If there is something wrong with the technical side of your website, Google won’t consider your pages. No matter how good content or links you have, a technical SEO audit is an integral part of organic search engine optimization.
E-commerce brands and B2B companies face many difficulties connected with technical website challenges.
Such issues as obsolete CMS, lack of SEO knowledge in teams, rapid development, and multiple languages may cause serious problems.
This list of 50 items includes technical SEO auditing factors and criteria which help identify website crawlability, site structure, speed, and mobile optimisation problems.
How to Use This Checklist?
As for technical SEO audits, there are some rules you have to follow in order to carry out them correctly. It is impossible to do anything with on-page SEO or content until the crawlability and indexation are fixed first.
The tools which will help you to complete technical SEO audit for your website:
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs; paid for larger sites)
- Google Search Console (free essential tool)
- Google PageSpeed Insights (free online checker)
- Ahrefs or Semrush Site Audit (paid, but highly recommended for bigger sites)
- Google’s Rich Results Test (free)
- Chrome DevTools (free built-in tools)
Section 1: Crawlability and Indexation (Points 1–10)
These issues are directly preventing Google from crawling and indexing your pages. They should be addressed first of all.
- Check robots.txt file of your website: Make sure that Google can crawl all important pages. Don’t block the entire website and such important elements as CSS and JavaScript files.
- Validate your XML sitemap: make sure it is comprehensive and complete; exclude such elements as pagination and administrative pages; submit it to Google Search Console.
- Check Google Search Console Coverage report: Pay attention to the pages marked as “noindex” or “crawled but not indexed”. Such pages may reveal quality content issues.
- Assess crawl budget for large and e-commerce websites: Use the Crawl Stats report in Google Search Console to identify the insights.
- Check URL parameter issues: use canonical tags or noindex to filter your pages and avoid duplicates.
- Find orphaned pages: The pages which have no internal links can’t be found by Google. Use Screaming Frog to identify such pages.
- Check canonical tags: either every page should have self-canonical tag or canonicalize page to the original page. Avoid common mistakes such as canonicalization to 404.
- Check accidentally added noindex tags on important pages: The web developers can add noindex tags to staging pages. Check whether all important pages are indexable.
- Fix pagination issues: make sure that the paginated content is properly crawled with the help of rel= “next” and rel= “prev” tags.
- Complete HTTPS setup: all the pages should be on HTTPS. Don’t forget to check the mixed content warnings or internal links pointing to HTTP URLs.
Section 2: Site Architecture and Internal Linking (Points 11–18)
- Limit Site Depth: Keep all the important pages 3 clicks away from the homepage in order to optimise crawl budget and link equity.
- Fix Broken Internal Links: With the help of Screaming Frog find all the internal links that point to 404 pages and fix them (update the links or implement 301 redirects).
- Optimise Anchor Text: The internal link anchor text is used by Google to determine the topic of target pages. Use descriptive and varied internal link anchors.
- Support Pillar Pages: Your commercial pages (service pages, category pages, important landing pages) should receive the most internal links. Check this with the help of Screaming Frog’s “Inlinks” column.
- Redirects: Identify and fix redirect chains and loops in order to preserve link equity and make your website accessible for users.
- Keyword-Rich Navigation: Use keywords in anchor texts of navigation instead of generic terms.
- Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs improve your internal linking architecture.
- Limit Internal Links: Do not use excessive internal links per page and use pagination for products instead of infinite scrolling.
Section 3: Page Speed and Core Web Vitals (Points 19–26)
For Indian audience, the speed on the 4G mobile connection is crucial, not the speed on desktop broadband.
- Measure LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Target 2.5 seconds for LCP, which means the speed of loading the biggest elements like images or headings.
- Measure CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Keep the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1 to avoid unnecessary layout shifting.
- Measure INP (Interaction to Next Paint): Target less than 200 ms of INP to increase site responsiveness. This can be done with JavaScript optimization.
- Optimise images: Images slow down the process of loading your page. Use WebP format, lazy loading, serve the responsive size, and compress before upload.
- Minify Code: Remove white spaces, comments, and other unnecessary elements from CSS, JavaScript and HTML files. Plugins like WP Rocket can help you do that automatically.
- Implement Browser Caching: Configure cache headers to reduce loading the same resources every time user visits your page.
- Cut Down Third Party Script Load: Chat widget, marketing pixel, and heatmapping tools are among the most common reasons why the page becomes slower. Identify and remove unnecessary scripts.
- Verify CDN (Content Delivery Network): CDN will deliver your website faster using nearby servers. Consider using Cloudflare for free CDN in India.
Section 4: On-Page Technical Elements (Points 27–35)
- Meta Title Tags: Title tags have to be unique, less than 60 characters long, and keyword-first. The errors to avoid are: duplicated titles (especially for e-commerce category pages), titles which are over 60 characters long, and missing titles which are generated from the CMS template.
- Meta Descriptions: Meta descriptions do not affect the ranking directly, but have a huge influence on the click-through rate. Missing or duplicated meta descriptions lead to generation of automatic description which is usually less appealing than crafted one.
- One Unique H1 Per Page: Every page has to have one unique H1 tag with the primary keyword of the page. Lack of H1, multiple H1s on the page, and H1 which does not correspond to the page topic are among the most common technical mistakes on the CMS-based website.
- Audit for Duplicate Content: Duplicate content confuses Google and prevents it from choosing the correct version of the page. Common sources are product pages available through different URL paths, session ID parameters leading to URL variation, HTTP and HTTPS versions of the page available, and www vs non-www version providing duplicate content. The tools you can use are Siteliner, Copyscape or Screaming Frog’s Duplicate Content report.
- URL Structure: Clean and keyword-rich URL without any stop words are desirable. Use short, lowercase, hyphen-separated URLs which describe your content. Try to avoid dynamic parameters in indexable URLs (for example, instead of “/category.php?id=47&type=womens” use “/women-running-shoes/”) .
- Open Graph and Twitter Card Tags: Although not being ranking factors, OG and Twitter Card tags provide control over how your pages look when they are shared on the social networks, thus feeding the traffic signals.
- Alt Attribute for Images: Add alt attributes to all the images which are not decorative in order to improve accessibility of your website, help Google understand the image content, and create Google Image Search ranking opportunity.
- Keyword Cannibalisation: When multiple pages of the website target the same keyword, they start competing for it. In order to detect queries when multiple pages rank for the same keyword, use Google Search Console Performance report.
- Language and Locale Configuration: In case of Indian websites targeting different regional audiences or international market, hreflang tags should be used in order to indicate which language/region version of the page to show depending on the user context. Incorrect hreflang is one of the common reasons of poor international rankings.
Section 5: Structured Data and Rich Results (Points 36–40)
- Implement Organization Schema on your homepage: The information on the company name, logo, address, social profiles, and contact details is provided to Google.
- Use Product schema on all e-commerce pages: It will enable displaying star rating, price, and availability in Google search results and will increase CTR of product pages.
- Use FAQ Schema on key pages: FAQ schema adds a set of expandable Q&A in Google search results and increases CTR of your pages.
- BreadcrumbList Schema: It makes the URL structure clear for Google and helps to understand the structure of your website.
- Verify all the existing schemas: Run all the key pages through Google’s test tool to find errors in your schemas.
Section 6. Mobile Optimisation (Items 41–45)
Mobile-first indexing is used by Google in order to identify the mobile-friendliness of your website.
- Verify mobile-friendliness across all key page types: Use Google Mobile-Friendly Test and Google Search Console Mobile Usability report to check if your pages have any mobile usability issues: text is too small to read, clickable elements are too close, content is wider than the screen.
- Test mobile navigation and conversion paths: The mobile site navigation menu, CTAs, forms and checkout process should be checked in real mobile device, not the browser simulation in order to detect any issues which decrease conversions.
- Avoid hiding content on mobile devices: Do not hide important content on mobile version with the help of CSS, because Google will use mobile-first indexing and leave out this content.
- Size Tap Targets: Make sure all the clickable elements of your site are at least 48×48 pixels and spaced 8 pixels apart to avoid accidental clicks. This helps improve user experience and is a factor for Core Web Vitals.
- Verify mobile page speed independently from desktop. Mobile performance on a throttled 4G connection (the Indian mobile standard) can be significantly worse than desktop. Run PageSpeed Insights for mobile specifically and treat mobile scores as your performance KPI.
Section 7: Advanced and India-Specific Considerations (Points 46–50)
- Audit Thin Content Pages: Check for pages with fewer than 300 words that don’t offer unique value. Google penalises sites with too many of these thin pages, which are common on e-commerce sites. Either add substantial content to these pages or set them to noindex.
- Verify local business schema and Google Business Profile consistency: Make sure that your business’s Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) information is consistent across all your platforms, such as your website, Google Business Profile, and key Indian directories like JustDial, Sulekha, and IndiaMart
- Audit site security HTTPS, mixed content, security headers. Beyond HTTPS, review security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, HSTS) using securityheaders.com. Google considers site security as part of its Page Experience signals.
- Check for JavaScript rendering issues. If your site relies heavily on JavaScript (like SPAs using React, Vue, or Angular), check for rendering issues. Use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to see how Google views your content. Sometimes, content that appears after JavaScript runs may not get indexed
- Conduct technical SEO audits. A technical SEO audit is not a one-time exercise. Conduct audits every few months to maintain your site. As you add new pages or updates, it’s easy to accumulate issues like missing metadata or broken schema. Regular checks will help you monitor your site’s technical health over time.
Prioritising Your Fixes: Impact vs Effort Matrix
Not every technical issue deserves immediate attention. Prioritise fixes using this framework:
Fix immediately (high impact, any effort):
- Pages blocked in robots.txt or noindex that should be indexed
- Site not on HTTPS, or significant mixed content
- LCP over 5 seconds on mobile
- Critical pages are returning 404 with no redirects
- Duplicate title tags across 100+ pages
Fix this sprint (high impact, low-medium effort):
- Missing or duplicate meta descriptions at scale
- Schema markup is missing on product/service pages
- Broken internal links to important pages
- Redirect chains over two hops
- Orphaned important pages
Schedule within the quarter (medium impact):
- Image optimisation and WebP conversion
- FAQ schema implementation
- Internal anchor text improvements
- Crawl budget optimisation for large sites
Backlog (lower impact or high complexity):
- Hreflang for multilingual sites
- JavaScript rendering issues (requires developer resources)
- Advanced structured data types
A rigorous technical SEO audit completed thoroughly against this checklist provides a prioritised roadmap that can measurably improve organic visibility within 90 days of implementation. The most important principle: technical SEO is ongoing infrastructure maintenance, not a one-time project.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
Conduct a technical SEO audit every six months. Monitor monthly using Google Search Console and tools like Semrush or Ahrefs.
2. What is the most common technical SEO issue on Indian e-commerce websites?
E-commerce sites with many product filters can create millions of unique URLs, which clutters the site and can lead to duplicate content. This often causes organic traffic to stagnate, a common issue for Indian e-commerce platforms.
3. Do I need paid tools to run a technical SEO audit?
Google Search Console (free), combined with Screaming Frog’s free tier (up to 500 URLs), covers most of the critical checks in this audit. For larger sites, Semrush or Ahrefs’ paid site audit tools significantly speed up the process and surface issues that manual crawling misses. The investment is typically justified for any site over 1,000 pages.
4. What is crawl budget, and why does it matter for large sites?
Crawl budget is the number of pages Googlebot will crawl on your site within a given time period. Google allocates crawl budget based on site authority and page quality signals. For large Indian e-commerce sites with hundreds of thousands of URLs, Googlebot may never reach important product or category pages if crawl budget is being wasted on low-value parameter URLs, duplicate pages, or soft 404s.
5. How do I know if JavaScript is causing SEO issues on my site? Use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool on a key page and select “View Crawled Page.” This shows what Google sees when it renders your page. If important content (product descriptions, headings, structured data) is missing from the rendered view that’s visible in your browser, you have a JavaScript rendering issue that requires developer intervention.
