Technical SEO Audit Checklist for Architects: Fix These 12 Issues Before Google Does

Local SEO for architects works a lot like a building. Your Google Business Profile, reviews, and city pages are the visible floors. The technical side of your website is the foundation, wiring, and plumbing. Nobody admires it. But when it fails, everything above it suffers.

Here is the usual story. A firm spends months on project photos, case studies, and profile updates. Then Google visits the website and hits a wall. Pages load slowly. Some are blocked. Others lead to dead ends. Google leaves without understanding what the firm does.

This technical SEO audit checklist for architects explains 12 problems in plain language. Each one covers what it is, why it hurts, how to check it, and how to fix it. You do not need coding skills to run the checks. You need three free tools and about two hours.

Technical SEO vs On-Page SEO: What This Guide Covers

People mix these two up all the time. Think of a building again. Technical SEO is how the building is constructed: the structure, the doors, the wiring. On-page SEO is the interior finish: the title tags, headings, copy, and image descriptions on each page.

This guide covers only the technical side. Why start there? Because a perfect page title does nothing if Google cannot reach the page. Fix the structure first. Then finish the interior.

How Google Actually Visits Your Website

You need one simple idea before the checklist makes sense. Google treats your site like an inspector treats a new building. It does three things, in this order.

First, Google crawls your site. A small program follows your links from page to page, the way an inspector walks from room to room. Second, Google indexes what it found. That means it saves the pages in its giant library. Third, Google ranks the saved pages when someone searches.

If crawling fails, nothing else happens. The page never reaches the library. And a page that is not in the library cannot show up for “architect near me.” Every issue in this checklist blocks, slows, or confuses one of those three steps.

Words You Will See in This Guide

A few terms repeat below. Here they are in plain English before you start.

Technical SEO has its own vocabulary, and it sounds harder than it is. Each term has a simple meaning. Keep this list open while you read. Skip back to it any time.

• Crawl: Google visiting and reading your pages
• Index: Google saving a page so it can appear in search
• Redirect: An automatic jump from an old web address to a new one
• Canonical: A tag that tells Google which version of a page is the official one
• Schema: Hidden labels in your code that explain your business details to Google
• Core Web Vitals: Three scores Google uses to judge how fast and stable a page feels

Set Up Your Free Tools First

Three free tools cover this whole audit. Set them up once and reuse them every quarter.

Google Search Console: shows how Google sees your site. It lists errors, indexed pages, and speed scores. Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your website. Google will ask you to prove you own it. Your web developer can do this in ten minutes, or you can use a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast.

PageSpeed Insights: tests how fast a page loads. Go to pagespeed.web.dev, paste any page address, and click Analyze. No signup is needed.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider: a desktop program. It crawls your website the way Google does and lists every page, link, and error. The free version checks up to 500 pages. That covers most architecture firm sites. Download it, type your website address at the top, and click Start.

Got all three? Good. Now the checklist.

1. Slow Page Speed and Weak Core Web Vitals

What it is: Page speed is how quickly your page appears and becomes usable. Google measures this with three scores called Core Web Vitals. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) tracks how long the main image or headline takes to show. It should land under 2.5 seconds. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) tracks how fast the page reacts when someone taps. It should stay under 200 milliseconds. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) tracks whether things jump around while loading. It should stay under 0.1.

Picture walking into an office where the receptionist takes ten seconds to look you up. You would feel it. Visitors feel a slow page the same way, and most leave.

Why architects get hit: Renders are the biggest cause. One export from Lumion or Enscape can weigh 10 MB as a PNG. Put six in a gallery, and the page passes 50 MB. Phones struggle with that. Video loops, Matterport tours, and Issuu portfolio viewers add more weight. Each one loads extra scripts before the page settles.

Cheap hosting adds another layer. A slow server delays everything, no matter how light the page is.

How to check it.

1. Open pagespeed.web.dev and paste your homepage address.
2. Click Analyze, then select the Mobile tab. Mobile is what Google judges first.
3. Look at the Core Web Vitals box at the top. Green means pass. Orange or red means work to do.
4. Scroll to the Opportunities and Diagnostics lists. They name the exact files slowing you down.
5. Repeat for one service page and one project page.
6. In Search Console, open Experience > Core Web Vitals to see scores across the whole site.

Also find “Server response time” in the report. Anything over 800 milliseconds points at your hosting or theme.

How to fix it: Start with images, since they usually cause most of the damage. Free tools like Squoosh, or WordPress plugins like ShortPixel and Imagify, shrink them. A 12 MB render can drop to a few hundred KB with almost no visible loss.

• Export renders as WebP or AVIF, not PNG
• Resize full-width images to about 1600 px wide
• Use 600 to 800 px versions for gallery thumbnails
• Replace autoplay hero video with a still image and a play button
• Load YouTube, Vimeo, and Matterport embeds only after a click
• Lazy-load images below the fold (they load as the visitor scrolls)
• Set width and height on every image so the page stops jumping

Do not lazy-load the top image. It should load first. If your theme is the real problem, a rebuild beats patching. A team that does architect website design can fix this at the source.

2. Poor Mobile Responsiveness

What it is: Mobile responsiveness means your site rearranges itself to fit a phone screen. Google now uses the phone version of your site to decide rankings. This is called mobile-first indexing. If something is missing on mobile, Google treats it as missing everywhere.

Why architects get hit: Portfolio sites are designed on large studio monitors. They look sharp there. On a phone, hover captions on thumbnails do nothing because phones have no hover. Before-and-after sliders jam when you swipe. Project fact sheets shrink to tiny type. Big PDF brochures refuse to open on mobile data.

Think about who searches. A developer checks three architects on a phone between site visits. A broken mobile page ends the search.

How to check it.

1. Open your site on a real phone. Not a resized browser window. A real phone.
2. Tap every menu item. Swipe every gallery. Try to call the office from the contact page.
3. On a computer, right-click any page in Chrome, choose Inspect, then press Ctrl+Shift+M (Cmd+Shift+M on Mac). This shows phone views.
4. In Search Console, paste a page address in the top bar. Click Test Live URL, then View Tested Page. This shows what Google sees on mobile.

How to fix it: Use a responsive theme. Make text at least 16 pixels. Make buttons large enough to tap with a thumb, about 48 pixels. Replace hover effects with tap actions. Turn PDF brochures into normal web pages and keep the PDF as an optional download. Add a tappable phone number to every page, ideally in a sticky bar at the bottom.

3. XML Sitemap Errors

What it is: An XML sitemap is a list of the pages you want Google to find. Think of the directory board in a building lobby. It tells visitors which floor each office is on. A good sitemap lists your best pages only. A bad one lists everything, including junk.

Why architects get hit: Portfolio themes often build projects as a special page type. Then a plugin adds a separate thin page for every image you upload. These are called attachment pages. Add tag archives, filter pages, old 404s, and redirected links, and your directory board is full of wrong addresses. Google wastes time on them and may skip your real work.

How to check it.

1. Type yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml or yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml into your browser. If you get a 404 error, you have no sitemap.
2. Open it and scan the list. You should see your homepage, service pages, city pages, and project pages. You should not see image pages, empty categories, or “?filter=” links.
3. In Search Console, open Indexing > Sitemaps. Check the Status column. “Success” is good. “Couldn’t fetch” is a problem.

How to fix it: Open your SEO plugin settings (Yoast or Rank Math). Switch off sitemaps for media attachments, tags, and empty categories. Make sure every sitemap URL loads, is not redirected, and is not set to noindex. Then go to Indexing > Sitemaps in Search Console, type your sitemap address, and click Submit. Check back in a few days.

4. Robots.txt and Noindex Issues

What it is. Two different things live here, and people confuse them. Robots.txt is a small text file at your site’s front door. It gives rules to crawlers, like a “staff only” sign on certain rooms. Noindex is a note on a single page that says “do not list this in search results.”

Why architects get hit. Web designers often block Google while building a new site. That makes sense during the build. The problem is when the block stays after launch. One line can hide your entire firm. It happens after redesigns more than anyone admits.

How to check it.

1. Type yourwebsite.com/robots.txt into your browser.
2. Read it. A healthy file for a WordPress site looks something like this:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /wp-admin/

Sitemap: https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml

3. A dangerous file looks like this:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

That tells every crawler to stay out of the whole site. Sound paranoid? Check anyway. It takes ten seconds.

4. If you use WordPress, open Settings > Reading. Make sure “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unticked.
5. In Search Console, open Indexing > Pages. Scroll down to the reasons list. Look for “Blocked by robots.txt” and “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag.” If a page you want to rank appears there, you have found a leak.

How to fix it: Remove the “Disallow: /” line. Do not block folders like /wp-content/uploads/, since Google needs those to load your project photos and drawings. Add a Sitemap line at the bottom. For stray noindex tags, open the page in your SEO plugin and switch it to “index.” Then use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console and click Request Indexing.

Remember the difference. Robots.txt stops crawling. Noindex stops listing. Mixing them up creates new problems.

5. Broken Links and 404 Errors

What it is: A broken link points to a page that no longer exists. The visitor sees a “404 Not Found” message. It is like a hallway door that opens onto a brick wall.

Why architects get hit: Old project pages disappear during redesigns, but links to them live on. Features on ArchDaily, Dezeen, or Architizer often point to old project addresses. So do AIA chapter pages, award listings, and Houzz profiles. Those links are valuable, and they now lead nowhere. Outbound links break too. A contractor’s website moves. A Dropbox brochure link expires.

How to check it.

1. Open Screaming Frog, enter your address, and click Start.
2. When the crawl ends, click the Response Codes tab.
3. Use the filter dropdown and pick Client Error (4xx).
4. Click any broken URL. In the bottom panel, click Inlinks. This shows which pages link to the dead page.
5. In Search Console, open Indexing > Pages and look for “Not found (404).”
6. Open Links > Top linking sites in Search Console to see who links to you. Check whether their links still work.

How to fix it: Use a 301 redirect. That is a permanent forward from the old address to a new one. Visitors and Google both land on a working page. Plugins like Redirection or Rank Math make this simple, and your hosting panel can do it too.

Send each dead page to its closest match. An old project page goes to the new version of that project. Do not send everything to the homepage, since Google can treat that as an error too. Then fix the internal links on your own site so they point straight to the live page.

Some pages are gone for good, with no replacement. A 404 is fine there. Just build a helpful 404 page with a search box and links to your top projects.

6. Redirect Chains and Loops

What it is: A redirect chain is a series of jumps before a visitor reaches the final page. Imagine asking at reception for an office. You are sent to floor two. Then floor five. Then back to floor three. That is a chain. A loop is worse. Two redirects point at each other, and the visitor never arrives.

Why architects get hit: Firms redesign every few years. Each redesign adds new redirects on top of old ones. An old press link may now travel from http to https, then to www, then to a new slug, then to the final page. That is four jumps for one click.

Every jump slows the page and weakens the link value passing through. Press links are the most valuable ones you have. Chains hurt them most.

How to check it.

1. Crawl your site with Screaming Frog.
2. Click Reports in the top menu, then Redirects, then Redirect Chains.
3. Export the report. Each row shows the full path from the first URL to the last.
4. Click the Response Codes tab and filter by Redirection (3xx). Look for “302” or “307” codes. Those are temporary redirects.

How to fix it: Point the first address in each chain straight to the final page. One jump only. Change temporary redirects (302) to permanent ones (301) if the move is permanent. Then update your internal links so they never touch a redirect at all.

7. Duplicate Content and Canonical Errors

What it is: Duplicate content means the same page is reachable at more than one web address. Google then has to guess which one is the real one. It may guess wrong. A canonical tag solves this. It says, “This address is the official one.”

Picture an office with two street numbers on two different doors. Mail gets split between them. That is what duplicates do to your rankings.

Why architects get hit: Three causes show up again and again. The first is address variants. Your homepage may load at http, https, www, and non-www versions. They are four separate addresses to Google. The second is filter pages. A portfolio filter can create addresses like /projects/?type=residential for every combination. The third is one project listed in several categories. A lake house under “Residential,” “Waterfront,” and “Sustainable” can create three copies.

Press copy is the fourth trap. If your project text matches an ArchDaily or Dezeen article word for word, Google usually favors the publication.

How to check it.

1. Type four versions of your homepage into a browser: http://, https://, http://www., and https://www. All four should end up at one single address.
2. In Screaming Frog, click the Canonicals tab. Look at the filters: Missing, Non-Indexable Canonical, and Canonicalised.
3. Click the Content tab and open the Exact Duplicates filter.
4. In Search Console, open Indexing > Pages. Look for “Duplicate without user-selected canonical” and “Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user.”

How to fix it: Choose one main version of your site (usually https with or without www) and redirect the others to it. Give every project page a self-referencing canonical tag. Your SEO plugin usually does this by default. Point filter and category pages back to the main portfolio page with a canonical tag. Rewrite any project text copied from press features.

8. Missing HTTPS and SSL

What it is: HTTPS means the connection between your visitor and your site is encrypted. SSL is the certificate that turns this on. You see it as a padlock in the browser bar. Without it, browsers show “Not secure.”

Think of it as a locked door on an office where clients hand over documents. Without the lock, nobody feels comfortable leaving anything.

Why architects get hit: Your contact form collects names, site addresses, budgets, and project details. Client portals collect even more. A “Not secure” warning next to that form can end an inquiry before it starts. HTTPS is also a small Google ranking signal.

How to check it.

1. Look at the address bar on your homepage. You want a padlock.
2. Type the http:// version of your address. It should jump to https:// on its own.
3. Press F12 in Chrome and click the Console tab. Look for “Mixed Content” warnings. This means a few files still load over the insecure version. Old renders are common culprits.
4. Check the certificate expiry date by clicking the padlock and opening certificate details.

How to fix it: Most hosts offer free certificates through a service called Let’s Encrypt. Ask your host to install one. Then redirect every HTTP address to its HTTPS twin. In WordPress, update both address fields under Settings > General to start with https. Replace old HTTP links inside your pages. Finally, switch on auto-renewal. An expired certificate throws up a scary warning page and scares off leads fast.

9. JavaScript Galleries Google Can’t Crawl

What it is: JavaScript is code that builds parts of a page after the page opens in the browser. Some portfolio themes use it to load project grids. The grid may appear only after a scroll, a click, or a filter button. Visitors see a full portfolio. Google may see an empty page.

Picture a showroom where the displays only appear when the visitor says a password. A person who knows the password sees everything. An inspector who does not sees empty rooms.

Why architects get hit: Portfolio sites rely on fancy galleries, sliders, and filters more than almost any other business type. Google can run JavaScript, but it does so later and not always fully. Content that needs a click or scroll can be missed. Project links built with click events instead of real links cannot be followed at all.

How to check it.

1. In Search Console, paste your portfolio page address in the top bar.
2. Click Test Live URL, then View Tested Page.
3. Open the Screenshot tab. Compare it with what you see in your browser. Missing projects mean a rendering problem.
4. Open the HTML tab and search for the name of a project. If it is not there, Google cannot see it.
5. As a quick extra test, press Ctrl+U on your portfolio page to view the raw code. Search for a project name. If it is missing from the raw code, the grid is built by JavaScript.

How to fix it: This one needs a developer, but the request is clear. Tell them these points:

• Use real links (with an href) for every project, not click events
• Load the project list from the server, not after the page opens
• Replace “load more” buttons with numbered pages that have their own addresses
• Keep key text and links out of tabs and sliders that need a click

A developer can often finish this in a day. The payoff is large, since your whole portfolio becomes visible.

10. No LocalBusiness Schema (or Conflicting Schema)

What it is: Schema is a set of hidden labels in your page code. They tell Google exactly what your page is about. Architects already know the idea. It works like the title block on a drawing. It states the project name, address, and scale in a standard format so anyone can read it fast.

LocalBusiness schema is the title block for your firm. It carries your name, address, phone, hours, and service area.

Why architects get hit: Most firm sites have no schema at all. That leaves Google guessing. Others have too much. Yoast, a theme, and a page builder can each add their own version. Now the page has three descriptions of your firm, and some disagree.

How to check it.

1. Go to search.google.com/test/rich-results and paste your homepage address.
2. Look at the detected items. You want to see LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService.
3. Press Ctrl+U on your homepage and search for “ld+json.” Count the blocks. Several blocks that describe your firm in different ways signal a conflict.
4. In Search Console, check the Enhancements section for errors.

How to fix it: SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast have a Local SEO section where you fill in your details. Use it. Set the type to ProfessionalService or LocalBusiness. Enter your firm name, address, phone, hours, and the cities you serve. Link your Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Houzz, Architizer, and AIA profiles. Match your name, address, and phone exactly to your Google Business Profile. One stray “Suite” breaks the match.

A developer can also add it by hand. Here is a basic version with placeholder details:

json

{

  “@context”: “https://schema.org”,

  “@type”: “ProfessionalService”,

  “name”: “Studio Name Architects”,

  “url”: “https://www.yourwebsite.com”,

  “telephone”: “+1-555-555-5555”,

  “address”: {

    “@type”: “PostalAddress”,

    “streetAddress”: “123 Main Street”,

    “addressLocality”: “Austin”,

    “addressRegion”: “TX”,

    “postalCode”: “78701”,

    “addressCountry”: “US”

  },

  “areaServed”: [“Austin”, “Round Rock”, “Cedar Park”],

  “sameAs”: [

    “https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-firm”,

    “https://www.houzz.com/your-profile”

  ]

}

Keep one clean block per page. Test it again in the Rich Results Test. Schema does not promise a ranking jump. It removes guesswork. That is a fair trade.

11. Poor URL Structure and Parameter Bloat

What it is: A URL is the web address of a page. Clean URLs work like clear street addresses. “123 Main Street” tells you where to go. “Lot 4B behind the blue gate” does not.

Compare yourfirm.com/portfolio/p-024 with yourfirm.com/projects/residential/courtyard-house-portland/. The second one tells Google and visitors what the page holds before they open it.

Why architects get hit: Portfolio plugins often produce ugly addresses. Filter tools add strings like ?cat=12&sort=new. Tracking tags add more. These extra strings are called parameters. Google may crawl thousands of them and ignore your real pages. That is wasted crawl time.

How to check it.

1. Crawl your site in Screaming Frog.
2. Click the URL tab.
3. Open these filters one by one: Parameters, Underscores, Uppercase, and Over 115 Characters.
4. Scan the list. Ask a simple question for each address: could a stranger guess what the page is about?

How to fix it: In WordPress, open Settings > Permalinks and choose “Post name.” Keep addresses short, lowercase, and hyphenated. Group pages in clear folders like /services/, /projects/, and /locations/. Build city pages like /architect-scottsdale-az/. Skip dates, ID numbers, and session strings. Pick one rule for trailing slashes and apply it everywhere.

Be careful with old pages. Once a project has press or award links, its address is set. Changing it needs a 301 redirect at minimum. Fix new pages first. Touch old ones only with redirects in place.

For filter parameters, ask your developer to add canonical tags on filtered pages, or to build filters that do not create new addresses.

12. Orphan Pages and Deep Site Architecture

What it is: An orphan page has no links pointing to it from anywhere on your site. It is a room with no door. Nobody finds it, and Google does not either. Site depth is the number of clicks it takes to reach a page from the homepage. A page six clicks deep is like a room in the basement at the end of a long corridor.

Why architects get hit: Projects often appear only inside a filter gallery with no links to their own pages. Award pages get linked from nowhere. Old city pages drop off the menu. Orphan and deep pages get crawled rarely, and they rarely rank.

How to check it: Use two lists and compare them.

1. Crawl your site with Screaming Frog. Click the Internal tab, filter by HTML, and click Export. This is list one: pages Google can reach by following links.
2. Open your sitemap in a browser. Copy all the page addresses into a Google Sheet. This is list two: pages you want found.
3. In the sheet, paste list one into column A of a second tab. In the first tab, next to each sitemap address, type =COUNTIF(Tab2!A: A, A2) and drag it down. Any row that returns 0 is an orphan.
4. For depth, go back to the Screaming Frog Internal tab. Sort the Crawl Depth column from high to low. Important pages should sit at depth 3 or less.

How to fix it: Link every orphan from a page that already ranks or gets traffic. Connect each project to its service page and its city page. Link those pages back to the project. Add a “related projects” block at the bottom of each project. Add breadcrumbs, which are the small trails near the top that read Home > Projects > Residential. Use descriptive link text such as “courtyard house in Portland,” not “click here.” Three internal links per project is a fair minimum.

Technical SEO Audit Template You Can Copy

You now have 12 checks. Put them in a sheet so you can run them again. Add columns for status, owner, and date. Run the full audit every quarter. Also run it after any redesign, hosting move, or big batch of new projects. A quick monthly look at Search Console errors catches small problems before they grow.

Where to Start

Do not fix all 12 in one week. Order matters. Start with issues that can block everything: robots.txt, noindex tags, and HTTPS. Then fix the paths: sitemap, 404s, and redirects. After that, work on speed, mobile, and JavaScript rendering. Finish with canonicals, schema, URLs, and internal linking.

Each fix builds on the one before it. A clean base lets reviews, citations, and project pages do their job. It also sets up the rest of your local work: your Google Business Profile, city pages, and SEO for architects overall.

Next Step

Short on time? Codestro offers local SEO services for architects that cover the technical base and the local signals on top of it. You can also book a free 30-minute strategy call and get a clear audit plan for your site.