Technical SEO Audit Checklist

CRAWLABILITY AUDIT

Robots.txt Analysis

ROBOTS.TXT CHECKLIST

LOCATION:
☐ Accessible at domain.com/robots.txt
☐ Returns 200 status code
☐ UTF-8 encoded

CONTENT REVIEW:
☐ User-agent directives correct
☐ No critical pages blocked
☐ Sitemap location specified
☐ Crawl-delay appropriate (if used)

COMMON ISSUES:
☐ Not accidentally blocking /wp-admin (WordPress)
☐ Not blocking CSS/JS files
☐ Not blocking images needed for rendering
☐ Not blocking entire site (User-agent: * Disallow: /)

TESTING:
☐ Test in Google Search Console robots.txt tester
☐ Verify blocked URLs are intentional

XML Sitemap Review

Check	Status	Notes
Sitemap exists	☐	Location:
Submitted to GSC	☐	Date:
Returns 200 status	☐
Valid XML format	☐
Under 50MB / 50k URLs	☐	Size:
Only canonical URLs	☐
No 4xx/5xx URLs	☐
Recently updated	☐	Last:

Crawl Budget Optimization

CRAWL BUDGET AUDIT

CRAWL STATS (from Search Console):
Total crawl requests: _____/day
Average response time: _____ms
Pages crawled: _____

ISSUES WASTING CRAWL BUDGET:
☐ Faceted navigation creating infinite URLs
☐ Session IDs in URLs
☐ Calendar pages generating endless dates
☐ Internal search results indexed
☐ Duplicate content (www vs non-www, http vs https)
☐ Soft 404 pages (200 status but "not found" content)

OPTIMIZATION ACTIONS:
☐ Block unnecessary pages in robots.txt
☐ Use noindex for low-value pages
☐ Implement canonical tags properly
☐ Fix redirect chains
☐ Improve server response time

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INDEXATION AUDIT

Index Coverage Analysis

INDEX COVERAGE CHECK (from Search Console)

SUMMARY:
Valid indexed pages: _____
Excluded pages: _____
Error pages: _____

ERROR TYPES:
☐ Server errors (5xx): _____
☐ Redirect errors: _____
☐ Submitted URL blocked by robots.txt: _____
☐ Submitted URL marked 'noindex': _____
☐ Soft 404: _____
☐ 404 not found: _____

EXCLUDED (INTENTIONAL):
☐ Blocked by robots.txt: _____
☐ Noindex tag: _____
☐ Alternate page with canonical: _____
☐ Duplicate without user-selected canonical: _____

EXCLUDED (INVESTIGATE):
☐ Crawled - currently not indexed: _____
☐ Discovered - not indexed: _____

Canonical Tag Audit

Issue	Check	Action
Missing canonicals	☐	Add self-referencing canonicals
Conflicting canonicals	☐	Resolve conflicts
Canonical to 404	☐	Update or remove
Canonical to redirect	☐	Point to final URL
HTTP in canonical (site is HTTPS)	☐	Update to HTTPS

Duplicate Content Audit

DUPLICATE CONTENT CHECKLIST

PROTOCOL DUPLICATES:
☐ HTTP redirects to HTTPS
☐ No HTTP pages indexed

WWW DUPLICATES:
☐ Consistent www or non-www
☐ Proper redirects in place

TRAILING SLASH DUPLICATES:
☐ Consistent trailing slash policy
☐ Proper redirects in place

PARAMETER DUPLICATES:
☐ UTM parameters not creating duplicates
☐ Sort/filter parameters handled
☐ Search Console parameter handling set

CONTENT DUPLICATES:
☐ No identical pages at different URLs
☐ Similar pages have unique value
☐ Proper canonicalization

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PERFORMANCE AUDIT

Core Web Vitals Assessment

CORE WEB VITALS AUDIT

METRICS (from Search Console / PageSpeed Insights):

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint):
Desktop: _____ (Target: <2.5s)
Mobile: _____ (Target: <2.5s)
Status: Good/Needs Improvement/Poor

FID (First Input Delay) / INP (Interaction to Next Paint):
Desktop: _____ (Target: <100ms / <200ms)
Mobile: _____ (Target: <100ms / <200ms)
Status: Good/Needs Improvement/Poor

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift):
Desktop: _____ (Target: <0.1)
Mobile: _____ (Target: <0.1)
Status: Good/Needs Improvement/Poor

PAGES NEEDING ATTENTION:
1. _______________
2. _______________
3. _______________

Page Speed Analysis

Factor	Issue	Fix
Large images	☐	Compress, use WebP, lazy load
Unminified CSS/JS	☐	Minify and combine
No browser caching	☐	Set cache headers
Too many HTTP requests	☐	Combine files, use sprites
No compression	☐	Enable Gzip/Brotli
Render-blocking resources	☐	Defer non-critical CSS/JS
Large DOM size	☐	Simplify page structure

Mobile Optimization

MOBILE-FRIENDLINESS AUDIT

MOBILE USABILITY (Search Console):
☐ No mobile usability issues
☐ Text readable without zoom
☐ Tap targets appropriately sized
☐ No horizontal scrolling
☐ Viewport configured correctly

MOBILE RENDERING:
☐ Content identical on mobile/desktop
☐ No hidden content on mobile
☐ Images responsive
☐ Videos playable
☐ Forms usable

TECHNICAL:
☐ Responsive design (not separate mobile site)
☐ Mobile-first indexing ready
☐ AMP pages valid (if used)

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SITE ARCHITECTURE AUDIT

URL Structure Analysis

URL STRUCTURE CHECKLIST

FORMAT:
☐ Lowercase URLs
☐ Hyphens (not underscores)
☐ No special characters
☐ Readable (not ID-based)

LENGTH:
☐ Under 115 characters
☐ Keywords present
☐ Not keyword-stuffed

DEPTH:
☐ Important pages within 3 clicks of homepage
☐ Logical hierarchy
☐ Category structure makes sense

ISSUES FOUND:
1. _______________
2. _______________

Internal Link Analysis

Metric	Value	Target
Avg. links per page		50-100
Orphan pages		0
Pages >3 clicks from home		<10%
Broken internal links		0

Redirect Audit

REDIRECT AUDIT

REDIRECT TYPES:
301 (permanent): _____
302 (temporary): _____
Meta refresh: _____
JavaScript redirects: _____

ISSUES:
☐ Redirect chains (>1 hop): _____
☐ Redirect loops: _____
☐ 302s that should be 301s: _____
☐ Redirects to 404: _____
☐ HTTPS → HTTP redirects: _____

ACTION:
☐ Fix all chains to direct redirects
☐ Update 302s to 301s where appropriate
☐ Remove or fix broken redirects

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SECURITY AUDIT

HTTPS Implementation

HTTPS SECURITY CHECKLIST

CERTIFICATE:
☐ Valid SSL certificate
☐ Not expired
☐ Covers all subdomains
☐ Strong encryption (TLS 1.2+)

IMPLEMENTATION:
☐ All pages served via HTTPS
☐ HTTP redirects to HTTPS
☐ No mixed content warnings
☐ HSTS header implemented

SEARCH CONSOLE:
☐ HTTPS property added
☐ Set as preferred version

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