Enterprise audit checklists run to 200+ items, which is exactly why most small teams never finish one. On a site with a few hundred pages, you don't need 200 checks — you need the 40 that catch real problems, run in an afternoon, and don't require a six-figure crawler.
This is that list. Work top to bottom; the sections are ordered by how often they actually cause ranking trouble. You'll need free tools: Google Search Console, the URL Inspection tool, PageSpeed Insights, and a crawler like Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs).
Crawlability — can Google reach your pages?
- robots.txt isn't accidentally blocking CSS, JS, or whole sections
- No important page is set to noindex by mistake (the classic post-launch bug)
- XML sitemap exists, lists only canonical 200-status URLs, and is submitted in Search Console
- Internal links reach every page within ~3 clicks of the homepage
- No orphan pages — pages with zero internal links pointing in
- Broken internal links (404s) are fixed or redirected
- Redirect chains collapsed to a single hop
A surprising share of "Google won't rank my page" problems end here, at a stray noindex or a page no link points to.
Indexation — is Google keeping your pages?
- Search Console Pages report: read the "Why pages aren't indexed" reasons
- "Crawled – currently not indexed" pages reviewed (usually thin or duplicate content)
- "Discovered – currently not indexed" pages reviewed (often a crawl-budget or quality signal)
- One canonical version of the site only (pick https + www OR non-www, redirect the rest)
- Canonical tags point to the version you actually want indexed
- No duplicate pages competing for the same query (parameters, print versions, tag archives)
Speed & Core Web Vitals — does it load well on a phone?
- LCP under 2.5s on mobile (PageSpeed Insights, field data if available)
- INP under 200ms — the metric that replaced FID; watch heavy JavaScript here
- CLS under 0.1 — reserve space for images and ads so layout doesn't jump
- Images compressed and served in modern formats (WebP/AVIF)
- Images use width/height or CSS aspect-ratio to prevent shift
- Render-blocking scripts deferred where possible
Field data beats lab data. A 95 Lighthouse score with bad real-user INP still loses.
Mobile & rendering
- Site is responsive and passes the mobile-friendly check
- Same content served to mobile and desktop (mobile-first indexing reads the mobile version)
- Tap targets aren't cramped; text is readable without zoom
- Important content isn't hidden behind interactions Google won't trigger
Structured data & on-page basics
- Each page has one unique title tag and meta description
- One H1 per page that matches the page's intent
- Relevant schema added (Article, FAQ, Product, Breadcrumb) and validated in the Rich Results Test
- No structured-data errors flagged in Search Console
- Open Graph tags set so shared links render properly
Security & housekeeping
- Valid HTTPS across the whole site, no mixed-content warnings
- HTTP reliably redirects to HTTPS
- Custom 404 page that links back into the site
- Favicon and basic brand assets present
How to actually use this
Run it quarterly, not once. Crawl the site, walk the list, and log every failure with the URL and a one-line fix. Then sort by impact: a sitewide noindex outranks a missing favicon every time. Fix crawl and index issues first — they gate everything else — then speed, then on-page polish.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a technical audit take? For a site under ~500 pages, half a day for the crawl and review, plus however long the fixes take. Larger sites scale the crawl time, not the checklist.
How often should I audit? Quarterly for an active site, or after any migration, redesign, or CMS change. Those events break things quietly.
Do I need paid tools? No. Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and the free tier of Screaming Frog cover everything on this list for a small site.
What's the single most common issue? Indexation problems from thin or duplicate content, followed by accidental noindex tags left over from staging.