identify and display important details, like product information, FAQs, or articles, directly in search results. 

Structured data markup (schema markup) helps search engines understand your content quickly, displaying key information directly within search engine results pages. Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool can confirm you’ve set it up correctly. Properly structured data can help your site appear in featured results, FAQs, and rich snippets, making your pages more appealing in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Step 9: Optimize for mobile-first indexing and Core Web Vitals 

Google evaluates your website based on how it performs on mobile devices first. Your technical SEO audit should ensure your site is fully ready for mobile users, focusing especially on Core Web Vitals. It measures how quickly your pages load and their overall usability. 

Check your site’s mobile-friendliness and Core Web Vitals using Google Search Console. Optimizing these technical SEO audits boosts your rankings and ensures your site appeals to both mobile users and search engines. 

Your site’s backlinks — the external and internal links pointing to your pages — also matter. These directly influence how much search engines trust your site. During a technical SEO audit, tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush help you spot unhealthy or spammy backlinks that can harm your rankings. 

Evaluate incoming internal links and backlinks to your site for quality. You can identify toxic or spammy external backlinks using the SEO tools mentioned above.  While tools like Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush help you identify unwanted backlinks, disavowing them must be done manually using Google’s Disavow Links Tool in Search Console. Building quality backlinks  strengthens your SEO strategy and helps search engine crawlers recognize your site as reliable and authoritative. 

Step 11: Monitor errors using Google Search Console 

Google Search Console helps you identify SEO issues but doesn’t directly fix them. Regularly monitor crawl errors such as: 

  • Duplicate meta descriptions 
  • Duplicate title tags 
  • Indexing problems 
  • Internal linking opportunities 

Fixing these issues on your site ensures search engines effectively crawl and index your content. 

While Google Search Console shows what’s wrong, you’ll need to apply fixes directly on your site. It also helps identify opportunities to improve internal links by showing how Google discovers your pages. Addressing these issues ensures search engines can easily crawl and index your site, boosting rankings. 

Step 12: Perform a manual site review (final check) 

Finally, manually check for user experience issues, site navigation, relevant keyword usage, and content gaps. If you’re blogging, then you can also benefit from this comprehensive SEO checklist. This final step in your technical SEO audit ensures your website isn’t only optimized for search engines but also provides a strong experience for visitors. 

A final manual review ensures your website isn’t just optimized for search engines, but also for user-friendliness. You want a site that’s always ready to deliver results for your digital marketing efforts, especially SEO. 

Speed, security, and SEO — set your site up for success 

Noticed slow load times, a dip in rankings, or fewer visitors? Site speed and security play a bigger role in SEO than you might think. A technical SEO audit can uncover hidden issues affecting your site’s performance, Core Web Vitals, and search visibility. Fixing these problems helps search engines crawl your site more efficiently and keeps visitors engaged. 

Looking for a more solid foundation? Domain.com’s web hosting provides the speed and reliability your site needs, while SSL certificates help secure your site and build trust. If you’re ready to improve your site’s performance, now’s the time to take action. 

Technical SEO audit FAQs  

1. How many pages should I include in a technical SEO audit? 

A technical SEO audit should analyze all the pages on your website, not just the most important ones. Even low-priority pages can have technical issues like duplicate content, broken links, or missing meta descriptions that negatively impact SEO. You can identify orphaned pages, multiple canonical URLs, and indexing errors. A full site audit ensures that search engines understand your site structure and index all relevant content properly. 

2. How does structured data help search engines? 

Structured data markup helps search engine crawlers interpret and categorize your content better. By implementing schema markup, you make it easier for Google to display rich snippets in search results, improving click-through rates. This is especially useful for blog posts, eCommerce sites, and local businesses. If search engines struggle to understand your pages, you may miss out on enhanced visibility in the SERPs. A well-structured SEO audit checklist should include reviewing and validating structured data using an audit tool like Google’s Rich Results Test. 

3. What’s the role of Google Analytics in a technical SEO audit? 

Google Analytics provides valuable insights into your site’s performance, helping you identify technical issues that may be affecting traffic. By analyzing user behavior, you can detect problems like high bounce rates due to slow page speed or mobile pages that aren’t optimized. Combining Google Analytics with Google Search Console allows you to track indexing issues, review the effectiveness of internal links, and ensure that your SEO strategy is driving results. A well-rounded technical SEO audit checklist should always include performance-tracking tools to measure progress. 


Danica Ulbata
Danica Ulbata

Dani is a Senior Content Writer, specializing in crafting compelling, SEO-optimized content that aligns with brand goals and resonates with audiences. Passionate about translating brand stories into clear, effective messaging, Dani knows their copy is most impactful when it reflects a brand's core values and services. When not working, Dani enjoys watching documentaries or catching up on Try Guys videos.

Danica Ulbata
Danica Ulbata

Dani is a Senior Content Writer, specializing in crafting compelling, SEO-optimized content that aligns with brand goals and resonates with audiences. Passionate about translating brand stories into clear, effective messaging, Dani knows their copy is most impactful when it reflects a brand's core values and services. When not working, Dani enjoys watching documentaries or catching up on Try Guys videos.