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Step By Step Technical SEO Audit Checklist to Boost Rankings In 2022

Summary: Ranking on websites is a tough job and today in the competitive market each enterprise desires to be on the top. The easiest method for achieving goals is to follow a roadmap that will directly lead to success.

For obtaining the desired ranking on various search engines, a business turns almost all the pages of SEO strategies. However, despite that, a business might not get the expected results timely. The reason behind that is those categories of businesses does not follow a roadmap. A roadmap is very much crucial as it set the route of what to do and how to do it. When a business must have a notepad maintaining a checklist of what are the missing factors which are becoming their barriers to ranking at the top of the global market while also stopping them from consistent ranking. With technical SEO, a business owner will get rid of the endless night’s sleep while getting their work moving forward.

Let us dive into the greater details of technical SEO audit.

What is a technical SEO audit?

A technical report is like analyzing entire websites thoroughly to spot the changes in all relevant aspects that might affect their online visibility. They exist in two diverse natures namely:

  • Technical 
  • Non-technical 

Technical SEO mostly deals with factors that are external. They are not a part of the content and links provided by the website. It deals with the guidelines that are related to the SEO or the algorithm which affects the indexation and the crawling factors. Additionally, technical SEO is related to the end-user experience. For figuring out the real cause behind the underperformance of the website, technical SEO is the ideal tactic to opt for. Applying it carefully can aid to spot the real technical cause and eventually find out a solution, helping websites to rank notably with no errors.

Quick SEO Audit Steps

  1. Firstly check the issues which are broadly affecting the site’s performance.
  2. Start with the analysis of the backlinks.
  3. Check and discover existing on-site problems which are notable and easy to fix.
  4. Follow up with a quick content analysis.

These were the quick and simple SEO audit steps. After this, come to the process of technical SEO audit. Experts working for technical SEO audits do not take much time. This is because SEO requires a few hours to detect issues from a website. Although it is a quick process, it must be performed once in three months while the mini and sub audits must be conducted once a month. This way there will not be any issues on the live website that will enhance the visibility and reach.

Technical SEO Audit Checklist

  1. Check header status
  2. Check broken links
  3. Check Google indexing and cache of the pages
  4. Txt creation
  5. XML sitemap analysis
  6. Canonicalization
  7. Footer optimization
  8. Breadcrumbs
  9. Mobile accessibility
  10. Pagination tags analysis
  11. Page speed
  12. Schema markup
  13. HTML code analysis
  14. Custom 404 page
  15. URL structure analysis
  16. HTML site map creation
  17. Website usability

All of the above is undoubtedly crucial for a website to run smoothly with effectiveness. None can be ignored over the other. However, within the list, there are some that businesses must apply and have in-depth knowledge that will set them on the path of having an error-free website that will have the maximum reach.

  • Checking header status

A website or a URL always returns with a status code of 200 or 301. When a website returns a 200 code, it indicates that the website sin user-friendly. The website can be found effortlessly while it responds with quality pages. At times when the page is not found, it occurs with a 404 Page Not Found pop-up where it directly sends to the page of 200. Contrastingly, a 301 page is created when links do not respond. By creating a 301 page, the audiences are redirected to the actual page they have been fetching for.

  • Broken Links Check

Site Explorer is the best for checking broken site links. Reach the pages option to choose the best links. The process can be done flawlessly by setting a 404 filter. Broken links prominently create a negative impression as when the audience clicks on those broken links, they are sent to the page which will appear as the 404 error page, instead of the actual website they are looking for.

  • Robot.Txt Creation Analysis

Robot.Txt files instruct the search engines that what sections of the websites can be crawled into and on which ones to not. As robot.txt is an important aspect of indexing a site, it is vital to work with it properly as mistakes can result in compounding the SEO problems. If there is any text-related issue, then using a technical SEO text checker is ideal.

  • Footer Optimization

Footer optimization is the best technical SEO roadmap. It is great for boosting up the SEO in a short span of time. Links are created in order to redirect audiences to the websites and these are prominently added to the footer section. The more there is a number of links, the more becomes the chances of the website ranking on search engines. Additionally, as mobile is an accessible platform, footer optimization is a great way for engaging audiences from the vast digital landscape.

  • Speed Analysis

Speed is something that keeps a visitor on the page or off the page. Customers often stay on the page when the sites are prompt. The patience of the online audience is a maximum of up to 3 seconds. If the website takes a longer time than that, the audience loses interest and takes an exit from that page. This creates a negative impact on the business website. Those customers might not visit the website again. So, to boost the page speed, optimize the website with schema or structured data that will uplift the search engine ranking. With schema, the search engines get empowered by availing informative results from the site. Structure data testing tools can also be helpful for this purpose.

  • Mobile Friendly

Mobile friendliness is something that users prefer the most. The reason behind that is mobiles are convenient to use for surfing through websites. It is all about excellent user experience and the site is swift and responsive. Google highly prefers those websites which are prompt while providing an excellent experience to the visitors. As a result, the possibilities of ranking websites increase.

  • Analyzing Usability

Among the various SEO tactics, understanding the usability of the website is an important feature. According to Google, SEO and website usability works for hand in hand and the reason is that their combination enhances the user experience to another level. For increasing the usability of business websites, the core step is to input quality content. Content drives a vast array of customers. The tonality and the language used compel the customers to stay on the page and surf through the products and services. Moreover, quality contents reactivate the dead links which were long gone for not using or for any other issue.

  • HTML Code Analysis

When the HTML coding and elements are put accordingly, it ensures that a website ranks at the top and in a better way. Be it header tags, meta description tags, or structured data, it helps search engines recognize the site better and be visible to the global audience.

Once you have done a thorough technical audit of the websites, the positive changes in the rankings will be prominently seen in some time. We at Maviq Software, focus on customer satisfaction which our team serves with the best technical SEO audits one can ever imagine. It is indeed a lengthy process and thus if you wish to save some time for revising your business strategies, leave your work to our experts. Call us today and get professional services that will make your website rank at the top.