Technical Audit
Technical SEO Audits
A Technical SEO audit examines how your website is structured, crawled and indexed.
We combine crawler data, search performance information and manual analysis to identify issues that deserve attention.
- Crawlability
- Indexation
- Status codes
- Redirects
- Canonicalisation
- Robots directives
- XML sitemaps
- Internal linking
- Crawl depth
- Site architecture
- Duplicate content
- URL parameters
- Pagination
- Faceted navigation
- Orphan pages
- Structured data
- Mobile usability
- Page performance
- JavaScript rendering
- International targeting
- Website migrations
- Search Console issues
The outcome should not simply be a spreadsheet full of errors. We turn findings into recommendations with context, priority and practical next steps.
Discovery
Crawlability Analysis
Search engines need access to important pages before those pages can be evaluated for search.
Crawl problems can arise from:
- Incorrect robots.txt directives
- Broken internal links
- Excessive redirects
- Poor site architecture
- Unnecessary URL parameters
- Infinite crawl spaces
- Faceted navigation
- JavaScript-dependent navigation
- Pages with no internal links
- Large volumes of low-value URLs
We review how search engines can move through your website and whether crawl paths reflect the pages you actually want prioritised.
For larger websites, this becomes especially important because technical inefficiencies can scale across thousands of URLs.
Search Index
Indexation Analysis
More indexed pages do not automatically mean better SEO.
The goal is for the right pages to be indexed.
We investigate whether important URLs are missing from search while low-value or duplicate pages are being indexed unnecessarily.
- Indexed vs non-indexed URLs
- Noindex directives
- Canonical signals
- Duplicate content
- Soft 404s
- Redirected URLs
- Parameter pages
- Search-result pages
- Tag and taxonomy pages
- Thin or low-value URLs
- Product variations
- Staging or development URLs
- Historical pages
A cleaner index can make it easier for search engines to understand which pages represent the strongest version of your content.
Duplicate Control
Canonicalisation and Duplicate URL Issues
Websites can accidentally create several URLs representing the same or very similar content.
- URL parameters
- Tracking parameters
- Product variations
- HTTP and HTTPS versions
- WWW and non-WWW versions
- Trailing slash differences
- Filter combinations
- Sorting URLs
- Duplicate categories
- Print versions
- CMS-generated paths
Canonical tags help communicate the preferred version of a page, but incorrect canonicalisation can create problems of its own.
We review whether canonical signals are:
- Present where required
- Self-referencing where appropriate
- Pointing to valid pages
- Consistent with redirects
- Consistent with sitemaps
- Consistent with internal links
- Aligned with the page you want indexed
Technical signals should reinforce one another rather than send contradictory instructions.
Crawl Directives
Robots.txt and Meta Robots Management
Incorrect crawl and indexation directives can remove important pages from search or allow low-value areas of a website to consume unnecessary crawl activity.
- Robots.txt rules
- Meta robots directives
- X-Robots-Tag directives where relevant
- Noindex implementation
- Crawl blocks
- CMS-generated directives
- Staging protections
Blocking crawling and preventing indexation are not always the same thing. We consider the actual objective before recommending technical directives.
Discovery Signals
XML Sitemap Optimisation
XML sitemaps help search engines discover the URLs a website considers important.
But they are most useful when they remain clean and intentional.
We review whether your sitemap contains:
- Canonical URLs
- Indexable pages
- Valid status codes
- Current pages
- Relevant content types
And whether it unnecessarily includes:
- Redirected URLs
- Noindexed URLs
- Duplicate URLs
- Deleted pages
- Low-value taxonomy pages
- Broken URLs
For larger websites, we may also recommend separating sitemaps logically by page type to make indexation monitoring easier.
Architecture
Site Architecture and Crawl Depth
Your site structure affects both users and search engines.
Important pages should not be hidden deep within the website while less valuable pages receive stronger internal exposure.
We evaluate relationships between:
- Homepage
- Main service or category pages
- Subservices or subcategories
- Products
- Locations
- Articles
- Supporting content
A strong architecture helps communicate which topics matter most, how pages are related and which URLs deserve greater internal authority.
Internal Authority
Internal Linking Technical Analysis
Internal links are one of the strongest tools available within your own website.
They help search engines:
- Discover URLs
- Understand page relationships
- Interpret context
- Distribute internal authority
- Identify important pages
We look for issues such as:
- Orphan pages
- Important pages with too few links
- Excessive links to low-value URLs
- Broken internal links
- Redirecting internal links
- Poor anchor text
- Weak content relationships
- Important pages buried too deeply
We then improve the flow of internal authority across the site.
URL Changes
Redirect Audits and Redirect Strategy
Redirects are necessary when URLs change.
Poorly managed redirects can create unnecessary losses in performance.
- Redirect chains
- Redirect loops
- Broken redirects
- Irrelevant destination redirects
- Important URLs redirected to the homepage
- HTTP versions left unresolved
- Internal links still pointing through redirects
We audit existing redirect behaviour and create redirect mapping when websites undergo major URL changes or migrations.
The objective is to preserve relevance and create the cleanest possible path from old URLs to their best current equivalents.
High-Risk SEO
Website Migration SEO
Website migrations can create some of the highest technical SEO risk.
A redesign may look better while organic traffic declines because important SEO signals were lost during launch.
Domain Changes
Moving to a different domain.
Platform Changes
Moving between CMS or ecommerce systems.
Website Redesigns
Structural or template changes.
URL Changes
Changing paths or site hierarchy.
HTTP to HTTPS
Protocol migration.
Subdomain Changes
Moving content between hosts.
Site Consolidations
Merging multiple websites.
Ecommerce Migration
Changing commerce platforms.
A technical migration plan may include:
- Pre-launch crawling
- URL inventories
- Redirect mapping
- Metadata preservation
- Canonical checks
- Internal linking
- Sitemap updates
- Robots checks
- Structured data reviews
- Analytics and Search Console considerations
- Post-launch crawling
- Indexation monitoring
- Ranking and traffic monitoring
The best time to involve SEO is before the new site launches, not after rankings disappear.
Rendering
JavaScript SEO
Modern websites increasingly rely on JavaScript for navigation, content and functionality.
That can create technical SEO complications when important content or links are heavily dependent on client-side rendering.
- Rendered page content
- JavaScript-generated internal links
- Lazy-loaded content
- Client-side navigation
- Dynamic metadata
- Rendering differences
- Important content hidden from initial HTML
- JavaScript-generated canonicals or directives
The objective is not to remove JavaScript. It is to make sure important SEO content and navigation remain reliably accessible.
Performance
Page Experience and Performance
Website performance affects user experience and can become particularly important on mobile devices or complex websites.
We review performance issues from an SEO perspective rather than treating every millisecond as a ranking emergency.
- Largest Contentful Paint
- Interaction responsiveness
- Layout stability
- Image optimisation
- Render-blocking resources
- Excessive scripts
- Large page assets
- Third-party scripts
- Theme or plugin overhead
- Mobile performance
Where development work is required, we translate technical findings into clear recommendations for your developer.
Performance should support both usability and search visibility.
Page Experience
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals provide useful signals around real-world page experience.
Poor scores can also expose broader website problems such as:
- Heavy themes
- Unoptimised images
- Large JavaScript bundles
- Layout movement
- Slow server response
- Excessive third-party integrations
We analyse these metrics within the wider SEO context.
A website should not abandon higher-impact SEO work simply to chase a perfect performance score, but serious usability and loading issues should not be ignored either.
Structured Data
Structured Data and Schema Markup
Structured data helps search engines understand specific information on a page in a more explicit format.
- Organisation
- LocalBusiness
- Product
- Offer
- Review
- BreadcrumbList
- Article
- Service
- FAQ where appropriate
- Event
- Video
We can review existing structured data for:
- Errors
- Conflicting markup
- Missing important properties
- Duplicate implementation
- Plugin conflicts
- Inaccurate information
- Unsupported or unnecessary markup
Schema should accurately represent the content users can actually see. It is an enhancement, not a replacement for strong pages.
Ecommerce Technical SEO
Technical SEO for Ecommerce Websites
Ecommerce sites often create the most complex technical SEO environments.
A product catalogue can generate thousands of additional URLs through filters, variations, search parameters and pagination.
- Category architecture
- Product indexing
- Faceted navigation
- Filter URLs
- Product variants
- Canonicalisation
- Pagination
- Out-of-stock products
- Duplicate product paths
- Internal search pages
- Product schema
- Crawl efficiency
- Internal linking
- Large XML sitemaps
Small structural improvements can have sitewide effects when applied across large catalogues.
Scale
Technical SEO for Large and Growing Websites
Technical SEO becomes increasingly important as websites scale.
Problems that are insignificant across 20 URLs can become serious when repeated across 20,000.
- Crawl patterns
- Template-level problems
- Sitewide internal linking
- Taxonomy structure
- URL generation
- Duplicate templates
- Large-scale redirects
- Indexation patterns
- Programmatic pages
- Log file analysis
- Site migrations
Our focus remains the same: identify which technical changes can create meaningful improvement and prioritise them accordingly.
Crawler Behaviour
Log File Analysis
For sufficiently large or technically complex websites, server log files can provide insight into how search-engine crawlers actually interact with the site.
Log analysis may help identify:
- Frequently crawled sections
- Important pages receiving limited crawling
- Crawl waste
- Broken URLs repeatedly requested
- Redirect patterns
- Unnecessary parameter crawling
- Search-bot behaviour across site sections
Not every website needs log file analysis. We recommend it when the site's scale and technical problems justify the additional depth.
International SEO
International and Multilingual Technical SEO
Websites targeting several countries or languages introduce additional technical considerations.
- Country-specific URLs
- Language-specific URLs
- Hreflang implementation
- Canonicalisation
- Duplicate translated content
- Internal linking between regions
- Sitemap structure
- International site architecture
Incorrect implementation can cause search engines to surface the wrong page in the wrong market.
We help establish clearer relationships between regional or language versions.
Dynamic URLs
Pagination, Filters and URL Parameters
Dynamic websites often generate many URL variations.
This is common across:
- Ecommerce stores
- Directories
- Listings websites
- Publishers
- Property websites
- Large databases
We evaluate whether those URLs:
- Provide independent search value
- Need to be crawled
- Need to be indexed
- Should consolidate into another page
- Create duplicate content
- Waste internal authority
- Create infinite crawl paths
The solution varies according to the platform and search demand.
We avoid applying blanket technical rules without understanding how the site works.
Content Discovery
Orphan Pages and Content Discovery
An orphan page has no meaningful internal link path from the wider website.
It may still exist in a sitemap or receive external links, but its isolation can weaken discovery and context.
We identify orphaned:
- Service pages
- Product pages
- Categories
- Articles
- Location pages
- Legacy URLs
Then determine whether each page should:
- Be integrated into the site architecture
- Be redirected
- Be consolidated
- Remain intentionally isolated
- Be removed
Not every orphan needs saving. The page first needs a reason to exist.