Technical SEO Auditing Fundamentals
Learning to run a technical SEO audit is one thing. Knowing what to check, what matters, and how to explain it to your boss or client is another. This free course takes you through a complete basic technical SEO audit, from start to finish, using Sitebulb—with a copy-and-edit audit template to use alongside.
With thanks to our expert trainer, Tory Gray, Founder of Gray Dot Co.
Tory Gray, Founder of Gray Dot CoAbout the course
This course is designed for people who are newer to technical auditing: SEOs who have read the beginners’ guides and want to build up their technical skills, and agency juniors who need to become proficient at website auditing quickly.
You already understand basic SEO and tech concepts. This course fills the gaps you do not know are there yet, and shows you what to vet, what matters, and why, so you can be completely confident in your auditing.
What you’ll learn
Pre-audit checks: check for critical errors, confirm the audit setup questions are clearly answered, then configure and start your crawl.
Crawling checks: robots.txt instructions, whether your XML sitemap is present, in use and accurate, URL structure and best practice, parameterised URLs, and robots.txt instructions for LLM user agents.
Indexing checks: whether important pages are indexable, meta tag presence and placement, duplicate or mismatched meta robots directives, canonicals, URL variants, actual versus expected indexed pages, and noindexed and nofollowed pages.
On-page checks: H1s, page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text, content depth, duplicate content and heading structure.
Linking checks: broken internal links, redirects, chains and loops, internal links to key pages, error pages, link depth, anchor text, broken external links and soft 404s.
Performance checks: layout shift on key pages and oversized images.
Mobile checks: whether content is readable on mobile and tap targets are sized and spaced properly.
Pagination checks: whether pagination exists and is crawlable, and whether valid paginated URLs can be crawled and indexed.
Analytics checks: confirming tracking is in place and reviewing pages with zero or low traffic and impressions.
Validating and prepping your audit for handoff: pulling your findings together so you can deliver them with confidence.
2 ways to use the audit template
There are 42 checks across 11 modules. You work through them with our audit template as your working document: copy the spreadsheet, then fill it in as you complete each check. Every module has a video walkthrough, and every check has its own page with the detail.
If you want to do it yourself, download the technical SEO audit checklist for free and work through it in your own way.
If you want guidance on every check, follow along with the course. Sign up below and you will get access to the course, with the exact same checklist as your working document.
How the course works
Each module has its own page with a video walkthrough and the written detail beneath it. Each check has its own page too, covering what to check, how to check it in Sitebulb, why it matters, and how high a priority it is, from critical to low. The corresponding Sitebulb Hints sit at the bottom of the page, so you can see exactly where to look in your crawl.
Start by copying the template and asking your boss or client to fill in the setup questions, so you know the scope before you begin. Then run your crawl and work through the modules in order. The course is free, and you can go at your own pace.
Register now using the form above.
About the trainer
Tory Gray is the Founder and CEO of Gray Dot Co, a strategic and technical SEO agency that also provides data analytics and measurement services. She has more than 15 years of experience in SEO and growth strategy, and held product and marketing roles at in-house startups and agencies before starting her own company. Tory is a Sitebulb partner, who teaches our JavaScript SEO training course alongside Sam Torres. She has also developed a course for Semrush Academy, and mentors women in technical SEO through the WTS community.