Technical SEO: what to check, Google thresholds, and how to fix them

Technical SEO is the optimization of a website's infrastructure so Google can crawl, index, and display its pages quickly and correctly on any device. This is the part of SEO that remains invisible to the eye, but without it, even the best content will not rank: a page Google cannot crawl will not appear in results, and a slow-loading page loses users before they read a single word. According to Ahrefs, "technical SEO" is searched about 400 times per month in Israel (checked September 2026).

What is technical SEO, and how does it differ from standard SEO?

Technical SEO ensures the site is accessible, fast, and understandable for search engines, while content and link building ensure it has value and authority. Think of it like a store: content is the merchandise, links are recommendations, and the technical side consists of the door, the signs, and the aisles. If the door is locked, no one enters, even if the merchandise is excellent.

Technical issues on Israeli websites often repeat: important pages blocked from crawling, duplicate content across multiple URLs, heavy images, redirect chains following a migration, and templates that look great on desktop but break on mobile. None of these are obvious to the business owner during daily use, yet all of them quietly lower rankings.

What does a technical SEO audit include?

A structured technical audit covers five key areas, following the order in which Google encounters your site: first, it must reach the page; then, read it; and only then can it understand and rank it.

Crawling and indexing

Check that your robots.txt file is not blocking vital pages, ensure your sitemap is up to date and only contains URLs returning a 200 code, and confirm no important pages have a noindex tag. In Google Search Console, the Pages report shows exactly which pages were not indexed and the specific reason Google provides.

Speed and Core Web Vitals

Google measures three metrics reflecting user experience: content loading speed, interaction responsiveness, and visual stability. Google Search Central documentation lists the thresholds for each, and our guide to website speed explains how to measure them and what actually slows sites down.

URL structure, redirects, and duplicates

Every page should have one permanent URL. Versions with and without www, with or without a trailing slash, or with parameters, split authority across multiple addresses. Resolve this with 301 redirects to the primary URL and a canonical tag. When migrating a site or changing URLs, ensure every redirect leads directly to the final destination: according to Google, its crawlers follow up to 10 consecutive redirects, but every hop adds loading time.

Mobile optimization

Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. Content, links, and structured data that only appear on desktop simply do not count. Check at a real phone's width that there is no horizontal scrolling, buttons are easy to click, and text is readable without zooming.

Structured data

Schema markup helps Google and AI engines understand page content: a business, product, article, or FAQ. While it does not guarantee a rich result, it clarifies who is behind the site and what it offers. Check your markup using Google's Rich Results Test.

What are Google's technical SEO thresholds and limits?

These are the numbers Google publishes, which serve as the benchmarks for measuring your site:

When a sitemap exceeds these limits, Google instructs to split it into several sitemaps and group them in one index file. In online stores with thousands of products, this happens faster than one might think.

How to perform a technical SEO audit, step by step

Order matters: start with what Google sees, and only then move to external tools.

1. Search Console: Start with the Pages report and the Core Web Vitals report, as they show what Google itself sees on the site.
2. Full crawl: Run a crawling tool like Screaming Frog across the entire site to find 404 errors, redirects, duplicate titles, and orphan pages that no other page links to.
3. Measuring speed: Use PageSpeed Insights to check the pages that drive the most traffic, not just the homepage.
4. Mobile check: Review your main page templates at mobile width: the homepage, service pages, blog posts, and product pages.
5. Prioritization: Rank findings by impact. A service page blocked from crawling takes priority over an image missing alt text.
6. Fixing and re-measuring: Fix the issues, request re-indexing for key pages, and check again after a few weeks.

You should repeat the audit after any major site change, such as switching themes, moving servers, or updating a core plugin, as these are the most common sources of technical issues.

Which technical errors hurt rankings the most?

Five recurring mistakes to check first:

• Forgotten block: a WordPress setting that asks search engines not to crawl the site, left active from the development phase.
• Migration without a redirect map: old URLs remain as 404 errors, and the authority links accumulated over years are lost.
• Keyword cannibalization: Two or more pages targeting the same keyword, leaving Google unsure which one to display.
• Full-size images: Files uploaded directly from a camera or phone that slow down every page they appear on.
• Content rendered only via JavaScript: Some crawlers, including certain AI bots, do not execute JavaScript, meaning they cannot see this content at all.

When should you hire a technical SEO expert?

Basic checks on a small business website can be done using Search Console. You should hire an expert when traffic drops without a clear cause, during or after a site migration, for stores with hundreds of products and filters, or when reports show many pages excluded from the index.

At SGO, a technical audit is the first step in every SEO services process, and it continues as part of ongoing website optimization. For those comparing providers, we have also compiled a guide to choosing an SEO company.

Technical SEO FAQ

Last updated: September 2026