What is a Technical SEO Audit?
A technical SEO audit helps you find problems on your website that stop search engines from reading and understanding your pages properly. But here’s the thing: just finding problems is only half the work. You also need to explain what these problems mean for YOUR specific website and which ones to fix first.
The Problem with Most Audits
Many technical SEO audits show you:
- Pretty graphics with scores
- Priority ratings
- Lists of numbers and limits
But here’s the issue: Reports that just give you scores and numbers are hard to understand. Do these numbers even matter for your website? That’s the real question.
What Should a Good Audit Do?
A good technical audit makes sure nothing stops search engines from:
- Crawling your site – visiting your pages
- Indexing your site – saving your pages in their database
You can use checklists and guides to help you. But you need real experience to know how to use these checklists for each different website.
The 3 Steps of a Good Audit
Step 1: Find Problems
Use tools and guides to spot possible issues.
Step 2: Make Sense of What You Found
Create a report that fits your specific website. The data needs to make sense for YOUR site, not just any website.
Step 3: Give Smart Advice
Make suggestions based on what your specific site needs.
Simple way to think about it:
- First, understand how your site works
- Then, find the problems
- Finally, give advice that actually helps
The Deeper Process
Here’s what you really need to do:
- Learn how your site works – What technology does it use? How is it built?
- Use your tools correctly – Find issues that actually affect your type of website.
- Group your findings by:
- How hard it is to fix
- How much difference the fix will make
- Talk to your team – Check with people who know your site and its technology. Make sure your ideas make sense to them.
What to Look For and What Tools to Use
Here are the main things to check:
1. Routing and Network Issues
What to check: How your website handles visitor requests.
Tools to use:
- Google Search Console – Crawl Stats Report – Shows how Google’s bots interact with your server
- Your hosting provider’s server logs
- Cloudflare Analytics if you use Cloudflare
2. HTTP Headers and Metadata
What to check: Technical information your server sends to search engines.
Tools to use:
- Chrome DevTools – Press F12 and go to Network tab
- Firefox Developer Tools – Press F12 and go to Network tab
- Redirect Path browser extension
- HTTP Header Checker websites
3. Redirect Chains or Loops
What to check: When one page redirects to another, then to another. Or when pages keep redirecting in circles.
Tools to use:
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider – Free for up to 500 URLs, finds redirect problems fast
- Sitebulb – Creates visual reports that are good for presentations
- Ahrefs Site Audit – Part of paid Ahrefs subscription
- Semrush Site Audit – Part of paid Semrush subscription
- Redirect Mapper browser extension
4. Canonicalization and Linking Issues
What to check: Problems with telling search engines which version of your page is the main one, and issues with links between your pages.
Tools to use:
- Screaming Frog – Shows canonical tags and internal links clearly
- Sitebulb – Creates visual link graphs
- DeepCrawl now called Lumar – Enterprise-level crawling
- Google Search Console – Shows which URLs Google chose as canonical
- Your browser’s “View Page Source” – Check canonical tags manually
5. Markup and Rendering Issues
What to check: Problems with your HTML code and how JavaScript displays your content.
Tools to use:
- Google’s Rich Results Test – Check structured data markup
- Schema Markup Validator – Verify schema.org markup
- Chrome DevTools – Press F12 and go to Elements tab to inspect HTML
- Mobile-Friendly Test – Check mobile rendering
- PageSpeed Insights – Shows rendering issues
6. HTTPS Certificates
What to check: Security certificate validity and configuration.
Tools to use:
- Your web browser – Click the padlock icon in the address bar
- SSL Labs Server Test – Detailed SSL/TLS analysis
- Why No Padlock
7. Indexing Status
What to check: Which pages Google has indexed and why some might not be indexed.
Tools to use:
- Google Search Console:
- Coverage Report
- URL Inspection Tool
- Sitemap Report
- Type “site:yourdomain.com” in Google search
8. Site Speed and Core Web Vitals
What to check: How fast your pages load and user experience metrics.
Tools to use:
- PageSpeed Insights – Google’s official speed tool
- GTmetrix – Detailed performance analysis
- WebPageTest – Advanced testing options
- Google Search Console – Core Web Vitals report
9. International Sites – Hreflang
What to check: Language and regional targeting setup. Only needed for multi-language sites.
Tools to use:
- Screaming Frog – Has hreflang validation built in
- Google Search Console – Shows hreflang errors
- Ahrefs Site Audit – Checks hreflang implementation
10. Mobile Usability
What to check: How your site works on phones and tablets.
Tools to use:
- Google Search Console – Mobile Usability report
- Mobile-Friendly Test
- Your web browser – Use mobile device simulation in DevTools
Important: Context Matters!
Not everything tools find is a real problem. Here’s an example:
The 404 Error Example
Normal situation: You have lots of 404 errors because you just deleted a bunch of old content. This is fine. It’s supposed to happen.
Problem situation: You suddenly have lots of 404 errors and you don’t know why. THIS needs investigation. You need to find out:
- Where are these errors coming from?
- How can we fix them?
The lesson: Tools find issues, but you need to understand if they’re actually problems for your site.
Every Site is Different
Example: International Websites
If your site has multiple languages, you need to check hreflang – the technical setup for language versions.
But if your site only has one language, checking hreflang doesn’t make sense. Don’t waste time on it.
The Most Important Rules
1. Don’t Trust Tools Completely
Tools are helpful, but don’t just do everything they say without thinking.
2. Make Sure Problems Are Real
Check that the issues you found actually matter for your specific website.
3. Put Things in Order of Importance
Spend time figuring out which fixes will help the most. Start with those.
4. Adjust Guidelines for Each Site
Checklists help you start, but you need experience to know how to change them for each different website.
Quick Summary
A good technical SEO audit needs you to:
- Understand how your site is built
- Check it with the right tools
- Think about what the problems really mean
- Explain what to fix and why it matters
Remember: The goal is not to find every possible issue. The goal is to find the issues that actually hurt your site’s performance and can realistically be fixed.
Note: This guide is based on content from Google Search Central. Tool recommendations include both tools specifically mentioned in the source and commonly used industry tools. Always verify that tools are still supported and up-to-date before using them in your audits.
