Technical SEO Audit Service

This ties in with the full Google position summary. I can provide a comprehensive overview of keyword performance looking at core keywords and long tail keyword performance as part of your site’s SEO.

Understanding where keyword impressions exist can help to highlight important pages as well as identifying opportunities for quick ranking wins.

 

Site crawl health check

 

A site crawl health check will highlight all issues encountered when crawling a website. Generally, a site crawl will show all internal website re-direction, HTTP status codes, pages blocked by tags (noindex, nofollow), pages that are canonicalised and more.

Crawling tools will generally highlight other things such as:

• URL / URL PATH / URL DEPTH
• Page Title, Title Length, Characters
• Meta description, description length and character count
• Header tags (First H1, First H2, First H3 etc)
• HTTP Status codes (HTTP 200 OK, HTTP 301 PERMANENT RE-DIRECT, HTTP 302 TEMPORARY RE-DIRECT ETC.)
• UTF / ANSI ENCODING
• Canonical Tag Path
• Crawl Directives
• Page Size (Raw HTML) and total page size
• Known internal links
• Known external links

 

Generally, most people will use tools such as Screaming Frog SEO spider, Deep Crawl, Jet Octopus, SEMRUSH or AHREFS to conduct website crawls. Each website seo tool will offer their own variants of crawl data.

Google search console is also one of the best tools to access website crawl data as you can use the URL coverage tools to see a variety of warnings including:

• Not found (404)
• Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag / no index tag
• Alternative page with proper canonical tag
• Page with redirect
• Crawled – currently not indexed
• Blocked by robots.txt
• Duplicate, submitted URL not selected as canonical
• Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user
• Soft 404

 

This part of an audit is critical, because, how a website performs organically is somewhat dictated by how much of it is indexed correctly. Errors such as 404 are bad for user expereince, pages blocked by noindex tag are omitted from Google search results, canonical tags instruct google to associate 1 page with another and so on.

Technical SEO audits should always include a full website crawl summary with an actionable list of issues to clear things such as:

• Broken links – having lots of broken links internally is bad for SEO in that link equity might not be distributed properly between pages, as well as it being something that can frustrate end users

 

• Pages that are incorrectly blocked – this happens, millions of websites across the web often have incorrect tag settings that means pages are blocked from Google unintentionally, it’s not unheard of for complete websites to be blocked from Google by accident

 

• Internal URL re-direction, again, for best practice websites should avoid using internal re-direction both 301 (permanent) and 302 (temporary), re-directs that stack up over time can get messy and do not form part of best practice

 

• Duplicate pages and duplicate content – bad for SEO, it is confusing for Google and search engines, sometimes if the wrong variant of a page sharing similar content is indexed, it can cause average positons for keywords to fall

 

 

Page rendering health check including mobile-friendly render checking

 

Page rendering refers to how a page looks to different user agents when data is requested. Page rendering shows how a user agent would see the page – this is especially for search engines and crawlers such as Googlebot.

Page rendering can show whether or not a page can be properly loaded and whether all the resources for that page are accessible – this will generally have an impact on whether or not a page is mobile-friendly.

Page rendering also plays a part in Google’s core web vitals.

In a technical SEO audit, page rendering will use Google’s URL inspection tools and mobile-friendly testing tools to make sure all resources can be loaded.

 

Site index & URL coverage health check

 

Technical SEO auditing will also include a summary of a website’s index in search engines such as Google Search and Bing Search. An index check can be used to find anomalies such as stray URLS, indexed staging sub domains, media URLS and other things that are best being kept out of the search index.

Pages indexed will be checked as part of the technical SEO audit process.

A coverage check will make sure there are no other issues related to site index. A cross check of URLs reported vs google search console data will be undertaken to look for omitted results which may also impact other SEO factors relating to index bloat or “unwanted content”.

As part of an SEO audit, there will be checks for spam and other unwanted content. Technical SEO audits can reveal whether a website has injected malware, hidden content, comment spam and other elements that can have a negative impact on SEO.

 

Navigation review

 

Inside a technical SEO audit there will be a review of a website’s navigation. Fundamentally, navigation shapes a big part of user journey and can also impact on how pages on your website are crawled and indexed.

An SEO audit will always include “best practice” elements, navigation being a prominent one as navigation alone can make a big difference to how a website performs in organic search.

Niche, search intent, and a plethora of other factors will dictate what navigation structure should be applied. For example eCommerce websites will generally have larger more complex navigation whereas small business service websites may have much simpler navigation.

A Technical SEO audit will highlight the optimum navigation configuration for a site including pillar pages, URL layering, and use of anchor text. Most website navigations should be set up in such a way that it meets end-user needs, most people will want an optimised navigation that reduces the number of clicks required to access useful content be it product content, service content or general information.

 

 

Page cache and crawl budget review

 

Another important element in any technical SEO audit is a review of the websites cached pages and how crawl budget is being used. Page caching is a good indicator of page value and caching frequency can be an indicator to whether or not a page needs more frequent content updates.

Page caching can also highlight anomalies in page rendering.

Crawl budget reviews tend to only be applicable to larger website with 1000s of pages.

Crawl budget refers to the amount of data Google or search engines are likely to download in any one crawl. Crawl budget is important as sites with large content driven pages can suffer from slower indexing.

Legacy google search console data shows pages downloaded per day / amount of data downloaded per day.

 

Technical checks including a code review, tag checks

 

Technical checks will form an important part of a technical seo audit. Code analysis and tag checking will help to isolate any issues that may impact website crawling and rendering. In general an SEO audit will highlight any pages where code may be broken or where html tags may not be closed properly leading to malformed pages or unwanted data in Google search.

Code reviews and tag checks are also useful for highlighting potential exploits or security issues which may make a website more vulnerable.

 

Tag checks including Google Analytics, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager

 

Tag checks can also refer to “tracking” tags or injection based tags such as Google Tag Manager. Properly configured tracking tags are essential not just from an SEO audit perspective, but also for a reporting perspective.

In a technical SEO audit, I’ll generally run a tag debugging session where I’ll look to make sure all tag implementation is correct and that all data being collected and reported is correct.

Some of the tags checked include:

• Google tag manager
• Google analytics (standard implementation / UA4 implementation)
• Standard GTAG
• Google Optimise
• Google ads / conversion tracking

 

I can and usually will also debug any other tracking being used by other third party platforms including Adobe Analytics.

 

Blocked resources, elements and media files summary

 

Within a technical seo audit of a website, it’s important to make sure the right things are blocked, equally, it’s important to make sure the right things are also accessible and not blocked. On many websites, there will undoubtedly be files and resource that do not need to be indexed or crawled.

The blocking configuration will be unique to each website and many websites running CMS (content management systems) will have files/folders that need to be excluded by default. During an SEO audit there will be an assessment of website architecture, this will include content / files and media that should and should not be indexed.

Ensuring the correct content is excluded by robots.txt and making sure media based content is accessible is important for maintaining a healthy website index.

 

Website URL integrity checks (HTTP / HTTPS / WWW / NON WWW)

 

In Google and in most search engines, URL consistency is important for preventing canonical and cannibalisation issues. Inconsistent URLS can mean things like both non WWW and WWW URLS showing up in Google searches, it can also involve both secure (HTTPS) and non secure (HTTP) URLS being picked up which again, is bad for SEO.

Within a technical SEO audit it’s important to cover URL consistency as mixed URLS in Google search can create issues with cross-competing pages. Inconsistent URLS create issues relating to duplicate content, cannibalisation and can also wreak havoc with google analytics data.

Client sites should maintain clean and consistent URL paths as part of good on page seo.

Incorrect URLS can also end up in autogenerated XML sitemap files thus exacerbating index issues.

 

Index bloat & weak content checks

 

Index bloat refers to pages within a website which offer very limited or no value. With more webmasters / site owners and content writers churning out content, there has never been a more important to keep on top of your websites content profile.

Index bloat occurs when pages within the domain generate no clicks and have poor impression performance, this means that pages not only do not appear for many queries or prominently, but also that they paint a negative picture of the website they reside in.

Index bloat and weak content also increase the likelihood of duplicate content occuring. Some people address these issues by applying a no index tag, but, for many this isn’t enough.

 

Duplicate content & copyscape checks

 

Most seo site audit tools skip over duplicate content or, they’ll highlight similar pages at best – but, won’t get down to the true duplicate content view that can be mined out of Google Search Console. Within the technical seo audit, there will be checks across the domain to isolate examples of duplicate content along with recommendations to remedy.

Whilst Google has gotten much smarter when dealing with duplicate content, it can and likely will impede average position performance – which, is never good for any seo strategy.

Copyscape checks are also a key part of technical SEO as it is imperative to check that your website’s content isn’t mined from somewhere else, or, isn’t being used by another third party.

 

Internal linking checks

 

A highly valuable but commonly overlooked SEO tactic, internal links are key to any SEO strategy and as such, form a key part of the technical SEO audit. Internal links help to improve user journey by making it easier to access other content within a website.

As long as contextual internal linking is done properly it can also boost SEO performance as well as improving user experience.

Within the technical SEO audit, there will be a full website check to evaluate average internal link counts, anchor text use and to identify whether there are any orphan pages within the domain.

Internal links also support link profile efforts externally – better internal linking provides a better distribution of link equity across pages within your website.

Internal linking can also be updated to weed out broken links & crawl errors between web pages on your website.

 

Cannibalisation and canonicalisation checks

 

Cannibalisation and canonicalisation checks refer to 2 very different tags, but both of high importance. Cannibalisation refers to the issue of 2 or more URLS within a website competing for the same keywords. Cannibalisation causes issues because it makes it more difficult for Google and other search engines to understand WHICH page to return – this can lower the average position for target keywords thus having a negative impact on a websites keyword positions in a search engine.

Canonicalisation refers to the process of using a tag to tell Google that a page should be “consolidated” or “given parent status” – canonicalisation allows 2 or more similar pages to remain active within a website – the canonical tag TELLS Google which page is the master page and that page will then likely rank.

Canonical tags are a “directive” meaning that they are not arbritary but guidance for google and search engine alike.

Tools like screaming frog SEO spider and Deep Crawl can highlight canonical tag usage.

 

ROBOTS.txt file checks

 

No technical SEO audit would be complete without a check to make sure the robots.txt is configured properly. Many SEO campaigns omit regular robots.txt checks when in reality, robots.txt is a great way to limit the crawl and indexing of sensitive content as well as content that should be excluded for security reasons.

Within the audit I can make sure that all entries are correct and that Google ignores content that shouldn’t be indexed whilst having sufficient permissions to access media used for page rendering.

Outside of an SEO audit, it’s important to regularly take a look at robots.txt to ensure there is no instance of site wide content blocking.

 

Page header tag and content affinity checks i.e. H1 TAGS, H2 TAGS ETC.

 

Perhaps one of the older “SEO” factors – header tags have been around a long time as has their relevance for SEO. Making sure primary keywords/terms exist within a H1 is still basic SEO with some weight, but, as Google has evolved & now has a much better understanding of content (Google BERT), header tag usage should be constructed in such a way that the content is broken down into topical entities.

During a technical SEO audit, a full header tag evaluation will take place to look at how header tags are used within the site, if they follow a basic step down the process with PARENT TOPIC, CHILD TOPIC (with the respective H1 tags / H2 tags / H3 tags / H4 tags etc. tag usage).

Content affinity checks look at the relationship between a heading and the following paragraphs of content / media

 

Title and meta description checks

 

Within the technical seo audit there will be a site wide export of URLS with the respective title and meta descriptions to look for all the usual issues relating to

• Excessively short titles
• Excessively long titles
• Short Meta Descriptions
• Excessively long meta descriptions
• Abnormal character formatting

 

We’ll also be looking at CTR and truncation.

In more than 70% of cases, Google can and does rewrite meta descriptions, or, excepts are taken from page content and shown instead of pre-set meta data.

Meta is refined for the target audience to improve user experience.

 

CTR evaluation

 

A valuable process for SEO yet, something often omitted from most technical SEO audit processes. CTR or click through rate is the % calculation of the number of clicks that originated from a share of impressions.

Click through rate can be an indicator of title and description quality and is something that should be optimised over time with experimentation.

A technical SEO audit will take into consideration keywords currently on page 1, top 10, top 5, top 3 and will look at average CTR rates over time. Again, another weighted SEO factor, CTR is something that should be present in every SEO audit.

Minor improvements to CTR can make a significant difference to clicks as well as increasing average positions.

 

Page indexability &resource accessibility

 

Page indexability refers to “how easy it is for search engines to actually index content on a website”. Whilst it might seem like an insignificant part of any technical SEO audit it’s actually very important, especially for larger content-driven websites.

Resource accessibility is important because it looks at how Google can pull in required resources such as JS (javascript), CSS (cascading style sheets) etc. when crawling a site.

Page indexability will look at things such as orphaned pages – which can occur in large websites with a disorganised internal linking configuration or when pages are only accessible via an xml sitemap.

 

Internal links and external links check

 

Internal link and external link checks look at the relationships between various link types. Internal links (contextual) help people to navigate between internal pages, it also bolsters how search engines treat content.

Within a technical SEO audit an overview of pages by link count is provided, highlighting pages that have poor internal link counts as well as pages that have excessive internal link references (outside of navigation links).

 

Speed and performance checks using Think with Google / Pagespeed Insights

 

Unlike beginner elements of an SEO audit, speed and performance checks can get a little more complex, especially when things such as FCP (first contentful paint), CLS (cumulative layout shift) and LCP (last contentful paint) are thrown around.

Speed and performance checks involve looking at a page on your site and testing site speed – pagespeed insights provides a page-level overview whereas think with google’s test my site feature gives a hollistic view of mobile speed across the entire website.

Site speed is becoming more and more important and is a common feature within most technical SEO audit documents. Google search console now has core web vitals included so you are able to see performance by device as well as how many pages are considered slow, fair or good.

For the May 2021 core update, it’s important for website owners to make sure their technical SEO is up to shape, including improvements to page speed as well as core web vitals. SEO performance can be further boosted by addressing speed.

Within the technical SEO audit – will be a section that breaks down first contentful paint, last contentful paint, cumulative layout shift and render blocking.

Google and search engines alike are expecting website owners to make their websites fast, quicker, easier to interact with – not having to wait to put it simply.

 

Core Web Vitals report

 

Core web vitals is connected with page speed, but, the concept is slightly different in that core web vitals takes into consideration how quickly a page loads and how quickly users can interact with it. Google knows that improving page speed by consolidating and deferring scripts can cause layouts to shift or time to interact to deteriorate.

Core web vitals looks at how quickly a user can interact with a page and whether or not their user experience is impacted during a page load – the most common of these being CLS (cumulative layout shift) which happens when scripts load after content causing the pages content to “shift” – which, is annoying and considered poor for user experience.

Within the seo audit, a check of the websites core vitals is taken as well as a waterfall evaluation from Google Chrome Developer Tools.

 

Best Practices Overview

 

Within the technical SEO audit will be a best practices overview to see how well your site / client site conforms to key SEO factors. Using a traffic light system to highlight priority SEO factors over lower value factors – it’ll be easy to see what factors are weighted against the current version of your site and what can be done to find and fix everything.

An audit checklist is provided to give a summary view of all the factors evaluated (as well as any skipped).

From crawl errors to content marketing, from broken links to google analytics configurations – nothing is left unturned during the audit.

 

Development and coding feedback

 

There will be a section that takes a look at general coding composition as well as development feedback for security, custom web functionality, single page applications, javascript functionality such as dynamic javascript content & more.