freecourses.digital
Lesson progress: 0 of 3 activities done
All lessons in Technical SEO Auditing Lesson 6.5 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

Missing Image Alt Attributes

What we will go through

  • Why alt attributes matter for SEO and accessibility
  • The difference between missing, empty, and poor alt text
  • How to find image issues in a crawl
  • How to prioritize which images to fix

Short answer

An alt attribute describes an image for screen readers and search engines. Audit images by filtering your crawl for missing alt attributes, alt text over 100 characters, and repeated or stuffed alt text. Decorative images can use an empty alt, while product, diagram, and linked images need short, accurate descriptions.

A Vigan handicraft store had 2,400 product photos. None had alt text. Screen readers announced each one as “IMG underscore 4471 dot JPG,” and Google Images had little to go on. A single template change, using the product name as alt text, fixed most of them in a day.

Missing, empty, or poor

  • Missing: no alt attribute. Always a fix.
  • Empty (alt=""): correct for decorative images, wrong for products and diagrams.
  • Poor: file names, “image,” the same text on every photo, or long keyword lists.

Which images matter most

  1. Linked images (logo, buttons, cards): the alt is the link’s anchor text.
  2. Product and service images: help image search and accessibility.
  3. Diagrams, charts, infographics: carry information users need.
  4. Decorative images (dividers, backgrounds): empty alt is fine.

How to audit

Open the Images tab in your crawl and use filters for Missing Alt Attribute, Missing Alt Text, and Alt Text Over 100 Characters. Export All Image Inlinks to see which pages use each image. Group by template: product galleries, blog content, logos.

Practice: what alt does it need?

Sort each item into the right group.

  • Product photo of an abel iloko table runner

  • Decorative wave divider between sections

  • Logo linking to the homepage

  • Chart showing monthly bookings

  • Background texture pattern

Common mistakes

  • Rating missing alt text as critical for rankings. It is mainly accessibility and image search.
  • Same alt text on every gallery image.
  • Stuffing keywords into alt attributes.
1. Which alt suits a decorative divider?
2. Why do linked images need good alt text?
3. Fastest fix for 2,400 product images without alt?

Your action

Next, you will audit internal links and anchor text.

Key terms

Alt attribute
The alt="" text on an <img> element, read by screen readers and used by search engines to understand images.
Empty alt
alt="", which correctly tells assistive tools to skip a decorative image.
Missing alt
An image with no alt attribute at all, which screen readers may read as the file name.
Image link
An image wrapped in a link. Its alt text acts as the link's anchor text.

Questions beginners ask

Do all images need alt text?

All images need an alt attribute. Decorative images should use an empty one. Meaningful images need a description.

How long should alt text be?

Usually under 100 characters. Describe what matters about the image in context.

Should I put keywords in alt text?

Only when they describe the image naturally. Keyword stuffing in alt text helps no one.

Are CSS background images checked?

No. They have no alt attribute. Important images like products should not be CSS backgrounds.

Related lessons

Want someone to handle SEO for your business while you learn? The team at Remar Digital can help.