Reputifly editorial · Reviewed 27 September 2026 · 2 min read
An ordered technical audit covering response codes, indexing controls, canonical URLs, content rendering and usable mobile pages.
Check the response first
Open the public URL and inspect its HTTP status. A useful page should return a successful response; an intentionally removed page should return a real missing-page status or redirect to a relevant replacement. Do not diagnose an indexing problem from an editor preview alone.
Follow this inspection order
- Availability: the URL loads consistently without server errors.
- Crawling: robots.txt permits the content you intend search engines to fetch.
- Indexing controls: the live response has the intended robots directives.
- Canonical: the declared canonical is the preferred, working URL.
- Content: headings, text, links and images appear in the rendered page.
- Discovery: useful internal links and the sitemap point to the canonical URL.
- Experience: the page is readable and the primary task works on mobile.
Validate structured data against visible facts
Markup should describe what is actually on the page. Use Article or BlogPosting information for articles and keep dates, headline, publisher and image consistent with the visible content. Do not add ratings, claims or FAQ markup solely to pursue a search feature.
Distinguish lab tests from visitor data
A lab test helps reproduce a performance problem. Field data describes real visits when enough data is available. If a field report has no data, record that as unavailable, not as a pass.
The current Core Web Vitals cover loading, responsiveness and visual stability. Their definitions and thresholds are documented on web.dev.
Close the loop
Record each defect with the URL, evidence, owner and verification result. Recheck the public page after publishing. Use Search Console to observe discovery and indexing over time; do not report “indexed” merely because a deployment or sitemap submission succeeded.
