Free Technical SEO Resource — 10-Part Series

Run a Full Technical SEO Audit From Setup to Client Presentation.

A step-by-step series walking agencies through conducting a complete technical audit from scratch — what to check, in what order, what tools to use at each phase, and how to present findings in a way that wins retainers.

10 Audit Phases Covered|Free to Access|Built for Agencies
Start with Episode 1 → Book a Free Strategy Call
About This Series

What the Playbook Covers

Technical SEO audits are the highest-value deliverable in agency SEO — but most agencies run them inconsistently. The pre-crawl phase gets skipped. The crawler runs with default settings. Findings get presented as a list of problems without a prioritization framework. The result: accurate findings, unconvincing delivery, no retainer.

This free 10-part series covers every phase of a comprehensive technical audit — from pre-crawl intelligence to crawl configuration, indexation analysis, on-page audit, performance review, schema audit, link audit, mobile audit, report writing, and building a repeatable framework. Each episode is one phase of the audit, executed in the correct order.

Target Audience

Built for Agencies Delivering Technical SEO Audits

Agency Owners

Build a productized audit service with consistent quality and predictable delivery time. This series is the documented process your team needs to scale audits without your personal involvement in every engagement.

Technical SEO Specialists

Run comprehensive audits with the correct tool configuration, analysis sequence, and finding documentation that produces client-ready deliverables — not just a list of Screaming Frog exports.

SEO Managers

Learn to structure technical findings in business language, prioritize by impact rather than severity, and present audit results in a format that converts to implementation retainers.

Freelancers

Deliver professional technical audits with a documented methodology, consistent structure, and a client presentation approach that positions you as a specialist rather than a generalist.

The Complete Audit Playbook

All 10 Episodes

Each episode covers one phase of the audit, in the order it should be executed. Follow the series from start to finish to run a complete technical audit on any client site.

Your Study Progress: 0 of 10 completed
Episode 1 Cover
01
Foundation
Audit Foundation

Audit Setup and Pre-Crawl Intelligence

What to do before you run a single tool.

The pre-crawl phase is the intelligence-gathering stage — reading existing data before generating new data. This includes reviewin...

Google Search Console > Overview | Client onboarding questionnaire | robots.txt and sitemap.xml manual review

Key Insight: Always check for Manual Actions before any other audit work.

Open Episode 1 →
Episode 2 Cover
02
Foundation
Crawl Configuration

Crawl Configuration and Execution

How to set up your crawler so it sees what Google sees.

Running a technical audit crawler is not plug-and-play. The crawl configuration — user agent, JavaScript rendering, authentication...

Screaming Frog > Configuration settings

Key Insight: Always run two crawls — one respecting robots.txt and one ignoring it.

Open Episode 2 →
Episode 3 Cover
03
Critical
Indexation

Indexation and Coverage Audit

Finding out which pages Google knows about — and which it's ignoring.

The indexation audit compares what the site has with what Google has indexed. The most important question in technical SEO is whet...

Google Search Console > Indexing > Pages | Screaming Frog > Response Codes + Indexability

Key Insight: The sitemap-to-indexed gap is the most important number in the indexation audit.

Open Episode 3 →
Episode 4 Cover
04
High
On-Page Technical

On-Page Technical Audit

The technical elements on each page that search engines use to understand content.

The on-page technical audit examines metadata elements on every page: title tags (length, uniqueness, keyword alignment), meta des...

Screaming Frog > Page Titles / Meta Descriptions / H1 / Canonical / Hreflang

Key Insight: Sort every on-page issue by pages affected — not by severity in isolation.

Open Episode 4 →
Episode 5 Cover
05
High
Performance Audit

Site Speed and Core Web Vitals Audit

Adding performance analysis to your technical audit workflow.

The performance audit within a technical SEO audit establishes the CWV baseline, identifies top-priority performance failures, and...

PageSpeed Insights | Search Console > Core Web Vitals | Chrome DevTools Performance Panel

Key Insight: Always lead with mobile field data from Search Console, not desktop lab scores.

Open Episode 5 →
Episode 6 Cover
06
High
Structured Data

Structured Data Audit

Finding every schema error across the full site in one systematic pass.

The structured data audit identifies all schema markup present on the site, validates it against Google's current specifications, ...

Search Console > Rich Results (under Search Appearance) | Google Rich Results Test | Schema Markup Validator

Key Insight: Use Screaming Frog custom extraction to find malformed JSON-LD across the entire site.

Open Episode 6 →
Episode 7 Cover
07
High
Link Audit

Link Audit — Internal and External

Where is the link equity going — and is it going to the right places?

The link audit covers two dimensions: internal link equity distribution (where authority flows within the site) and external link ...

Screaming Frog > All Inlinks | Ahrefs > Backlink profile > Lost and broken links

Key Insight: Broken inbound link reclamation is the easiest external authority win in SEO.

Open Episode 7 →
Episode 8 Cover
08
High
Mobile & Accessibility

Mobile and Accessibility Audit

How the site performs on the device Google uses for ranking.

Google uses mobile-first indexing — it crawls and evaluates the mobile version of a site to determine rankings, even for desktop s...

Search Console > Page Experience | Google Mobile-Friendly Test | Chrome DevTools > Device Emulation

Key Insight: Test on an actual mobile device after reviewing in DevTools emulation.

Open Episode 8 →
Episode 9 Cover
09
High Opportunity
Client Delivery

Audit Report Writing and Client Presentation

How to turn raw findings into a compelling client deliverable that wins budgets.

The audit report transforms technical findings into business decisions. A well-structured audit report leads with an executive sum...

Audit findings documentation | Google Slides or PowerPoint | Loom (async walkthrough)

Key Insight: The prioritization slide is the most important slide in the deck.

Open Episode 9 →
Episode 10 Cover
10
High Opportunity
Agency Process

Building a Repeatable Audit Framework for Your Agency

How to systematize the audit so any team member can run it consistently.

A repeatable audit framework is a documented, templated process that allows any qualified team member to run a comprehensive techn...

Team wiki / Notion | Screaming Frog saved profiles | Google Sheets audit checklist | Google Slides report template

Key Insight: Sell the audit tier that matches the client's site complexity.

Open Episode 10 →
About Harper Media Group

Why We Built This Series

At Harper Media Group, we deliver white-label technical SEO audits for agencies — which means we've run hundreds of audits across every site type and complexity level. The same process failures appear constantly: pre-crawl phase skipped, crawlers misconfigured for JavaScript sites, findings presented without prioritization, and reports that document problems without creating urgency to fix them.

A technical audit is only valuable if it leads to implementation. This series codifies the audit process we use internally — the phase sequence, tool configurations, analysis frameworks, and report structure that consistently converts audits into ongoing retainers.

What Harper Media Group Delivers

  • White-Label Technical SEO Audits
  • Site Architecture Diagnosis & Remediation
  • Core Web Vitals & Performance Optimization
  • Structured Data & Schema Implementation
  • Indexation & Coverage Remediation
  • Internal Link Architecture Strategy
  • AI Search & Generative Engine Optimization

All delivered under your agency brand.