How to Run an Enterprise-Grade Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit is the diagnostic scan your website needs before any content or link-building strategy can be effective. You wouldn't build a house on a cracked foundation — and you shouldn't invest in organic growth when your technical infrastructure is silently sabotaging your performance. Here's how to run one properly.

Before you start: set the scope

A technical audit can range from a focused 2-hour check to a multi-week deep dive. For most B2B websites (500-50,000 pages), plan for 3-5 days of focused analysis. Define upfront whether you're auditing the entire domain, a specific subdomain, or a particular section of the site.

Gather your tools before you begin: Google Search Console access, GA4 access, server log files (if available), and a crawler like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Lumar. You'll also need Chrome DevTools and PageSpeed Insights for manual spot-checking.

Phase 1: Crawlability & indexation

This is the most critical phase. If search engines can't crawl and index your pages, nothing else matters.

Robots.txt review

Check for unintentional blocks. We've seen B2B sites accidentally blocking their entire /solutions/ directory, their blog, or critical JavaScript files. Compare your robots.txt directives against your actual site structure and flag any mismatches.

XML sitemap audit

Your sitemap should include every indexable page and exclude everything else — no 404s, no redirects, no noindexed pages. Check that it's referenced in robots.txt, that it's under the 50,000 URL / 50MB limit, and that lastmod dates are accurate (not all set to the same date).

Index coverage analysis

In Search Console, compare your submitted pages to your indexed pages. Large gaps indicate crawl or quality issues. Investigate "Discovered - currently not indexed" and "Crawled - currently not indexed" pages — these are Google saying "I found it, but I don't think it's worth indexing."

Canonical tag audit

Check for conflicting canonicals, self-referencing canonicals on paginated pages, and HTTP/HTTPS or www/non-www canonical mismatches. Canonical issues are one of the most common and most invisible technical SEO problems.

Phase 2: Site speed & Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals by template

Don't just check your homepage. Test representative pages from every major template type: homepage, product/solution pages, blog posts, resource pages, landing pages. Group CWV issues by template so your dev team can fix them efficiently.

Server response time

Your TTFB (Time to First Byte) should be under 200ms for most pages. If it's consistently above 600ms, you have a server or hosting problem that no amount of frontend optimization will fix. Check if a CDN is properly configured and whether your hosting can handle your traffic levels.

Resource loading audit

Identify render-blocking JavaScript and CSS, unoptimized images (still the #1 speed issue on B2B sites), uncompressed assets, and excessive third-party scripts. For each issue, estimate the performance impact and create a prioritized remediation list.

Phase 3: Site architecture & internal linking

Click depth analysis

How many clicks does it take to reach your most important pages from the homepage? Anything beyond 3 clicks is getting diminished crawl priority. Map your click depth and identify high-value pages that are buried too deep in the architecture.

Internal linking graph

Export your internal linking data from your crawler and look for orphaned pages (no internal links pointing to them), pages with excessive outgoing links, and opportunities to add contextual internal links from high-authority pages to pages you want to rank.

URL structure evaluation

Clean, descriptive, hierarchical URLs signal topical organization to search engines. Flag URLs with parameters, excessive depth, non-descriptive slugs, and inconsistent patterns. Recommend a URL taxonomy that reflects your keyword strategy.

Phase 4: Schema & structured data

Structured data is no longer optional — it's the technical layer that helps both search engines and AI models understand your content. Audit existing schema for validation errors, then identify implementation opportunities:

• Organization schema on your homepage with logo, social profiles, and contact info
• Article schema on blog posts with author, date, and publisher information
• FAQ schema on pages with frequently asked questions
• Product or Service schema on your solution pages
• BreadcrumbList schema for navigation paths
• Review/Testimonial schema where applicable

Phase 5: Content quality signals

Thin content identification

Pages with fewer than 300 words of unique content are candidates for expansion, consolidation, or removal. Run a content length analysis across your site and flag pages that aren't providing enough value to justify indexation.

Keyword cannibalization

When multiple pages target the same keyword, they compete against each other. Use Search Console to identify keywords where 2+ URLs are ranking and consolidate or differentiate them.

Content decay

Identify pages that previously ranked well but have dropped over the last 6-12 months. These are your highest-ROI refresh opportunities — they already have authority, they just need updated content to regain position.

Delivering the audit: prioritization is everything

A 200-page audit document is useless if nobody acts on it. Organize every finding into a 2×2 matrix: impact (high/low) × effort (high/low). Start with high-impact, low-effort wins. Create implementation-ready tickets your dev team can pick up without additional context.

The audit isn't the deliverable — the prioritized action plan is. A clear roadmap with sequenced fixes, expected impact estimates, and validation checkpoints is what turns an audit into results.