Audit in this order
Follow the sequence below from start to finish. The order matters: later steps assume the earlier ones are done.
- Crawl public routes and find status, redirect and canonical problems.
- Check rendering, page speed and mobile usability.
- Review internal links from hubs to high-intent pages.
- Check metadata, structured data, robots.txt and XML sitemaps.
- Connect Search Console and analytics with consent-aware measurement.
SaaS page architecture
Give the site a clear path from category to feature, use case, integration, comparison and support content. Each page should have one primary intent and a next step that matches the visitor's readiness.
- Keep private app screens out of public indexation.
- Use stable URLs for documentation and marketing pages.
- Avoid duplicate feature pages that differ only by a keyword.
- Monitor new pages and removed pages as the product changes.
A technical audit is most useful when each issue has an owner, impact, evidence and a next action. A long export without prioritisation does not improve the site.
A prioritisation framework for audit findings
Use the list below as a working checklist. Each item is something you can verify or action directly on your own site.
- Blocking issues: pages returning errors, noindex by accident, or broken canonicals.
- High-impact issues: slow core pages, missing structured data on money pages.
- Medium issues: thin metadata, weak internal linking on secondary pages.
- Low issues: cosmetic markup or minor accessibility gaps with no ranking effect.
Signs the technical foundation is slipping
Here are the key things to get right. None of them are complicated on their own, but skipping one tends to undermine the rest.
- Indexed page count drifting away from published page count without explanation.
- Core Web Vitals failing on templates that recently changed.
- New pages taking weeks to appear in Search Console.
- Sitemap containing URLs that 404 or redirect.