Most technical SEO audits produce a hundred-item report where four items matter. This is the short version: the checks that find problems capable of suppressing an entire site.
1. Is everything indexable that should be
Start in Search Console with the page indexing report. The number to look at is not how many pages are indexed but how many are excluded and why.
"Crawled, currently not indexed" in volume usually means thin or duplicated content, not a technical fault. "Discovered, currently not indexed" often means the site is producing more URLs than its authority justifies crawling.
2. Do your old URLs still resolve
The single most common serious fault after a rebuild. Take the URLs that ranked before the launch and request each one. Any that return 404 while the same content exists elsewhere is discarded equity, and it is invisible in most dashboards.
3. One canonical version of every page
Check that http, https, www and non-www all resolve to one address, and that pages with query parameters declare a canonical. Multiple addresses serving one page split its signals.
Beware a subtle framework trap: setting a canonical at the root layout level can leak the homepage canonical onto every page. Verify in the live HTML rather than in code.
4. Titles and descriptions that are actually distinct
Duplicate titles across many pages usually indicates a template writing them automatically. Each page needs a title reflecting what is uniquely on it, inside roughly 60 characters so it is not truncated.
5. One H1, meaningful headings
Multiple H1s are common in imported content, because a body carried its own heading in addition to the page title. It is not fatal, but it muddies structure and is trivial to fix.
6. Speed on a real phone
Test on a mid-range device on cellular data, not a desktop on office wifi. Look at Core Web Vitals, and specifically at layout shift, which is the one users feel most and developers notice least.
7. Structured data that matches the page
Organization and breadcrumbs are worth having. Article markup on articles is worth having. Marking up things that are not visible on the page is a violation, not a shortcut.
What you can safely ignore
Meta keywords. Exact keyword density. Long-tail warnings about image dimensions on pages nobody visits. A tool flagging four hundred "issues" is measuring its own thoroughness, not your site's health.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I audit?
A full pass twice a year, plus a check after every significant release. Most damage is introduced by deployments.
Do I need a paid crawler?
Search Console plus a free crawler covers the checks above. Paid tools save time at scale rather than finding different problems.
