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All lessons in Technical SEO Auditing Lesson 12.2 of 84

Module 1: Introduction to Technical SEO Auditing

  1. 1.1What Is a Technical SEO Audit?
  2. 1.2Technical SEO Audit vs. General SEO Audit
  3. 1.3When Should You Audit a Website?
  4. 1.4Types of Technical SEO Issues
  5. 1.5Defining Audit Scope and Objectives

Module 2: Website Crawling and URL Discovery

  1. 2.1How SEO Crawlers Discover URLs
  2. 2.2Configuring a Website Crawl
  3. 2.3Crawl Scope, Limits, and Exclusions
  4. 2.4Internal Links and Crawl Depth
  5. 2.5Orphan Pages and URL Discovery
  6. 2.6Crawl Data vs. Search Engine Data
  7. 2.7Identifying Crawl Coverage Gaps

Module 3: HTTP Status Codes and Redirect Auditing

  1. 3.1Understanding HTTP Status Codes
  2. 3.2Finding 4xx Errors and Broken Links
  3. 3.3Identifying 5xx Server Errors
  4. 3.4Redirect Chains and Redirect Loops
  5. 3.5Internal Links to Redirected URLs
  6. 3.6301 vs. 302 Redirects
  7. 3.7Auditing 404 Pages and Soft 404s

Module 4: Crawlability and Indexability Auditing

  1. 4.1Crawling vs. Indexing
  2. 4.2Robots.txt Audit
  3. 4.3Meta Robots and X-Robots-Tag
  4. 4.4Noindex and Canonical Conflicts
  5. 4.5XML Sitemap Validation
  6. 4.6Canonical URL Auditing
  7. 4.7Identifying Indexability Conflicts
  8. 4.8Comparing Crawl Data with Google Search Console

Module 5: URL Structure and Duplicate Content Issues

  1. 5.1URL Structure and Normalization
  2. 5.2Duplicate URLs and Duplicate Pages
  3. 5.3HTTP vs. HTTPS and Hostname Variations
  4. 5.4Trailing Slashes and URL Parameters
  5. 5.5Pagination and Faceted Navigation
  6. 5.6Canonicalization Strategies
  7. 5.7Internal Linking to Preferred URLs

Module 6: Technical On-Page Auditing

  1. 6.1Missing and Duplicate Title Tags
  2. 6.2Missing and Duplicate Meta Descriptions
  3. 6.3Missing, Duplicate, and Multiple H1 Headings
  4. 6.4Heading Hierarchy and HTML Structure
  5. 6.5Missing Image Alt Attributes
  6. 6.6Internal Link and Anchor Text Issues
  7. 6.7Empty, Thin, and Near-Duplicate Pages
  8. 6.8Auditing HTML Metadata at Scale

Module 7: Website Performance and Core Web Vitals

  1. 7.1Core Web Vitals: LCP, INP, and CLS
  2. 7.2Lab Data vs. Field Data
  3. 7.3Identifying Slow Pages
  4. 7.4Image and Resource Optimization Opportunities
  5. 7.5JavaScript and CSS Performance
  6. 7.6Mobile Usability and Responsive Rendering
  7. 7.7Prioritizing Performance Fixes

Module 8: JavaScript SEO and Rendering

  1. 8.1How Search Engines Process JavaScript
  2. 8.2HTML Source vs. Rendered HTML
  3. 8.3Client-Side vs. Server-Side Rendering
  4. 8.4JavaScript-Generated Content and Links
  5. 8.5Rendering Failures and Missing Content
  6. 8.6Lazy Loading and Crawl Accessibility
  7. 8.7Diagnosing JavaScript SEO Problems

Module 9: Structured Data and Schema Auditing

  1. 9.1Structured Data and Schema.org Basics
  2. 9.2JSON-LD and Structured Data Formats
  3. 9.3Finding Structured Data Across a Website
  4. 9.4Detecting Invalid or Incomplete Markup
  5. 9.5Schema Validation and Rich Result Eligibility
  6. 9.6Conflicting or Duplicate Structured Data
  7. 9.7Prioritizing Schema Fixes

Module 10: Analyzing Audit Data and Prioritizing Issues

  1. 10.1Reading Crawl Reports and Exports
  2. 10.2Grouping URLs by Issue Type
  3. 10.3Identifying Root Causes vs. Symptoms
  4. 10.4Evaluating Severity, Impact, and Effort
  5. 10.5Separating Sitewide and Isolated Issues
  6. 10.6Identifying False Positives
  7. 10.7Building an Actionable Issue Register

Module 11: Technical SEO Audit Reporting

  1. 11.1Structuring a Technical SEO Audit Report
  2. 11.2Documenting Evidence and Affected URLs
  3. 11.3Writing Developer-Ready Recommendations
  4. 11.4Mapping Issues to Business and Search Impact
  5. 11.5Creating a Prioritized Remediation Roadmap
  6. 11.6Presenting Findings to Stakeholders
  7. 11.7Tracking Fixes and Ownership

Module 12: Fix Verification and Technical QA

  1. 12.1Re-Crawling After Fixes
  2. 12.2Comparing Before-and-After Crawl Results
  3. 12.3Verifying Redirects, Canonicals, and Indexability
  4. 12.4Detecting Regressions and Newly Introduced Issues
  5. 12.5Testing Website Changes Before Deployment
  6. 12.6Confirming Fixes with Search Console and Other Evidence
  7. 12.7Closing Audit Findings and Recording Results

Comparing Before-and-After Crawl Results

Inside this lesson

  • How crawl comparison works
  • Which changes to look at first
  • How to read added, removed, and changed URLs
  • How to summarize the comparison for the report

Short answer

Comparing crawls means placing the baseline audit crawl beside the post-fix crawl to see what changed. Use your crawler's compare mode or match exports by URL, then review issue counts, added and removed URLs, and changed values like status codes, canonicals, and indexability. Improvements confirm fixes, while unexpected changes reveal regressions.

The clearest proof that an audit worked is a simple before-and-after table. The crawl comparison builds it for you.

How to compare

With compare mode: In Screaming Frog, switch to Compare mode, select the baseline and the new crawl, and run Crawl Analysis. Each tab shows Added, New, Removed, and Missing per issue.

Without compare mode: export both, match by URL, and add “changed” columns for status, indexability, canonical, title, and meta robots.

What to look at first

  1. Issue counts for every finding in your register.
  2. Indexability changes: pages newly indexable or newly non-indexable.
  3. Status code changes: new 4xx, 5xx, or redirects.
  4. Added URLs: unexpected new patterns.
  5. Removed URLs: pages that disappeared from the crawl, possibly orphaned.

Summarize it

FindingBeforeAfterStatus
IDX-03 Noindex on location pages400Fixed
RED-02 Links to 301s in footer1,2000Fixed
CAN-02 Canonical to HTTP486Partly fixed
NEW Non-200 canonicals on blog085New issue

Practice: improvement or regression?

Sort each item into the right group.

  • Noindexed location pages: 40 to 0

  • New 404s: 0 to 230

  • Redirect chains: 900 to 12

  • Indexable blog pages: 400 to 60

  • Duplicate titles on products: 1,200 to 0

Common mistakes

  • Looking only at fixed issues.
  • Ignoring removed URLs.
  • Comparing crawls with different settings.
1. What does a baseline crawl provide?
2. Indexable pages dropped sharply after fixes. What is it?
3. Without compare mode, how do you compare?

Your action

Next, you will verify redirects, canonicals, and indexability in detail.

Key terms

Baseline crawl
The original audit crawl used as the reference point.
Compare mode
A crawler feature that shows differences between two crawls, such as Screaming Frog's Crawl Comparison.
Added and removed URLs
URLs present in only one of the two crawls.
Changed URLs
URLs in both crawls with different values, such as a new status code or canonical.

Questions beginners ask

Can I compare without compare mode?

Yes. Export both crawls and match by URL with XLOOKUP, then flag differences in key columns.

What if URL structures changed?

Use URL mapping in compare mode, or a redirect map, so old URLs line up with new ones.

Are added URLs always bad?

No. New content is expected. Watch for unexpected patterns, like thousands of new parameter URLs.

How do I present the comparison?

A short table of issue counts before and after, plus notes on any new issues.

Related lessons

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