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All lessons in Technical SEO Auditing Lesson 3.2 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

Finding 4xx Errors and Broken Links

What we will go through

  • Where to find 4xx URLs in a crawl
  • How to trace which pages link to them
  • How to find broken backlinks and external links
  • How to choose the right fix for each broken URL

Short answer

To find 4xx errors, filter your crawl's response codes for client errors, then open the inlinks for each broken URL to see which pages link to it. Fix broken internal links at the source, redirect removed pages that have backlinks or traffic, and let truly dead URLs keep returning 404 or 410.

A Quezon City bakery deleted its “Ube Cheese Pandesal” page after the product sold out. Its homepage banner, three blog posts, and a food blogger’s review still linked to it. Every visitor from those links hit an error page. That is the typical life of a broken link.

Step 1: Filter the 4xx URLs

In your crawl, open Response Codes and filter Client Error (4xx). You will mostly see 404, plus some 403 and 410. Export the list.

Step 2: Find where they are linked from

The broken URL is the symptom. The fix happens on the source page. In Screaming Frog, select the URL and open the Inlinks tab, or use Bulk Export, Response Codes, Client Error Inlinks. You get a table of source page, broken target, and anchor text.

Look for patterns. If 600 pages link to the same dead URL, the link is in a template, like a menu, footer, or sidebar. One template edit fixes all 600.

Step 3: Check outside sources

  • Search Console Pages report: “Not found (404)” shows URLs Google tried, including old URLs your crawl no longer finds.
  • Backlink tools: check whether external sites link to your 404 URLs.
  • External outlinks: your crawl can also flag links from your site to other sites that are now broken.

Step 4: Choose a fix

  • Internal link to a moved page: update the link to the new URL.
  • Removed page with backlinks or traffic: 301 redirect to the closest relevant page.
  • Typo in a link: correct the link.
  • Dead page with no value: remove internal links, let it return 404 or 410.

Practice: choose the fix

Sort each item into the right group.

  • Menu links to /contct/ (typo)

  • Deleted product with 20 backlinks and a similar replacement

  • Old test page, no links, no traffic

  • Blog posts link to a page that moved to /rooms/family/

  • Retired service with a news site linking to it, related service exists

Common mistakes

  • Fixing broken URLs without fixing the links. Internal links still point to redirects or errors.
  • Redirecting everything to the homepage. Google treats irrelevant redirects as soft 404s.
  • Missing template patterns. Fix the footer once instead of 600 pages.
1. 600 pages link to the same 404 URL. Where is the link likely placed?
2. A removed page has backlinks and a close replacement. What should you do?
3. Where do you fix a broken internal link?

Your action

Next, you will identify 5xx server errors and figure out whether they are real or caused by your crawl.

Key terms

Broken link
A link that points to a URL returning a 4xx error, usually 404.
Source page
The page that contains a link. You fix broken internal links by editing the source page or template.
Broken backlink
A link from another website pointing to a URL on your site that no longer works.
Outlink
A link from your page to another URL, either internal or external.

Questions beginners ask

Do broken links hurt rankings?

A few have little direct effect, but they waste crawl effort, break user journeys, and lose link value when backlinks point to dead pages.

Should I redirect every 404?

No. Redirect only when there is a closely relevant replacement and the old URL has backlinks, traffic, or bookmarks. Redirecting everything to the homepage creates soft 404s.

How do I find broken backlinks?

Export 404 URLs from your crawl and Search Console, then check them in a backlink tool such as Ahrefs, Semrush, or the Links report in Search Console.

Should I fix broken external links too?

Yes, for user experience. Replace or remove links to other sites that now return 404.

Related lessons

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