The Complete Technical SEO Audit Checklist for 2024

After conducting dozens of technical SEO audits over 10+ years, I've developed a systematic approach that consistently uncovers issues and drives results. At Klaviyo, a technical audit helped improve page speed by 25%. Here's the complete checklist.

Why Technical SEO Matters

You can have the best content in the world, but if search engines can't crawl, index, and understand your site, you won't rank. Technical SEO is the foundation.

The Audit Framework

I break technical SEO audits into 6 areas:

1. Crawlability
2. Indexation
3. Site Architecture
4. Page Speed & Core Web Vitals
5. Mobile Experience
6. Security

1. Crawlability

Can search engines access your pages?

Robots.txt Check

yoursite.com/robots.txt

Look for:

• Are important pages/directories blocked?
• Is the sitemap referenced?
• Are crawl-delay directives slowing bots?

Common issues:

• Staging site rules left on production
• Blocking CSS/JS files (breaks rendering)
• Blocking entire directories accidentally

XML Sitemap Audit

Check:

• Does sitemap exist at /sitemap.xml?
• Are all important pages included?
• Are non-canonical or noindex pages excluded?
• Is sitemap under 50MB / 50,000 URLs?
• Is it submitted in Google Search Console?

Crawl Budget

For large sites (10k+ pages):

• Check crawl stats in Search Console
• Identify and fix redirect chains (3+ hops)
• Remove/noindex thin or duplicate content
• Fix broken internal links

2. Indexation

Are your pages appearing in search results?

Index Coverage

In Google Search Console, check:

• Valid pages - indexed and healthy
• Excluded pages - why are they excluded?
• Errors - server errors, redirect errors

Site Search Check

site:yoursite.com

Look for:

• Approximate page count (match expectations?)
• Duplicate content in results
• Pages that shouldn't be indexed (admin, staging, test)
• Missing pages that should be indexed

Canonical Tags

Every page needs a canonical tag pointing to the preferred version:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://yoursite.com/page/" />

Check for:

• Missing canonical tags
• Self-referencing canonicals (good)
• Canonical pointing to different page (intentional?)
• HTTP vs HTTPS mismatches
• Trailing slash consistency

Meta Robots

Review pages with:

• noindex tags (intentional?)
• nofollow tags (blocking link equity)
• Multiple conflicting directives

3. Site Architecture

How is your site structured?

URL Structure

Best practices:

• Descriptive, keyword-rich URLs
• Lowercase letters
• Hyphens between words (not underscores)
• Consistent trailing slashes
• 2-3 folder levels max

Bad: /p?id=12345 Good: /products/widget-name/

Internal Linking

• Important pages should be ≤3 clicks from homepage
• Use descriptive anchor text
• Fix orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them)
• Distribute link equity to priority pages

Navigation

• Primary nav links to key category pages
• Breadcrumbs on all pages
• Footer links to important pages
• HTML sitemap for users

Pagination

For paginated content:

• Use rel="next" and rel="prev" (optional but helpful)
• Self-referencing canonicals on each page
• Or use "view all" page with canonical

4. Page Speed & Core Web Vitals

Speed is a ranking factor. Core Web Vitals matter.

Core Web Vitals

| Metric | Good | Needs Improvement | Poor | |--------|------|-------------------|------| | LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | ≤2.5s | 2.5-4s | >4s | | INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | ≤200ms | 200-500ms | >500ms | | CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | ≤0.1 | 0.1-0.25 | >0.25 |

Speed Audit Tools

• PageSpeed Insights - Google's tool, shows CWV
• GTmetrix - detailed waterfall analysis
• WebPageTest - advanced testing options

Common Speed Issues

Images:

• Not compressed
• Not lazy-loaded
• Wrong format (use WebP)
• Missing dimensions (causes CLS)

Code:

• Render-blocking CSS/JS
• Too many HTTP requests
• No minification
• No caching headers

Server:

• Slow TTFB (time to first byte)
• No CDN
• No compression (gzip/brotli)

Quick Wins

1. Compress and lazy-load images
2. Enable browser caching
3. Minify CSS and JavaScript
4. Use a CDN
5. Reduce third-party scripts

5. Mobile Experience

Google uses mobile-first indexing.

Mobile-Friendly Test

Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool:

• Viewport configured correctly?
• Text readable without zooming?
• Tap targets sized properly?
• No horizontal scrolling?

Responsive Design Check

• Test on multiple screen sizes
• Check for mobile-specific issues
• Verify same content on mobile and desktop

Mobile Page Speed

Mobile users often have slower connections:

• Test on 3G/4G throttling
• Prioritize above-the-fold content
• Consider AMP for articles (optional)

6. Security

HTTPS is a ranking factor.

HTTPS Check

• All pages on HTTPS?
• HTTP redirects to HTTPS?
• No mixed content warnings?
• Valid SSL certificate?

Security Headers

Recommended headers:

• Strict-Transport-Security
• X-Content-Type-Options
• X-Frame-Options

The Audit Process

Step 1: Crawl the Site

Use Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs Site Audit:

• Crawl entire site
• Export all issues
• Categorize by severity

Step 2: Check Search Console

Review:

• Index coverage report
• Core Web Vitals report
• Mobile usability report
• Manual actions (penalties)

Step 3: Prioritize Issues

High priority (fix first):

• Blocking important pages from indexing
• Broken pages (404s, 500s)
• Security issues
• Severe speed problems

Medium priority:

• Duplicate content
• Missing meta tags
• Redirect chains
• Minor speed issues

Low priority:

• Missing alt text
• Suboptimal URL structure
• Minor mobile issues

Step 4: Create Action Plan

For each issue:

• What's the problem?
• What's the impact?
• How do we fix it?
• Who's responsible?
• When will it be done?

Step 5: Track Progress

Re-crawl after fixes to verify:

• Issues resolved
• No new issues introduced
• Rankings and traffic impact

Audit Frequency

• Full audit: Quarterly
• Quick checks: Monthly
• Monitoring: Continuous (set up alerts)

Technical SEO isn't a one-time project. It's ongoing maintenance that compounds over time.