Checking technical issues after lunch

Lunch ends around 1 PM, and I settle back into my home office for the technical portion of the audit. This part requires more focus because I'm digging into code and server responses.

I start with site speed analysis using GTmetrix. I test the same five pages from the morning session but now I'm looking at different metrics: fully loaded time, total page size, and number of requests. I screenshot the waterfall charts for any page loading slower than 3 seconds. Usually the culprits are unoptimized images or render-blocking JavaScript.

Then I check mobile usability in Google Search Console. I look for mobile-specific errors like clickable elements too close together or content wider than screen. I test flagged pages on my phone using Chrome DevTools device emulation. I note any horizontal scrolling or text too small to read.

Around 2 PM, I move to indexing issues. I compare the number of submitted URLs versus indexed URLs in Search Console. If there's a gap bigger than 15%, something's blocking Google. I check robots.txt first, then look for noindex tags in the page source. I use the URL Inspection tool to see exactly what Google sees.

Schema markup comes next. I run pages through Google's Rich Results Test. I'm checking for proper implementation of Article, Product, or FAQ schema depending on page type. Broken schema won't kill your rankings but it costs you rich snippets in search results.

I finish with SSL certificate verification and canonical tag checks. I use the browser inspector to confirm HTTPS everywhere and check that canonical URLs point to the right version of each page. Self-referencing canonicals should match the actual URL.

By 3:30 PM, I have a complete technical audit document. I organize findings by priority: critical issues first, then important, then nice-to-have improvements. This gives developers a clear roadmap without overwhelming them.