How To Do A Detailed Technical SEO Audit?

Even a beautifully designed website can underperform if technical issues prevent search engines from crawling, indexing, or understanding your pages.

If your website feels slow…

If your rankings keep dropping…

If your pages aren’t being indexed…

If AI Overviews are citing your competitors instead of you…

Then you're facing the problem almost every business eventually hits:

Your website is failing before your content even gets a chance.

This is where a technical SEO audit becomes critical.

Because in 2026, Google’s ranking systems, and increasingly, AI search engines like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Gemini, aren’t merely looking for “good content.”

They are evaluating load speed, crawl efficiency, code cleanliness, indexation health, JavaScript rendering, schema accuracy, internal linking logic, mobile UX, AI readability & structured answers, and entity recognition.

Let’s walk through the modern, enterprise-ready, 12-step practical guide on how to conduct a Technical SEO Audit the right way.

What is a Technical SEO Audit?

A technical SEO audit is the process of evaluating how effectively search engines—and AI engines—can crawl, render, understand, index, and rank your website.

It doesn’t look at “content quality.”

It looks at the systems underneath the content.

Think of it as assessing the infrastructure of your website.

It ensures your website is easily discoverable, fully indexable, and structured in a way that allows search engines to deliver your content to the right users.

A great analogy:

Content is the car. Technical SEO is the engine.

You can create all the content you want, but if the engine is broken, the car will never move.

For instance, if your site has broken internal links, slow-loading pages, or improperly implemented structured data, Google may have difficulty understanding your content, which can hurt rankings.

Essentially, it acts as a health check for your website, ensuring all technical aspects support your SEO strategy rather than hinder it. Want to know what else is important in an SEO audit? Read more.

Why Is Technical SEO Audit Important?

A technical SEO audit is vital for maintaining your website’s performance and search engine rankings. In 2025, three major shifts have happened:

1. Google’s Core Web Vitals are now direct ranking factors

Research by Google shows that improving LCP alone can improve conversions by up to 32%.

2. AI search engines reward sites with clean technical structures

ChatGPT and Perplexity prefer:

• Clear headings
• Logical answer structure
• Machine-readable HTML
• Proper schema

If your site loads with JS-rendering delays, AI models may not “see” your content.

3. Websites are getting heavier

The average webpage is now 2.3 MB (HTTPArchive). More size → more complexity → more breakpoints.

Technical SEO prevents silent revenue leaks.

4 Key reasons a technical SEO audit matters:

1. Improved Crawlability: Search engines must efficiently crawl your website to index content. A technical SEO audit uncovers barriers such as blocked pages or misconfigured robots.txt files.

2. Better Indexation: Ensures all important pages are discoverable and correctly indexed by search engines. Pages blocked from indexing fail to generate organic traffic.

2. Enhanced User Experience: Technical issues like slow-loading pages, broken links, or poor mobile usability create friction for users. Fixing these problems improves engagement and conversions.

Competitive Advantage: Regular audits help you stay ahead of competitors by maintaining optimal site health and ensuring best practices in SEO.

A technical SEO audit is particularly critical for large websites or e-commerce sites with hundreds of pages.

What are the Key Elements of a Technical SEO Audit?

A comprehensive technical SEO audit examines several core elements that affect a website’s search engine performance:

Crawlability and Indexation:

Determines if search engines can discover and index your pages effectively.

Site Speed and Core Web Vitals:

Measures page loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.

Mobile-Friendliness:

Ensures the site is fully responsive and performs well across devices.

URL Structure and Internal Linking:

Optimizes URLs for readability and ensures link equity flows effectively.

Security (HTTPS):

Verifies SSL certificates and secure connections.

Structured Data and Schema Markup:

Helps search engines understand content for rich results.

Sitemaps and Robots.txt Files:

Guide search engines to your important pages.

Server Response Codes and Redirects:

Identifies errors or redirect chains that disrupt crawling.

Broken Links and 404 Errors:

Detects dead links that impact user experience and SEO.

By auditing each of these elements, you can identify critical issues that affect rankings, page indexing, and overall website usability.

How to Conduct a Technical SEO Audit (12-Steps)

A technical SEO audit checklist is essential to ensure that no critical element is overlooked.

This will be the exact process used at top SEO agencies and in-house growth teams at enterprise-level companies.

Step 1: Crawl the Website

Crawling your website is the first and most critical step in a technical SEO audit. It allows you to simulate how search engines explore your site, identify hidden technical issues, and gather data on every page.

Without a crawl, you won’t know what errors or opportunities exist.

How do I start a technical SEO audit?

Begin by running a full crawl using tools like:

• Screaming Frog
• Sitebulb
• DeepCrawl
• JetOctopus
• Semrush Site Audit

These tools simulate search engine bots.

What you're looking for:

• Indexable vs non-indexable pages
• Crawl depth
• Redirects & response codes
• JavaScript rendering issues
• Duplicate content
• Thin content
• Pagination
• Orphan pages
• Canonical tag health

Export the crawl report and categorize issues by severity—critical errors, warnings, and minor issues.

Common issues uncovered in a crawl:

• Duplicate meta titles or descriptions are causing indexing confusion.
• Broken internal links are leading to 404 pages.
• Redirect loops that waste crawl budget.
• Orphan pages that are not linked internally.

Why it matters:

If pages cannot be crawled, they cannot be indexed or ranked. A crawl gives a complete map of your website’s health, making it easier to prioritize fixes.

Tips and tools:

• For large sites, crawl sections individually to avoid overload.
• Screaming Frog allows custom filters to focus on specific issues.

Example: A DevOps SaaS we worked with had 6,000 doc pages. But 3,800 were orphan pages, with no internal links. Fixing the IA increased impressions by 162% in 60 days.

Visual Suggestion: Screaming Frog crawl report highlighting errors and warnings.

Step 2: Diagnose Indexation & Coverage Issues

Once the crawl is complete, you need to ensure that search engines can access and index your content properly.

Indexation is fundamental because if your pages aren’t indexed, they cannot appear in search results.

How do I check if my website is properly indexed?

Use Google Search Console → Pages to evaluate:

Look at:

• Crawled – currently not indexed
• Discovered – not indexed
• Soft 404s
• Duplicate pages
• Blocked by robots.txt
• Canonical issues

How to do it:

• Use Google Search Console (GSC) to view the Coverage report and check which pages are indexed, excluded, or blocked.
• Perform a site:yourdomain.com search in Google to cross-check visibility.
• Review your robots.txt file and meta robots tags to ensure you’re not blocking important pages.

What to fix:

• Remove or canonicalize junk pages
• Fix any patterns that produce duplicate URLs
• Ensure your core pages ARE indexed
• Stop unnecessary URLs (filters, parameters) from indexing

Why it matters:

Even a technically perfect site won’t rank if search engines can’t access its pages. Ensuring proper indexation ensures all your valuable content can appear in search results.

Tools to use:

• GSC Index Coverage Report
• Ahrefs Site Audit
• Screaming Frog for page-level crawlability analysis

Example: A telehealth platform found 900+ thin “location pages” that Google ignored. We consolidated and redesigned UX → +78% organic bookings.

Step 3: Audit Site Speed and Core Web Vitals

Page speed is a critical ranking factor, and slow-loading pages hurt both user experience and SEO.

But how does site speed impact SEO exactly? Google’s own research: 53% of users abandon websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load.

Core Web Vitals you must evaluate:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): < 2.5 seconds
• FCP (First Contentful Paint): < 1.8 seconds
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): < 0.1

How to do it:

• Use Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, GTmetrix, or WebPageTest to analyze load times.
• Identify bottlenecks such as oversized images, unoptimized CSS/JS, and slow server response times.
• Test across devices to ensure speed is optimized for both desktop and mobile users.

Common fixes:

• Compress images
• Use next-gen formats (WebP/AVIF)
• Reduce JS execution
• Implement lazy loading
• Preload key assets
• Upgrade hosting infrastructure
• Use CDNs (Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai)

Why it matters:

Slow websites frustrate users, increase bounce rates, and reduce conversions. Google prioritizes faster websites in search rankings, making speed optimization essential.

Example: A lending platform (Fintech) improved INP from 480ms → 120ms. Conversion rate doubled.

Visual Suggestion: Core Web Vitals report (Take SS from Page Speed Insights) with highlighted LCP, FID, and CLS scores.

Step 4: Mobile-First & UX Diagnostics

Mobile controls 65% of search. With mobile-first indexing, Google evaluates your mobile site primarily for rankings.

A poor mobile experience can negatively impact SEO and user engagement.

How do I check mobile SEO health?

• Test pages with Google Mobile-Friendly Test and review the Mobile Usability report in GSC.
• Check responsive design, font readability, clickable element spacing, and viewport configuration.
• Perform manual testing on multiple devices to ensure proper scaling and accessibility.

Fix common issues:

• Increase font size and button spacing for easier interaction.
• Ensure no horizontal scrolling occurs due to improperly scaled content.
• Optimize images and scripts specifically for mobile loading speed.

Why it matters:

A website that performs poorly on mobile loses visibility, engagement, and conversions.

Step 5: Check HTTPS and Security

Does HTTPS affect SEO? Yes. Google confirmed HTTPS is a ranking signal.

Secure websites are trusted by both users and search engines. HTTPS is a ranking factor, and any mixed content or SSL errors can harm SEO.

How to do it:

• Verify all pages redirect from HTTP to HTTPS.
• Check for mixed content warnings, where some resources are served via HTTP.
• Confirm SSL certificate validity and expiration.

Fix common issues:

• Install or renew SSL certificates.
• Force HTTPS with 301 redirects.
• Update internal links, canonical tags, and sitemap URLs to HTTPS.

Why it matters:

Non-HTTPS sites lose up to 50% of potential clicks due to browser warnings.

A secure site not only boosts SEO but also protects user data, builds trust, and prevents browser warnings that reduce engagement.

Step 6: Technical URL Structure Audit

A clean URL structure improves crawlability, indexation, and user navigation.

What is the best URL structure for SEO?

Website URLs should:

• Be readable
• Use hyphens
• Contain relevant keywords
• Avoid long parameters
• Stay consistent

Bad: /product?id=12394&ref=homepage_banner&user=56

Good: /product/remote-hiring-software

Fix common issues:

• Shorten URLs and include primary keywords naturally.
• Consolidate duplicate URLs and remove unnecessary query parameters.

Why it matters:

Well-structured URLs enhance crawl efficiency and make it easier for both users and search engines to navigate your site.

Visual Suggestion: Diagram showing internal linking hierarchy with optimized URLs.

Step 7: Structured Data & Schema Markup Audit

This is very critical for AI visibility. Structured data helps search engines understand content, making your pages eligible for rich results like FAQs, reviews, or product details.

Essential schemas:

• Organization
• Breadcrumb
• FAQ
• HowTo
• Article
• Product
• MedicalEntity (healthcare)
• FinancialService (fintech)
• SoftwareApplication (SaaS)

How to do it:

• Use Google Rich Results Test or Schema.org validator.
• Check for missing fields, syntax errors, or misaligned markup.
• Ensure schema matches visible content on the page.

Fix common issues:

• Correct JSON-LD errors.
• Remove duplicate or conflicting markup.
• Add missing fields to improve rich result eligibility.

Why is schema important for SEO? Schema helps Google and AI models understand your content, not just read it. Structured data can improve click-through rates, search appearance, and visibility in SERPs, giving you a competitive advantage.

Example: For a diagnostic provider, we added MedicalEntity schema and found that organic impressions grew 42% in 90 days.

Step 8: Identify Broken Links and 404 Errors

Broken links disrupt user experience, reduce engagement, and waste crawl budget.

How to do it:

• Crawl the site to detect 404 errors and broken links.
• Check both internal and external links for validity.
• Use the GSC Coverage Report to track errors affecting indexed pages.

Fix common issues:

• Implement 301 redirects for removed or broken pages.
• Update outdated external links.
• Remove irrelevant links that no longer exist.

Why it matters:

Broken links signal poor site maintenance to search engines and frustrate visitors, reducing trust and conversions.

Visual Suggestion: Table listing broken links with suggested fixes.

Step 9: Audit XML Sitemap and Robots.txt

Sitemaps and robots.txt files guide search engines to important pages. Errors here can prevent proper indexing.

How to do it:

• Ensure XML sitemap includes canonical URLs and all relevant pages.
• Verify robots.txt doesn’t block essential content.
• Submit the sitemap to GSC and check for crawl errors.

XML Sitemap Checklist:

• Only indexable URLs
• No redirects
• No 404s
• Updated automatically
• Submitted to search engines

Ensure you are not accidentally blocking critical paths.

Check for: Disallow: /

or accidental: Disallow: /wp-admin/

Fix common issues:

• Update sitemap with new pages and remove outdated URLs.
• Correct robots.txt rules blocking important pages.
• Resubmit the sitemap to GSC after modifications.

Why it matters: A properly configured sitemap and robots.txt ensure search engines efficiently discover and index your site’s content.

Step 10: Monitor Server Response Codes and Redirects

Server errors and improper redirects affect crawling and indexing.

How to do it:

• Check for 4xx and 5xx errors using crawling tools.
• Identify 301, 302, and meta refresh redirects, ensuring proper implementation.
• Detect redirect chains or loops that waste crawl budget.

Fix common issues:

• Implement correct 301 redirects for moved pages.
• Fix server errors in collaboration with your hosting provider.
• Simplify redirect chains to maintain link equity.

Why it matters:

Proper server configuration ensures search engines can crawl and index pages efficiently, avoiding errors that harm rankings.

Visual Suggestion: Table showing server response codes, redirect types, and fixes.

Step 11: Internal Linking & Crawl Depth Audit

Internal linking is one of the most powerful yet under-utilized SEO levers you control 100%.

Why internal linking matters so much for SEO?

• Authority (PageRank) Flow
• Crawl Budget Optimization
• User Experience & Behavioral Signals
• Topical Authority & Semantic SEO
• Crawl Depth Control

Key Metrics to Internal Linking Audit

How to Fix the Most Common Internal Linking Issues

Why it matters?

Most sites leave 20–50% of their potential authority on the table because of poor internal linking.

A single focused internal linking audit and fix sprint can deliver results that rival months of link building – and you control it completely.

Step 12: AI Search & LLM Compatibility Audit

How do I check if my website works well with AI search engines?

AI Overviews Checklist:

• Clear section headings
• Short declarative answers
• Step-by-step structures
• Definitions
• Strong topical authority
• Structured lists
• High-authority citations

What does the AI Audit include:

• Do you have AI-friendly summaries?
• Are your content blocks concise and structured?
• Do headings match user-intent queries?
• Do you provide direct answers?
• Does your site use schema?
• Are your brand mentions present across the web?

This blog is structured using those principles.

Conclusion

Most brands only run a technical audit when rankings crash.

Smart brands do it before scaling content, before launching ads, before redesigns.

A technical SEO audit reveals revenue leaks, visibility blockages, crawl failures, UX bottlenecks, performance regressions, indexation gaps, and AI visibility blind spots

Without it, you're guessing.

With it, you're optimizing.

Result? Your website becomes faster, easier to crawl, easier to understand, more authoritative, and more visible in both Google & AI.

A technical SEO audit is foundational to your website’s search engine success.