How to Do a Technical SEO Audit (With Free Tools)

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But before that, you may want to run a free technical SEO audit on your homepage:

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Step 1: Check crawlability, indexability and optimise sitemaps

If search engines can’t crawl and index your site properly, your pages won’t appear in search results. The same goes for AI crawlers used by tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. This means your content could go completely unnoticed, no matter how valuable it is.

To check for crawlability issues, review the Pages Indexing report in Google Search Console for blocked or unindexed pages. Also, scan your robots.txt file using the WebYes technical SEO audit tools to ensure it’s not blocking search engines from crawling your website.

Step 2: Analyse site structure and internal linking

A well-structured site helps search engines understand your content and improves navigation for users. If your structure is poor, important pages may be buried, making them harder to find. Weak internal linking also limits link authority, lowering ranking potential.

To analyse your site’s structure, use Screaming Frog. It generates a visual map of your internal links. Check that important pages are well-linked and that no pages are orphaned (without internal links pointing to them).

Step 3: Check site speed and performance

A website with poor response time leads to frustrated visitors, higher bounce rates, and lower rankings. Plus, Google considers page experience a ranking factor, so if your site loads too slowly, it may not perform well in search results.

Use Google PageSpeed Insights or WebYes to check your website’s response time, load time and CWV metrics (Note: CWV have minimal impact on SEO). These tools analyse your site’s performance and highlight factors slowing it down.

Step 4: Ensure mobile-friendliness

Most people browse the web on their phones, so your site needs to work well on mobile. Plus, Google’s mobile-first indexing ranks your site based on its mobile version, meaning a poor mobile experience can hurt your rankings.

Use WebYes to check how well your site performs on mobile and whether it meets mobile usability standards. Also, test your Core Web Vitals using PageSpeed Insights or WebYes to spot issues affecting user experience.

Step 5: Verify HTTPS and security

Your website should be using HTTPS instead of HTTP. HTTPS means your site has an SSL certificate, which encrypts data and makes it secure. Google favours secure sites, and visitors are more likely to trust your website.

Check your HTTPS status in Google Search Console or WebYes to verify that your SSL certificate is correctly installed. Also, look for mixed content errors, which occur when some elements of your site still load over HTTP.

Step 6: Fix broken links and redirect issues

Broken links create a poor user experience and can waste SEO value if important pages are no longer accessible. Meanwhile, redirect issues, like redirect chains and loops, can also slow down your site and confuse search engines.

Use Screaming Frog or Ahrefs Site Audit to scan your site for broken links and redirect issues affecting SEO. These tools highlight 404 errors from missing pages and excessive redirects that can slow down your site.

Step 7: Review structured data and schema markup

Structured data helps search engines understand your content better and can enhance your search results with rich snippets (like star ratings, FAQs, or event details). Without it, your content may not stand out in search results.

Use Google’s Rich Results Test to check if your structured data is correctly implemented. These tools can highlight errors in your schema markup and help you ensure Google is interpreting your data correctly.

What Is the Best Tool for a Technical SEO Audit?

Performing a technical SEO audit often requires multiple tools. One for checking crawlability, another for speed, and others for security and mobile-friendliness. Since no single tool covers all seven major checks, audits can quickly become time-consuming and complicated.

A more streamlined approach is to use a tool that automates multiple checks in one place, making the process faster and easier. The WebYes free technical SEO audit tool, for example, covers four out of seven key areas, allowing you to scan your entire website with just one click.

Instead of juggling multiple platforms, WebYes streamlines the process, helping you quickly identify critical technical SEO issues. This means less time spent diagnosing problems and more time optimising your website for better performance.

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