A technical SEO audit is the health check that tells you whether search engines can reliably crawl, render, and index your site and whether users get a fast, stable experience.

The important part: the output should be a prioritized backlog, not a list of 200 warnings.

What a good audit delivers

For each issue you want:

Step 0 - Collect data (30-60 minutes)

Minimum:

Optional for bigger sites: server logs (bot behavior and crawl budget).

Step 1 - Indexation and canonical setup (P0)

If Google cannot index, nothing else matters.

Checklist:

Step 2 - Status codes and redirects (P0/P1)

This is about accessibility and preserving link equity.

Start with pages that get traffic or conversions.

Step 3 - Crawl efficiency and duplicates (P1)

Large sites leak crawl budget and relevance via:

Goal: reduce noise and push crawl to pages that matter.

Step 4 - Architecture and internal linking (P1)

This is where many sites win quickly.

Step 5 - Performance and Core Web Vitals (P1/P2)

Speed is mostly a UX problem, but it also affects crawling and conversion.

Typical wins:

Test on mobile and validate improvements on template level (not one page).

Step 6 - Rendering and JavaScript SEO (P1)

A site can look fine to users and still be weak for Google.

Check:

If rendering fails, content is effectively invisible for SEO.

Step 7 - Structured data and snippet quality (P2)

Structured data is not a ranking hack. It helps understanding and eligibility for rich results.

Step 8 - International SEO (only if relevant)

If you target multiple languages/countries:

Simple priority model

Quick audit checklist

How often should you run it?

Conclusion

Technical SEO is the foundation. Fix P0 blockers first, then structure and performance, then the details.