Technical SEO & Security
Frequently asked questions
Which check to start with if a site is being checked for the first time?
With the comprehensive audit – it shows which areas have problems at all, and from there specific sections can be dug into as needed, instead of checking everything by hand.
Does load speed directly affect rankings?
Speed counts as one of the technical factors, but it weighs less than how well the content matches the query. A slow site is more likely to lose users to bounces than to lose rankings directly.
What happens if an expired SSL certificate is not renewed?
The browser shows a warning about an insecure connection, some users leave without waiting for the page to load, and search engines may lower their trust in the site in the results.
Can a mistake in robots.txt block a site from indexing entirely?
It can, if a disallow directive is accidentally applied to the whole site instead of one section. The validator shows which rules apply to which addresses, and such mistakes are visible right away.
Checks that determine whether a search crawler will reach a page and whether a user gets a safe, fast connection: a site audit, load speed, SSL, indexing, robots.txt and server response codes.
Comprehensive audit
The site audit checks a domain across several fronts at once – technical errors, indexing, broken links, meta tags, redirects, robots.txt, sitemap.xml and load speed – and returns a list of specific problems with recommendations. This is the starting point: it is worth digging into the individual technical checks below only after the audit has pointed out where to look.
Indexing and service files
- Indexed pages count – how many pages of a domain a search engine knows about.
- Page indexation checker – the status of specific addresses.
- Robots.txt and sitemap validator – syntax errors in the crawl rules and the sitemap.
- .htaccess redirect generator – correct redirect rules for Apache.
Speed and connection security
- Website speed check – load metrics for mobile and desktop.
- SSL certificate check – expiry date, issuer, trust chain errors.
- Website status checker – whether a site responds right now and with what code.
- HTTP status checker – an address's response code and redirect chain.
- Redirect checker – where a redirect leads and in how many steps.
Speeding up through minification
Cutting file weight has a direct effect on load speed: the JavaScript minifier, the CSS minifier and the HTML minifier strip spaces, line breaks and comments out of code before it is deployed to production.
Where to start working through problems
- Run the site audit – it shows the full list of problems.
- Check indexing: does the search engine know about the important pages.
- Check speed and SSL – a site's technical health.
- Check robots.txt and sitemap.xml for syntax errors.
Where to go next
Domain and IP checks are covered in the Domains & Hosting section. Working with the page's own text is covered in Content & SEO Optimization.