Technical SEO Audit Checklist for Australian Businesses

Why Technical SEO Audits Matter (Especially in Australia)

You might be thinking: “My website looks fine, do I really need a technical audit?” The answer is a resounding yes. A technical SEO audit is like a routine service for your car – essential for smooth performance. It checks everything under the hood of your website (crawlability, speed, links, and more) to ensure search engines can easily access and trust your content. If Google’s bots can’t crawl or index your site properly, your flashy homepage won’t matter at all because it simply won’t appear in search results.

For Australian businesses, there are a few extra angles to consider:

• Local competition: Australia’s digital market might be smaller than the US or Europe, but it’s no less competitive in search. A technical edge can mean outranking a rival down the street in Brisbane or Melbourne.
• Australian hosting and speed: If your site is hosted overseas or on a slow server, Australian users could experience longer load times due to distance and latency. (We’ve all clicked away from a site that loads slower than buffering dial-up – not a good look for your business.)
• Mobile usage: Australians are avid mobile internet users, so Google’s mobile-first indexing hits home. Your site must be mobile-friendly and fast on Aussie mobile networks.

In short, a technical SEO audit matters because it finds the unseen problems that hurt your search rankings, user experience, and ultimately sales. Now, let’s get into the checklist of what you should review.

1. Crawlability: Make Sure Search Engines Can Reach All Pages

Crawlability is step one in any website SEO analysis. If search engine spiders (like Googlebot) can’t crawl a page, it’s invisible for SEO purposes. Here’s what to do:

• Check robots.txt: Ensure your robots.txt file isn’t accidentally blocking important sections of your site. Sometimes developers disallow pages (like a staging site or admin area) and forget to re-enable crawling. Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt and look for any Disallow lines that might be problematic. For Australian sites, also double-check you’re not blocking search engines like DuckDuckGo or Bing if they matter to you.
• Look for “noindex” tags: A common technical mistake is leaving a noindex meta tag on pages that should be indexed (often happens after redesigns or testing). Use a crawler tool or manually view page source for <meta name="robots" content="noindex">.
• XML sitemap: Generate an XML sitemap (a roadmap of all indexable pages) and submit it to Google Search Console. This helps Google discover your content. Make sure your sitemap is updated and includes only the pages you want indexed.
• Identify orphan pages: Orphan pages are pages not linked from anywhere on your site, making them hard for crawlers to find. An audit tool can highlight these. Every important page should be reachable via at least one static link from another page. Internal linking is key here (plus it’s good for user navigation).
• Check index coverage in GSC: Google Search Console (GSC) is your friend. In the GSC Index Coverage report, see if there are pages Google tried to crawl but couldn’t (errors), pages excluded, or valid pages. If you spot a bunch of pages under “Excluded” with issues like “Blocked by robots” or “Page not found,” investigate why.

Why it matters: If a page isn’t indexed, it doesn’t exist to search engines, period. Ensuring crawlability is foundational. We often find Australian businesses have whole sections of their site (like blogs or product listings) that never see the light of Google due to a single technical slip-up.

2. Site Structure & Navigation: Build a Solid Foundation

A well-structured site is easier for search engines (and users) to navigate. Think of your website like a map: a logical structure ensures Google can find the treasure (your content) without getting lost. Key points to audit:

• Clear hierarchy: Organise your site into logical categories. For example, an e-commerce site might have Home > Products > [Category] > [Product]. A services firm might use Home > Services > [Service Type] > [Specific Service]. Each level should link down to the next, and vice versa (the next level links back up or to related sections). This creates “silos” of related content.
• Homepage and menu links: Your homepage should link to your key pages (top services or categories), and your main menu should be well-structured. Avoid having important pages buried several clicks deep. As a rule of thumb, any page on your site should be reachable in 3 clicks or fewer from the homepage.
• Use descriptive anchor text: In your internal links (links between pages on your site), use natural, descriptive anchor text that tells what the target page is about. Instead of “click here,” say “See our SEO pricing” or “learn about our web design services.” This not only helps SEO but also users with screen readers.
• Avoid duplicate content via structure: If the same content is accessible via multiple URLs (for instance, yourdomain.com/product and yourdomain.com/category/product show the same item), you have a duplicate content issue. Implement canonical tags (<link rel="canonical">) to point search engines to the primary URL. This is part of site structure because it clarifies which URL is the “main” one in cases where content overlaps.
• Internal link audit: During a technical SEO audit, list all your internal links and see if any important pages have zero or very few links pointing to them (a sign of an orphan or under-linked page). Also check for any broken internal links (we’ll cover broken links more in a bit). Remember, each internal link is a pathway for both users and crawlers.

Why it matters: A well-planned site structure distributes “link equity” (SEO value) effectively and ensures no section of your site is isolated. Poor structure can mean some pages get all the attention while others go unnoticed. In fact, 66% of websites have at least one page with only a single internal link pointing to it³, which is far from ideal. You want multiple pathways to your best content.

3. Page Speed & Core Web Vitals: Don’t Keep Visitors Waiting

Few things hurt both user experience and SEO like a slow website. Google’s Core Web Vitals (CWV) – which measure loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability – are an important part of technical SEO today. Here’s how to audit and improve your page speed:

• Run PageSpeed Insights: Start with Google’s PageSpeed Insights for a quick analysis of any URL’s performance on mobile and desktop. This will give you metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Total Blocking Time, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), along with suggestions.
• Identify large files: Look for oversized images, videos, or other media that slow down load time. If your homepage has a 5 MB hero image, that’s going to hurt. Compress images or use modern formats like WebP. Also consider lazy-loading images (so they only load when scrolled into view).
• Check server response times: A slow TTFB (time to first byte) might indicate your server or hosting is slow. For Australian sites, hosting on an Australian server or a CDN with an Australian node can shave off precious milliseconds for local users. If your audience is mostly Aussie, a Sydney or Melbourne data centre is ideal for hosting.
• Use browser caching & minification: Technical stuff, but important – ensure your site is leveraging browser caching (so repeat visitors load faster) and minify your CSS/JS files (remove unnecessary characters, comments, whitespace that make files bigger). Most platforms (like WordPress) have plugins or settings for this, and it can significantly boost speed.
• Core Web Vitals specific fixes: If your LCP (largest element load) is slow, maybe your server or main image is the issue. If your CLS (layout shift) is high, it could be images without dimensions or ad banners resizing. Addressing these specific pain points will improve CWV scores.
• Mobile vs Desktop: Pay special attention to mobile speed. Often, a site that’s fine on desktop crawls on a phone. Maybe it’s loading desktop-sized images on mobile or heavy scripts. Test on a real phone or using Chrome’s mobile simulator. Also, remember that things like 3G/4G speeds in different parts of Australia can vary, design for the worst connection likely among your users, not the best.

Why it matters: Users will bounce if your site is slow. A Google study found that as page load goes from 1 second to 5 seconds, the probability of a bounce increases by 90%⁴. And it’s not just about losing that one visitor, higher bounce rates can indirectly hurt your rankings, and fewer conversions today mean less business.

4. Mobile-Friendliness: Optimise for the Smartphone Era

Google switched to mobile-first indexing, which means it considers the mobile version of your site as the primary one. If your site doesn’t work well on mobile, your SEO will suffer. Key audit points for mobile-friendliness:

• Responsive design: Check that your site layout adjusts properly on different screen sizes. On your phone, does the text require pinching and zooming? Are buttons tap-friendly? If not, it’s time to update your CSS or use a modern responsive template.
• Mobile pop-ups: Some pop-ups or interstitials that might be okay on desktop (like a big welcome ad or sign-up form) can be obnoxious on mobile and Google may penalise sites that show intrusive interstitials. Ensure any pop-ups are mobile-optimised or removed entirely for smaller screens.
• Font sizes and tap targets: Google’s Mobile Usability report (in Search Console) will flag things like “text too small to read” or “clickable elements too close together.” These need to be fixed for a better mobile UX. Typically, body text should be at least 16px on mobile, and links or buttons should have enough spacing around them.
• Viewport configuration: This is a technical check – your pages should have a meta viewport tag (<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">) to ensure they render correctly on mobile. Most modern sites do, but occasionally an older site might lack it, causing mobile display issues.
• Test on multiple devices: Don’t just rely on an iPhone 14 or latest Samsung for testing. Try to see your site on an older or smaller device if possible. The goal is a broad compatibility. What looks fine on a large phone might overflow on a smaller one.

Why it matters: In Australia, like most places, the majority of searches are now done on mobile devices. If your site’s mobile experience is poor, users will leave in a flash. And if they leave, they’re likely clicking to a competitor’s site next. Plus, many mobile issues (like blocked resources or slow load on mobile data) double-hit your SEO by increasing bounce rates and directly impacting mobile rankings.

5. Structured Data (Schema Markup): Speak Google’s Language

Structured data, or schema markup, is extra code you add to your pages to help search engines understand the content better and sometimes trigger special search results (rich snippets). As part of a technical SEO audit, check:

• Existing schema: Do you already have any JSON-LD or microdata on your site? Common ones include Organisation info, Breadcrumbs, Articles, Products, Reviews, FAQs, etc. Use Google’s Rich Results Test tool to see if it detects any schema on your key pages.
• Opportunities for new schema: Depending on your business, you might benefit from implementing certain schema types. For example, a local business should definitely use LocalBusiness schema (with your name, address, phone, opening hours). An e-commerce site should use Product and Review schema on product pages. A blog should use Article schema.
• Correct implementation: Schema is code; if it’s done incorrectly, it won’t have any effect (or could throw errors). Validate your schema code with Google’s tool or the Schema Markup Validator. Fix any errors like missing required fields.

Why it matters: Schema by itself isn’t a direct ranking factor, but it can indirectly boost your SEO by enhancing your search listings. Rich results (stars from reviews, FAQs accordion, product info, etc.) can significantly improve click-through rates.

6. On-Page SEO Elements: Titles, Metas, Headings & Images

Now we get into the overlap between technical and on-page SEO. A thorough audit will review on-page elements from a technical perspective, are they present? Are they too long/short? Duplicate? Here’s your checklist for on-page elements:

• Title tags: Every page needs a unique, descriptive <title> tag. This is the clickable headline in search results. Check for duplicates or missing titles. As a rule, keep them under ~60 characters and include a keyword naturally. During audits, we often find that 68% of sites have title tags that don’t effectively match what users search for⁷ – or even worse, that Google is rewriting the titles in the SERP. If Google is rewriting your title, that’s a sign you need to improve it.
• Meta descriptions: Make sure each page has a compelling meta description (~150 characters) that provides a reason to click. Avoid duplicates here too. Tools can flag if you have many pages using the same meta description.
• H1 headings: The on-page heading (usually the visible title on the page) should be wrapped in an <h1> tag and there should be one (and only one) H1 per page. Ensure your CMS isn’t accidentally outputting two H1s (like one for the page title and one for the logo).
• Subheadings (H2, H3…): These help structure your content and can include secondary keywords. From a technical standpoint, check that your headers are nested logically (H1 then H2s, etc.) and not all over the place. It’s not the end of the world to have an H3 without an H2 above it, but it hints at messy structure.
• Image alt text: Every image should have an alt attribute describing it (unless it’s purely decorative). Alt text helps with accessibility and is a minor SEO factor (for image search, etc.). During your audit, scan for images with missing alt text. Fixing this can be tedious if you have thousands of images, but focus on key images (like product images or featured blog images) first.
• Content quality and length (overview): While crawling, notice if certain important pages have very thin content (a few lines of text) or if the content is mostly in images (and thus not readable by engines). Those pages might need a content refresh.
• Duplicate meta tags or headers: Sometimes CMS templates accidentally output multiple meta descriptions or multiple title tags, check the HTML source to be sure only one exists. Similarly, if you have multiple H1s, fix as noted.

Why it matters: Optimising these on-page elements ensures that when your page is indexed, it’s indexed correctly. A missing title or bad heading structure won’t necessarily prevent indexing, but it will make your page less effective at ranking and attracting clicks. And some issues, like multiple H1s or missing alt text, while minor individually, are easy fixes that collectively improve your site’s professionalism and SEO hygiene.

7. Broken Links & Redirects: Fix Those Dead Ends

Now, let’s address the pesky 404 errors and redirect loops. A technical audit will uncover any broken links on your site (links pointing to pages that don’t exist) as well as problematic redirects. Here’s what to do:

• Crawl for broken internal links: Use a tool (like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc.) to crawl your site and report 404 errors. These tools will list any internal URLs returning a 404 Not Found. Each of these is a dead end for users and a lost opportunity for keeping a visitor on site. Fix them by updating the link to a correct URL, or if the content is gone, create a new relevant page or set up a redirect.
• Check for broken external links: Your site might be linking out to other resources that have moved. Those also create a bad user experience. During the audit, note any outbound 404s and update or remove them.

Moreover, if you recently changed your site structure or did a redesign, broken links and redirects are often the #1 issue that pops up. We’ve seen Australian businesses lose significant Google rankings after a website revamp because the devs didn’t map old URLs to new ones, all that SEO equity just evaporated overnight. Don’t let that happen to you.

Also, when cleaning up broken links, you might discover opportunities. For example, if you find a lot of broken links pointing to a page you deliberately removed, consider why people or other sites were linking to it. Should you have equivalent content on your site now? Perhaps you need to rebuild a page to serve that demand, then reach out and ask those sites to update their links. In this way, a technical exercise turns into a strategic SEO move (recovering or building backlinks).

8. Beyond the Checklist: Continuous Improvement and Integrated SEO

By now, you’ve ticked off a lot: your site is crawlable, structured, fast, mobile-friendly, secure, marked up with schema, optimised on-page, and free of dead links. Fantastic! But the work doesn’t stop here.

Here’s what comes next:

• Monitor with Google Search Console: Make it a habit to check GSC every month (at least) for any new crawl errors, mobile usability issues, or security alerts. Google will notify you there if, say, it suddenly can’t index some pages or if your site gets malware-infected.
• Keep an eye on site speed: As you add new features or content, periodically re-run PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse audits. A new fancy widget on your homepage might be secretly slowing things down, catch it early.
• Plan for algorithm updates: Google rolls out core updates and changes that can sometimes impact technical aspects (for instance, a future update might put even more weight on Core Web Vitals). Stay informed via SEO news or follow Google Search Central blog. If something big changes (say, Google decides site speed is even more important), be ready to adapt your checklist priorities.
• Leverage your integrated team: The beauty of addressing technical SEO as an Australian business with Distl is that you have an entire digital marketing arsenal at your disposal. When technical fixes are done, our work often transitions into content creation, link building, or UX improvements, whatever will move the needle next. For example, once the technical audit gives your site a clean bill of health, it might be the perfect time to launch a content marketing campaign or ramp up your local SEO efforts now that nothing on the site is holding you back.
• Regular mini-audits: Consider scheduling a mini technical audit every 6-12 months. Websites evolve, and new issues can sneak in. Maybe a plugin update creates duplicate pages, or an employee uploads 50 huge images that slow things. A proactive scan can catch issues before they grow.

Finally, remember that the goal of all this technical work is to support your broader business objectives – more traffic, more leads, more sales, and ultimately growth. Technical SEO might not be as glamorous as a creative ad campaign or as visible as a new homepage design, but it’s the bedrock that keeps your digital presence sturdy and strong.

Closing Thoughts: If this checklist feels a bit overwhelming, that’s normal. There’s a lot that goes into a healthy website! The good news is you don’t have to tackle it alone. At Distl, we live and breathe this stuff. We’re a team that blends SEO experts, web developers, content strategists and more under one roof. When we perform a technical SEO audit for an Australian business, we not only find the issues we can fix them and fold the solutions into a cohesive strategy moving forward.

Ready to lift your search game and make pesky technical issues a thing of the past? Let’s talk tactics. Reach out to us for a complimentary audit or consultation, and let our team help you turn those technical SEO roadblocks into opportunities for growth.

Contact us today to get started.

References

1. Ahrefs – Core Web Vitals Data Study (2022). Only ~33% of websites passed all Core Web Vitals thresholds in a 5.2M page analysis. Source ↩
2. Ahrefs – SEO Statistics 2024. Approximately 72.3% of sites have slow pages affecting user experience. Source ↩
3. Ahrefs – SEO Statistics 2024. An analysis found 66.2% of websites have a page with only one internal link (indicating poor internal linking structure), and over 67% of sites using hreflang had implementation errors. Source ↩
4. Think with Google – Mobile Page Speed Insights. Google’s research shows that as page load time increases from 1s to 5s, the probability of bounce increases by 90%. Source ↩
5. Ahrefs – SEO Statistics 2024. Around 95.2% of sites were found to have 3xx redirect issues, and 88% had HTTP to HTTPS redirect issues, highlighting widespread technical errors. Source ↩
6. Google Search Central Blog. Nestlé case study: rich results (via schema markup) led to an 82% higher click-through rate compared to standard snippets. Source ↩
7. SEO Review Tools – Title Tag Rewriting Study (2021). Google was found to rewrite title tags for 61% of pages in one study, often due to mismatched or suboptimal titles, indicating many sites (estimated ~68%) have room to improve title relevance. Source ↩
8. OnCrawl – H1 Tags and SEO. Studies have shown 59.5% of sites had missing H1s and 51.3% had multiple H1s on at least one page, which can confuse search engines. Source ↩