Intro
A technical SEO audit is an essential process that evaluates your website’s technical aspects to uncover issues impacting its search engine performance. Conducting a technical audit regularly ensures that your site is easy for search engines to crawl, understand, and index, which enhances visitor experience, engagement, and conversions.
Here’s our 8-step guide to performing a technical SEO audit effectively.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO involves optimizing your website’s structure, speed, mobile-friendliness, and data formats to make it easier for search engines to crawl, interpret, and index your pages. By addressing these technical components, you improve search engines' understanding of your content, which can lead to better rankings and visibility in SERPs.
Step 1: Crawl Your Website
Start your audit by crawling your website. Crawling helps identify broken links, missing tags, and other issues that may hinder search engines from accessing your content. Use Google Search Console to see recent crawl data under Crawl stats in Settings.
Key Areas to Review:
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Crawl Requests: This shows the number of requests Google has made, the average response time, and any issues in the Host status section.
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Error Codes: Pay attention to 404 (page not found) and 500 (server error) codes in the Crawl requests breakdown. If a page returns these errors, consider redirecting it to a live, relevant page.
Identifying and resolving crawl errors is crucial to ensure search engines can reach and rank all important pages on your site.
Step 2: Review Indexing Issues
In Google Search Console’s Pages report, you’ll find a detailed report of indexed pages and any indexing errors discovered during crawls. This report also lists reasons why certain pages aren’t indexed, like 3XX, 4XX, and 5XX errors, issues with canonical URLs, and duplicate content.
Important Tips:
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Blocked Pages: If key pages are excluded due to a ‘noindex’ tag or blocked by robots.txt, review and adjust these settings to allow indexing.
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Request Indexing: After resolving any indexing issues, return to Search Console and request indexing for the updated pages so Google can recrawl and include them in search results.
Step 3: Check for HTTPS Status
HTTPS encrypts the data between your site and the user, protecting sensitive information and building trust. Since HTTPS is a ranking factor, ensure your website is secured with an SSL certificate.
How to Verify HTTPS:
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Manual Check: Open your site in a browser and look for the padlock icon in the address bar.
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Search Console HTTPS Report: Check HTTPS status under the Experience section in Search Console, where you can view any SSL-related issues.
Common HTTPS issues include mixed content, expired SSL certificates, and improper redirects. Addressing these problems ensures your site is secure and trustworthy.
Step 4: Analyze Site Speed
A slow website impacts both user experience and SEO. Google’s Core Web Vitals are critical metrics for evaluating site speed and usability. Run a report with PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix to assess these Core Web Vitals:
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures load speed.
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First Input Delay (FID): Measures interactivity.
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Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability.
Site Speed Optimization Tips:
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Optimize Images: Compress images, use WebP formats, and implement lazy loading.
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Minify Code: Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML to reduce file sizes.
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Use a CDN: Content Delivery Networks like Cloudflare help speed up content delivery across regions.
Optimizing site speed is an ongoing process, so regularly test performance and address new issues as they arise.
Step 5: Confirm Mobile-Friendliness
With mobile-first indexing, Google treats your site’s mobile version as the primary version. Ensuring a seamless mobile experience is essential for ranking and user engagement.
Use PageSpeed Insights to analyze mobile performance and address recommendations in the Diagnostics section. Aim for a Performance score of 90+ for full confidence in your mobile optimization.
Step 6: Analyze URL Structures
Structured, descriptive URLs help search engines understand your site’s hierarchy, improving navigation for users. A well-structured URL should be short, descriptive, and reflect your site’s content hierarchy.
Key Areas to Address:
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Dynamic URLs: Rewrite dynamic URLs for readability if possible.
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Duplicate URLs: Use 301 redirects to direct duplicate URLs to the preferred version.
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Hierarchy: Keep URLs within 2-3 levels deep, using breadcrumbs to guide users through the structure.
When updating URLs, always set up 301 redirects from old to new URLs to avoid broken links and potential traffic loss.
Step 7: Review On-Page SEO Elements
Your on-page SEO elements are essential for signaling the purpose of each page to search engines. Enter your URL and target keyword into Ranktracker’s On-Page SEO Checker for a thorough analysis of your pages.
Elements to Optimize:
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Title Tags: Keep titles under 60 characters, place primary keywords near the beginning, and make each title unique.
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Meta Descriptions: Use 150-160 characters, including primary keywords and a call-to-action.
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Headings (H1, H2, H3): Use one H1 tag per page with the primary keyword. Structure subtopics with H2 and H3 tags and include relevant keywords.
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Images: Use keyword-rich filenames and descriptive alt text. Compress images to enhance load times.
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Internal Links: Link to relevant internal pages with descriptive anchor text to enhance navigation and SEO.
Step 8: Check for Duplicate Content
Duplicate content affects SEO, especially when it causes keyword cannibalization—where multiple pages compete for the same keywords. Use Ranktracker’s Keywords Overview to identify cases where two or more pages rank for the same term.
Solutions for Duplicate Content:
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Canonical Tags: Add a canonical tag to the non-preferred page to specify the main page.
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301 Redirects: Redirect duplicate pages to the preferred URL.
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Noindex Tags: Use a ‘noindex’ tag on duplicate pages to keep them out of search results.
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Content Differentiation: Update duplicate pages to target different subtopics or angles.
By eliminating duplicate content, you enhance the clarity of your website’s structure and improve ranking potential.
Final Thoughts on Technical SEO Audits
Conducting a technical SEO audit at least twice a year, with regular checks in between, is essential for maintaining a site that performs well on search engines. As you resolve technical issues, use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track improvements in rankings, traffic, and engagement.
While technical SEO forms the backbone of an optimized website, it’s only one part of a holistic SEO strategy. Combine your technical improvements with high-quality content and a strong link-building strategy for the best results.
