How to Perform a Basic Technical SEO Audit

Technical SEO is the foundation upon which all your other SEO efforts are built. If your site has crawl errors, slow loading times, or broken links, even the best content in the world won’t save it. Here’s a simple, step-by-step guide to performing a basic technical SEO audit.

1. Check Your Indexing Status

Start by checking to see if your pages are actually in Google’s index. Type site:yourwebsite.com into Google. If the number of results is much lower than expected, you might have an indexing issue. Use Google Search Console for a more detailed “Indexing” report.

2. Audit Your XML Sitemap

Ensure you have a clean, up-to-date XML sitemap that includes all your important pages. Submit this sitemap to Google Search Console to help search engine spiders find and crawl your content more efficiently.

3. Review Your Robots.txt File

Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site they shouldn’t crawl. Make sure you aren’t accidentally blocking important pages or resources (like CSS and JS files) that search engines need to understand your site’s layout.

4. Check for Broken Links (404 Errors)

Broken links are bad for both SEO and user experience. Use a tool like “Screaming Frog” or even a free browser extension to find and fix any 404 errors on your site.

5. Analyze Page Loading Speed

Use Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s performance on both desktop and mobile. Pay close attention to your “Core Web Vitals.” Often, simple fixes like compressing images or minifying CSS can make a huge difference.

6. Verify SSL (HTTPS) Implementation

Google considers HTTPS a ranking signal. Ensure your site has a valid SSL certificate and that all traffic is correctly redirected from http to https.

7. Check for Mobile Responsiveness

Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test (or simply check your site on several devices) to ensure your design is fully responsive and easy to navigate on smaller screens.

Conclusion

Technical SEO doesn’t have to be intimidating. By regularly performing these basic checks, you can ensure your site is a healthy, fast, and accessible platform for your content to shine.