Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving qualified organic traffic and leads to your website. However, with Google's algorithms evolving rapidly, what worked yesterday may not work today. That's why performing regular technical SEO audits is essential to stay on top of the latest best practices and identify issues impacting your site's performance.
This complete 2023 guide will teach you how to conduct an effective technical SEO audit to improve your website's search visibility and rankings. You’ll learn what factors to analyze both on and off-page, how to audit large enterprise sites, create actionable reports, and more. Let's dive in!
What is a Technical SEO Audit?
In short, a technical SEO audit analyzes various on-page and off-page elements to identify problems negatively affecting a website's search engine rankings and visibility. An audit provides an optimization roadmap to fix issues and implement improvements to boost organic traffic, leads, and revenue.
A comprehensive technical SEO audit should examine the following elements:
Crawlability and Indexation Analysis
This checks that search engines can easily access and crawl your site, including:
- Robots.txt file
- XML sitemap setup and submission in Search Console
- Indexation issues like pages blocked from indexing
- Broken links and other crawl errors
On-Page Optimization Factors
On-page elements directly impact page rankings and should be optimized, including:
- Page titles and meta descriptions
- H1 and H2 tags
- Image alt text
- Content structure, keywords and formatting
- URL structures and slugs
Technical Site Setup
Proper technical configuration ensures smooth crawling and indexing, including:
- Secure HTTPS website
- Efficient hosting and page speeds
- Proper use of canonical tags
- Clean code and site architecture
Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Google's page experience ranking factors like fast speeds and good UX signals must be measured and improved.
Structured Data Implementation
Adding schema markup improves rich results and snippets for better CTR.
Accessibility and Mobile-Friendliness
Your site should be accessible to all users and function well on mobile devices.
Auditing Large Corporate Websites
Auditing a large corporate website brings unique challenges including:
Crawl Budget Analysis
Understand how Google is crawling and indexing your large site to optimize crawl budget allocation.
Page Sampling
Use a representative sample of pages and sections for more efficient auditing.
Prioritizing High-Value Pages
Focus auditing on pages with the most search visibility and business impact first.
Leveraging SEO Tools
Robust SEO crawlers and site auditors like DeepCrawl and Botify can analyze large websites.
Creating Actionable Audit Reports
Your audit report should:
- Follow a consistent template and checklist.
- Clearly highlight priority issues to fix.
- Provide specific recommendations for optimizing pages.
- Compare results to previous audits to demonstrate progress.
Focus on presenting actionable data insights that make next steps clear for your dev team and stakeholders.
The Importance of Regular Technical SEO Audits
Regular technical SEO audits are crucial for continuously improving your website’s search presence and staying ahead of Google’s algorithm changes. By following the guidelines in this guide, you can identify issues through on-page optimizations, site performance, structured data and more. Focus on creating detailed reports to convey meaningful insights and recommendations.
With a well-planned technical audit and optimization roadmap, you can resolve crawler issues, improve page experience, and boost your website’s organic search visibility over time. Monitor your progress using tools like Google Search Console and Analytics. Keep your site optimized for search engines in 2023 and beyond!
