Technical SEO Audit

Technical SEO Audit

Performs a deep technical SEO audit of a website, focusing on infrastructure-level issues that affect search engine crawling, indexing, and ranking. Complements seo-auditor (which covers on-page content and off-page signals) by going deeper into the technical foundation.

Prerequisites

• Target website URL
• agency.config.json populated (for reporting context)
• WebSearch and WebFetch tools available
• Optional: Google Search Console access for indexation data

Phase 0: Intake

Read agency.config.json:

• agency.name -- for report branding
• services[] -- to flag relevant service recommendations

Accept parameters:

• url -- (required) target website root URL
• depth -- (optional) quick (homepage + 5 pages), standard (up to 25 pages), deep (up to 100 pages). Default: standard
• focus_areas -- (optional) array to limit scope: core-web-vitals, crawlability, indexation, structured-data, redirects, security, mobile, international. Default: all
• competitor_urls -- (optional) array of competitor URLs for comparison
• gsc_data -- (optional) Google Search Console export data

Phase 1: Core Web Vitals Analysis

Use WebFetch to check PageSpeed Insights API or Chrome UX Report signals:

Metrics to Assess

Page Types to Test

• Homepage
• Category/collection page
• Product/detail page
• Blog/content page
• Search results page (if applicable)

Analysis

For each failing metric:

ISSUE: [metric] is [value] on [page type]
IMPACT: [how this affects rankings and UX]
CAUSE: [likely technical cause based on page analysis]
FIX: [specific technical recommendation]
PRIORITY: [HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW]
EFFORT: [quick-win / medium / major-refactor]

Phase 2: Crawlability Audit

Robots.txt Analysis

• Fetch and parse robots.txt
• Check for overly restrictive rules blocking important content
• Check for missing rules allowing crawl of admin/private pages
• Verify sitemap reference is present
• Check for user-agent specific rules

XML Sitemap Analysis

• Fetch sitemap(s) from robots.txt or common locations (/sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml)
• Count total URLs
• Check for:
  • URLs returning non-200 status codes
  • Orphaned URLs (in sitemap but not linked from site)
  • Missing URLs (important pages not in sitemap)
  • Last modified dates (are they accurate or all the same?)
  • Sitemap file size (under 50MB, under 50,000 URLs per file)
  • Proper XML formatting

Crawl Depth Analysis

• Map internal link structure from homepage
• Flag pages requiring 4+ clicks to reach from homepage
• Identify orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them)
• Check for crawl traps (infinite pagination, faceted navigation creating duplicate URLs)

Internal Linking

• Check for broken internal links (404s)
• Check for redirect chains in internal links
• Identify pages with very few internal links (low PageRank flow)
• Check for excessive internal links on single pages (>100)

Phase 3: Indexation Audit

Index Status Checks

• site:domain.com search to estimate indexed pages
• Compare indexed count vs sitemap count vs actual page count
• Flag significant discrepancies (indexed >> actual = duplicates; indexed << actual = indexation issues)

Common Indexation Issues

Check for:

• noindex meta tags on pages that should be indexed
• noindex in HTTP headers (X-Robots-Tag)
• Pages blocked by robots.txt that have inbound links
• Thin content pages (under 300 words) that may be filtered
• Duplicate title tags across multiple pages
• Duplicate meta descriptions
• Missing or duplicate H1 tags

Canonical Tag Audit

• Every page has a canonical tag
• Self-referencing canonicals on unique pages
• Canonical points to correct URL (not HTTP when HTTPS, not non-www when www)
• No canonical chains (A canonicals to B, B canonicals to C)
• Canonical matches the version in the sitemap

Phase 4: Structured Data Validation

Check for Existing Schema

Inspect pages for JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa markup:

Validation

For each schema found:

• Valid JSON-LD syntax
• Required properties present (per schema.org spec)
• No deprecated properties
• Proper nesting
• Consistent with page content (no schema spam)

Missing Schema Opportunities

Flag pages where adding schema would provide rich result eligibility:

• Product pages without Product schema
• FAQ content without FAQPage schema
• Review content without Review schema
• Events without Event schema
• Breadcrumbs without BreadcrumbList schema

Phase 5: Redirect Audit

Redirect Chain Analysis

• Identify redirect chains (A -> B -> C) -- all should be A -> C
• Identify redirect loops
• Check for mixed HTTP/HTTPS redirects
• Check for mixed www/non-www redirects
• Verify 301 (permanent) vs 302 (temporary) usage is correct

Common Redirect Issues

• Old URLs redirecting through multiple hops
• Trailing slash inconsistency (some URLs with, some without)
• Case sensitivity issues (uppercase URLs not redirecting to lowercase)
• Parameter-based redirects missing
• Deleted page 404s that should 301 to relevant alternatives

Phase 6: Security & HTTPS

• Full HTTPS: no mixed content warnings
• HSTS header present and correctly configured
• SSL certificate valid and not expiring within 30 days
• No insecure resources loaded (images, scripts, stylesheets over HTTP)
• Security headers check: CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options
• Cookie security: Secure flag, HttpOnly, SameSite

Phase 7: Mobile Friendliness

• Viewport meta tag present and correct
• No horizontal scroll on mobile viewports
• Touch targets adequately sized (min 48x48px)
• Font sizes readable without zooming (min 16px body text)
• No intrusive interstitials blocking content
• Mobile page speed (separate from desktop CWV)

Phase 8: International SEO (if applicable)

• Hreflang tags present and correct
• Return tags (each hreflang pair must be bidirectional)
• x-default tag present
• Language/region targeting consistent across pages
• No conflicting canonical and hreflang signals

Phase 9: Output

Return structured JSON:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "audit_date": "2026-03-13",
  "audit_depth": "standard",
  "pages_analyzed": 25,
  "overall_health_score": 72,
  "score_breakdown": {
    "core_web_vitals": 65,
    "crawlability": 80,
    "indexation": 75,
    "structured_data": 60,
    "redirects": 85,
    "security": 90,
    "mobile": 70
  },
  "critical_issues": [
    {
      "category": "core-web-vitals",
      "issue": "LCP 4.2s on product pages",
      "impact": "Ranking penalty, 53% bounce rate increase above 3s",
      "fix": "Optimize hero image: compress, add srcset, preload LCP image",
      "priority": "HIGH",
      "effort": "quick-win",
      "pages_affected": 45
    }
  ],
  "warnings": [
    {
      "category": "structured-data",
      "issue": "Product pages missing AggregateRating schema",
      "impact": "Missing star ratings in search results",
      "fix": "Add AggregateRating to Product JSON-LD",
      "priority": "MEDIUM",
      "effort": "medium"
    }
  ],
  "opportunities": [
    {
      "category": "indexation",
      "opportunity": "45 blog posts with thin content could be consolidated",
      "impact": "Reduce index bloat, concentrate PageRank",
      "effort": "major-refactor"
    }
  ],
  "competitor_comparison": {
    "our_score": 72,
    "competitor_scores": [
      {"url": "competitor1.com", "score": 68},
      {"url": "competitor2.com", "score": 81}
    ]
  },
  "recommendations_summary": [
    {"priority": 1, "action": "Fix LCP on product pages", "impact": "HIGH", "effort": "quick-win"},
    {"priority": 2, "action": "Add Product schema to all product pages", "impact": "HIGH", "effort": "medium"},
    {"priority": 3, "action": "Resolve 12 redirect chains", "impact": "MEDIUM", "effort": "quick-win"}
  ],
  "generated_at": "2026-03-13T10:00:00Z"
}

Phase 10: Report & Handoff

Present findings as a prioritized action plan:

1. Critical (fix immediately): Issues causing ranking loss or indexation failures
2. High priority (fix this week): Significant performance or schema issues
3. Medium priority (fix this month): Optimization opportunities
4. Low priority (backlog): Nice-to-haves and future improvements

If write_to_crm context exists, log the audit as a prospect touchpoint.

Example Usage

Trigger phrases:

• "Run a technical SEO audit on [url]"
• "Check Core Web Vitals for [url]"
• "Audit the structured data on [url]"
• "Check [url] for crawlability issues"
• "Run a redirect chain analysis on [url]"
• "Full technical SEO check on this prospect's site"
• "Compare our client's technical SEO against competitors"