Technical SEO Audit: What to Check First
Technical SEO audit checklist: crawlability, speed, mobile UX, structured data, and the issues that block ranking growth.
Indexing and crawl accessibility
Start with Search Console and a crawler: which URLs are indexed, excluded, and why. 4xx/5xx errors and accidental noindex are common growth blockers.
Validate robots.txt, XML sitemaps, and canonical tags. Sitemaps should list only canonical, live URLs.
- Index coverage by section
- Robots blocks
- www and protocol duplicates
Speed and Core Web Vitals
LCP, INP, and CLS affect UX and can limit gains. Measure field data from CrUX, not lab scores alone.
- Image and font optimization
- Defer non-critical JavaScript
- Stable layout without CLS
Mobile experience
With mobile-first indexing, content parity and tap targets matter. Avoid intrusive interstitials that hurt usability.
Key pages should sit within three to four clicks from the homepage.
Structured data and security
Valid Organization, Breadcrumb, and FAQ schema can enhance snippets. HTTPS is mandatory; mixed content hurts trust.
- Rich Results validation
- Clean 301 redirects
- Hreflang for multilingual sites
Helpful links
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