Updated October 2026. A technical SEO audit checks whether search engines can find, crawl, understand and index your website. For most Kenyan business sites the biggest problems are not exotic: broken links, missing or messy sitemaps, duplicate titles, slow mobile pages and missing structured data.
Who this guide is for: Owners and marketing teams of WordPress and custom sites whose traffic has stalled or dropped, or who have just redesigned or migrated.
Contents
What a technical SEO audit covers
- Crawling: robots.txt, blocked resources, redirect chains and 404 errors.
- Indexing: Search Console’s page indexing report, canonical tags and noindex tags left on by mistake.
- Sitemaps: one clean XML sitemap with only live, indexable URLs, submitted in Search Console.
- On-page tags: unique titles and meta descriptions, one H1 per page, and Open Graph tags for social sharing.
- Structured data: Organization, Article, Product, LocalBusiness or FAQ schema, validated with Google’s Rich Results Test.
- Speed and mobile: Core Web Vitals in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, tested on a phone over mobile data.
The order to fix things
- Anything blocking indexing: stray noindex tags, robots.txt blocks, broken canonical tags.
- Broken internal links and 404s on pages that used to get traffic. Redirect them with a 301 to the closest relevant page.
- Duplicate titles, descriptions and Open Graph tags, often caused by a theme and an SEO plugin both printing them.
- Missing or invalid schema.
- Speed: image sizes, caching and unused scripts.
Common problems on WordPress sites in Kenya
Two SEO plugins active at once, themes that output their own meta tags, image-heavy home pages served without compression, and old campaign pages deleted without redirects. Each one is quick to fix once found.
How often to audit
Run a full audit after any redesign, migration or plugin change, and a lighter monthly check of Search Console’s indexing and Core Web Vitals reports. Most problems show up there before they show up in traffic.
Tools you need
Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and the Rich Results Test are free. A crawler such as Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs) finds broken links and duplicate tags across the whole site.
Key terms in technical SEO audit
- Crawl budget
- How many pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a given time.
- 301 redirect
- A permanent redirect that passes most ranking signals to the new URL.
- Canonical tag
- Tells search engines which version of a page is the main one.
- Noindex
- A tag that asks search engines not to show a page in results.
- XML sitemap
- A file listing the URLs you want search engines to find.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google's measures of loading speed, responsiveness and layout stability.
Questions to ask before you hire help with technical SEO audit
- Will you crawl the whole site or only a sample?
- How will findings be prioritised?
- Will you fix issues or only report them?
- How will we know the fixes worked?
- Which tools and access do you need from us?
Technical SEO audit: mistakes to avoid
- Fixing low-impact warnings while indexing blockers remain.
- Deleting pages without redirects.
- Running two SEO plugins at once.
- Ignoring mobile testing.
- Never re-checking after fixes.
Technical SEO audit: how to measure success
Track indexed pages, crawl errors and Core Web Vitals in Search Console, and organic clicks to the pages you fixed, comparing four weeks before and after each round of fixes.
Technical SEO audit: a 30-day starter plan
- Week 1: connect Search Console, crawl the site and export the indexing report.
- Week 2: fix indexing blockers and redirect broken URLs that once had traffic.
- Week 3: clean duplicate tags and add or repair schema.
- Week 4: tackle speed issues and re-crawl to confirm.
Technical SEO audit: summary
This guide to technical SEO audit covered: What a technical SEO audit covers; The order to fix things; Common problems on WordPress sites in Kenya; How often to audit; Tools you need. Work through them in order, measure as you go, and keep every fact tied to an official or first-hand source.
Sources
- Google Search Central: SEO starter guide (accessed October 2026)
- Google Rich Results Test (accessed October 2026)
Need this done for you? See our SEO and AI search.
Technical SEO audit: frequently asked questions
How long does a technical SEO audit take?
A small business site can be audited in a day or two; large publishers with thousands of pages take longer because every template needs checking.
Do I need to fix everything at once?
No. Fix what blocks indexing first, then broken links, then tags, schema and speed.
Will an audit improve rankings by itself?
Fixing technical problems removes barriers. Rankings still depend on content that answers searches well.
Do I need access to my hosting for an audit?
For finding problems, Search Console access and a crawl are enough. Fixing them usually needs WordPress or server access.
What does a technical audit report include?
A prioritised list of issues, the affected URLs, why each matters and the recommended fix.
What is the difference between a technical and a content audit?
A technical audit checks crawling, indexing, tags and speed; a content audit checks whether pages answer searches well.
Can a theme cause SEO problems?
Yes. Themes can print duplicate tags, load heavy scripts and hide content from crawlers.
How do I find 404 errors?
Search Console's page indexing report and a site crawl both list broken URLs.
Should I redirect every 404?
Redirect URLs that had traffic or links to the closest relevant page; let genuinely dead pages return 404.
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