Recently, there have been several announcements in the search space, such as improved JavaScript crawling support, AMP in search results, and the move to a mobile-first index. With all of these changes, there needs to be additional focus on technical SEO audits. Here are the most critical audits that should form the base of your SEO audits:
Mobile web crawling
We know that the majority of traffic to the search engines are from smartphones and other mobile devices. Also, we know that Google is moving as quickly as it can towards a mobile-first index. Your next technical audit should test how your site performs with the Google Smartphone crawler.
JavaScript
It has been three years since Google’s crawlers began crawling JavaScript content. However, even with recent improvements to crawling JavaScript, there are still some limitations. The site should follow certain best practices and use specific frameworks to ensure that all content is crawlable.
Structured data
The search results pages have not looked like the traditional ten links for a long time. Now you see more and more specific answers and results at the top of the page. The only way to take advantage of that is to follow data structure guidelines. It is critical to understand how your pages can take advantage of these new features.
HTTPS
In 2016, Google announced that sites that sell products and accept credit cards without HTTPS would have a “Note secure” label next to search results. Lots of sites have prioritized HTTPS migrations and conduct checks to ensure that all pages are secure.
