Practitioner’s Note

“When I used to receive SEO pitches at Times Internet and Future Group, the moment an agency started their pitch with ‘here is your site audit,’ I would pause the pitch and ask them to leave the room. I already know something is wrong with my website – that is why you are here. Tell me what you know about my category, my audience, and how you plan to fix it. Audit is a byproduct, not a starting point.” – Apurv Singh, Dream SEO Masterclass Session 1

Master Audit Prompt

I need a complete technical SEO audit of my website. Here is the data:

Website: {URL}
Platform: {WordPress/Shopify/Custom}
Total pages on site: {number}
Business type: {e-commerce/SaaS/local service/publisher}
Top 5 revenue-generating pages: {list URLs}

DATA ATTACHED:
– Google Search Console indexed/not-indexed report (CSV)
– Crawl stats screenshot
– Robots.txt file contents
– Screaming Frog export (CSV) (if available)

Please:
1. Identify every technical issue, grouped by category (crawlability, architecture, speed, structured data, mobile, security)
2. Rate each issue as Critical, High, Medium, or Low priority
3. For Critical and High issues, provide the exact fix
4. Create an implementation timeline: what to fix in Week 1, Week 2, Month 1
5. Flag which fixes need a developer vs. what I can do via plugins or CMS settings
6. Identify any pages that should be indexed but are not, and vice versa

The Crawl Stats Diagnostic

“If a website has 10,000 pages and crawl requests are only 7,500 – and that includes duplicate requests to the same URLs – something is off. Google is not crawling enough. When I see this number declining month over month, it is almost always one of two things: copy-paste AI content that Google has stopped caring about, or duplicate content where the same answer appears on 10 different pages. Start your diagnosis from the crawl stats, not from the content.” – Apurv Singh, Dream SEO Masterclass Session 3

Copy-Paste Prompt

Here is my robots.txt file:

— paste full robots.txt —

And here is my XML sitemap (or list of URLs in it):

— paste sitemap URLs —

My website is a {business type} on {platform}. Please:
1. Identify any important pages or bots being blocked that should not be
2. Identify any pages in the sitemap that should not be there (404s, redirects, parameter URLs, noindex pages)
3. Check if GPTBot, PerplexityBot, and ClaudeBot are allowed
4. Recommend the optimal robots.txt configuration
5. Suggest a parent-child sitemap structure if I have more than 5 content categories

Critical Warning: SSL Expiry

“Always keep a tab on when your SSL certificate is expiring. We have had this happen twice in 12 years. The SSL expired, HTTPS became HTTP, and Googlebot visited in that window. The organic traffic drop was instant and painful. Set a calendar reminder 30 days before your SSL expiry date.” – Apurv Singh, Dream SEO Masterclass Session 5

Prioritization Prompt

Here is the full list of technical SEO issues found on my website:

— paste issue list —

My top business priority is {getting more organic sales / increasing traffic / fixing ranking drops / preparing for AI search}.
My team capacity is {developer X hours per week, content writer Y hours per week}.

Please create a prioritized implementation plan with:
1. Week 1 fixes (critical, blocks indexing or causes traffic loss)
2. Week 2 fixes (high impact, improves rankings)
3. Month 1 fixes (medium, quality improvements)
4. Ongoing maintenance items

For each fix, specify: who does it (developer / SEO / content), estimated time, and exact steps.

Master the Complete Technical SEO Framework

This guide covers the audit methodology. For the full 5-pillar SEO system including the SEO TAM Graph, keyword prioritization, contextual signaling, and trust-building frameworks, explore the Dream SEO Masterclass.

Explore the Dream SEO Masterclass

How often should I run a technical SEO audit?

A comprehensive audit should be done quarterly. Weekly monitoring of key metrics (indexed pages, crawl stats, CWV) catches issues before they become problems. After any major site change like a redesign, migration, or large content update, run a focused audit immediately.

Can AI find issues that tools like Screaming Frog miss?

They serve different purposes. Screaming Frog is better at finding raw technical issues at scale (every broken link, every missing tag). AI is better at prioritizing those issues by business impact, diagnosing root causes, and generating the specific fix. The best workflow uses both: Screaming Frog for discovery, AI for analysis and action planning.

What is the single most important thing to check first?

Your indexed page count versus your total page count. If you have 1,000 pages on your site and only 300 are indexed by Google, that is your starting point. Everything else – content, backlinks, on-page optimization – is irrelevant for the 700 pages Google has not even stored in its index.

Do I need paid tools for a proper technical audit?

No. Google Search Console (free) covers the most critical data: indexing status, crawl stats, Core Web Vitals, and manual actions. Screaming Frog is free for up to 500 URLs. Claude and ChatGPT free tiers can analyze the exported data. Paid tools like Semrush and Ahrefs add competitor analysis and historical trending, but are not required for a solid audit.

My organic traffic is dropping. Is it a technical issue?

Often yes, and the first place to look is the Crawl Stats report in Google Search Console. If crawl requests are declining, Google is deprioritizing your site. The two most common causes are AI-generated copy-paste content and duplicate content across multiple pages. But traffic drops can also come from algorithm updates, lost backlinks, or increased competition, so always check multiple signals.

Continue the Series

Back to Hub: AI-Powered SEO – The Complete Playbook

Guide 01: Fix Core Web Vitals with AI

Guide 06: Schema Markup and Structured Data with AI

Guide 08: AEO – How to Get Cited by AI Search Engines