Simple Guide for SEO Technical Audits and Why You Need Them

Every website needs technical search engine optimization (SEO) audits at least once a year or after significant website updates. If you experience a drop in search rankings or traffic, conduct a website audit as soon as possible.

This simple guide is about the basics of a technical SEO audit, and it includes:

• Steps to perform a technical SEO audit
• Why your site needs a technical SEO audit

A trusted Chicago technical SEO agency begins every campaign with a thorough audit. Find out how it could save your site. Let’s go!

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Steps To Perform a Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit identifies issues on a website that can affect its visibility and performance on search engines. Businesses gain insights about website performance and prioritize improvements. Below are the steps to perform a technical SEO audit.

     1. Find and Fix Crawlability and Indexability Problems

"Crawlability" refers to how easily search engine spider bots can access and navigate a website. If search engine spiders have trouble crawling your website, they might not be able to index all your content, which could hurt your rankings. 

Indexability, on the other hand, refers to the ability of a search engine to analyze and add a page to its database. Websites that are difficult to index may not appear in search results or may rank lower than they should.

An expert Chicago technical SEO agency performs a site audit and uses these strategies to fix crawlability and indexability problems:

• Uses a broken link checker tool to identify and fix broken links.
• Checks for noindex tags and removes them from essential pages.
• Ensures critical pages aren't blocked by the robots.txt file.
• Removes or improves pages with thin content.

     2. Check Website Architecture

Website architecture refers to how information on a website is laid out and structured. It includes the linking structure of pages and the categorization of content. Usability, crawlability, and search engine optimization (SEO) can all take a hit if a website has poor architecture.

An SEO technical audit can find various website architecture problems. Here are some tips on how to improve them:

• Use labeled navigation menus to simplify website navigation.
• Optimize website code and images with a content delivery network (CDN) or caching tools to speed up loading.
• Use a broken link checker to find and fix internal links.

     3. Review and Fix Internal Linking

Internal linking is the process of connecting pages on the same website. These aid web crawlers in comprehending a site's hierarchy and prioritizing its pages. However, problems with the site's internal links can have a negative effect on its SEO rankings.

A technical SEO partner can review and fix internal linking issues by:

• Using a website crawler such as Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to find internal linking issues
• Adding internal links to orphan pages from other website content
• Updating broken links to point to the correct page
• Using anchor text that accurately describes the content on the linked page to increase the internal links' SEO value
• Linking to important pages on your website more often
• Using a consistent linking structure throughout the website (e.g., exact anchor text, link placement, and linking frequency)

     4. Locate and Fix Duplicate Content

"Duplicate content" refers to the same material published on multiple website pages. Due to search engines' inability to distinguish between original and copied published information, duplicate content can hurt SEO, lowering search engine rankings for affected pages. 

Here's how technical SEO specialists find and fix duplicate content issues through a technical SEO audit:

• Find duplicate content using a tool such as Screaming Frog or Google Search Console.
• Determine the source of the duplicate content, which version is the original, and which is the copy. Examine the content on each page and the dates when these were published.
• Use canonical tags to tell search engines which version of a page is the original.
• Rewrite duplicate content to make each page unique.
• Remove duplicate content and redirect any traffic from the removed page to another relevant page on the website.

     5. Check Website Performance

Checking website performance is an essential part of a technical SEO audit. Website speed and page load times are important factors that can affect a website's search engine ranking and user experience. 

Slow-loading websites can result in higher bounce rates, lower user engagement, and reduced conversion rates. Here's how to check website performance and fix any issues:

• Check website speed using Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix.
• Optimize images by compressing or reducing their file size using tools such as TinyPNG or Compressor.io.
• Minimize HTTP requests to speed up page load times.
• Use a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver content to users from the closest server to them to improve page load times.
• Reduce server response time by optimizing server configuration, upgrading to a faster hosting provider, and reducing the number of plugins and scripts.

     6. Locate Mobile-Friendliness Concerns

Mobile friendliness is how well a website performs and displays on smartphones, tablets, and other similar devices. With more and more users accessing websites on their gadgets, a mobile-friendly website improves the user experience and SEO.

To check for and fix mobile-friendliness issues, an expert technical SEO agency uses these strategies:

• Tests web pages using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
• Optimizes website design using a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
• Makes content easily accessible on mobile devices by improving font size, images, and video formats.
• Promotes mobile search by including mobile-specific keywords and phrases in the content and using structured data to provide context to search engines.

     7. Check Code Issues

Coding errors occur when there are problems with a website's codes (be it HTML, CSS, or JavaScript). Coding issues negatively affect website performance, user experience, and search engine ranking. 

A technical SEO audit helps detect code problems, so experts can immediately fix them. Here are common issues and how to improve them:

• Validate HTML and CSS with W3C or CSS Validators to find errors. 
• Optimize code by removing any unnecessary code, whitespace, or comments; then, compress codes by minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
• Use structured data to help search engines understand a website's content, including titles, descriptions, images, and other relevant information.
• Improve website security by ensuring the website's code is secure using HTTPS encryption, updating website software, and regular monitoring.

     8. Eliminate HTTPS Issues

HTTPS issues are problems related to secure data transmission between a website and its users. A technical SEO audit of a website can find HTTP issues, so experts can quickly fix them. It takes the following strategies to remove HTTP concerns:

• Check the SSL certificate by looking for the padlock icon in the browser's address bar. It indicates that the connection is secure.
• Use HTTPS by default for all pages on the website. A redirect can automatically lead visitors from HTTP to HTTPS.
• Check mixed content using tools such as HTTPS Checker.
• Consider HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to force the browser to use HTTPS for all communication with the website.
• Check for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) version for secure communication over the internet. Use the latest version of TLS 1.3.

Why Your Site Needs a Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit is vital for all websites because it identifies and fixes technical issues preventing them from ranking well in search engine results pages (SERPs). With an audit, websites can:

• Improve crawlability by identifying broken links, duplicate content, or slow loading times. These hinder search engine crawlers from accessing and indexing web pages.
• Enhance the user experience by improving website performance, speed, and user-friendliness.
• Enhance search visibility. Fixing technical issues can help a website rank better and reach potential customers.
• Stay competitive by conducting regular technical SEO audits.

Summing Up

A technical SEO audit helps find and fix issues that affect website ranking. Whether it's duplicate content or slow website speeds, an audit improves performance, accessibility, reach, and SEO. Contact an expert today if you still doubt whether your site needs a technical audit.

Call Digital Authority Partners and learn how to improve your website with an SEO audit today.