A technical SEO audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your website’s backend and technical aspects to identify issues preventing it from performing well in search engine rankings. By conducting a thorough technical seo audit, you ensure your site is easily accessible, crawlable and indexable by search engines and provides a great user experience. A technical SEO audit can seem overwhelming, but breaking it down into clear, manageable steps makes it easier. In this article, we’ll walk you through six essential steps to do a thorough technical SEO audit on your website.
1. Crawl Your Website Using SEO Tools
The first step in conducting a technical SEO audit is to crawl your website using an SEO tool. Crawling your site will give you a comprehensive overview of all the pages, links, and resources on your website and highlight any potential issues. Tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush are great. These tools will scan your website similarly to search engine bots, flagging common issues like broken links, duplicate content, missing metadata, and more.
During this crawl, pay special attention to the following:
- 404 errors: Broken links or pages that return a “404 Not Found” error.
- Redirect chains: Redirects that go through multiple steps before reaching the final destination.
- Duplicate content: Identical content appearing on various pages or URLs.
- Pages with missing or empty meta tags: Essential information like titles and descriptions that are absent.
Once the crawl is complete, you’ll have a list of technical issues that must be addressed.
2. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
Mobile optimization is a crucial aspect of technical SEO. With mobile-first indexing becoming the standard, Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for ranking and indexing. Therefore, it’s essential to ensure that your website is fully responsive and provides a seamless experience across all devices.
You can check if your website is mobile-friendly using the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool. If your website is not mobile-friendly, you need to implement a responsive design or a mobile-optimized version of your site to ensure users have a smooth experience on smartphones and tablets. In addition to usability, page load speed on mobile devices is also crucial, so make sure your site loads quickly on mobile.
3. Check Website Speed and Performance
Page speed is one of the most critical factors for SEO and user experience. Slow-loading pages can frustrate visitors and lead to higher bounce rates, hurting your rankings. Google has clarified that site speed is a ranking factor, so it’s essential to ensure that your website loads as quickly as possible.
You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to check your site’s speed. These tools will provide detailed reports on how long your pages load and highlight areas needing improvement.
Some common ways to improve website speed include:
- Image optimization: Compress large images to reduce file size without sacrificing quality.
- Minification: Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files to eliminate unnecessary spaces and characters.
- Leverage browser caching: Set up caching so that repeat visitors don’t have to reload all site elements.
- Enable compression: Use Gzip or Brotli compression to reduce the size of your website files.
Improving site speed helps with SEO rankings and enhances user experience, making visitors more likely to stay on your site longer.
4. Review Your Website’s URL Structure
A clean and organized URL structure is vital for SEO. URLs that are easy to read and include relevant keywords can help search engines understand the content of a page and improve user experience. During your technical seo audit, review the URLs on your website and ensure that they follow these best practices:
- Short and descriptive URLs: Avoid long and confusing URLs. Instead, aim for short URLs that clearly describe the page content.
- Include keywords: Include the page’s primary keyword in the URL. For example, instead of a generic URL like www.example.com/page123, use something more descriptive like www.example.com/technical seo audit-guide.
- Hyphens instead of underscores: Use hyphens to separate words in URLs (e.g., technical seo audit guide), as Google prefers this over underscores.
- Avoid dynamic parameters: URLs with long strings of numbers or parameters (like ?id=12345) can be difficult for search engines to read. Try to use static URLs with keywords instead.
Additionally, check for any redirects (301 or 302) and canonical tags to ensure you have no issues with duplicate content or improper redirects.
5. Check for Crawlability and Indexability Issues
For search engines to rank your website, they need to be able to crawl and index your pages. If specific pages are blocked or inaccessible, they may not appear in search results, reducing your visibility.
The first thing to check is your robots.txt file. This file tells search engines which pages they can crawl and which ones they should ignore. Ensure that critical pages aren’t being blocked by accident. You can check your robots.txt file by visiting www.yoursite.com/robots.txt.
Next, check your XML sitemap. This is a file that lists all of your important pages and helps search engines discover them more efficiently. Make sure your XML sitemap is up to date and includes all the critical pages you want indexed.
Use Google Search Console to identify any crawl errors that might be occurring on your site. The “Crawl Errors” section in the Search Console will show you if search engines are having trouble accessing certain pages. If you find crawl errors like 404s or server issues, fix them promptly.
Finally, ensure that you have no index tags or any other elements that might prevent essential pages from being indexed by search engines.
6. Audit and Optimize Your Site’s Security (HTTPS)
Website security is not only crucial for user trust but also for SEO. Google has confirmed that HTTPS is a ranking factor, and websites that use HTTPS are given preference in search engine results.
To ensure that your site is secure, make sure it’s using HTTPS instead of HTTP. HTTPS encrypts data between the server and users’ browsers, making it harder for attackers to intercept sensitive information. If your site still uses HTTP, you will need to install an SSL certificate to switch to HTTPS.
Once you’ve secured your site with HTTPS, check for any mixed content issues where non-secure HTTP resources are still being loaded on HTTPS pages. These can trigger browser warnings and affect user experience. Tools like Why No Padlock can help identify mixed content issues.
FAQs
What is a technical SEO audit?
- A technical SEO audit is a process of evaluating a website’s technical elements to ensure they are optimized for search engines and improve its performance in search rankings.
Why is a technical SEO audit important?
- It helps identify issues that could hinder your website’s visibility and performance, ensuring better user experience and higher search engine rankings.
What are the key areas to focus on during a technical SEO audit?
- Key areas include site speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, indexation, URL structure, and structured data.
How often should I conduct a technical SEO audit?
- Ideally, a technical SEO audit should be done at least once every 6 months, but more frequently for larger or more complex websites.
Can I do a technical SEO audit on my own?
- Yes, you can use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, or SEMrush to perform an audit, but it may require technical knowledge to interpret and act on the results effectively.
Conclusion:
By following these six steps, you can conduct a thorough technical SEO audit of your website and uncover critical issues that could be hindering your site’s performance in search engines. Regular audits ensure that your website is optimized for both users and search engines, which is crucial for maintaining and improving your rankings. From improving crawlability and site speed to securing your website and ensuring mobile optimization, technical SEO is an ongoing process that requires attention to detail. After completing your audit and addressing any issues, continue monitoring your site’s performance to keep it in top shape for search engines and visitors alike.