How to Run a Basic Technical SEO Audit (Step by Step)

You have now learned about robots.txt, sitemaps, canonical tags, redirects, Core Web Vitals and more. A natural question follows: "How do I check all of this on my own site without getting lost?" Many beginners run an online audit tool, get a report with hundreds of "errors" in red, and don't know where to start.

In this lesson, I will show you how to run a basic technical SEO audit in a calm, step-by-step way, using free Google Search Console reports and a site crawler. More importantly, I will show you how to decide which problems actually matter and what to fix first. This lesson pulls together everything in the technical SEO chapter, so I will link back to each topic as we go.

What is a technical SEO audit, and how often should you do one?

A technical SEO audit is a health check of the parts of your site that affect whether search engines can crawl, render and index it, and whether visitors get a fast, secure, working experience. It doesn't judge your writing or your keyword choices. Those belong to content and on-page audits.

Think of it like a car service. The mechanic doesn't care where you drive; they check that the brakes, tires and engine work. A technical audit checks your site's "engine": can Google get in, can it read the pages, and does anything break along the way?

When should you do one? I suggest:

A full audit once or twice a year for a small site.
A quick monthly check of the key Search Console reports.
An extra audit right after a redesign, a platform change or any site migration.
An audit whenever traffic drops and you can't find an obvious reason.

Which tools do you need for a basic audit?

You don't need expensive software. For a basic audit, two tools cover most of the work:

Google Search Console (free). It shows what Google itself sees: which pages are indexed, which have problems, how fast they are for real users, and whether there are security or manual action issues. If you haven't set it up, start with the lesson on Google Search Console.
A site crawler. This is a program that visits your pages the way a search engine bot does and lists what it finds: status codes, titles, redirects, broken links, canonical tags and more. Screaming Frog's free version crawls up to 500 URLs, which is plenty for many small sites. My Screaming Frog guide for beginners walks you through the setup.

PageSpeed Insights is a helpful third tool for checking speed on individual pages. You can find more options in the lesson on SEO tools.

The two main tools complement each other. Search Console tells you what Google has actually done with your pages. A crawler tells you what your site looks like right now, including problems Google hasn't reported yet.

How to run the audit, step by step

Here is the order I would follow. Each step builds on the one before, and each links to the lesson that explains the topic in full.

Step 1: Check for serious problems first

Open the Manual actions and Security issues reports in Search Console. Google's Search Console guide describes the first as showing any manual action issues on your site and the second as showing warnings when Google finds your site might be hacked. Both should say no issues were detected. If either shows a problem, stop the audit and fix that first; nothing else matters as much. The lesson on HTTPS and site security explains what to do.

Step 2: Can Google crawl the site?

Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt and check that it isn't blocking important sections (see robots.txt). Search Console's robots.txt report, found in Settings, shows whether Google could fetch the file. Then start your crawler on the homepage and let it run.

Step 3: Which pages are indexed, and why are others not?

Open the Page indexing report. It lists pages that aren't indexed and the reason for each, such as "Not found (404)," "Soft 404," "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" or "Crawled – currently not indexed." Google's help page for the report makes an important point: don't expect every URL on your site to be indexed. What matters is that your important pages are indexed, and that the others are excluded for reasons you intended. The lesson on indexing explains each status, and my post on every Page indexing status goes deeper.

Step 4: Are sitemaps clean?

In the Sitemaps report, check that your sitemap was read successfully. In your crawler, check that the sitemap lists only pages that return 200, are indexable and are canonical. A sitemap full of redirects or 404s sends mixed signals. See XML sitemaps.

Step 5: Status codes, redirects and broken links

In the crawler, filter for 4xx errors (broken pages), 5xx errors (server errors) and 3xx redirects. Look for internal links pointing to broken pages, redirect chains, and redirect loops. Fix internal links so they point straight to the final URL. See redirects.

Step 6: Duplicates and canonical tags

Check that each important page has a canonical tag pointing to itself (or to the right main version), and that HTTP, www and trailing-slash versions all redirect to one preferred version. See canonical tags and duplicate content.

Step 7: Speed, mobile and page experience

Open the Core Web Vitals report, which shows how pages perform for real users. Note page groups marked "Poor" or "Needs improvement" for LCP, INP or CLS. Then check a few key templates on your phone. See Core Web Vitals and mobile-first indexing.

Step 8: HTTPS, JavaScript and international setup

Check the HTTPS report for pages still served over HTTP. Use the URL Inspection tool on one or two important pages to confirm Google sees the main content after rendering (see JavaScript SEO). If you have language or country versions, crawl for hreflang errors (see international SEO).

Step 9: Site structure and internal links

In the crawler, look at "crawl depth," the number of clicks from the homepage to each page. Important pages buried four or more clicks deep, or "orphan" pages with no internal links at all, are harder for both people and Google to find. See site architecture.

How do you decide what to fix first?

This is where most beginners get stuck. An audit tool may flag hundreds of issues, but they are not equal. A missing alt text on one decorative image is not the same as your whole blog being set to noindex.

I sort every issue by two questions: How much does it hurt? and How many important pages does it affect? Then I think about effort. Here is a simple way to group them:

Priority	Examples	When to fix
Critical	Security issue or manual action; important pages blocked by robots.txt or noindex; site-wide server errors; invalid HTTPS certificate	Today
High	Key pages not indexed; broken redirects after a migration; important pages with wrong canonical tags; key templates with "Poor" Core Web Vitals	This week or this month
Medium	Internal links to 404s or redirects; redirect chains; sitemap listing non-canonical URLs; deep or orphan pages	Next few months
Low	Minor issues on a handful of low-traffic pages; cosmetic warnings in tools	When convenient

Two more tips. First, fix issues at the template level when you can. If every product page is missing a canonical tag, one change to the product template fixes thousands of pages. Second, don't chase a perfect score in a tool. Tool scores are a guide, not a ranking factor. Your aim is a site that Google can crawl and index properly, and that works well for visitors.

How to write up your findings so they get fixed

An audit only helps if someone acts on it. If you hand your findings to a developer or a web agency, a long export from a tool usually ends up ignored. I suggest a short document instead, with one line per issue that says:

What is wrong, in plain words, for example "12 service pages have a noindex tag."
Where, with two or three example URLs and the total count.
Why it matters, for example "these pages can't appear in Google."
What to do, for example "remove the noindex setting in the page template."
Priority, using the four levels above.

After the fixes go live, check the same reports again. Crawl the site a second time and compare the numbers with your first crawl. That before-and-after view is also a nice way to show the value of the work.

Try it: run a 30-minute mini audit on your site

Let's do a quick version of the audit right now. Open a spreadsheet with four columns: Issue, Pages affected, Priority, Fix. Then go through these checks:

Search Console: Manual actions and Security issues. Any problems? (5 minutes)
Search Console: Page indexing. Note the top three reasons pages aren't indexed, and check whether any of your important pages are on those lists. (10 minutes)
Search Console: Core Web Vitals. Note how many URLs are "Poor" on mobile. (5 minutes)
Crawler: crawl your site and filter for 4xx and 5xx status codes and redirect chains. (10 minutes)

Fill in your sheet, then give each issue a priority using the table above. You now have a basic audit and a to-do list. If you want a more complete template, my posts on the full SEO audit checklist and the technical SEO guide list many more checks.

Questions beginners ask about technical SEO audits

Do I need paid tools to do a technical SEO audit?

Not for a basic audit. Search Console is free, PageSpeed Insights is free, and free crawler versions handle small sites. Paid tools help with larger sites and scheduled monitoring.

Why aren't all my pages indexed?

Google itself says not to expect every URL to be indexed. Duplicates, redirects and low-value pages are often excluded on purpose. Focus on whether your important pages are indexed.

My audit tool shows hundreds of errors. Is my site in trouble?

Probably not. Many tool "errors" are minor or repeated across a template. Group similar issues together, check how many important pages they affect, and fix the critical ones first.

How long does it take to see results after fixing technical issues?

Google has to recrawl the affected pages first, which can take days or weeks depending on the site. In Search Console, you can use "Validate fix" on many Page indexing issues to ask Google to check your changes.

A healthy site makes every other SEO effort count

In brief, a technical SEO audit checks that Google can crawl, render and index your site, and that it's secure and fast for visitors. Start with security and manual actions, then work through crawling, indexing, sitemaps, status codes, canonicals, speed, HTTPS, JavaScript and structure. Prioritize by impact and by how many important pages are affected, and fix at the template level when you can.

That completes the technical SEO chapter. Next, we move on to authority, starting with what backlinks are and why they matter. If you'd like a professional team to run a full technical audit and turn it into a clear action plan, you can request a quote from us.

How to Run a Basic Technical SEO Audit