Technical Audit Checklist For Human Beings 1

Grade Type
There is a technical reason good content isn’t indexed. Err:539 Outcome

URLs are not discoverable by crawlers. Fail Cause
XML sitemaps aren't uploaded to GSC. Pass Issue
XML sitemaps don't reflect the valid URLs on the site. OK Issue
Internal navigation breaks without basic JavaScript rendering capability. Fail Issue
There are more than ~300 links on important pages. Pass Issue
Important content is >4 clicks from the homepage. Pass Issue
Robots.txt blocks content we want in the index. Pass Issue
The website is timing out. Pass Issue
The site is down. Pass Issue
Bad URLs are being presented to crawlers as good. Fail Cause
Error pages return 200 status codes. Pass Issue
Internal links point to URLs returning 4XX or 5XX status codes. Pass Issue
Robots.txt doesn't block URLs that don't belong in the index. Pass Issue
Sitemaps contain valid URLs we want to keep out of the index. Fail Issue
Sitemaps contain invalid URLs. Fail Issue
Duplication is causing Google to ignore pages. Fail Cause
Canonical tags don't associate duplicate content. Pass Issue
URLs work with both HTTP or HTTPS. Pass Issue
Duplicate content shows up on other domains or subdomains. OK Issue
Multiple URL patterns return the same content. Fail Issue
Mobile markup isn't implemented. Pass Issue
Our site serves too many unique pages. Fail Cause
Faceted navigation results in an unbounded amount of content. OK Issue
We haven't specified parameter behavior in GSC. Fail Issue
On-page content is not readable by crawlers. Pass Cause
Page copy isn't visible with basic JavaScript rendering capability. Pass Issue
We load crucial content in an iframe. Pass Issue
We load crucial content in Flash. Pass Issue
We serve different content to different user agents, including crawlers. Pass Issue
Mobile URLs don't resolve when accessed with various user agents. Pass Issue
We haven't shown where we do and don't want content discovered or indexe Pass Cause
We don't have nofollow tags on links pointing to non-indexable content. Pass Issue
We have noindex tags on content we want in the index. Pass Issue
Our site doesn't respect mobile-first best practices Pass Cause
We are missing links on our mobile site that are present on desktop. Pass Issue
There is a technical reason indexed content doesn't rank for desired terms. Err:539 Outcome
Our internal linking doesn't convey the relative importance of our content. Pass Cause
We use redirects that aren't 301s. Pass Issue
We use JavaScript redirects. Pass Issue
We use meta refresh tags. Pass Issue
We have redirect chains. Pass Issue
We link more to inconsequential content than important organic content. Pass Issue
Our targeting elements don't help crawlers understand our content. Pass Cause
Title tags are longer than 60 characters. Pass Issue
Title tags are duplicated across pages. Pass Issue
Title tags are missing. Pass Issue
H1 tags are duplicated across pages. Pass Issue
H1 tags are missing. Pass Issue
Pages have multiple H1 tags. Pass Issue
We haven't implemented user-first practices desired by Google. Fail Cause
We don't use HTTPS. Fail Issue
We use an interstitial to present some content on load. Fail Issue
We are duplicating content that first appeared elsewhere. Pass Cause
Content is scraped from other sources. OK Issue
The site is slow enough that Google would prefer not to show it to searchers Pass Cause
Our site takes longer than 5 seconds to load. Pass Issue
There is a technical reason site content isn't well-presented in search. Err:539 Outcome
We haven't indicated our preferred content. Pass Cause
We don't use canonical tags to indicate pages we want ranking. Pass Issue
We aren't showing the relative importance of our content through internal lin Pass Cause
There are problems with our schema markup. Pass Cause
Our schema markup is missing or incomplete. Pass Issue
Our schema markup is spammy. Pass Issue
We haven't signaled our international content. Pass Cause
We haven't implemented hreflang across localized sites. Pass Issue
We haven't linked to all localized content. Pass Issue
We haven't set GSC region targeting to reflect regions we're targeting. Pass Issue
We're using URL parameters to distinguish localized content. Pass Issue
We haven't signaled our mobile content. Pass Cause
We're using dynamic serving but haven't implemented the Vary-HTTP header. Pass Issue
Notes Where Start here
Outcome
Google Search Console Index > Sitemaps

Google Search Console Index > Sitemaps
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Rendering
Screaming Frog Crawl Outlinks field
Screaming Frog Crawl Crawl depth field
Google Search Console Index > Coverage > Submitted URL blocked by rob
Screaming Frog Crawl Status code
Google Search Console Index > Coverage > Submitted URL seems to be a
DeepCrawl Summary > All Pages > HTTP Status Breakdown
Screaming Frog Crawl Configure > robots.txt > Settings > Respect robots.
Screaming Frog Sitemap CrawList mode > Upload > Download sitemap
Google Search Console Index > Sitemaps > See index coverage
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Duplicate Body Sets

Screaming Frog Crawl URL field
DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Separate Mobile
DeepCrawl Summary > Dashboard > Web Crawl Depth

Google Search Console Legacy tools > URL parameters

Screaming Frog Crawl Custom filter for "<iframe"
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Check SWF
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > User-Agent
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Basic (uncheck Follow Int
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Basic (uncheck Follow Int

Outcome
DeepCrawl Indexation > Non-200 Status > Non-301 Redirects

Manual Page Testing
Screaming Frog Crawl Meta Refresh field
Screaming Frog Crawl Reports > Redirect Chains
Screaming Frog Crawl Inlinks field
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Max Title Lengt
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Pages with Dupli
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Missing Titles
Screaming Frog Crawl H1 field (sort by)
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Missing H1 Tags
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Multiple H1 Tag Pages

Manual Page Testing
Manual Page Testing LMGTFY
Chrome Inspector Inspector > Network

Outcome
Screaming Frog Crawl Canonical field
Structured Data Testing Tool

DeepCrawl Config > Hreflang > Pages without Hreflang Tags

Google Search Console Legacy tools > International targeting > Country
DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Dynamically Served

Reference
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183668
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHG6BkmzDEM
https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/importance-of-link-architecture.html
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/separate-urls
https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/02/faceted-navigation-best-and-5-of-worst.html
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/fix-search-javascript
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/72746#1
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86GHCVRReJs
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_meta_tag?csw=1
https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing
http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/08/helping-users-easily-access-content-on.html
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/policies
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en&ref_topic=2370587
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/dynamic-serving
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
Grade Type
Internal navigation breaks with basic JavaScript rendering capability. Fail Issue
Sitemaps contain valid URLs we want to keep out of the index. OK Issue
We have paginated content without using rel="next". Pass Issue
We haven't shown where we do and don't want content discovered or indexe Pass Cause
Our site doesn't respect mobile-first best practices Pass Cause
We are missing links on our mobile site that are present on desktop. Pass Issue
We haven't implemented bleeding-edge SEO best practices. Fail Cause
The site is slow enough that Google would prefer not to show it to searchers Pass Cause
We haven't specified the canonical domain pattern in Webmaster Tools. Pass Issue
Where Start here
Outcome
Google Search Console Crawl > Sitemaps

Screaming Frog Crawl Crawl depth field
Google Search Console Crawl > robots.txt Tester
Screaming Frog Crawl Title tags (look for "404" or "Error" on a pag
Screaming Frog Sitemap Crawl
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Duplicate Body S

DeepCrawl Indexation > Indexable Pages > Paginated

Google Search Console Crawl > URL Parameters

Manual Page Testing
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Basic (uncheck Fol
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Basic (uncheck Fol
Screaming Frog Crawl

Outcome
DeepCrawl Indexation > Non-200 Status > Non-301 Red

Manual Page Testing
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Max Title

DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Pages with
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Missing Ti
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Multiple H1 Tag

Outcome

Google Search Console Config > Site Settings

DeepCrawl Config > Hreflang > Pages without Hreflan

Google Search Console Search Traffic > International Targeting > C
DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Dynamically Ser

Reference
P Status Breakdown
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/debug-rendering
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/72746?hl=en#1
https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
Grade Type
Internal navigation breaks with basic JavaScript rendering capability. Fail Issue
Sitemaps contain valid URLs we want to keep out of the index. OK Issue
We have paginated content without using rel="next". Pass Issue
We haven't indicated whether we want content discovered or indexed. Pass Cause
We haven't implemented bleeding-edge SEO best practices. Fail Cause
The site is slow enough that Google would prefer not to show it to searchers. Pass Cause
We have excessive requests for external resources. Pass Issue
Many pages have large overlaps in targeting. Pass Issue
We haven't specified the canonical domain pattern in Webmaster Tools. Pass Issue
Where Start here
Outcome

Screaming Frog Crawl Title tags (look for "404" or "Error" on a page
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Duplicate Body Se

DeepCrawl Indexation > Indexable Pages > Paginated

Google Search Console Crawl > URL Parameters

Manual Page Testing
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Basic (uncheck Foll
Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Basic (uncheck Foll
Outcome
DeepCrawl Indexation > Non-200 Status > Non-301 Redi

Manual Page Testing
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Max Title

DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Pages with
DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Missing Tit
DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Multiple H1 Tag

Outcome
Screaming Frog Crawl Title field (sort by)

Google Search Console Config > Site Settings
Google Search Console Search Appearance > Structured Data

Google Search Console Search Appearance > Structured Data
DeepCrawl Config > Hreflang > Pages without Hreflang

Google Search Console Search Traffic > International Targeting > Co
DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Dynamically Serv

Reference
Status Breakdown
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/debug-rendering
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/72746?hl=en#1
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
tarter-guide.pdf
Grade Type
There is a technical reason good content isn’t being indexed. Err:539 Outcome
XML sitemaps are uploaded to GSC. Fail Issue
XML sitemaps accurately reflect valid URLs on the site. Pass Issue
Internal navigation functions without JavaScript. OK Issue
There are fewer than ~300 links on important pages. Pass Issue
Important content is ≤4 clicks from the homepage. Pass Issue
Robots.txt doesn't block content we want in the index OK Issue
The website isn't timing out. Pass Issue
The site isn't down. Pass Issue
Error pages return error status codes. Fail Issue
Internal links don't return non 2XX status codes. OK Issue
Robots.txt blocks content we don't want crawled. Pass Issue
Sitemaps don't contain functioning URLs that we want to keep out of the in Pass Issue
Sitemaps contain only URLs that return 200 status codes. OK Issue
Duplication is causing Google to ignore pages. Pass Cause
Canonical tags are implemented to associate duplicate content. Pass Issue
All URLs work with HTTP or HTTPS, but not both. OK Issue
Duplicate content is not returned by other domains or subdomains. OK Issue
There aren't multiple functioning URL patterns (or parameters) returning th Pass Issue
We've correctly implemented mobile markup. OK Issue
We're reducing paginated content by using rel=next. OK Issue
Our faceted navigation strategy results in a reasonable number of URLs. OK Issue
We've specified parameter behavior properly in GSC. Fail Issue
On-page content is not readable by crawlers. Fail Cause
Page copy is visible without JavaScript. Pass Issue
We don't rely on loading any crucial content via iframe. Pass Issue
We aren't hiding any important content in Flash. Pass Issue
We're serving the same content to all user agents, including crawlers. Fail Issue
Mobile URLs resolve to appropriate content regardless of User-Agent or de Pass Issue
We've indicated we don't want content discovered or indexed. Pass Cause
We're using nofollow'd links only where we want content not to be discover Pass Issue
We've set meta directives that appropriately reflect what we want in the ind Pass Issue
Our internal linking doesn't convey the relative importance of our content Pass Cause
We're only using 301 redirects. OK Issue
We're not using JavaScript redirection. Pass Issue
We're not using meta refresh tags. Pass Issue
We don't have redirect chains. Pass Issue
More important pages get more links than less important pages. Pass Issue
Title tags are 55-60 characters. Pass Issue
Title tags aren't duplicated across multiple pages. Pass Issue
Title tags are not missing. Pass Issue
Pages don't have multiple title tags. Pass Issue
H1 tags aren't duplicated across multiple pages. Pass Issue
H1 tags aren't missing. Pass Issue
Pages don't have multiple H1 tags. Pass Issue
We haven't implemented bleeding-edge SEO best practices. Pass Cause
The site uses HTTPS. Pass Issue
The site uses HTTP/2. Pass Issue
Site copy is original—not scraped from other sites. Pass Issue
The site is slow enough that Google would prefer not to show it to search Pass Cause
Important content gets a green lights in Page Speed Insights. Pass Issue
Compression is enabled where appropriate. Pass Issue
Cacheing is enabled where possible. OK Issue
Code is minified where it can be. OK Issue
We don't have excessive requests for external resources. Pass Issue
We have multiple pages with large overlaps in targeting. Pass Issue
We aren't indicating desired content with canonical markup. Pass Issue
We haven't specified the canonical version of the site in Webmaster Tools. Pass Issue
We aren't showing the relative importance of our content through internal Pass Cause
Our internal linking reflects the priority of content. Pass Issue
We haven't properly signaled our international content. Pass Cause
We've implemented hreflang across all relevant sites and content. Pass Issue
We link appropriately to all international content. OK Issue
We've set Webmaster Tools region targeting appropriately. OK Issue
We aren't using parameters to differentiate content language or targeitng. Pass Issue
We haven't properly signaled our mobile content. Fail Cause
If dynamic serving is being used, have we implemented the Vary-HTTP he Fail Issue
We are incurring risk of penalization due to technical configuration. Err:539 Outcome
We've done something that risks an algorithmic penalty. Pass Cause
We don't have thin content or too many ads above the fold. OK Issue
The site hasn't been hacked. OK Issue
There isn't any user-generated spam on the site. OK Issue
No unnatural links on the site. Pass Issue
We've done something that risks a manual action. Pass Cause
We're not cloaking content. Pass Issue
We're not keyword stuffing. Pass Issue
We don't have the information we need to report on site health. Err:539 Outcome
We can't assess the performance of groups of pages. Pass Cause
Sitemap is organized to reflect different site sections. Pass Issue
We aren't recording information about user engagement with the site. Pass Cause
Pageviews are being recorded on every page. Pass Issue
Analytics is capturing internal search. Pass Issue
Where Hours Reference
Outcome 7:51
1:06
Google Webmaster Tools 0:05 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183668?hl=en&ref_topic=4581190
Google Webmaster Tools 0:05
Manual Page Testing 0:05
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:15
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:15 https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/importance-of-link-architecture.html
Google Webmaster Tools 0:15 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062608?hl=en
1:15
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:15 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93641?hl=en&ref_topic=6001951
Crawl Analysis (DC) 0:15 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93633?hl=en&ref_topic=6001951
Sitemap Crawl (SF) 0:15
Sitemap Crawl (SF) 0:15
1:15
Crawl Analysis (DC) 0:30 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:03 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543?hl=en
Crawl Analysis (DC) 0:15 https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/separate-urls
1:15
Crawl Analysis (DC) 0:30 https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/02/faceted-navigation-best-and-5-of-worst.html
2:00
Link Analysis (SF) 0:30
Manual Page Testing 0:30 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/72746?hl=en#1
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:15 https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/
1:00
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86GHCVRReJs
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:30 https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_meta_tag?csw=1
Outcome 2:03
1:00
Crawl Analysis (DC) 0:12 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93633?hl=en&ref_topic=6001951
Manual Page Testing 0:12 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721217?hl=en
Link Analysis (SF) 0:12
0:18
Crawl Analysis (DC) 0:03 http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimiz
0:15
Manual Crawl (SF) 0:07 https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html
0:15
0:15
Google PageSpeed Insights 0:03 https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/
Outcome 3:45
1:00
0:30
1:00
Manual Page Testing 0:30 https://developers.google.com/structured-data/policies
1:00
0:15
Manual Page Testing 0:15 https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/dynamic-serving
Outcome 2:30
1:30
Google Webmaster Tools 0:15 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2604775?hl=en&ref_topic=4591246
1:00
Content Quality Review 0:30 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en&ref_topic=6001971
Outcome 0:45
0:15
Google Webmaster Tools 0:15
0:30
Analytics Review 0:15
Analytics Review 0:15 https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1012264?hl=en
chitecture.html
est-and-5-of-worst.html
meta_tag?csw=1
chitecture.html
/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
chitecture.html

Technical Audit Checklist For Human Beings 1

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Technical Audit Checklist For Human Beings 1

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Grade Type

There is a technical reason good content isn’t indexed. Err:539 Outcome

Google Search Console Index > Sitemaps

DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Duplicate Body Sets

DeepCrawl Summary > Dashboard > Web Crawl Depth

Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Rendering

Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > User-Agent

DeepCrawl Indexation > Non-200 Status > Non-301 Redirects

Screaming Frog Crawl URL field

Manual Page Testing LMGTFY

Chrome Inspector Inspector > Network

Screaming Frog Crawl Canonical field

Screaming Frog Crawl Inlinks field

Structured Data Testing Tool

DeepCrawl Config > Hreflang > Pages without Hreflang Tags

DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Dynamically Served

Google Search Console Crawl > Sitemaps

DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Duplicate Body S

DeepCrawl Indexation > Indexable Pages > Paginated

Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Rendering

Screaming Frog Crawl

DeepCrawl Indexation > Non-200 Status > Non-301 Red

DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Max Title

Screaming Frog Crawl URL field

Manual Page Testing LMGTFY

Chrome Inspector Inspector > Network

Screaming Frog Crawl Canonical field

Screaming Frog Crawl Inlinks field

Structured Data Testing Tool

DeepCrawl Config > Hreflang > Pages without Hreflan

DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Dynamically Ser

Google Search Console Crawl > Sitemaps

DeepCrawl Content > Body Content > Duplicate Body Se

DeepCrawl Indexation > Indexable Pages > Paginated

Screaming Frog Crawl Configuration > Spider > Rendering

DeepCrawl Indexation > Non-200 Status > Non-301 Redi

DeepCrawl Content > Titles & Descriptions > Max Title

Screaming Frog Crawl URL field

Manual Page Testing LMGTFY

Chrome Inspector Inspector > Network

Screaming Frog Crawl Title field (sort by)

Screaming Frog Crawl Inlinks field

Google Search Console Search Appearance > Structured Data

DeepCrawl Config > Hreflang > Pages without Hreflang

DeepCrawl Mobile > Categorization > Dynamically Serv

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