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All lessons in Technical SEO Auditing Lesson 8.2 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

HTML Source vs. Rendered HTML

Your roadmap for this lesson

  • What raw HTML and rendered HTML are
  • How to view each in a browser and in Search Console
  • How to compare them at scale in a crawl
  • Which differences matter for SEO

Short answer

Raw HTML is what the server sends. Rendered HTML is the page after JavaScript runs. Compare them using View Source versus Inspect, URL Inspection's tested page HTML, and your crawler's JavaScript tab. Differences in titles, canonicals, meta robots, main content, or links matter most, especially when JavaScript changes signals Google reads first.

A Cebu real estate site’s raw HTML had the title “Loading…” and a noindex tag left from development. JavaScript replaced both a second later. Users saw a perfect page. Google saw “noindex” in the raw HTML, and many listings were never rendered or indexed.

Two versions of every page

  • Raw HTML: View Source (Ctrl+U). What the server sends.
  • Rendered HTML: DevTools Elements panel, or URL Inspection, View Tested Page, HTML. What exists after scripts run.

What to compare

ElementWhy it matters
Title and meta descriptionRewrites by JS may be missed or delayed
CanonicalDifferent values send mixed signals
Meta robotsRaw noindex can stop rendering
Main contentMust appear in rendered HTML at minimum
Internal linksLinks only in rendered HTML are found later
Structured dataJSON-LD injected by JS should render reliably

Comparing at scale

Crawl with JavaScript rendering on and Store HTML and Store rendered HTML enabled. In Screaming Frog’s JavaScript tab, filters show:

  • Pages with content only in rendered HTML
  • Links only in rendered HTML
  • Titles, descriptions, canonicals, or noindex that change after rendering

Practice: risky difference or fine?

Sort each item into the right group.

  • Raw HTML has noindex, JS removes it

  • Raw and rendered canonicals point to different URLs

  • JS adds a live chat widget

  • Raw title 'Loading...', JS sets the real title

  • JS adds a cookie notice

Common mistakes

  • Checking only Inspect. You miss raw HTML problems.
  • Relying on JS to remove noindex.
  • Not storing both versions in the crawl.
1. Where do you see raw HTML?
2. Raw HTML has noindex, JavaScript removes it. Risk?
3. Which crawler tab compares both versions?

Your action

Next, you will compare client-side and server-side rendering.

Key terms

Raw HTML (source)
The HTML document returned by the server before any JavaScript runs.
Rendered HTML (DOM)
The page's HTML after the browser executes JavaScript.
DOM
Document Object Model, the live structure of a page that scripts can change.
JavaScript-modified signal
A title, canonical, robots tag, or link that JavaScript adds, removes, or changes after load.

Questions beginners ask

Why does Inspect show more than View Source?

View Source shows the raw HTML. Inspect shows the live DOM after scripts have run.

Which version does Google use?

Google reads both. Some signals, like noindex in the raw HTML, can stop rendering entirely, so raw HTML signals matter most.

Is it bad if JavaScript changes the canonical?

It is risky. Google may use the raw canonical, the rendered one, or neither. Keep canonicals identical in both.

How do I compare at scale?

Crawl with JavaScript rendering and store both HTML versions. Screaming Frog's JavaScript tab flags content, links, and tags only in rendered HTML.

Related lessons

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