How to Improve Website Performance with a Technical SEO Audit

If your website loads like it’s stuck in dial-up days or your rankings are chilling somewhere on page 6 of Google, it’s time for a technical SEO audit. Not a vibes-based refresh. Not a content brainstorm. A real-deal inspection of how your website actually functions.

Because no matter how solid your blog strategy or how clever your CTA buttons, none of it matters if search engines can’t crawl your site—or worse, users bounce before your hero image even loads.

A technical SEO audit gives you a full diagnostic breakdown of what’s slowing things down, confusing Google, or quietly tanking your online visibility.

Before we get into the step-by-step, let’s talk about what you’ll walk away with.

Quick Takeaways: 

• Your site shouldn’t make anyone wait. A technical SEO audit shows what’s bloating your pages—oversized images, bad scripts, lazy servers—and gives you the chance to fix it before users bounce.
• More than half of your traffic is probably coming from phones. A good audit catches mobile rendering issues that make people pinch, zoom, scroll sideways, and rage-quit.
• Broken links, orphan pages, and dead ends? Not only do they frustrate users, they confuse search engines. A technical audit helps you clean house.
• If your best content isn’t showing up in search results, it might not be indexed. A technical SEO audit helps flag those missed opportunities so Google doesn’t skip over your site.
• When everything runs smoothly—site speed, mobile, structure—Google rewards that with better positioning. That’s not fluff. It’s how SEO works.

What is a Technical SEO Audit?

A technical SEO audit is like taking your website in for an annual check-up—except instead of blood pressure, you’re looking at things like crawlability, site speed, indexing, mobile usability, and structured data.

This isn’t about copy or content. It’s not about branding or UX either.

It’s strictly the under-the-hood stuff:

• Can Google crawl and index all the right pages?
• Are there broken links or redirect chains?
• Is your site structure built for humans and bots?
• Does your site respond well on mobile and across browsers?

These audits tell you what’s broken and how to fix it—so your site works better, ranks higher, and converts faster.

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Step 1: Check Crawlability and Indexation

Start with your robots.txt file and XML sitemap. These are basically your website’s directions to search engines.

• Robots.txt tells search engines which pages not to crawl. Make sure you’re not accidentally blocking entire sections.
• XML Sitemap helps Google find the pages you do want indexed. Make sure it’s updated and submitted to Google Search Console.

Then check how many of your pages are actually being indexed. You can do this inside Search Console under the “Pages” report. If you see a ton of “Discovered – currently not indexed” warnings, something’s off.

🔍 Tool to use: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog

Step 2: Speed Test Everything

Page speed matters. Slow websites lose rankings and customers. You only get a couple seconds before people bounce.

Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to see where you’re lagging. Look for:

• Uncompressed images
• Render-blocking JavaScript
• Server response times
• Excessive plugins or third-party scripts

Then prioritize fixes for your homepage, product pages, and top blog content.

Pro tip: Don’t chase a perfect 100/100 score. Focus on perceived load time (how fast it feels) and core web vitals.

🔍 Tool to use: Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, WebPageTest

Step 3: Audit Your Internal Linking

Search engines love clean internal linking. It helps them crawl your site efficiently and pass authority between pages.

You want:

• Logical site structure (homepage → categories → subpages)
• No orphan pages (pages with no links pointing to them)
• No deep clicks (pages buried 4+ clicks from the homepage)

Broken links are also a big no. Run a crawl and fix anything that leads to 404s.

Bonus: Add contextual links between blog posts to improve time on site and guide visitors through your content.

🔍 Tool to use: Ahrefs Site Audit, Screaming Frog

Step 4: Make Sure It’s Mobile-First Friendly

Google uses mobile-first indexing. That means your mobile site—not your desktop one—is what Google’s bots are using to rank you.

Your audit should catch:

• Fonts too small to read
• Buttons too close together
• Content wider than the screen
• Slow load times on mobile networks

You don’t need to get fancy here. Pull up your site on an actual phone and see how it feels.

🔍 Tool to use: Google Mobile-Friendly Test, Chrome DevTools (mobile view)

Step 5: Clean Up Redirects, 404s, and Duplicate Content

Redirect chains (page A → page B → page C) slow down users and search engines. Keep redirects clean and direct.

Also:

• Fix broken links that lead to 404 pages
• Set canonical URLs to prevent duplicate content issues
• Use hreflang tags if you’re targeting multiple languages

Duplicate content can confuse Google. If multiple pages show the same or similar stuff, you’re competing with yourself.

🔍 Tool to use: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs

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Bonus: Structured Data & Schema Markup

Structured data helps Google better understand your site. It’s how you get rich snippets, like star ratings, FAQs, and product info in search results.

If you run an ecommerce shop, blog, or local service business—this part matters. A technical SEO audit should include checking which schema types you’re using and if they’re implemented correctly.

🔍 Tool to use: Schema Markup Validator, RankMath SEO (WordPress)

Ready to Fix What’s Slowing You Down?

A technical SEO audit isn’t beautiful. It doesn’t come with a new logo, bold rebrand, or flashy social graphics. But it’s one of the best ways to boost your site’s performance without touching your content strategy. Small fixes under the hood lead to big wins in rankings, visibility, and user experience.

Most businesses ignore this stuff until it becomes a problem. You don’t have to wait that long.

If you’re unsure of how to improve your website performance, Marketing Insider Group offers specialized services to create content, manage campaigns, and engage with your audience. Contact us today to learn more or book your free consultation with our team!