Technical SEO issues are problems that have an influence on crawling, rendering and indexing.
A technical SEO audit will reveal them before they escalate.
Modern Audit software is able to spider websites and collate a report on technical findings which can be a useful way of easily analyzing large websites.
Table of Contents
What Does a Technical SEO Audit Check?
A technical audit can examine areas such as:
- Crawlability
- Indexability
- Broken links
- Redirects
- Metadata
- Duplicate content
- Canonical tags
- Sitemaps
- Robots directives
- Structured data
- Page speed
- Mobile performance
- Internal linking
Different tools will have different checks to different extents.
Semrush Site Audit
Semrush Site Audit automates technical audits and categorizes problems severity.
The current Site Audit system covers, among others, the following topics: crawlability, HTTPS, mobile performance, Core Web Vitals, structured data, international SEO, internal links, etc. Besides it offers recurring audits and progress measurement.
Accessibility related checks have also been included in Semrush‘s AI crawlers, especially if you want your site to be discoverable through an AI-powered search engine.
Ahrefs Site Audit
There is also the other big website auditor: Ahrefs Site Audit.
As of now, Ahrefs mentions that their Site Audit feature detects over 170 issues across a wide range of categories such as issues with titles, descriptions, links, redirects, indexability, images, JavaScript, sitemaps and structured data.
It also allows issue prioritisation and provides visual reporting.
Screaming Frog
Of course, Screaming Frog is first and foremost a website crawler.
This is well suited to detailed technical investigations where there needs to be an SEO expert on hand to look at the nitty gritty data of URLs, links, metadata, redirects and other elements on the page.
What Should You Compare?
When reviewing technical SEO tools, compare:
| Feature | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Crawl depth | Determines how much of the website can be analysed |
| Issue detection | Finds technical problems |
| JavaScript rendering | Useful for modern websites |
| Mobile crawling | Helps assess mobile versions |
| Reports | Makes findings easier to understand |
| Scheduled crawls | Helps monitor recurring problems |
| Export options | Useful for developers and teams |
Why Issue Prioritisation Matters
A technical audit may generate hundreds or even thousands of individual findings.
Not all discovery is worth chasing.
A good audit tool should differentiate high-level issues, warning signs and observations at lower levels.
There are multiple methods for styng up and prioritising issues both Semrush and Ahrefs.
Technical SEO Audits Are Not Just About Errors
A good audit will lead to action.
After identifying issues:
- Review the URLs in used.
- Comprehend the reason.
- Textbook Chapter Teachers Guide Researching a theme Chapter 1 The Problem (Extract) Prioritise the problem.
- Fix it.
- 2. Crawl the site.
- Validate that the issue has been corrected.
Involves an approach to sustain the audit.
How Often Should You Run an Audit?
The optimal frequencies vary from website to website.
For a small and relatively static web site, frequent daily crawls may not be necessary.
The more frequently content, products or site technology changes, the more important and more regular monitoring becomes on larger websites.
Semrush offers manual audits and two types of scheduled recurring audits. Does it Offer Automated Scheduled Audits?
Final Thoughts
Technical seo audit software can simplify website management.
Semrush, Ahrefs or dedicated crawlers as Screaming Frog offer various ways of technical analysis.
The best tool will vary according to the size and tech requirements of the website, the amount of reporting required, and exactly how much detail the SEO team requires.
