For sites that should be ranking better
Technical SEO services that let search engines read every page
We find and fix the crawling, indexing, speed and rendering problems that stop good pages from ranking. Every fix is prioritised by impact, explained in plain English and checked after it goes live.
- Crawl and index audit
- Core Web Vitals fixes
- JavaScript rendering checks
- Migrations without ranking loss
How search works
How a page gets from your server to a ranking
Every page passes through the same five stages before it can appear in search. Technical SEO is the work of making sure nothing stops it along the way.
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STAGE 1
Discover
Search engines find your URLs through links and XML sitemaps.
What breaks hereOrphan pages with no internal links, and missing or outdated sitemaps.
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STAGE 2
Crawl
A crawler requests each URL and reads the response from your server.
What breaks hererobots.txt blocks, server errors, redirect chains and crawl time wasted on endless URL variations.
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STAGE 3
Render
The page is rendered like a browser would, including its JavaScript.
What breaks hereContent or links that only appear after scripts run, or blocked CSS and JavaScript files.
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STAGE 4
Index
The rendered page is analysed and stored, or left out on purpose.
What breaks hereAccidental noindex tags, conflicting canonicals and duplicate or thin pages.
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STAGE 5
Rank
Indexed pages compete for each search on relevance, quality and experience.
What breaks hereSlow or unstable pages and weak internal linking holding back pages that are otherwise good.
A problem at any stage stops everything after it. A page that is never crawled cannot be indexed, however well it is written.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals, measured on real visits
Google scores page experience with three metrics taken from real Chrome users. Here is what each one measures, where the thresholds sit, and what we usually fix to pass them.
LCP
Largest Contentful Paint
How long the biggest thing on screen, usually a hero image or headline, takes to appear.
What we usually fix
- Oversized or badly formatted images
- Slow server response
- Render blocking CSS and scripts
- Hero images that load too late
INP
Interaction to Next Paint
How quickly the page responds when someone taps, clicks or types, across the whole visit.
What we usually fix
- Long JavaScript tasks
- Heavy third party scripts and tags
- Oversized pages with too many elements
CLS
Cumulative Layout Shift
How much the layout jumps around while the page loads, which is what causes mis-taps.
What we usually fix
- Images and embeds without set sizes
- Banners and pop ups that push content down
- Web fonts that swap late
Google judges each metric at the 75th percentile of real visits, separately for mobile and desktop, so a page passes only when most people get a good experience. Core Web Vitals are one ranking signal among many, but slow, jumpy pages also lose visitors before they ever enquire.
The audit
What a technical SEO audit covers
Nine areas, checked on every audit. Each finding comes with the pages it affects, why it matters and exactly how to fix it.
Crawlability
robots.txt rules, XML sitemaps, crawl traps from filters and parameters, and server logs where available.
Indexing
noindex tags, canonical conflicts, duplicate and thin pages, and what Search Console excluded and why.
Site architecture
Click depth, internal links, orphan pages, pagination and how authority flows to the pages that earn money.
Speed and Core Web Vitals
LCP, INP and CLS from real visits, server response times, images, fonts and third party scripts.
JavaScript rendering
Whether content and links exist in the rendered page, how client side routing behaves and what is lazy loaded.
Redirects and status codes
Redirect chains and loops, broken links, soft 404s and server errors, across internal links and backlinks.
Structured data
Valid schema for your business, products, articles and more, checked against what Google supports for rich results.
Mobile and HTTPS
Mobile first rendering and layout, HTTPS on every page, and mixed content warnings.
International setup
Hreflang, language versions and country targeting. See our international SEO services.
Prioritising
A ranked list of fixes, not a 200 page export
Audit tools flag hundreds of warnings, and most of them do not matter. We rank every finding by the traffic it is costing and the effort to fix it, so your developers start with the changes that move rankings.
Redirect chains on internal links
- Why it matters
- Every extra hop slows the visit and spends crawl time on URLs that should not exist.
- How to fix it
- Point internal links straight at the final URL and collapse each chain to a single redirect.
- Pages affected
- Listed in full, with a spreadsheet of every source link and its final destination.
- How we check
- Recrawl the site after release and confirm every internal link returns a 200.
An example of how each issue is written up in your audit.
Migrations
Website migrations without losing your rankings
Redesigns, new platforms and domain changes are where rankings are most often lost, almost always because old URLs were left without a proper redirect. We plan the move before launch and watch it closely after.
Before launch
- A full inventory of current URLs, rankings and traffic
- A one to one redirect map for every page that matters
- The staging site checked for noindex tags, blocked robots.txt and broken links
- Benchmarks saved so any change can be measured
Launch day
- Redirects tested on the live site, in bulk
- robots.txt, canonicals and noindex tags checked again live
- New XML sitemaps submitted in Search Console
- Analytics and conversion tracking confirmed
After launch
- 404s and server errors watched closely in the first weeks
- Rankings and traffic compared with the benchmarks
- Index coverage followed in Search Console as new URLs settle
- Redirects kept in place for the long term, not removed after launch
Process
How we run technical SEO
The same six steps on every site, from a single audit to ongoing monthly work.
Crawl the site
A full crawl alongside Search Console data, and server logs where available, so we see what Google sees.
Diagnose
Every issue traced to its cause, not just its symptom, with the full list of pages it affects.
Prioritise
Findings ranked by impact and effort, so the fixes that matter most happen first.
Fix
We make the changes where we have access, or write developer ready tickets for your team.
Verify
Each fix is rechecked after release, then confirmed in Search Console once Google recrawls.
Monitor
Regular crawls catch new problems, from a plugin update to a template change, before they cost rankings.
Every plan starts with a technical SEO audit, from our Growth plan at $999 per month. Advanced technical work, Core Web Vitals and structured data are part of Scale. Compare plans
Questions
Common questions about technical SEO
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is the work that makes sure search engines can find, crawl, render and index your pages, and that those pages load quickly and reliably. It does not replace good content, but good content cannot rank without it.
How is a technical SEO audit different from a full SEO audit?
A technical audit looks at how your site works rather than what it says: crawling, indexing, speed, rendering, redirects and structured data. A full SEO audit adds content, keyword and competitor analysis on top of that.
Do Core Web Vitals really affect rankings?
They are a confirmed ranking signal, but a modest one. Relevance and content quality matter more. Where two pages are closely matched, the faster and more stable page can win, and it usually converts better either way.
Does technical SEO work on my platform?
Most technical SEO work applies to any platform, including WordPress, Shopify and custom builds. Some platforms limit what can be changed, so we tell you at the start what is possible on yours.
Do you need developer access?
It helps. With access to the site, Search Console and ideally your server logs, many issues can be fixed directly. Where a change needs your developers, we write a clear ticket with the exact change, the pages affected and how to check it worked.
How long before technical fixes show results?
Some fixes, such as removing an accidental noindex tag or unblocking pages in robots.txt, can show within days or weeks once Google recrawls the pages. Speed and site architecture work usually shows over one to three months.
Will a redesign or migration hurt my rankings?
It can, if URLs change without a complete redirect plan. With a full URL map, redirects tested before launch and close monitoring afterwards, you protect the rankings you have already earned.
Is technical SEO included in your plans?
Yes. Every plan starts with a technical SEO audit, from our Growth plan at $999 per month. Scale adds advanced technical SEO, Core Web Vitals and structured data work, and Authority adds migration planning and support.
Find out what is holding your site back
Send us your website. We will run a technical review, show you the problems costing you the most traffic and tell you what it takes to fix them, at no cost.
Get a free technical SEO auditNo obligation, no sales script, and no lock in if you decide to work with us.