If Google Can't
Crawl It, It Won't
Rank It
Technical SEO is the engine that makes every other SEO investment work. Without it, your content goes unindexed, your pages load too slowly, and your rankings stay stuck — regardless of how good your content is or how many backlinks you earn. I fix the technical foundation first.
✦
Full Site Crawl
✦
Core Web Vitals
✦
Schema Markup
✦
Any CMS Platform
Typical Site Audit Findings — Before
✕
Crawl errors & broken links
24 issues
✕
Missing meta tags
31 pages
✕
Core Web Vitals (Mobile)
LCP: 8.2s
!
Duplicate content
12 pages
✕
Schema markup
Not found
✕
SSL certificate
Errors found
After Technical SEO Implementation
✓
Crawl errors & broken links
Resolved
✓
Meta tags — all pages
Optimised
✓
Core Web Vitals (Mobile)
LCP: 1.8s
✓
Duplicate content
Canonicalised
✓
Schema markup
Implemented
✓
SSL certificate
Clean
Why It Matters
Technical SEO Is the
Foundation Everything Sits On
Google’s crawlers visit your website and attempt to read, understand, and index every page. If there are technical barriers in the way — slow load times, broken links, incorrect redirect chains, missing canonical tags, or crawl budget waste — Google either can’t access your pages or doesn’t trust them enough to rank them.
The result is that businesses invest in content and link building that never reaches its potential because the technical infrastructure underneath is broken. Fix the foundation first, and every other SEO investment delivers better returns. A clean technical foundation also supports On-Page SEO and Malware Removal efforts.
Technical SEO is also a direct ranking factor in several areas: Core Web Vitals are an official Google signal, HTTPS is a confirmed ranking factor, and mobile-friendliness determines whether your pages are eligible for Google’s primary mobile-first index. These aren’t optional — they’re baseline requirements for competitive rankings in 2026.
Crawlability
Can Google’s bots reach every page? Blocked resources, robots.txt errors, and crawl budget waste leave pages unindexed.
Indexability
Are your pages being added to Google’s index? Noindex tags, duplicate content, and thin pages all suppress indexation.
Page Speed
Google confirmed Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. Slow LCP, high CLS, and poor INP directly suppress your positions.
Mobile-First
Google indexes the mobile version of your site first. A broken mobile experience means broken rankings, regardless of desktop performance.
HTTPS & Security
SSL is a confirmed Google ranking signal. Mixed content warnings and certificate errors also trigger browser warnings that block visitors.
Structured Data
Schema markup helps Google understand page content and enables rich results — FAQ boxes, star ratings, and breadcrumbs in search results.
What I Fix
My Technical SEO Services
Every technical issue identified, prioritised by ranking impact, and fixed — from crawl errors to Core Web Vitals to structured data.
Technical SEO Audit
Foundation
A comprehensive crawl of your entire website using professional tools — Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console. I identify every technical issue affecting your rankings: crawl errors, broken links, redirect chains, missing or duplicate meta tags, thin content pages, canonical tag issues, hreflang errors, XML sitemap problems, robots.txt configuration, and crawl budget waste. Every issue is categorised, documented, and prioritised by its impact on rankings.
Core Web Vitals & Page Speed Optimisation
Ranking Factor
Google’s Core Web Vitals — Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — are direct ranking signals. I diagnose and fix every issue suppressing your scores: render-blocking resources, unoptimised images, unused JavaScript and CSS, server response times, layout shift triggers, and caching configuration. Target outcome: green scores (90+) on both mobile and desktop in PageSpeed Insights and the Chrome User Experience Report.
Mobile-First Optimisation
Indexing Priority
Google indexes and ranks the mobile version of your website first — making mobile performance not just a user experience concern but a direct ranking requirement. I audit your site’s mobile usability using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and Search Console data, then fix responsive design issues, tap target sizing, font readability, and viewport configuration. For WordPress sites, I also optimise mobile-specific performance settings to ensure fast load times on all devices.
Structured Data & Schema Markup
Rich Results
Schema markup is the language Google uses to understand what your pages are really about. I implement JSON-LD structured data manually across all relevant pages — LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Article, Review, BreadcrumbList, and Organisation schemas — validated against Google’s Rich Results Test. Correct schema implementation unlocks rich results in search (star ratings, FAQ boxes, sitelinks) that dramatically increase click-through rates even without a ranking change.
Crawlability, Indexability & URL Architecture
Site Structure
If Google can’t crawl your pages or chooses not to index them, no amount of content or links will help. I audit your robots.txt and meta robots configuration, identify pages incorrectly blocked from crawling or indexing, resolve noindex/nofollow conflicts, clean up redirect chains, implement proper canonical tags to resolve duplicate content, and restructure XML sitemaps to guide Google’s crawl budget toward your most valuable pages first.
SSL, HTTPS & Security Configuration
Trust & Ranking
HTTPS is a confirmed Google ranking signal — and mixed content warnings (HTTP resources loaded on HTTPS pages) cause browser security alerts that drive visitors away before they read a single word. I audit your SSL certificate configuration, resolve all mixed content issues, ensure proper HTTPS redirects from HTTP, verify HSTS configuration, and check for security headers that both protect your site and signal trustworthiness to Google and visitors.
Internal Linking & CDN Integration
Authority & Speed
Internal links distribute PageRank authority through your site — but they also serve a technical function: helping Google discover and prioritise pages. I audit your internal link structure to ensure no important pages are orphaned, that anchor text is descriptive and keyword-relevant, and that authority flows correctly to your highest-value pages. Where appropriate, I also advise on CDN (Content Delivery Network) configuration to serve assets faster to global audiences — directly improving LCP and overall load speed.
What We Find
The Most Common Technical Issues
Holding Sites Back
These are the issues I find on the majority of websites during a technical audit — all of them fixable, and all of them actively suppressing rankings.
Crawl & Indexation Problems
- Pages blocked by robots.txt that should be indexed
- Noindex tags accidentally left on live pages
- Broken internal links returning 404 errors
- Long redirect chains wasting crawl budget
- XML sitemap including non-canonical URLs
Speed & Performance Issues
- Render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in the head
- Oversized, uncompressed images in legacy formats
- No browser caching or CDN configured
- Excessive third-party scripts slowing TTFB
- Large Cumulative Layout Shift from unstable elements
Content & Meta Tag Issues
- Missing, duplicate, or over-length title tags
- Multiple H1 tags on the same page
- Thin pages with insufficient content depth
- Duplicate content without canonical resolution
- Missing alt text on images across the site
Schema & Structured Data
- No schema markup — zero chance of rich results
- Invalid or incomplete JSON-LD implementation
- Wrong schema type applied to the wrong page
- Missing FAQ or Review schema on eligible pages
- LocalBusiness schema without geo-coordinates
Security & HTTPS Issues
- Mixed content — HTTP resources on HTTPS pages
- SSL certificate errors or near-expiry
- Missing HSTS headers on secure pages
- HTTP version not redirecting to HTTPS
- Security headers missing — X-Frame-Options, CSP
Mobile & Usability Issues
- Viewport not configured for mobile browsers
- Tap targets too small or too close together
- Text too small to read without zooming
- Content wider than the screen on mobile
- Interstitials blocking content on mobile devices
For official crawling and indexing guidelines, refer to Google Search Central’s Crawling & Indexing documentation.
How I Work
My Technical SEO Process
Methodical, documented, and fully transparent — every step explained, every fix recorded.
1
Full Site Crawl & GSC Analysis
I crawl your entire site with Screaming Frog and cross-reference findings with Google Search Console data — identifying every technical issue, crawl error, and coverage problem Google has already flagged.
2
Prioritised Audit Report
Every issue found is documented in a clear report — categorised by type, prioritised by ranking impact, and accompanied by specific implementation instructions. You know exactly what’s wrong, in what order to fix it, and why.
3
Core Web Vitals Assessment
Detailed PageSpeed Insights and CrUX analysis identifying every factor suppressing your LCP, CLS, and INP scores on both mobile and desktop — with specific technical recommendations for each issue found.
4
Implementation & Fixes
I implement the fixes directly on your site — or provide your developer with precise, tested instructions where server-level access is required. Schema markup, redirect fixes, meta tag rewrites, image optimisation, and speed improvements are all handled systematically.
5
Verification & Validation
Every fix is verified — schema validated in Google’s Rich Results Test, redirects confirmed with HTTP header checkers, Core Web Vitals re-tested in PageSpeed Insights, and crawl errors re-checked in GSC to confirm resolution.
6
Ongoing Monitoring
Technical issues don’t stay fixed on their own — new pages are added, plugins are updated, and configurations change. I offer ongoing technical monitoring to catch new issues before they impact rankings, with quarterly re-audits and monthly GSC reviews.
FAQ
Technical SEO Questions
Common Questions
Everything you need to know about technical SEO, what’s included in an audit, and what results to expect after implementation.
Ask Me Directly →
Technical SEO ensures that search engines can crawl, understand, and index your website effectively. Without it, even the best content and strongest backlinks can fail to produce rankings — because Google can’t access the pages, can’t understand what they’re about, or doesn’t trust them enough to rank them. Technical SEO is also home to several direct ranking signals: Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, and mobile-friendliness are all confirmed factors that Google explicitly uses to determine rankings.
A full technical SEO audit covers: crawl error identification and resolution, broken link detection, redirect chain analysis, duplicate content and canonical tag review, XML sitemap and robots.txt audit, meta tag completeness check, Core Web Vitals assessment (LCP, CLS, INP), mobile usability review, HTTPS and SSL configuration check, structured data audit, internal link structure analysis, and page indexation status review via Google Search Console. Every finding is documented with specific implementation guidance.
Google Search Console provides direct data from Google about how it sees your website — which pages it has crawled, which it has indexed, which have errors, and which are excluded and why. It also shows Core Web Vitals data from real Chrome users (field data), manual action notifications, mobile usability issues, schema validation errors, and coverage reports showing why specific pages aren’t indexed. It’s the single most authoritative source of technical SEO data available and forms the backbone of every audit I conduct.
A full technical audit for a site up to 100 pages is typically delivered within 5–7 business days. Larger sites (100–500 pages) take 7–14 days. The audit report is a comprehensive document — not a raw data export — with every issue explained, prioritised, and accompanied by specific fix instructions. Implementation work (making the actual changes) is scoped separately based on what the audit reveals and can be handled by me, your developer, or both.
Simply contact me through the form on this page or email info@bigseo.net. I’ll ask for access to your Google Search Console account and your website URL, conduct an initial assessment, and get back to you within 24 hours with a clear scope of work and pricing. A free initial consultation is available for all new clients to discuss your specific situation before any commitment is made.
Ready to Fix Your Technical Foundation?
Get a free technical SEO audit and I’ll identify every issue holding your rankings back — with a clear, prioritised plan to fix them.
Free audit — full crawl and GSC analysis included
Core Web Vitals target: 90+ mobile and desktop
Schema implemented manually — validated and error-free
Works on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, or custom sites
Every fix verified and documented before completion