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All lessons in Technical SEO Auditing Lesson 8.4 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

JavaScript-Generated Content and Links

In this lesson

  • Which JavaScript link patterns Google can follow
  • How to find content only present after rendering
  • How hash and fragment URLs affect crawling
  • How to recommend crawlable alternatives

Short answer

Google follows only real links: an <a> element with an href that resolves to a URL. Links built with onclick handlers, buttons, or hash fragments are not crawled as separate pages. Audit by comparing raw and rendered crawls for rendered-only content and links, then recommend real href links and content present in the initial HTML.

A Manila online grocery had a beautiful category menu. Each item was a <div> that ran goTo('vegetables') on click. Users had no problem. Googlebot found no links at all, and most category pages ended up orphaned in Google’s eyes.

Google follows these:

<a href="/vegetables/">Vegetables</a>
<a href="/vegetables/" onclick="track()">Vegetables</a>

Google follows both links above. It does not follow any of the links below (the last one only jumps to a spot on the same page):

<span onclick="goTo('vegetables')">Vegetables</span>
<a onclick="goTo('vegetables')">Vegetables</a>
<a href="javascript:goTo('vegetables')">Vegetables</a>
<a href="#vegetables">Vegetables</a>

How to audit

  1. Crawl twice: once text-only, once with JavaScript rendering.
  2. Compare discovered URLs: pages found only in the rendered crawl depend on JavaScript links.
  3. JavaScript tab filters: “Contains JavaScript links” and “Contains JavaScript content.”
  4. Check navigation templates in DevTools: menus, filters, pagination, related products.
  5. Check fragment routing: URLs with #/ patterns usually mean a single page app needing real paths.

Recommendations

  • Convert navigation to <a href> elements (scripts can still enhance them).
  • Use History API routes, not hash fragments.
  • Render main content and key links on the server.
  • Back infinite scroll and “load more” with paginated URLs.

Practice: crawlable or not?

Sort each item into the right group.

  • <a href="/fruits/">Fruits</a>

  • <div onclick="open('/fruits/')">Fruits</div>

  • <a href="#/fruits">Fruits</a>

  • <a href="/fruits/" onclick="track()">

  • <button>Next page</button> with no URL

Common mistakes

  • Testing links only in a browser. Everything works for users.
  • Auditing only rendered crawls. You miss which links depend on JavaScript.
  • Hash-based routing in single page apps.
1. Which link does Google reliably follow?
2. How do you find links that depend on JavaScript?
3. Are /shop#shoes and /shop indexed separately?

Your action

Next, you will diagnose rendering failures and missing content.

Key terms

Crawlable link
An <a href="/path/"> element that resolves to a real URL.
onclick navigation
Navigation triggered by a script on click, without an href. Not followed by Google.
Fragment URL
A URL part after #, such as /shop#shoes. Google generally ignores fragments for indexing.
History API routing
Routing that changes the URL path with pushState, producing real crawlable URLs when links have hrefs.

Questions beginners ask

Can Google follow a <span> with a click event?

No. Only <a> elements with href attributes are reliably followed.

Are hash URLs indexed separately?

Generally no. /page#section is treated as /page. Single page apps should use real paths with the History API.

Is content added by JavaScript indexed?

Usually, if it renders on load without interaction. It is slower and less reliable than content in the raw HTML.

What about infinite scroll?

Provide paginated URLs with real links, so crawlers can reach items without scrolling.

Related lessons

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