By Prakhar KirsaliPublished Topic: SEO
Short answer
A technical SEO audit should answer three questions in order: can search engines crawl your important pages, are those pages indexed under the right URL, and can they understand what each page is about? Start in Google Search Console's Pages report, then check robots.txt, canonicals, the sitemap and internal links. Speed and markup come after.
The common failure in technical SEO audits is not missing an item — it is treating a missing alt attribute with the same urgency as a service page that Google has never indexed. Below is the order I work in, starting with the problems that stop pages from appearing at all.
1. Indexing: are your money pages actually in Google?
Open Search Console, go to Indexing → Pages, and look at the reasons pages are not indexed. Then use URL Inspection on every page that should bring enquiries: each service page, each location page, the contact page.
"Crawled – currently not indexed" usually means Google saw the page and did not think it was worth indexing — often thin or duplicate content. "Discovered – currently not indexed" usually means Google has not got round to crawling it, which points to weak internal linking or a large number of low-value URLs competing for attention.
- Example: a plumbing company has /emergency-plumber in the menu, but URL Inspection shows "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" pointing at the homepage. The page will never rank until that canonical is fixed.
2. Crawl blocks: robots.txt and noindex
Read robots.txt line by line. A leftover `Disallow: /` from a staging site, or a rule blocking /wp-content/ or a JavaScript folder, can stop Google rendering the page properly. Then search the page source of key templates for `noindex` — page builders and SEO plugins sometimes apply it to whole post types.
3. Canonicals and duplicate URLs
Every indexable page should have a canonical pointing to itself, on one consistent version of the URL: one protocol (https), one host (www or not), one trailing-slash convention. Check that http, non-www and trailing-slash variants redirect with a single 301 rather than a chain.
Tracking parameters (utm_source, gclid, fbclid) should not produce separately indexed pages. A self-referencing canonical on the clean URL handles this.
4. XML sitemap
The sitemap should list only canonical, indexable, 200-status URLs. If it includes redirected pages, tag archives or thank-you pages, it is telling Google those pages matter. Submit it in Search Console and compare the submitted count with the indexed count.
5. Internal links
Pages linked from the main navigation and from related content get crawled and understood faster than pages reachable only from the sitemap. Each service page should be linked from the menu or services hub, and from the articles that discuss its topic, with descriptive anchor text rather than "click here".
6. Titles, headings and page purpose
One H1 per page, a unique title under roughly 60 characters, and a meta description that states what the page offers. Two pages targeting the same phrase compete with each other; merge or differentiate them.
7. Speed, mobile and structured data
Check Core Web Vitals in Search Console for templates that fail, especially mobile. Add structured data only where it reflects visible content — Organization, Service, BreadcrumbList, Article — and never invent reviews or ratings.
| Check | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Indexing of service pages | Unindexed pages cannot rank at all | First |
| robots.txt / noindex | Can block whole sections silently | First |
| Canonicals and redirects | Splits or misdirects ranking signals | High |
| Sitemap hygiene | Guides crawling toward pages that matter | High |
| Internal links | Determines discovery and context | High |
| Titles and headings | Clarifies page purpose | Medium |
| Speed and structured data | Experience and eligibility for rich results | Medium |
What an audit will not do
Fixing technical issues makes ranking possible; it does not guarantee rankings. On a competitive service keyword, expect several months between fixes and meaningful movement, and content plus authority still matter. If you want this done as an ongoing service, that is what managed SEO covers.
Frequently asked questions
- How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
- A full audit after any redesign, migration or CMS change, and a lighter check of Search Console's indexing and Core Web Vitals reports every month.
- Do I need paid tools for a technical SEO audit?
- Not to start. Google Search Console covers indexing, sitemaps and Core Web Vitals. A crawler helps on larger sites to find redirects, broken links and duplicate titles at scale.
- Why is my page "Crawled – currently not indexed"?
- Google crawled it but chose not to index it. Common causes are thin or near-duplicate content, weak internal linking, or a page that does not clearly serve a distinct purpose.