Most new clients arrive with the same problems: pages getting crawled but not indexed, Core Web Vitals scores tanking mobile rankings, and an internal link structure that hasn't been touched since the site launched. After 200+ technical audits, we've consolidated the highest-impact checks into a repeatable five-area framework — one we run before touching a single piece of content.
1. Crawlability & Indexation
Before anything else, we verify that Google can actually find and index the pages that matter. We pull a full Screaming Frog crawl and cross-reference it against Google Search Console's coverage report. The goal: no important URL should be blocked, noindexed by accident, or returning a 4xx status. We're specifically looking for:
- Duplicate content and canonical conflicts — pagination, parameter-based URLs, and www/non-www variations are the usual culprits.
- Crawl traps — infinite faceted navigation loops that waste crawl budget on thousands of near-identical pages.
- Orphaned pages — URLs that exist in the sitemap but have zero internal links pointing to them.
- Sitemap hygiene — the XML sitemap should contain only indexable 200-status URLs, nothing else.
On a 500-page site, fixing crawlability issues alone typically recovers 15–25% of suppressed impressions within 8 weeks.
Check your robots.txt file. We regularly find staging-era disallow rules that accidentally block CSS, JS, or entire subdirectories in production.
2. Core Web Vitals & Page Speed
Google uses CWV as a ranking signal, but more importantly, slow pages kill conversion rates. A one-second delay in mobile load time reduces conversion by up to 20% (Google/Deloitte). We benchmark LCP, CLS, and INP against the "Good" thresholds using PageSpeed Insights and CrUX field data, then prioritise fixes by impact:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — usually a hero image that isn't preloaded or a slow TTFB from un-cached server responses. Target: under 2.5s.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — fonts loading without size-adjust, images without explicit dimensions, or late-injected banners. Target: under 0.1.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — heavy main-thread JavaScript blocking user input. Target: under 200ms.
"A slow site doesn't just hurt rankings — it destroys the experience you've spent a budget building. Speed is user experience first, SEO second."
3. On-Page Signals
Once we know pages can be found and are fast, we audit the signals Google uses to understand what those pages are about. We're not talking about keyword stuffing — we're talking about the structural signals that help Google classify content correctly:
- Title tags — unique, under 60 characters, primary keyword near the front. We flag duplicates and truncated titles.
- Meta descriptions — not a direct ranking factor, but they influence CTR. Missing or duplicate descriptions are low-effort wins.
- Heading hierarchy — one H1 per page that matches the primary intent. H2s that map to supporting subtopics. No heading tags used for styling.
- Image alt text — descriptive, not keyword-stuffed. Missing alt text is both an accessibility and a rankings issue.
4. Internal Linking Architecture
Internal links are the most underrated lever in technical SEO. They do three things: pass PageRank between pages, signal topical relationships to Google, and guide users through conversion funnels. We audit internal linking using a combination of log file analysis and crawl data to identify:
- Link equity distribution — are your highest-value commercial pages receiving links from high-authority pages, or are they buried three clicks deep?
- Anchor text diversity — exact-match anchors for every link look manipulative. We look for natural variation.
- Broken internal links — any 404s reached via internal links are a waste of crawl budget and a poor user experience.
- Click depth — priority pages should be reachable in 3 clicks or fewer from the homepage.
Run a Screaming Frog crawl and sort by "Inlinks" ascending. Your most important commercial pages often have the fewest internal links pointing to them — fix that before building any new content.
5. Structured Data
Schema markup helps Google understand context and can unlock rich results — star ratings, FAQs, breadcrumbs, event dates — that increase CTR significantly. We audit for correct implementation of:
- Organization and Website schema — should be present on every site
- BreadcrumbList — helps Google display cleaner URLs in search results
- Article / BlogPosting — for content pages, signals freshness signals
- Product and Review — for e-commerce, can add star ratings to SERPs
- LocalBusiness — critical for any business with a physical presence
We validate all schema through Google's Rich Results Test, not just structured data validators — the distinction matters because syntax-valid markup can still fail to generate rich results.
The Bottom Line
Technical SEO isn't glamorous, but it's the foundation everything else rests on. Content strategy, link building, and paid campaigns all perform significantly worse on a technically broken site. Run this five-area checklist first, fix what you find, then build on top of a solid foundation.
If you'd like us to run this audit on your site, get in touch — we include a full technical audit in every SEO engagement at no extra cost.