Technical SEO Audit Checklist
For SEOs, developers and site owners who need a repeatable audit of how search engines crawl and index a site. Run it before a redesign, after a traffic drop, or once or twice a year on a healthy site.
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- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Without a full crawl you are guessing which URLs exist, which are broken and which are blocked. Every later check builds on this data.
- How to check or fix it
- Run Screaming Frog or Sitebulb with JavaScript rendering enabled if the site needs it. Connect Search Console and a sitemap so orphaned URLs show up too.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- A stray noindex or a Disallow: / left from staging can remove a whole site from search results.
- How to check or fix it
- Open the Indexability tab in Screaming Frog and filter for Noindex and Blocked by Robots.txt. Compare the list with the pages you want ranked.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Google tells you directly why URLs are not indexed. Ignoring this report hides problems a crawler cannot see.
- How to check or fix it
- Open Indexing > Pages in Search Console. Group the reasons by volume and inspect sample URLs with the URL Inspection tool.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Broken pages waste crawl activity and send users to dead ends. Server errors can cause Google to slow crawling.
- How to check or fix it
- Filter the Response Codes tab for Client Error and Server Error. Fix internal links pointing at them, restore the page, or redirect to the closest match.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Chains slow users and bots, and loops make a page unreachable. Long-term 302s can delay consolidation of signals to the new URL.
- How to check or fix it
- Use the Redirect Chains report in Screaming Frog. Point each old URL straight to its final 301 destination and update internal links.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Wrong canonicals can make Google index the wrong version or drop a page. Mixed signals are treated as hints that may be ignored.
- How to check or fix it
- Check the Canonicals tab for missing, non-indexable and mismatched canonicals. Sitemap URLs should be indexable canonical versions.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Slow, unstable pages hurt users and are part of page experience. Template-level problems repeat across thousands of URLs.
- How to check or fix it
- Use the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights field data. Targets are LCP 2.5s or less, INP 200ms or less, CLS 0.1 or less.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Browsers warn on insecure pages, and mixed content breaks trust and sometimes functionality.
- How to check or fix it
- Check the padlock in Chrome, run an SSL test, and filter crawl results for HTTP resources on HTTPS pages. Redirect all HTTP URLs to HTTPS.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Pages buried deep or linked from nowhere get crawled less and tend to rank worse. Important pages should be close to the homepage.
- How to check or fix it
- Check the Crawl Depth column and compare crawled URLs against the sitemap and analytics to find orphans. Add contextual internal links to them.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Invalid markup makes pages ineligible for rich results and can trigger Search Console warnings.
- How to check or fix it
- Test a sample of each template in the Rich Results Test and review the Enhancements reports in Search Console.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Google uses mobile-first indexing, so content missing on mobile is effectively missing from the index.
- How to check or fix it
- Use the URL Inspection live test and view the rendered HTML and screenshot. Confirm the viewport meta tag and that content matches desktop.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- An audit with no ranked action list rarely gets fixed. Developers need clear tickets with examples.
- How to check or fix it
- List each issue with affected URL count, one example URL, the fix and a priority. Re-crawl after fixes to confirm.
Checklist complete. Re-run it after your next release or major change, and use the related lists below to keep going.
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Common questions
How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
A full audit once or twice a year suits most sites, with lighter monthly checks of Search Console. Run an extra one before and after a migration, redesign or platform change.
What tools do I need for a technical SEO audit?
Google Search Console and a crawler such as Screaming Frog or Sitebulb cover most of it. PageSpeed Insights and the Rich Results Test fill in speed and markup checks.