How to Run a Technical SEO Audit (Step-by-Step Guide)
A step-by-step technical SEO audit guide — crawl setup, indexation checks, render diffs, log analysis and a prioritised, dev-ready fix list.
The step-by-step technical SEO audit process senior consultants use, plus the prioritised fix list devs actually ship.
Step 1: Crawl setup
Headless render. Mobile user-agent. Respect robots.txt. Crawl every template at least once.
Step 2: Indexation reconciliation
Compare sitemap vs GSC indexed vs crawl results. The deltas tell you the story.
Step 3: Render diff
Server HTML vs rendered HTML. If critical content only appears post-render, fix it.
Step 4: Log analysis
What is Googlebot actually crawling? Where is crawl budget being wasted?
Step 5: Core Web Vitals by template
Group URLs by template, score CWV per template. Fix the template, ship the win.
Step 6: Prioritised fix list
Effort vs impact. Ship the top 5 first. Re-crawl in 30 days.
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Keep reading
- The 2026 Technical SEO Audit Checklist (40 Checks)Forty technical SEO checks every site should pass in 2026 — with the fix patterns engineers actually need.
- Core Web Vitals 2026 Deep Dive: INP, LCP and the New BarCore Web Vitals moved on. Here's the 2026 deep dive — INP fixes, LCP image strategy and the new ranking bar.
- SEO-Friendly Web Development: A Guide for DevelopersAn SEO-friendly web development guide developers actually want to read — rendering, routing, schema, performance and the JS SEO traps.
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