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Technical SEO

Technical SEO: audits, crawling, and Core Web Vitals

Technical SEO is the engineering layer of search: making sure crawlers can reach, render, and trust every page you want indexed, and that the site loads fast enough to compete. When something here breaks, content and links cannot save you.

This hub gathers the checklists, definitions, and free tools SEO Craft uses to audit sites — 70+ checks per page and whole-site crawling with JavaScript rendering.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing a website's infrastructure so search engines can crawl, render, index, and rank its pages efficiently. It covers site architecture, canonicals, robots.txt, sitemaps, structured data, HTTP status codes, page speed, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, and security.

How do I run a technical SEO audit?

Crawl the site to discover every indexable URL, then check each page for status codes, canonical tags, indexation directives, headings, structured data, broken links, image optimization, and page speed. Group findings by page type so fixes scale. Benchmark against Core Web Vitals thresholds and prioritize issues that block rendering or indexing first.

SEO Checklist

Run the complete on-page SEO checklist for any page: titles, meta, headings, images, schema and more. Fix issues with clear guidance.

Sitemap Generator

Create an XML sitemap from your URLs instantly. Get clean sitemap.xml code ready to upload to your site. Free, no login required.

Robots.txt Generator

Build correct robots.txt rules for your site and test AI crawler access. Generate allow/disallow rules in seconds. Free, no login required.

How do I fix Core Web Vitals?

Fix the LCP element first: preload the hero image, self-host fonts, and remove render-blocking CSS/JS. Reduce INP by splitting large JavaScript bundles and deferring non-critical work. Prevent CLS by reserving dimensions for images and embeds. Re-measure field data in Search Console after each change, not just lab scores.

Core Web Vitals Analyzer

Analyze Core Web Vitals with Google PageSpeed Insights: LCP, INP, CLS and more. Get actionable performance fixes. Pro plan.

Render Blocking Test

Identify resources blocking page render — CSS and JS that delay first paint. Get fixes. Limited checks free.

HTML Page Size Test

Check if page weight is optimized. Measure total HTML size and identify heavy pages. Sign in for full report.

What structured data should every site have?

At minimum: Organization and WebSite on the homepage, BreadcrumbList wherever breadcrumbs appear, FAQPage where real Q&A is visible, and a page-type schema (Product, Article, SoftwareApplication, JobPosting). Keep every marked-up field visible on the page, and validate with the Rich Results Test.

Schema Generator

Generate clean JSON-LD structured data for Organization, Article, FAQPage, Product and more. Copy-paste ready schema markup, no signup needed.

Structured Data Test

Validate Schema.org structured data on any page. Check JSON-LD for errors and rich-result eligibility. Sign in to test.

How do I control what search engines index?

Use robots.txt for crawl directives, meta robots or X-Robots-Tag for page-level indexation, canonical tags to consolidate duplicates, and XML sitemaps to declare canonical, indexable URLs. Keep staging environments noindexed and never leave auth or internal search pages indexable.

Canonical Tag Test

Check for proper canonical URL implementation. Detect missing, conflicting or wrong canonical tags. Sign in to run checks.

Noindex Tag Test

Check indexation status via robots meta tags. See if pages are accidentally blocking search engines. Sign in to scan.

URL Redirects Test

Trace redirect chains and response codes for any URL. Find 301, 302, loops and broken redirects. Sign in for unlimited.

Related questions

How often should I run a technical SEO audit?▾
Run a full crawl at least quarterly, after any major release, and whenever you see an unexpected drop in clicks or indexed pages. Critical templates — home, product, pricing, and top content — benefit from a lightweight check on every deploy.
Does HTTPS and HSTS matter for rankings?▾
HTTPS is a confirmed lightweight ranking signal and a trust requirement for users and browsers. HSTS forces HTTPS for future visits and protects against SSL-stripping; it is a security best practice that also removes mixed-content risk.
What is the difference between crawling and indexing?▾
Crawling is a bot discovering and fetching a URL. Indexing is a search engine storing and understanding that page so it can appear in results. A page can be crawled but not indexed — usually due to thin content, duplicates, or conflicting directives.
How many pages can I crawl with Get Search Signal?▾
The free plan supports up to 100 pages per crawl. Pro supports up to 10,000 pages with parallel Playwright rendering for JavaScript-heavy sites. Enterprise limits are custom.

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