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All lessons in Technical SEO Auditing Lesson 9.7 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

Prioritizing Schema Fixes

Your roadmap for this lesson

  • The factors that decide schema fix priority
  • Which schema issues are urgent
  • Which additions bring the most value
  • How to write schema recommendations

Short answer

Prioritize schema fixes by policy risk first, then lost rich results on high-value templates, then errors on widely used templates, then missing types with real rich result value, and finally warnings. Fix markup at the plugin or template level, and focus on types Google currently displays, such as product, review, breadcrumb, and organization details.

By now you may have a long list: invalid prices, duplicate products, missing breadcrumbs, warnings for brand and SKU, and no Organization markup. This lesson turns that list into an order of work.

Priority order

  1. Policy risks: markup that misrepresents the page (wrong prices, hidden or fake reviews, self-serving reviews). Fix immediately.
  2. Lost rich results on valuable templates: errors removing eligibility on products, locations, or events with real traffic.
  3. Sitewide errors and duplicates: one plugin or theme problem affecting many pages.
  4. Missing high-value types: Product on shops, LocalBusiness for branches, Organization and BreadcrumbList sitewide.
  5. Warnings: recommended properties where data exists.
  6. Low-value additions: types Google no longer displays, unless they serve other purposes.

A sample schema recommendation

Template: Product pages (1,184 URLs) Issue: Price set to 0 for sale items. Product rich results invalid. Cause: Plugin reads the regular price field, empty during sales. Fix: Map the price property to the active sale price. Add availability. Verify: Rich Results Test on 5 URLs, then Validate Fix in the Products report.

Practice: priority level?

Sort each item into the right group.

  • Markup shows 5 stars, page has no reviews

  • Product missing recommended 'gtin'

  • Invalid price on all 1,184 products

  • Adding FAQ markup to blog posts for rich results

  • Duplicate Product blocks with different prices

Common mistakes

  • Starting with warnings because the tool lists them most.
  • Adding schema types Google does not display while errors remain.
  • No verification plan.
1. What comes first?
2. Why fix at the plugin or template level?
3. How do you prove schema fixes worked?

Your action

You have finished Module 9. In Module 10, you will analyze all your audit data and prioritize issues across the whole audit.

Key terms

Policy risk
The chance that misleading markup leads to lost eligibility or a manual action.
Rich result value
How much a rich result type can improve visibility and clicks for a template.
Template reach
How many pages share the issue because they use the same template or plugin.
Schema roadmap
An ordered plan of structured data fixes and additions.

Questions beginners ask

Which schema types bring the most value?

It depends on the site. Product and merchant listing markup for shops, LocalBusiness and Organization for local businesses, Article and BreadcrumbList for publishers.

Should I add FAQ markup to every page?

Not for rich results, since they rarely display outside government and health sites. Add it only when it accurately describes visible FAQs.

Are warnings worth fixing?

When the data exists and the property improves the result, such as availability or shipping details on products.

How do I prove schema fixes worked?

Track valid items in enhancement reports and clicks by search appearance in the Performance report.

Related lessons

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