Audit fundamentals
The audit starts with the simple question: can Google discover, access, understand and index the pages that matter?
Checks must cover the generated website, not just its source code: issues often arise during builds, deployment, redirects or hosting.
Technical checklist
These checks should be carried out prior to launch and repeated after the deploy.
- robots.txt allows relevant crawlers to access the site and points to the correct sitemap.
- sitemap.xml or sitemap-index.xml contains important canonical URLs.
- Each page has title, meta description, H1 and canonical correct.
- Redirects 301 keep valuable old pages and avoid unnecessary chains.
- 404 pages, duplicates and www/non-www variants are handled correctly.
- Schema markup is valid and matches the visible content.
- The site is fast on all devices and has no visible layout shift.
Technical audit must be linked to content
The technical SEO does not replace the good pages. Once the base is clean, you need to check that each important intention has a clear, indexable and internally linked page.
For a service site, that means hubs, sub-services, pages of industries, technologies, guides and FAQ.
What to monitor after launch
After publication, Google Search Console becomes the main source for adjustments.
- Indexation and excluded pages.
- Crawl errors or unexpected redirects.
- Impressions for new pages and long-tail queries.
- Title / H1 / meta that can be adjusted for actual data.
- Core Web Vitals, mobile experience and schema markup problems.