/seo-technical

name: seo-technical
description: When the user needs a technical SEO audit, on-page optimization guidance, or help resolving crawlability, indexation, or performance issues that affect search rankings.
related: [content-strategy, landing-page]
reads: [startup-context]

SEO Technical

When to Use

• Running a technical SEO audit on an existing site.
• Diagnosing why pages are not being indexed or ranked.
• Optimizing Core Web Vitals or page speed.
• Setting up site architecture (sitemaps, robots.txt, canonicalization).
• Implementing structured data / schema markup.
• Managing AI crawler access via robots.txt.
• Preparing a new site or migration for SEO readiness.
• Reviewing JavaScript rendering and its impact on indexation.

Context Required

• **From startup-context**: product description, target audience, primary keywords, current domain and site structure.
• **From the user**: site URL, access to Google Search Console data (if available), specific pages of concern, known issues, tech stack (static site, SPA, WordPress, etc.), whether the site has been previously audited.

Workflow

Audit across 9 technical dimensions. Score on a 100-point scale with category breakdowns.

1. **Crawlability audit** — Foundation; nothing else matters if search engines cannot crawl the site.

• Check robots.txt for unintended disallow rules.
• Verify XML sitemap exists, is submitted to Search Console, and is up to date.
• Identify crawl errors (4xx, 5xx status codes).
• Check for orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them).
• Audit redirect chains — flatten to single hops. Chains of 3+ waste crawl budget and dilute link equity.
• For sites with 10,000+ pages, analyze crawl budget efficiency and remove low-value pages from the index.

2. **Indexation audit** — Ensure crawled pages are actually indexed.

• Check `site:domain.com` results vs. expected page count.
• Look for `noindex` tags applied unintentionally.
• Identify duplicate content issues and missing canonical tags.
• Check for thin content pages that may be filtered out.
• Review index coverage report in Search Console for excluded pages.

3. **Security and HTTPS** — HTTPS is a ranking signal and a trust requirement.

• Verify HTTPS everywhere with proper redirects from HTTP.
• Check for mixed content issues.
• Validate SSL certificate and HSTS headers.

4. **URL structure** — Short, descriptive, hyphenated URLs without parameters.

• Consistent URL patterns across the site.
• No duplicate content from URL variations (trailing slashes, www vs. non-www).
• Self-referencing canonical tags on every page.

5. **Mobile optimization** — As of July 2024, Google crawls and indexes ALL websites exclusively with the mobile Googlebot user-agent. Mobile-first is not optional.

• Mobile and desktop content parity is mandatory.
• Test with mobile-friendly tools.
• Responsive design, no horizontal scroll, touch targets properly sized.

6. **Core Web Vitals** — Google uses these as ranking signals. Current targets:

• **LCP (Largest Contentful Paint):** Target under 2.5 seconds. Fixes: optimize hero images, implement lazy loading, use CDN, reduce server response time.
• **INP (Interaction to Next Paint):** Target under 200ms. INP replaced FID in March 2024. Fixes: reduce JavaScript execution time, break up long tasks, optimize event handlers.
• **CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift):** Target under 0.1. Fixes: set explicit dimensions on images/embeds, avoid injecting content above existing content, use `font-display: swap`.
• Check for render-blocking CSS/JS, unoptimized images, excessive third-party scripts.

7. **Structured data** — Implement schema markup for rich results.

• Organization schema on the homepage.
• Article/BlogPosting schema on content pages.
• Product schema on product pages.
• FAQ schema where applicable (boosts SERP real estate).
• BreadcrumbList schema for navigation clarity.
• Validate with Google's Rich Results Test.

8. **JavaScript rendering** — Critical for SPAs and JS-heavy sites.

• Serve canonical tags, robots directives, and structured data in initial server-rendered HTML. Google may not reliably process these if injected via JavaScript.
• Verify server-side rendering or pre-rendering is in place for critical content.
• Test what Googlebot actually sees vs. what users see.

9. **AI crawler management** — Managing AI crawlers via robots.txt is a critical 2025-2026 consideration.

• **GPTBot** (OpenAI), **ClaudeBot** (Anthropic), **PerplexityBot**, **Bytespider** (ByteDance), **Google-Extended**
• Blocking Google-Extended does NOT affect Google Search indexing or AI Overviews — only Gemini training data.
• Decide per-crawler based on business needs: allow, block, or rate-limit.

Output Format

A prioritized audit report scored on a 100-point scale:

• **Critical issues** (blocking indexation or causing major ranking loss): fix immediately
• **High-impact improvements** (will meaningfully improve rankings): fix within 2 weeks
• **Medium improvements** (incremental gains): fix within 30 days
• **Low priority** (minor optimizations): address when convenient

Each item includes: the issue, why it matters for rankings, how to fix it, and estimated effort (low/medium/high).

Frameworks & Best Practices

• **Canonical tags are directives, not suggestions**: While Google treats them as hints, properly implemented canonicals are followed in the vast majority of cases. Always self-canonical pages and canonical duplicates to the preferred version.
• **JavaScript SEO**: Critical metadata (canonical, robots, structured data) must be in initial server-rendered HTML. Google can render JS but with delays and reliability gaps.
• **Mobile-first is complete**: Since July 2024, there is no "desktop index." The mobile version IS the version Google indexes. Full content parity is non-negotiable.
• **INP replaced FID**: FID was fully removed from C