12 Steps to a Successful Technical SEO Audit | Power Digital
by Camilo Valencia •
Content development and marketing teams can create dynamic web pages that engage users and encourage action. But they’ll only achieve results if users see those pages.
For that to happen, businesses need to employ technical SEO.
Technical SEO ensures search engines like Google rank web pages highly, allowing more users to find and interact with them. Seemingly simple technical SEO aspects such as site speed and mobile-friendliness can tank or skyrocket a page’s ranking.
Luckily, SEO specialists can effectively maintain their site’s health and visibility with a technical SEO audit. Better yet—with Power Digital’s guide, it only takes 12 steps.
What is a technical SEO audit?
If technical SEO ensures a website’s health, think of a technical SEO audit like the site’s annual doctor’s check-up.
Technical SEO audits evaluate and tune up essential SEO features of websites, including, but not limited to:
- Crawlability.
- Indexing.
- Site speed and performance.
- Core web vitals.
- Search engine rankings.
To keep a website performing optimally, SEO specialists must regularly audit their technical SEO. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, an audit keeps bugs and glitches at bay.
12 steps to a successful technical SEO audit
Take confident strides during a technical SEO audit by following these 12 key steps.
1. Crawl the website
Crawlability measures how easy it is for Google and other search engine bots to access and gather information from a website. Ensuring crawlers can do their job effectively will boost the site’s technical SEO. To check a site’s crawlability, SEO auditors can perform their own crawl.
Helpful tools that can perform complete crawls of websites include:
- Screaming Frog.
- Sitebulb.
These tools help identify crawlability issues such as broken links, duplicate content, incomplete metadata, and other crawl errors.
2. Check for indexing issues
Search engine bots crawl web pages in order to index them: analyzing and adding them to the roster of searchable pages. Improving crawlability will support easier indexing, but not all crawlable sites are inherently indexable.
Indexing issues are often caused by:
- Duplicate content.
- “Noindex” tags.
- Broken links.
- Unlinked “orphan” pages.
To check for indexing issues, go to the Google Search Console’s Page Indexing report. This report details which pages are and aren’t indexed and why.
Note that, most likely, not every page on a site will be indexed. But if the site’s indexability rate (the number of pages indexed by Google divided by the total number of pages) is under 90%, there’s likely an indexing issue at play.
3. Analyze URL structure and hierarchy
A website’s architecture also has a significant impact on its crawlability and indexability—not to mention, users’ ability to navigate it. To stabilize a site’s foundation, start by creating clear URL structures and hierarchies.
A quality URL structure will prioritize clarity, brevity, and keyword relevance. Divide pages into logical categories that are reflected clearly in the URL. To keep pages and URLs organized, use a flat and balanced site structure. This move eliminates other technical SEO no-nos like orphan pages.
4. Evaluate site speed and performance
Search engines and users alike prioritize site speed and performance. In fact, Google considers site speed when calculating search rankings, and according to Google’s data, users are 32% more likely to bounce from a page if it takes 3 seconds vs. 1 second to load.
Accurately test site speed with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Once the current speed is determined, auditors can pinpoint problem areas and potential fixes.
Identify and address common performance bottlenecks such as:
- Unoptimized images and videos.
- Excessive JavaScript.
- Browser caching issues.
When web pages perform well, they’ll perform better in search rankings, too.
5. Check for mobile-friendliness
More and more people now surf the web on mobile devices. This means having mobile-friendly web pages will satisfy both mobile users and search engines.
While Google retired their Mobile-Friendly Test in 2023, they recommend using Chrome Lighthouse to effectively evaluate mobile usability. Make sure to test for responsive design, proper font sizes, and touch-friendly navigation for mobile users.
6: Audit your XML sitemap
Search engine bots can easily crawl simple sites with robust external linking and comprehensive internal linking on their own. But to crawl larger websites with more complex media content, bots need a little more guidance.
For that, companies can submit an XML sitemap. This lays out a site’s overall structure and details important page and file information search engines need to efficiently crawl the site.
Regularly audit XML sitemaps by:
- Verifying that all critical pages are included in the map.
- Identifying and removing outdated or unnecessary pages from the map.
- Checking that the map was properly submitted to search engines.
7: Review robots.txt file
Crawlability is essential to technical SEO; however, limiting the crawlability of unimportant or private pages can benefit a site’s health. To prevent bots from crawling certain pages and overloading a site with traffic, there’s the robots.txt file. Sometimes, though, this file may block the wrong pages.
During a technical SEO audit, ensure the robots.txt file isn’t accidentally blocking crawlers from accessing pages that should be indexed. Check on robots.txt files using the Google Search Console’s robots.txt report. It details which files Google found, the most recent crawls, and any errors discovered.
8: Assess HTTPS implementation
Technical SEO optimizes websites for enhanced searchability and user experience. It also keeps websites locked down and secure. This is especially important when dealing with users’ personal details and other sensitive information.
The first step to protecting a site from threats is replacing HTTP URLs with HTTP Secure, or HTTPS.
Some redirection issues may occur when making this switch. During an SEO audit, be sure to:
- Crawl for mixed content errors and replace all instances of HTTP with HTTPS.
- Check SSL certificate validity with an SSL checker.
Search engines like Google use HTTPS and other privacy factors as ranking signals: Generally, the more secure a website is, the better it will perform in searches.
9. Identify and fix duplicate content
With larger websites, it’s easy to end up with duplicate or near-duplicate content hiding in overlooked nooks and crannies. Duplicates also manifest due to region variants, protocol variants, accidental demo versions, and more.
Root out duplicates efficiently by using tools like Siteliner or Copyscape.
To reduce risks of duplication, consider implementing canonical tags in pages’ URLs. These tags suggest to search engines like Google which page to index and rank out of present duplicates. Also, consider rewriting content to update pages and add more unique value to the site.
10. Check for broken links
A comprehensive website crawl will turn up any broken links that may exist on a site. Both internal and external broken links cause technical SEO issues that negatively impact search rankings and site navigation.
Once identified, replace or redirect broken links to maintain user experience and link equity. Also, take the opportunity to consolidate pages and remove redundant or obsolete links.
11. Audit structured data markup
According to Google, adding structured data to websites tangibly increases user visits, interactions, and time spent on pages. It helps search engines better understand a web page, benefitting crawling and indexing. Search engines also use structured data to display rich results—helpful page information that encourages users to click.
Use this checklist to ensure that search engines are reading the structured data markup correctly:
- Follow Google’s (or other search engines) general structured data guidelines.
- Only use supported structured data formats, including JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa.
- Make sure structured data is complete, relevant, specific, and properly located.
Google’s Rich Results Test and URL Inspection tool will show whether a page’s structured data follows all compliance guidelines.
12. Optimize Core Web Vitals
Another way Google checks whether a page runs smoothly is by measuring its Core Web Vitals. These include metrics such as:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Loading performance.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP) – Page responsiveness.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Visual stability.
Review Core Web Vitals using Google Search Console or Chrome Lighthouse. Then, optimize any poor metrics for better load time, interactivity, and stability.
Turning insights into action
A technical SEO audit helps identify issues with essential site functions that impact its search rankings and navigation quality. After taking these big steps to address technical SEO, it’s time to put findings to work and implement fixes.
To continue with the checkup analogy: Pick up any prescriptions needed and make the necessary lifestyle changes to maintain a healthy site.
Always prioritize remedying the most pressing errors before optimizing minor issues. And remember: Performing regular technical SEO audits will save time in the long run, allow for even greater improvements in site performance, and enable steady, predictable, exciting growth.
Build a strong foundation with technical SEO
Technical SEO contains the building blocks for any website’s success. Reinforce your foundation with help from Power Digital.
We’re an expert team with over a decade of experience in SEO consulting—and we have the track record to prove it. With Power Digital, you can grow your company 2.6 times faster than the industry average. How? With hard data, proprietary technology, and human expertise.
Add extra Power to your technical SEO strategy: Request a free SEO audit today.
Sources:
Screaming Frog. Screaming Frog SEO Spider. https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
Google Search Console Help. Page Indexing report. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203?hl=en
Search Engine Journal. 13 Steps To Boost Your Site’s Crawlability And Indexability. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/crawling-indexability-improve-presence-google-5-steps/167266/
Think with Google. Find out how you stack up to new industry benchmarks for mobile page speed. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/
Google Search Central. The role of page experience in creating helpful content. https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/04/page-experience-in-search#search-console-reports
Google Search Central. Learn about sitemaps. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview
Google Search Console Help. robots.txt report. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062598?hl=en
Google Search Central. What is canonicalization. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization
Google Search Central. Introduction to structured data markup in Google Search. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data
Google Search Central. General structured data guidelines. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies
Google Search Central. Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals