How To Do Technical SEO Audit in 9 Steps Using Wellows

Step 1: Select the Page You Want to Audit

Wellows is built for URL-level audits. Start by choosing a high-impact URL where fixes can directly impact rankings and conversions, instead of auditing random pages.

Step 2: Paste the URL Into Wellows Site Audit

Copy the page URL and paste it into Wellows to begin the audit. Once submitted, Wellows evaluates that page against 100+ checks spanning technical SEO, on-page signals, structure, and machine-readability indicators.

Because it audits one URL at a time, the output stays specific to that page rather than producing a broad site-wide report you still need to interpret.

Step 3: Add a Focused Keyword (Or Let Wellows Extract It)

Add a focused keyword for the page. If you skip this, Wellows can extract a likely keyword from the page content. This step matters because it helps interpret certain checks in context, especially those tied to headings, structure, and on-page relevance, rather than scoring the page in a generic way.

Step 4: Review the Overview Dashboard

After the audit runs, start with the overview. This is where you get a fast sense of what’s happening:

• Page health score (a snapshot of overall condition)
• Issue distribution across errors, warnings, and notices
• Total factors analyzed, so you understand the audit depth

This top layer helps you decide whether the page has blocking issues that can prevent crawling and indexing, or whether it mainly needs refinement improvements.

Step 5: Fix What Matters First Using Prioritized Issues

Instead of a long report, Wellows surfaces prioritized issues and categorize them into errors, warnings and notices.

It also helps you understand:

• what the issue is
• why it matters
• how to fix it

This is the part that saves the most time in real workflows because it reduces the usual problem of “everything looks urgent” and turns the audit into an execution plan your team can follow.

Step 6: Review Agent Analysis and Full Factor Breakdown

Move into Agent Analysis to see the audit organized into clear, category-level sections. This view helps you quickly identify whether issues are mainly technical (crawlability and indexation), structural (headings and layout), semantic (schema and microdata), or quality-related (readability and media).

Each agent shows a percentage score, total factors checked, pass and fail counts, and how many items are flagged as errors, warnings, or notices, making weak areas easy to spot.

Clicking View All expands the audit into a complete list of every technical SEO factor evaluated for the page. This allows you to confirm what was checked, review which factors passed or failed, and share detailed findings with developers or stakeholders.

It is especially useful when auditing critical pages and validating coverage for areas like canonicalization, crawl signals, structured data, and internal linking.

Step 7: Drill Into Any Factor for Deeper Diagnosis and Fix Guidance

From the full list, click any factor to open a deeper explanation with:

• the exact issue detected
• why it affects SEO
• practical fix guidance

Step 8: Implement Fixes on the Page

Apply the suggested changes on your page or website. In practice, this may include updating canonical tags, correcting redirect behavior, improving heading structure, fixing broken links, optimizing images, or adjusting structured data so it validates correctly.

The goal is to resolve the highest-impact items first so the page becomes easier to crawl, interpret, and index.

Step 9: Re-Crawl the URL to Confirm Fixes Are Resolved

After changes are deployed, run a re-crawl in Wellows to confirm the fixes worked. This verification loop is one of the biggest advantages of the tool because it provides:

• clear proof of improvement (Fail → Pass)
• visible score movement after changes
• confirmation that an issue is truly resolved, not just “assumed fixed”

How To Check Crawlability and Indexability in a Technical SEO Audit?

Crawlability and indexability checks in a technical SEO audit checklist confirm whether search engines can access a page and include it in search results. These steps help identify technical barriers that prevent pages from being discovered, rendered, or indexed correctly.

They also help protect your crawl budget by ensuring search engines focus on important URLs.

1. Review Robots.txt Access: Check the robots.txt file to confirm search engines are allowed to crawl the page. Look for disallow rules that may be blocking important URLs or entire directories by mistake.
2. Verify HTTP Status Codes: Ensure the page returns a 200 status code. Pages returning 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx responses may be crawled incorrectly or excluded from indexing.
3. Check XML Sitemap Inclusion: Confirm the page is listed in the XML sitemap and that the sitemap only includes URLs intended for indexing. Sitemap URLs should be indexable and free from errors.
4. Inspect On-Page Indexing Signals: Review meta robots tags and HTTP headers for noindex, nofollow, or conflicting directives. Also check canonical tags to ensure they point to the correct version of the page.
5. Analyze Index Coverage in Search Console: Use Google Search Console to see whether the page is indexed, excluded, or flagged with coverage issues. This helps identify indexing problems that are not visible on the page itself.
6. Confirm Page Rendering: Check how search engines render the page, especially if JavaScript is involved. Incomplete or blocked rendering can prevent content from being indexed properly.

These steps together help determine whether a page is accessible to crawlers and eligible to appear in search results.

How Can I Improve Core Web Vitals as Part of a Technical SEO Audit?

Improving Core Web Vitals during a technical SEO audit starts with identifying which metrics are failing and why. Core Web Vitals reflect real user experience, so the goal is not just to score well in tools, but to remove performance bottlenecks that affect how pages load, respond, and remain visually stable.

1. Diagnose Core Web Vitals Using Field and Lab Data: Begin by reviewing Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console to understand real user data for LCP, INP, and CLS. Pair this with lab tools like PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to pinpoint the specific elements causing poor performance, such as slow server responses or heavy scripts.
2. Improve Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP measures how quickly the main content loads. To improve it, optimize server response time, compress and properly size images, use modern image formats, and ensure critical resources load early. Reducing render-blocking CSS and JavaScript also helps the main content appear faster.
3. Reduce Interaction to Next Paint (INP): INP reflects how responsive a page feels when users interact with it. Improve this by minimizing long JavaScript tasks, breaking up heavy scripts, deferring non-critical code, and reducing third-party scripts that delay interactions. Cleaner event handling leads to faster input responses.
4. Fix Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS measures visual stability. Prevent layout shifts by defining width and height for images and media, reserving space for ads and embeds, and avoiding dynamic content insertion above existing elements. Fonts should load in a way that avoids sudden layout changes.
5. Validate Improvements and Monitor Over Time: After implementing changes, re-test pages and monitor Core Web Vitals in Search Console to confirm improvements. Core Web Vitals should be reviewed regularly, especially after design updates, content changes, or script additions, to ensure performance remains stable.

What robots.txt Issues Should I Fix in a Technical SEO Audit?

During a technical SEO audit, robots.txt should be reviewed carefully because small mistakes can block important pages or waste crawl budget. The goal is to ensure search engines can crawl what matters and avoid areas that provide no SEO value.

Common Robots.txt Issues to Fix in a Technical SEO Audit

1. Blocking Important Pages or Directories: Check for Disallow rules that accidentally block key pages such as category pages, landing pages, or blog sections. Important URLs should always be accessible to search engine crawlers.
2. Blocking CSS or JavaScript Files: Blocking /css/, /js/, or /assets/ directories can prevent proper rendering. Search engines need access to these resources to fully understand page layout and content.
3. Using Robots.txt to Control Indexing: Robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. Blocking a URL does not guarantee it will be removed from search results if it is linked elsewhere. Use noindex tags instead for index control.
4. Overly Broad Disallow Rules: Rules like Disallow: / or broad wildcard patterns can unintentionally block large sections of the site. Always test rules to confirm they only affect intended URLs.
5. Missing or Incorrect Sitemap Declaration: Ensure the XML sitemap is referenced correctly in robots.txt. An incorrect or missing sitemap path reduces crawl efficiency and slows discovery of important pages.
6. Conflicting Allow and Disallow Rules: Conflicts between Allow and Disallow directives can confuse crawlers. Rules should be clear, intentional, and tested to confirm expected behavior.
7. Blocking Parameter URLs Improperly: Blocking URL parameters without understanding their purpose can block important filtered or paginated pages. Parameter handling should be deliberate and consistent with indexing strategy.
8. Outdated or Legacy Rules: Old rules from previous site structures, migrations, or CMS changes can remain unnoticed. Regular audits help remove rules that no longer serve a purpose.
9. Not Testing Robots.txt Changes: Changes made without validation can introduce new crawl issues and also impact LLM SEO of your page. Always test updates using tools like robots.txt testers or URL inspection tools.

Fixing these robots.txt issues helps ensure search engines can crawl, render, and interpret your site correctly, forming a strong foundation for technical SEO performance.

How To Audit Schema Markup and Structured Data?

Auditing schema markup helps ensure search engines can accurately understand page content and display it correctly in search results. The process should focus on relevance, accuracy, and validation.

1. Identify relevant schema types: Check whether the page uses the correct schema type, such as Article, Product, FAQ, or Breadcrumb, based on its content and purpose. Avoid applying schema that does not reflect what users see on the page.
2. Verify schema presence and coverage: Confirm that structured data is actually implemented on the page and not missing entirely. Many pages fail to include schema even when they are eligible for rich results.
3. Validate syntax and required properties: Review the schema for errors, missing required fields, or deprecated attributes. Invalid markup may be ignored by search engines even if it is present.
4. Match schema with visible content: Ensure structured data aligns with on-page text, headings, prices, reviews, and other visible elements. Mismatches can lead to rich result ineligibility or manual actions.
5. Use Wellows for page-level schema analysis: Wellows Site Audit analyzes structured data for individual URLs, flags missing or invalid schema, and explains how each issue affects machine readability and search enhancements.
6. Re-crawl to confirm fixes: After updating schema markup, re-crawl the page to verify that errors are resolved and the structured data is detected correctly. Wellows supports this validation step to close the audit loop.