The 12-point technical audit we run on every client site.

A technical audit is a systematic check of the site conditions that determine whether Google can find, read, and rank your pages. It is not a report full of scores and charts. It is a working diagnosis — each point either clears or flags an issue that needs fixing before other SEO work can land.

Most small business sites have three to six issues from this list at any given time. Some are quick fixes. Some require a developer. All of them matter, because a clean technical foundation is the first condition for search visibility. If the foundation is broken, content and links do not help as much as they should.

1. Crawlability and indexation

Google has to be able to reach your pages before it can rank them. The first thing we check is whether the site is blocking crawlers — intentionally or by accident. We pull the robots.txt file, check for disallow rules that are too broad, and cross-reference with the sitemap. Then we look at which pages are indexed in Google Search Console versus which ones exist on the site. Gaps between those two numbers tell a story. A page that exists but is not indexed is invisible to search. That is not a traffic problem — it is a foundation problem.

2. XML sitemap health

A sitemap tells Google which pages you consider important and when they were last updated. We check that the sitemap exists, that it is submitted in Search Console, and that it contains only canonical, indexable URLs. Sitemaps that include redirects, noindex pages, or broken links send mixed signals. Google does not trust a sitemap that contradicts itself. Cleaning it up is a small task with a disproportionate return.

3. Site speed and Core Web Vitals

Page speed is a ranking factor and a conversion factor. A slow site loses visitors before they read a word. We run every client site through Google PageSpeed Insights and look at the three Core Web Vitals scores — Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, and Interaction to Next Paint. These scores measure how the page feels to a real user, not just how fast the server responds.

For a full breakdown of what these numbers mean and what triggers a poor score, Core Web Vitals: the three numbers that decide if Google bothers is worth reading before you touch your site. And if you want to understand why speed is a revenue issue, not just a technical one, Why your slow site is a sales problem, not an IT problem makes the case with numbers.

Common causes of poor speed scores: uncompressed images, too many third-party scripts, no caching, and a slow hosting environment. Most of these are fixable without a full rebuild.

4. Mobile usability

Google indexes the mobile version of your site first. If your site is hard to use on a phone — small tap targets, text that overflows, content wider than the screen — it will rank lower than a mobile-friendly competitor with equivalent content. We check mobile usability through Search Console's dedicated report and by manually reviewing the site on a phone. The manual check catches things automated tools miss, like a phone number that is not click-to-call or a form that is impossible to complete on a small screen.

5. HTTPS and security

HTTPS is a baseline. If your site is still on HTTP, Google flags it as not secure and browsers warn visitors before they reach your page. We confirm the SSL certificate is valid, installed correctly, and covering all subdomains. We also check that HTTP URLs redirect to HTTPS, and that the certificate is not close to expiry. A lapsed certificate takes a site offline with no warning — that is a recoverable situation, but it costs rankings and trust.

6. URL structure and canonicalisation

Duplicate content is one of the most common and most overlooked technical problems on small business sites. The same page can be reachable at four different URLs: with and without www, with and without a trailing slash, on HTTP and HTTPS. If those versions are not consolidated — via canonical tags or redirects — Google sees multiple competing pages instead of one authoritative one. We map every variation, check the canonical tags, and confirm that one version is declared the source of truth across the site.

7. Internal linking structure

Internal links pass authority from page to page and help Google understand the hierarchy of your site. We look at which pages have no internal links pointing to them — called orphan pages — and which pages hoard links without passing them on. A well-structured site has a clear path from the homepage to every important service or location page. Orphan pages, no matter how well-written, rarely rank. Fixing internal links is often the fastest way to recover pages that have been sitting flat for months.

8. Redirect health

Redirects are necessary. Outdated redirects are a problem. We audit every redirect on the site — 301 permanent, 302 temporary, and the rest — and look for three failure patterns: chains (where A redirects to B which redirects to C), loops (where A redirects back to itself), and broken redirects that point to a 404. Every hop in a redirect chain costs a small amount of authority. A redirect loop prevents the page from loading at all. Both are fixable in an afternoon once they are identified.

9. Structured data and schema markup

Structured data tells Google what your content means, not just what it says. For professional and local service businesses, the most valuable schema types are LocalBusiness, ProfessionalService, FAQPage, and Review. We check whether schema is present, whether it is valid — using Google's Rich Results Test — and whether it matches what is actually on the page. Invalid or misleading schema can trigger a manual penalty. Missing schema is a missed opportunity for rich results in the SERP, which increase click-through rates without changing your ranking position.

10. Meta titles and descriptions

Meta titles are a direct ranking signal. Meta descriptions are not — but they influence whether someone clicks your result. We audit every page for missing titles, duplicate titles, and titles that are too long or too short. The target is 50 to 60 characters for titles, 120 to 155 for descriptions. More importantly, we check whether the title reflects the actual search intent of the page. A service page titled "Our Team" does not rank for anything a client would search. Rewriting it to reflect the service and location is a five-minute fix that can move a page within weeks.

11. Heading structure and on-page signals

Headings do two jobs: they help users scan the page, and they help Google understand what the page is about. We check that each page has one H1, that the H1 contains the primary keyword phrase, and that H2s and H3s are used to organise the content logically — not decorated with keywords for their own sake. Pages that have three H1 tags, or no H1 at all, send a weak signal about topical focus. This is an easy fix that most sites skip.

12. Google Search Console error review

Search Console is the most direct line of communication between Google and your site. It tells you which pages are excluded from the index and why, which URLs are returning errors, and whether any manual actions have been applied to the site. We do a full review of the Coverage report, the Page Indexing report, and the Core Web Vitals report inside Search Console. Most owners have Search Console connected but never open it. The issues it surfaces are real problems — not hypothetical ones — and fixing them is the fastest path to recovery on a site that has stalled.

Where this breaks down

A technical audit finds what is broken. It does not fix content that is thin, positions that are undefined, or a site that is targeting the wrong audience. We worked with McShanes Solicitors on exactly this sequence — clean the technical foundation first, then sharpen the positioning — because one without the other produces incomplete results. If a site has no content worth ranking, a clean audit buys headroom, not rankings. The audit clears the path. The content and positioning work fills it.

How we use the audit

We do not deliver the audit as a report and walk away. Each of the 12 points produces a finding — clear, flag, or fix — and the flags become a prioritised action list. High-impact, low-effort fixes go first. Issues that require developer time get scoped and scheduled. We sit with the client, walk through what we found, and agree on the order of repairs before anything else starts.

This is the Audit step in our Discover → Audit → Position → Roadmap → Present → Walk method. It comes before content, before link building, before any campaign work. That sequence is not arbitrary. You cannot build search visibility on a foundation that is leaking authority from broken redirects, duplicate URLs, and missing schema.

If you want to understand what this audit looks like in practice for a professional services business, Search Foundations covers the full scope of what that engagement includes and what it produces.

Foundations first. Everything else follows.