TECHNICAL SEO AUDITING — OPERATIONAL SKILL

This skill contains actionable, production-ready systems for performing comprehensive technical SEO audits and delivering prioritized optimization recommendations for traditional search engines (Google, Bing).

Use this skill when the user asks for:

• Technical SEO audits (full or targeted)
• Core Web Vitals optimization (LCP, INP, CLS)
• Crawlability and indexation issues
• Structured data/Schema.org implementation
• Mobile-first optimization
• Site speed and performance fixes
• Internal linking architecture
• Duplicate content and canonical handling
• International SEO (hreflang)
• Security and HTTPS configuration

Quick Reference

10-Point Audit Framework

Every technical SEO audit follows this systematic checklist:

Scoring: Rate each area 0-10, calculate weighted average for overall Technical Health Score.

Decision Trees

### Audit Type Selection
Full site audit needed
  └─ Use templates/audits/full-technical-audit.md
Quick issue check
  └─ Use templates/audits/quick-audit-checklist.md
CWV-only deep dive
  └─ Use templates/cwv/core-web-vitals-report.md
Schema validation only
  └─ Use templates/schema/schema-validation-report.md

### Core Web Vitals Failing
LCP >2.5s
  └─ Preload LCP element, optimize images, add CDN
  └─ See resources/core-web-vitals-guide.md
INP >200ms
  └─ Reduce JavaScript, optimize event handlers
  └─ See resources/core-web-vitals-guide.md
CLS >0.1
  └─ Add dimensions to images/ads, avoid layout shifts
  └─ See resources/core-web-vitals-guide.md

### Indexation Issues
Pages not indexed
  └─ Check robots.txt blocking
  └─ Verify sitemap inclusion
  └─ Check canonical tags
  └─ See resources/crawlability-indexing.md
Crawl budget problems
  └─ Remove low-value pages from crawl
  └─ Fix redirect chains
  └─ Optimize pagination
  └─ See resources/crawlability-indexing.md

### Mobile Issues
Mobile-unfriendly
  └─ Check viewport meta tag
  └─ Verify responsive CSS
  └─ Test touch target sizes
  └─ See resources/mobile-seo-guide.md

### Security Issues
Mixed content warnings
  └─ Update all HTTP resources to HTTPS
  └─ See resources/security-https-guide.md
SSL/TLS issues
  └─ Run SSL Labs test
  └─ See resources/security-https-guide.md

Navigation

Core Resources

• resources/core-web-vitals-guide.md - LCP, INP, CLS thresholds and optimization
• resources/crawlability-indexing.md - Robots.txt, sitemaps, GSC, indexation
• resources/site-speed-optimization.md - TTFB, render-blocking, image optimization
• resources/mobile-seo-guide.md - Mobile-first indexing, responsive design
• resources/structured-data-guide.md - Schema.org, JSON-LD, rich snippets
• resources/security-https-guide.md - HTTPS, HSTS, security headers
• resources/internal-linking-strategy.md - Link architecture, orphan pages
• resources/duplicate-content-handling.md - Canonicals, pagination, parameters
• resources/internationalization-hreflang.md - Hreflang, geo-targeting

Templates

Audits

• templates/audits/full-technical-audit.md - Complete 10-point audit checklist
• templates/audits/quick-audit-checklist.md - Fast abbreviated audit

Core Web Vitals

• templates/cwv/core-web-vitals-report.md - CWV-specific audit report

Structured Data

• templates/schema/schema-validation-report.md - Schema audit report

Prioritization

• templates/priority/impact-effort-matrix.md - Issue prioritization matrix

Related Skills

Marketing & SEO

• ../marketing-ai-search-optimization/SKILL.md - AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) - complementary to traditional SEO
• ../marketing-social-media/SKILL.md - Social media marketing and content distribution

Technical Implementation

• ../software-frontend/SKILL.md - Frontend performance optimization, SSR
• ../software-backend/SKILL.md - Server-side optimization, API performance
• ../software-security-appsec/SKILL.md - Security hardening, HTTPS implementation

Quality & Performance

• ../qa-observability/SKILL.md - Performance monitoring, observability
• ../ops-devops-platform/SKILL.md - CDN setup, infrastructure optimization

Key Differentiators

Technical SEO vs AI Search Optimization:

• Technical SEO: Optimize for Googlebot, traditional SERP rankings, Core Web Vitals
• AI Search: Optimize for LLM retrieval, citations, answer quality

Audit Output Format:

• Critical Issues - Fix immediately (high impact)
• Important Optimizations - Fix soon (medium impact)
• Recommended Enhancements - Nice to have

Each finding includes:

• What's wrong and why it matters
• Step-by-step fix instructions
• Expected outcome
• Validation method

External Resources

See data/sources.json for 53 curated sources across:

• Google official documentation (Search Central, web.dev)
• Core Web Vitals optimization guides
• Crawlability and indexing references
• SEO tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Screaming Frog)
• Industry blogs and case studies
• JavaScript SEO guides

Getting Started

Quick audit (15 minutes):

1. Run PageSpeed Insights on key pages
2. Check robots.txt and sitemap.xml accessibility
3. Validate structured data with Rich Results Test
4. Review GSC Coverage report for indexation issues
5. Use templates/audits/quick-audit-checklist.md

Full audit (2-4 hours):

1. Use templates/audits/full-technical-audit.md
2. Work through all 10 audit areas systematically
3. Score each area 0-10
4. Prioritize findings with templates/priority/impact-effort-matrix.md
5. Document fixes with validation steps

Ongoing monitoring:

1. Set up GSC alerts for indexation issues
2. Monitor Core Web Vitals in CrUX
3. Schedule quarterly audits
4. Track improvements against baseline

Success Criteria

A successful technical SEO audit delivers a prioritized list of issues with clear fix instructions and validation methods that measurably improve search visibility and Core Web Vitals scores.