What Is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO covers the behind-the-scenes aspects of your website that affect how search engines crawl, index, and rank your pages. You might have the best content in the world, but if Google cannot access it properly, it will not rank.
Here are 15 technical issues we check in every SEO audit, in order of impact.
Critical Issues (Fix These First)
1. No SSL Certificate (HTTP Instead of HTTPS)
If your website does not have an SSL certificate, browsers show a “Not Secure” warning to visitors. Google has confirmed HTTPS is a ranking signal, and many users will leave immediately when they see the warning. Most hosting providers offer free SSL certificates through Let’s Encrypt.
2. Slow Page Speed
Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor. The three metrics that matter most are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How quickly the main content loads. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): How quickly the page responds to user interaction. Aim for under 200 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much the page layout jumps around while loading. Aim for under 0.1.
Common speed fixes include compressing images, enabling browser caching, minifying CSS and JavaScript, and using a content delivery network (CDN).
3. No Mobile Responsive Design
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your site for ranking. If your site does not work well on phones, your rankings will suffer regardless of how good the desktop version looks.
4. Missing or Duplicate Title Tags
Every page on your site needs a unique title tag under 60 characters that includes your primary keyword. Duplicate title tags across multiple pages confuse Google about which page to rank for a given query.
High Priority Issues
5. Missing Meta Descriptions
While meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, they influence click-through rates from search results. A compelling meta description under 160 characters acts as an advertisement for your page.
6. Broken Links (404 Errors)
Broken links waste crawl budget and create a poor user experience. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to identify all 404 errors on your site, then either fix the link or set up a 301 redirect to the correct page.
7. Missing XML Sitemap
Your XML sitemap tells Google which pages exist on your site and when they were last updated. Submit it through Google Search Console. Most CMS platforms (WordPress, Shopify) generate sitemaps automatically, but check that yours is working and up to date.
8. No Robots.txt File
Your robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site to crawl and which to ignore. A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block Google from indexing your important pages.
9. Missing Canonical Tags
Canonical tags tell Google which version of a page is the “original” when similar content exists at multiple URLs. Without them, Google may split ranking signals across duplicate pages, weakening all of them.
Medium Priority Issues
10. Poor Heading Structure
Each page should have exactly one H1 tag containing your primary keyword. H2 and H3 tags should follow a logical hierarchy. Do not skip heading levels (e.g., jumping from H1 to H3) and do not use heading tags just for styling.
11. Missing Image Alt Text
Alt text helps Google understand what your images show and is essential for accessibility. Describe the image accurately and include relevant keywords where natural. Every image should have alt text.
12. No Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Schema markup helps Google understand the context of your content and can unlock rich results in search (star ratings, FAQs, breadcrumbs). For local businesses, LocalBusiness schema is essential. Service, FAQ, and Review schema are also highly valuable.
13. Redirect Chains
A redirect chain occurs when page A redirects to page B, which redirects to page C. Each redirect adds load time and can dilute ranking signals. Fix chains by pointing all redirects directly to the final destination.
Lower Priority (But Still Important)
14. Mixed Content Warnings
If your site loads over HTTPS but some resources (images, scripts) load over HTTP, browsers display mixed content warnings. Update all resource URLs to HTTPS.
15. Large Page Size
Pages over 3MB take too long to load, especially on mobile connections. Compress images (use WebP format), remove unused CSS and JavaScript, and consider lazy-loading images below the fold.
How to Audit Your Site
You can check many of these issues using free tools:
- Google Search Console: Identifies indexing issues, Core Web Vitals problems, and mobile usability errors.
- PageSpeed Insights: Analyses page speed and Core Web Vitals for any URL.
- Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs): Crawls your site and identifies broken links, missing tags, and redirect issues.
For a comprehensive analysis, request a free SEO audit from our team. We will crawl your entire site, identify every technical issue, and prioritise them by impact so you know exactly where to start.