🔍 How to Run a Full Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit is like a health check-up for your website. It identifies what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs to be optimized to improve visibility in search engines. This guide walks you through a professional-grade audit process, whether you're managing a blog, an eCommerce platform, or a large SaaS site.

Use our Free Website SEO Analysis Tool to instantly run a technical SEO scan and get prioritized recommendations.

This guide covers:

• What a technical SEO audit is and why it matters
• Tools you'll need (free and paid)
• A full checklist of items to review
• Best practices for fixing errors and tracking progress

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🧠 What Is a Technical SEO Audit?

A technical SEO audit evaluates the infrastructure of your website to ensure it's optimized for crawling, indexing, performance, and user accessibility. It's the foundation of your search visibility. Even the best content can struggle to rank if your site has unresolved technical issues.

Typical audits uncover issues with page load speed, broken links, mobile usability, improper redirects, and more.

🛠️ Tools You’ll Need

Before diving in, gather the right tools:

• Google Search Console (GSC): Lets you see how Google indexes your pages, track errors, and monitor Core Web Vitals.
• Screaming Frog or Sitebulb: These tools simulate how a search engine crawls your site and provide insights into structure, missing metadata, and more.
• Ahrefs or SEMrush: Help monitor backlinks, keyword rankings, and give you a snapshot of your overall site health.
• Google Analytics: Useful to identify which pages are underperforming or causing users to leave.
• PageSpeed Insights & Lighthouse: Evaluate load speed, accessibility, and performance based on lab and field data.
• MageHD's Free SEO Analysis Tool: Run your scan now for a simplified overview.

✅ Full Technical SEO Audit Checklist

1. Crawlability & Indexability

• Check robots.txt file for accidental blocks: This file tells search engines what not to crawl. Make sure it’s not blocking important pages like your homepage or blog.
• Make sure key pages are not marked "noindex": The noindex tag prevents pages from appearing in Google. Use it only where needed, like thank-you pages or admin areas.
• Test crawl depth (should be < 3 clicks from homepage): Important pages should be reachable within 3 clicks. Deeper pages are harder to find for both users and bots.
• Submit and test sitemap.xml in GSC: Your sitemap tells Google what pages to crawl. Check for broken URLs or outdated entries.
• Check for duplicate or non-canonical URLs: Use canonical tags to point search engines to the preferred version of a page.

2. Site Architecture

• Maintain a flat structure with semantic URLs: Flat means fewer clicks to important pages. Semantic means your URLs are readable and keyword-rich.
• Use breadcrumb navigation: This helps users understand where they are and creates internal links for SEO.
• Ensure mobile menus and main navigation expose all critical links: Don't hide important pages behind drop-downs or unlinked text.
• Audit redirect chains and internal linking: Too many redirects slow down loading. Ensure internal links connect related pages logically.

3. Page Performance

• Test load times on desktop and mobile: Slow pages cause high bounce rates. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
• Compress images and serve in WebP: WebP images load faster than JPEG or PNG without sacrificing quality.
• Minimize unused JavaScript and CSS: Remove or delay scripts and styles that aren’t essential for above-the-fold content.
• Implement lazy loading for below-the-fold content: Only load images/videos as users scroll.
• Use a CDN and fast hosting: A content delivery network shortens the distance between your server and the visitor.

4. Mobile Usability

• Confirm responsive design using mobile-friendly test: Make sure your layout adjusts to all screen sizes.
• Avoid fixed-width elements or overflow issues: These can break layouts on small screens.
• Check tap targets and font legibility: Buttons should be easy to press, and text should be readable without zooming.

5. Security & HTTPS

• Enforce HTTPS across all pages: Use an SSL certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
• Eliminate mixed content warnings: Don’t load images, scripts, or styles from non-secure URLs.
• Implement HSTS headers: This tells browsers to always load HTTPS pages.
• Make sure canonical tags reference HTTPS versions: Prevents duplicate content issues between HTTP and HTTPS.

6. Meta Data and Tags

• Ensure unique, keyword-rich title tags (50-60 characters): This is what users see in search results. Make each one count.
• Optimize meta descriptions for CTR (140-160 characters): Descriptions don’t affect ranking directly, but better ones get more clicks.
• Use one H1 per page, followed by structured H2/H3: Proper header hierarchy helps both users and crawlers understand your content.
• Implement Open Graph and Twitter Card tags: These improve how your pages appear when shared on social media.

7. Structured Data & Schema

• Use Schema.org for organization, products, articles, etc.: Structured data helps Google understand your content better.
• Validate markup using Rich Results Test: Fix any errors in your schema implementation.
• Monitor indexing of structured data via GSC: Use the enhancements report to spot issues.

🔬 After the Audit: What to Do Next

Once you've identified issues:

1. Prioritize: Fix critical errors first (server errors, robots.txt blocks), then address high and medium-priority issues.
2. Assign: Delegate fixes to developers (for performance issues), writers (for metadata), or SEOs (for indexing and structure).
3. Fix and Test: Implement changes gradually. Rerun audits after each batch to verify improvements.
4. Document: Maintain a changelog of what was fixed, by whom, and when. Helps avoid regressions.

Pro tip: Use Screaming Frog’s scheduling and export features to automate future audits and track deltas over time.

🔄 Final Thoughts

Technical SEO may not be flashy, but it’s what makes your entire SEO engine run smoothly. Treat it as an ongoing process, not a one-off task. With a regular auditing cadence and the right tools—like our Free Website SEO Analysis—you’ll uncover and fix issues before they cost you rankings or revenue.

If you’ve never run a full audit before, now’s the time. A few hours of focused diagnostics could yield months of improved performance.