What this service is
The SEO Technical Health service evaluates whether a client’s website is properly structured for search engines to crawl, index, and interpret its content. Even sites with strong content and good design can underperform in search results if technical foundations are broken—pages blocked from indexing, redirect chains that dilute link equity, missing or duplicate meta descriptions, orphan pages that never get crawled, or schema markup that Google cannot parse.
Northwoods offers a clear progression: a free automated homepage scan that checks the most critical technical signals in under five minutes, a full-site crawl report using Screaming Frog with prioritized remediation steps, a comprehensive audit with Google Search Console analysis and a live walkthrough with Alex, and an ongoing retainer that monitors technical health monthly and applies remediation from the client’s backlog budget.
Why clients care: Google cannot rank pages it cannot find, crawl, or understand. A single misconfigured robots.txt rule can deindex an entire site section. Redirect chains bleed PageRank on every hop. Duplicate content fragments ranking signals across multiple URLs. Most clients have no visibility into these issues until organic traffic drops—and by then the damage has compounded over months.
A
Alex
SEO Specialist — Technical Health & Strategy
Alex owns both SEO Technical Health and SEO Strategy & Rankings at Northwoods. For S-tier engagements, Alex runs Screaming Frog crawls and produces the branded remediation report. For M-tier audits, Alex manually reviews Google Search Console data, analyzes log files when available, and leads a 1–2 hour live walkthrough of all findings prioritized by impact and effort. On L-tier retainers, Alex performs monthly re-crawls, flags new issues, and applies remediation hours from the client’s elected backlog budget.
Service tiers — F / S / M / L
F — Free / Quick Scan
Quick Scan
Free
Agent-automated • Homepage only • <5 minutes
- ✓ Robots.txt accessible and valid
- ✓ Meta robots noindex check
- ✓ Meta title present and correct length
- ✓ Meta description present and correct length
- ✓ H1 tag present
- ✓ HTTPS enforcement
- ✓ Canonical tag present
- ✓ XML sitemap reachable
- ✓ Basic schema.org check
Scope: Homepage • Agentic: Yes (seo-scanner agent) • No credentials needed
S — Paid Deeper Scan
Site Health Report
$300–$450
Full-site crawl • Up to 500 pages • PDF report
- ✓ Everything in Quick Scan
- ✓ Full-site Screaming Frog crawl (up to 500 pages)
- ✓ Duplicate content detection
- ✓ Redirect chain analysis (301/302)
- ✓ Orphan page detection
- ✓ Missing/duplicate meta descriptions
- ✓ H1/H2 heading structure audit
- ✓ Image alt text audit
- ✓ Internal link analysis
- ✓ Mobile rendering check
- ✓ Prioritized remediation table
Scope: Full site (up to 500 pages) • 2–3 hrs effort • No Google account access required
M — Audit & Consult
Technical SEO Audit
$800–$1,500
Comprehensive audit • Live 1–2 hr walkthrough with Alex
- ✓ Everything in Site Health Report
- ✓ Google Search Console indexation review
- ✓ Log file analysis (if available)
- ✓ JavaScript rendering audit
- ✓ International SEO / hreflang review (if applicable)
- ✓ 1–2 hour live walkthrough with Alex
- ✓ Findings prioritized by impact and effort
Scope: Full site • 6–10 hrs effort • Requires Google Search Console access for full value
L — Retainer
Ongoing Technical SEO
Retainer
Monthly re-crawls • Dashboard tracking • 4–6 hrs/mo
- ✓ Everything in Technical SEO Audit
- ✓ Monthly re-crawl with trending health score
- ✓ New issues flagged automatically
- ✓ Remediation hours from client backlog budget
- ✓ Quarterly deep audit refresh
- ✓ Monthly or biweekly check-in with Alex
- ✓ Dashboard KPI tracking
Scope: Full site • Ongoing • 4–6 hrs/mo within retainer • Dashboard KPIs
Cross-service coordination: At the L-tier retainer level, Alex and Ed K (Paid Media) share a keyword universe document so paid and organic strategies don’t compete. For example, if a client already ranks #1 organically for a high-value keyword, there is no reason to also bid on it in Google Ads—freeing that budget for terms where organic coverage is weak.
What the agent checks
| Check |
F — Free |
S — Paid |
M — Audit |
| Crawl & Index |
| Robots.txt accessible and valid | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| XML sitemap present and reachable | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Meta robots noindex check | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Canonical tag present | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full-site crawl error report | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search Console indexation review | — | — | ✓ |
| Log file analysis | — | — | ✓ |
| On-Page SEO |
| Meta title present and proper length | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Meta description present and proper length | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| H1 tag present and unique | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| H2/H3 heading structure | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Image alt text audit | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Duplicate content detection | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Technical |
| HTTPS enforcement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schema.org / structured data check | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Redirect chains (301/302) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Orphan pages detection | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile rendering check | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| JavaScript rendering audit | — | — | ✓ |
| International SEO / hreflang | — | — | ✓ |
✓ Included — Not included
Sample output — Quick Scan (F tier)
This is representative of what a prospect sees when the seo-scanner agent runs against their homepage. The scan completes in under 5 minutes with no credentials required.
Scanned: www.example-client.com — April 6, 2026 — Homepage only
✓
Robots.txt
Accessible & valid
✓
Meta Robots
Index, follow
✓
Meta Title
Present — 58 characters
✗
Meta Description
Missing
✓
H1 Tag
Present — 1 tag found
✓
HTTPS
Enforced (301 redirect)
!
Canonical Tag
Present but self-referencing with trailing slash mismatch
✓
XML Sitemap
Found at /sitemap.xml — 247 URLs
✗
Schema.org Markup
No structured data detected
Technical Health Score
67 / 100 Needs attention
What happens next: The prospect receives a single-page PDF summary with pass/fail for each item. Two issues flagged—missing meta description and no schema markup—are common, fixable problems. The CTA offers a full Site Health Report ($300–$450) to crawl all 247 pages in the sitemap and surface site-wide patterns.
Deliverables by tier
| Tier |
What the client / prospect receives |
Format |
Who produces it |
| F — Free / Quick Scan |
9-signal homepage technical scan with pass/fail/warn for each item, overall health score, and CTA for full site crawl |
Single-page PDF summary |
Agent (seo-scanner — automated) |
| S — Paid Deeper Scan |
Full-site crawl report (up to 500 pages): duplicate content, redirect chains, orphan pages, missing/duplicate metas, heading structure, alt text, internal links, mobile rendering. Prioritized remediation table client can hand to any developer. |
Branded PDF report (10–15 pages) |
Alex (Screaming Frog crawl + human review + writeup) |
| M — Audit & Consult |
Everything in S, plus: Google Search Console indexation review, log file analysis, JavaScript rendering audit, international SEO review. Findings prioritized by impact and effort + 1–2 hour live walkthrough with Alex. |
Branded PDF report + live consultation |
Alex (manual analysis + consultation) |
| L — Retainer |
Monthly re-crawl with trending health score on client dashboard. New issues flagged automatically. Remediation hours applied from backlog budget. Quarterly deep audit refresh. Monthly or biweekly check-in with Alex. |
Client dashboard + monthly report + check-in calls |
Alex (ongoing) • Agent (monthly crawl automation) |
How this service is delivered today
Step 1
Agent Scan
Automated crawl checks homepage technical signals: robots.txt, meta tags, HTTPS, canonical, sitemap, schema. Produces pass/fail summary in under 5 minutes.
Agent — seo-scanner
Step 2
Crawl & Analysis
Screaming Frog full-site crawl (up to 500 pages). Alex reviews crawl data, identifies patterns, and builds a prioritized remediation table with developer-ready action items.
Alex — Screaming Frog
Step 3
Report & Consult
Branded PDF report delivered. For M-tier engagements, Alex leads a 1–2 hour live walkthrough of all findings, prioritized by impact and effort, with Google Search Console data.
Alex — SEO Specialist
Step 4
Ongoing Monitoring
Monthly re-crawls with trending health score on client dashboard. New issues flagged automatically. Remediation hours applied from backlog budget. Quarterly deep audit refresh.
Alex — Retainer
F-tier automation note: The F-tier agent (seo-scanner) is currently planned, not yet in production. The scan requires no credentials—all checks are performed against the publicly accessible homepage. Automation feasibility is HIGH because every check is a deterministic HTTP request or HTML parse with a clear pass/fail threshold.
L-tier dashboard KPIs
For retainer clients, the following KPIs are tracked on the NWS-360 client dashboard and reviewed in monthly or biweekly check-ins with Alex. These metrics drive the ongoing remediation agenda and surface regressions before they impact organic traffic.
| KPI |
What it measures |
| Technical SEO Health Score (0–100) |
Composite score based on crawl errors, indexation rate, redirect health, on-page completeness, and mobile rendering. Target: >80. Trended monthly to track improvement or regression. |
| Crawl Error Count |
Total number of crawl errors (4xx, 5xx, soft 404s) detected per crawl cycle. Target: 0 critical errors. Broken down by error type and page priority. |
| Indexation Rate (Pages Indexed vs. Submitted) |
Percentage of pages submitted via sitemap that are actually indexed by Google. Target: >95%. A declining rate signals crawl budget problems, noindex leaks, or quality issues. |
| Page Speed / Lighthouse Performance |
Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse performance score for key landing pages. Shared with the CWV service when both are active. Target varies by page type—typically >75 for mobile. |
Features & benefits
What makes this service distinctive
- Free homepage scan gives prospects immediate technical visibility with zero friction
- S-tier report includes a developer-ready remediation table the client can hand off without Northwoods involvement
- Screaming Frog crawl covers up to 500 pages—enough for most SMB and mid-market sites
- M-tier includes live walkthrough with Alex, not just a document delivered by email
- Google Search Console and log file analysis at M-tier goes deeper than any automated tool alone
- JavaScript rendering audit catches issues on React/Angular/Vue sites that standard crawlers miss
- Monthly re-crawl cadence at L-tier catches regressions before they compound
- Health score is trended over time so clients see measurable improvement
- S-tier report explicitly states “Estimated data only—no Google account access required,” lowering the sales friction
- Works on any CMS—Titan, WordPress, HubSpot, Drupal, custom builds
Client benefits
- Know exactly what is preventing Google from crawling, indexing, and ranking your pages
- Fix redirect chains, duplicate content, and orphan pages before they erode organic traffic
- Get a prioritized action plan ranked by impact and effort—not a generic checklist
- Stop losing ranking signals to canonical tag mismatches and duplicate meta descriptions
- Monthly monitoring means regressions from CMS updates, plugin changes, or content migrations are caught fast
Cross-service relationships
SEO Technical Health is one half of Alex’s SEO practice. The other half—SEO Strategy & Rankings—covers keyword research, content gap analysis, ranking tracking, and organic growth planning. Technical Health ensures the site can be found; Strategy & Rankings ensures it ranks for the right terms.
Paid + Organic alignment: At the L-tier retainer level, Alex and Ed K (Paid Media) maintain a shared keyword universe document. This prevents the client from paying for clicks on keywords where they already rank #1 organically, and ensures paid media budget is allocated to terms where organic coverage is weak or competitive. This coordination is a built-in feature of any NWS-360 retainer that includes both SEO and Paid Media services.
Page Speed / CWV overlap: The Lighthouse Performance KPI in this service shares data with the Core Web Vitals service (when both are active on a retainer). Technical SEO focuses on crawlability, indexation, and on-page structure; CWV focuses on load speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Both feed the same client dashboard.