The Ultimate Technical SEO Audit Checklist & Process Guide

So you’ve read about all the technical SEO gremlins that could be lurking in your website. But how do you actually find them? And more importantly, how do you get them fixed?

This companion guide gives you the exact process I use to find, document, prioritize, and fix technical SEO issues.

This is the how to do, what tools you needs, when to do, who should do it part of the full technical SEO audit guide.

Which, if by some miracle, you've managed to find this page before that one you WILL need to read to understand just what is going on over here.

The Full Technical SEO Audit Process (Step-by-Step)

Here’s exactly how to find every technical SEO issue, with specific tools and methods for each:

STEP 1: Set Up Your Audit Environment

Just a fancy way of saying, open up these programs…

Before you start digging, get your tools ready:

1. Ensure you have access to:
   • Google Search Console (verify ownership if needed)
   • Google Analytics (ensure you have Analyze permission)
   • Your CMS backend (WordPress, Shopify, etc.)
   • Server logs (ideal but not always possible)
2. Prepare your crawling tools:
   • Install and license Screaming Frog SEO Spider
   • Configure any additional tools you’ll use (DeepCrawl, Sitebulb, etc.)
3. Create your audit spreadsheet (template included at the end)
4. Set up browser extensions:
   • SEO META in 1 CLICK
   • Redirect Path
   • View Rendered Source
   • WAVE Accessibility Tool

STEP 2: Initial Data Collection

Gather all the baseline data you’ll need:

1. Export 12-month organic traffic data from Google Analytics
2. Export all issues from Google Search Console:
   • Coverage issues
   • Mobile usability issues
   • Core Web Vitals issues
   • Security issues
   • Manual actions (if any)
3. Extract search performance data for top landing pages
4. Capture current ranking positions for key terms
5. Document current indexation stats (site:domain.com in Google)
6. Take screenshots of key page speed metrics as a baseline

STEP 3: Basic Technical Configuration Check

Check the foundational elements:

1. Verify robots.txt configuration:
   • Use GSC’s robots.txt tester
   • Test important URLs against current rules
   • Check for overly restrictive patterns
2. Review XML sitemaps:
   • Are they properly formatted?
   • Do all listed URLs return 200 status codes?
   • Are they registered in GSC?
   • Is the sitemap referenced in robots.txt?
3. Check protocol configuration:
   • Verify HTTP to HTTPS redirects
   • Check www vs. non-www canonicalization
   • Verify trailing slash consistency
4. Validate htaccess file (Apache) or equivalent nginx configuration

STEP 4: Full Site Crawl

Crawl the entire site to identify structural issues:

1. Configure Screaming Frog for a complete crawl:
   • Increase the crawl limit if needed (license required for 500+ URLs)
   • Enable JavaScript rendering (if site is JS-heavy)
   • Configure user agent as Googlebot
   • Set up custom extraction for schema, hreflang, etc.
2. Run an initial crawl respecting robots.txt
3. Run a second crawl ignoring robots.txt to find hidden issues
4. Export all data for analysis:
   • All URLs by status code
   • Redirect chains
   • Canonical tags
   • Meta robots directives
   • H1 tags and title elements
   • Pages with JavaScript issues
   • Structured data
   • Hreflang implementation
   • CSS/JS files being blocked

STEP 5: In-Depth Page Analysis

Analyze individual page types in detail:

1. Select representative pages of each type:
   • Homepage
   • Category/section pages
   • Product/service pages
   • Blog/content pages
   • Utility pages (contact, about, etc.)
2. For each page type, check:
   • Mobile-friendliness using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
   • Page speed using PageSpeed Insights & WebPageTest
   • Structured data validation using validators
   • JavaScript rendering using “View Rendered Source”
   • Internal linking structure
   • Image optimization
   • HTML validation
3. Document template-level issues vs. individual page issues

STEP 6: Server Log Analysis (If Available)

If you have access to server logs, analyze Googlebot behavior:

1. Import logs into a log analyzer tool (Screaming Frog Log Analyzer, Botify, etc.)
2. Identify:
   • Crawl frequency patterns
   • Most frequently crawled URLs
   • Crawl errors
   • Googlebot time spent on different sections
   • Patterns in crawl behavior
   • Evidence of crawl budget waste
3. Compare crawled URLs with your important pages – are they being crawled frequently enough?

STEP 7: International/Multilingual Analysis (If Applicable)

For sites targeting multiple countries or languages:

1. Crawl each country/language version separately
2. Extract all hreflang annotations
3. Create a matrix to verify proper cross-referencing
4. Check for:
   • Incorrect language codes
   • Missing return links
   • Self-reference errors
   • Contradictory canonical tags
   • Implementation method consistency

STEP 8: Indexation Analysis

Investigate Google’s indexation of your site:

1. Compare indexation counts:
   • site:domain.com in Google
   • Index Coverage report in GSC
   • XML sitemap count
   • Actual crawlable pages from your crawl
2. Identify patterns in non-indexed content using GSC’s “Excluded” reports
3. Check for noindex directives that shouldn’t be there
4. Investigate crawled but not indexed pages
5. Analyze index bloat (too many pages indexed vs. valid content pages)

STEP 9: JavaScript Rendering Check

For JavaScript-heavy sites:

1. Use “View Rendered Source” to compare initial HTML with rendered DOM
2. Test key pages with JavaScript disabled
3. Use GSC’s URL Inspection tool to see how Google renders the page
4. Check for content only visible after JS execution
5. Verify critical links are present in the non-JS version
6. Test navigation usability without JS

STEP 10: Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition

Analyze all the collected data to identify patterns:

1. Cross-reference crawl data with GSC issues
2. Look for correlations between technical issues and performance
3. Group issues by:
   • Type (redirect, canonical, speed, etc.)
   • Template (affecting similar page types)
   • Section (specific parts of the site)
   • Severity (critical, high, medium, low)
4. Identify the highest-impact issues based on affected page value

How to Document Your Findings Effectively

Documentation is crucial for getting buy-in and implementation. Here’s how to document technical SEO issues effectively:

Technical SEO Documentation Checklist

1. Create a master spreadsheet with the following tabs:
   • Executive Summary (high-level overview and key findings)
   • Issue Tracker (detailed list of all issues)
   • Implementation Plan (prioritized fixes with assignments)
   • Data Exports (raw data from crawls and tools)
   • Performance Baseline (current metrics to measure against)
2. For each issue, document:
   • Issue name/type
   • Description of the problem
   • URLs affected (full list or pattern)
   • Severity/impact (High/Medium/Low)
   • Screenshots or evidence
   • Recommended solution
   • Implementation difficulty (Easy/Medium/Hard)
   • Who should fix it (Developer, SEO, Content team, etc.)
   • Estimated time to implement
   • Expected outcome
3. Include visual evidence wherever possible:
   • Screenshots of issues
   • Annotated images showing the problem
   • Before/after comparisons
   • Tool outputs that identify the issue
   • Charts showing impact (if available)
4. Create a presentation deck for stakeholders:
   • Executive summary slide
   • Methodology overview
   • Top findings (focus on highest impact)
   • Prioritized roadmap
   • Expected outcomes
   • Resource requirements

Documentation Tool Recommendations:

• Google Sheets – For collaborative issue tracking and prioritization
• Trello or Asana – For implementation tracking
• Loom – For recording video walkthroughs of issues
• Miro or Whimsical – For creating site architecture maps and visualizing problems
• Google Data Studio – For creating dynamic dashboards to track progress

How to Prioritize Technical SEO Issues

Not all issues are created equal. Here’s how to prioritize what to fix first:

Prioritization Framework

For each issue, score it on these factors (1-5 scale):

1. Impact: How much this issue affects search visibility
   • 5 = Completely blocks indexing or ranking
   • 3 = Moderately impacts rankings
   • 1 = Minor impact
2. Scale: How many pages are affected
   • 5 = Entire site or most important templates
   • 3 = Multiple important pages
   • 1 = Single or few low-importance pages
3. Effort: How difficult it is to implement (reverse scale)
   • 5 = Quick fix (minutes)
   • 3 = Moderate effort (days)
   • 1 = Major development work (weeks)
4. Value: How important the affected pages are
   • 5 = Top landing pages or conversion pages
   • 3 = Secondary content pages
   • 1 = Utility pages or low-traffic content

Priority Score = (Impact × Scale × Value) / Effort

The higher the score, the higher the priority.

Quick Wins vs. Foundational Fixes:

Always balance your implementation plan with both:

• Quick Wins: High-impact, low-effort fixes that show immediate results
• Foundational Fixes: Core issues that may take longer but provide lasting benefits

Start with quick wins to build momentum and trust, while planning for the bigger foundational changes.

Who Should Fix What: Roles & Responsibilities

Technical SEO requires collaboration across teams. Here’s who typically handles different types of issues:

Communication is Key: Technical issues often fall between team responsibilities. Create a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) for your organization to clarify who handles what.

The Master Technical SEO Checklist

Here’s a comprehensive checklist organized by category, with impact, difficulty, and responsible party noted:

Crawling & Indexation

URL Structure & Redirects

Canonical Issues

Mobile Optimization

Page Speed & Core Web Vitals

Structured Data & Schema Issues

International SEO & Hreflang

JavaScript SEO Issues

Content & HTML Issues

Implementation Tracking Template

Use this template to track implementation progress:

Implementation Tracking Process

1. Create a shared tracking document with these columns:
   • Issue ID
   • Issue Description
   • Priority Score
   • URLs Affected
   • Assigned To
   • Due Date
   • Status (Not Started, In Progress, In Review, Complete)
   • Date Fixed
   • Verification Status
   • Impact Notes
2. Schedule regular check-ins:
   • Weekly status updates
   • Blockers discussion
   • Prioritization adjustments as needed
3. Verification process:
   • Test each fix immediately after implementation
   • Check with multiple tools/browsers
   • Document before/after metrics
   • Set reminders to check GSC/Analytics impact 2-4 weeks later

Measuring Success

Technical SEO success isn’t just about fixing issues – it’s about improving metrics. Here’s what to track:

Key Performance Indicators to Track

• Indexation Metrics:
  • Number of pages indexed
  • Coverage issue counts by type
  • Ratio of indexable pages to indexed pages
• Crawling Metrics:
  • Crawl stats (pages/day)
  • Crawl errors
  • Time spent downloading
• Page Experience Metrics:
  • Core Web Vitals compliance percentage
  • Mobile usability issues
  • Page speed scores
• Business Metrics:
  • Organic traffic
  • Organic conversions
  • Ranking positions for key terms
  • Click-through rates from search

Before/After Documentation: Always take "before" screenshots and export baseline data before implementing fixes. This makes it much easier to demonstrate impact and value.

Advanced Technical SEO Audit Tools & Techniques

For those wanting to go deeper, here are advanced technical SEO techniques:

Log File Analysis Workflow

Server logs provide insights you can’t get anywhere else:

1. Obtain raw server logs (Apache, NGINX, etc.)
2. Use a log analyzer tool (Screaming Frog Log Analyzer, Botify, etc.)
3. Filter for Googlebot and other search engine crawlers
4. Analyze:
   • Crawl frequency of different URL sections
   • Time spent crawling
   • Crawl patterns over time
   • Error rates and types
   • URLs crawled but not in sitemap
   • Sitemap URLs never crawled

Programmatic SEO Testing

For larger sites, scripted testing becomes essential:

• Python scripts for large-scale testing:
  • Bulk URL status code checking
  • XML sitemap validation
  • Hreflang matrix validation
  • Schema extraction and validation
• Headless browser testing:
  • Puppeteer/Playwright for JS rendering tests
  • Automated mobile layout testing
  • Performance timing capture across templates
• API-based monitoring:
  • Regular checks for critical issues
  • Automated alerts for new problems
  • Integration with CI/CD pipelines

Technical SEO Maintenance Schedule

Technical SEO isn’t a one-time project. Follow this maintenance schedule:

Creating a Business Case for Technical SEO Fixes

Need to convince stakeholders to invest in technical SEO? Here’s how to build a compelling business case:

Technical SEO Business Case Framework

1. Quantify the current impact:
   • Pages not being indexed × average page value
   • Traffic lost due to slow speed (bounce rate increase)
   • Crawl budget wasted on non-valuable pages
   • Competitors outranking due to technical advantages
2. Estimate the opportunity:
   • Traffic increase potential based on similar fixes
   • Conversion improvement from better user experience
   • Cost savings from more efficient crawling
   • Revenue potential from newly indexed/ranking pages
3. Present case studies and examples:
   • Before/after metrics from similar implementations
   • Competitor success stories
   • Industry benchmark data
4. Create implementation tiers:
   • Minimum viable fixes (must-haves)
   • High-impact improvements
   • Ideal state optimizations

ROI Calculation Example: If fixing canonicalization issues makes 1,000 additional product pages rank effectively, and each product page generates an average of $10/month in revenue, that's potentially $10,000/month in additional revenue. If the fix costs $5,000 to implement, the ROI becomes positive after just 2 weeks.

Final Thoughts: The Technical SEO Mindset

Technical SEO requires a specific approach:

The Technical SEO Mindset

• Think like a search engine – Understand crawling, rendering, and indexing from the bot’s perspective
• Be methodical – Create processes and follow them consistently
• Stay curious – Technical SEO is always evolving; keep learning
• Balance perfectionism with pragmatism – Focus on high-impact issues first
• Communicate clearly – Translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
• Test everything – Never assume; always verify
• Document obsessively – Record findings, decisions, and results

Remember: Technical SEO is both an art and a science. The process outlined here will help you find and fix the gremlins lurking in your website, but always adapt these techniques to your specific situation.

Happy hunting!

Tim