Technical SEO Crawl Triage: shop.example (fictional test data)
Inputs used: crawl export (8 URLs, with redirect target and meta description columns), site type ecommerce, priority sections /products/ and /collections/, dev capacity 6 hours next sprint. Not provided: Search Console Pages report, so I could not cross check crawler indexability against Google's view. Columns not in the export: H1 and robots directives, so missing H1 and robots blocks could not be checked. No live crawl or tool was used.
Effort scale: S up to 2 hours, M 2 to 6 hours, L over 6 hours, in the owner's hours.
Crawl profile (counts)
| Measure | Count | Share of 8 |
|---|---|---|
| Total URLs | 8 | 100% |
| 2xx (200) | 5 | 62.5% |
| 3xx (301) | 2 | 25% |
| 4xx (404) | 1 | 12.5% |
| 5xx | 0 | 0% |
| Indexable "yes" | 4 | 50% |
| Canonical pointing to a different URL | 1 | 12.5% |
| Indexable URLs with no meta description | 2 | 25% |
| Indexable URLs with 0 inlinks | 1 | 12.5% |
| URLs in priority sections | 5 | 62.5% |
Fix list table: tier, fix, root cause, URLs affected, examples, owner, effort, how to verify
Issues in /products/ or /collections/ moved up one tier. One row per root cause.
| Tier | Fix | Root cause | URLs affected | Examples | Owner | Effort | How to verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Restore the red mug page, or (after your approval) 301 it to a chosen live product or the mugs collection; then update the 9 internal links to the final URL. | A priority product URL returns 404 but is still linked from 9 pages. | 1 | https://shop.example/products/red-mug | Dev, SEO picks target | S | Recrawl: 200, or one 301 to a 200 page; 0 internal links to the old URL. |
| 1 (from 2) | Make sorted collection URLs canonicalize to the clean collection URL, at template level. | The collection template outputs a self canonical on parameter URLs, so https://shop.example/collections/mugs?sort=price competes with https://shop.example/collections/mugs (same title, same 150 word count). | 1 in this crawl; likely every sort or filter URL (not counted) | https://shop.example/collections/mugs?sort=price | Dev | S | Recrawl: canonical equals https://shop.example/collections/mugs; spot check other sort values. |
| 1 (from 2) | Confirm whether green mug is a separate product. If yes: unique title, unique meta description, self canonical. If it is a duplicate: keep the canonical and remove its inlink. | The green mug record carries the blue mug's title ("Blue Mug | Example Shop"), meta description and a canonical to the blue mug, so a product page is excluded from indexing. Looks like a copied product record; the file can't confirm which. | 1 | https://shop.example/products/green-mug | Content (product data), Dev if template | S | Recrawl: if separate, indexable yes, self canonical, unique title and description. |
| 2 | Point the 2 internal links straight to https://shop.example/blog/mug-care-guide, change https://shop.example/blog/how-to-clean-a-mug to 301 directly to it, and add links to the guide from relevant pages. | A blog post moved twice without updating links: a 2 hop chain (how-to-clean-a-mug to mug-care to mug-care-guide), and the final guide has 0 inlinks, so it is effectively orphaned. | 3 | https://shop.example/blog/how-to-clean-a-mug, https://shop.example/blog/mug-care, https://shop.example/blog/mug-care-guide | Dev (redirect), Content (links) | S | Recrawl: no chain; how-to-clean-a-mug 301s once to mug-care-guide; mug-care-guide inlinks above 0. |
| 2 (from 3) | Add a unique meta description to collection pages, through a template default plus a custom field. | Collection pages have no meta description; likely a template without a description field. | 2 | https://shop.example/collections/mugs, https://shop.example/collections/mugs?sort=price | Content, Dev if a field is needed | S | Recrawl: meta description present on collection URLs. |
No Tier 4 issues are visible in this export.
Next sprint plan
Dev capacity 6 hours. Hours use the upper bound of each size (S = 2 hours), an estimate.
| Order | Fix | Dev hours (estimate) | Fits? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red mug 404 (after you choose restore or redirect target) | 2 | Yes |
| 2 | Collection parameter canonical | 2 | Yes |
| 3 | Green mug canonical and title, after content confirms the product | 2 | Yes |
| Total | 6 | Exactly at capacity | |
| Waits | Blog redirect chain fix (dev part) | 2 | Next sprint, unless a fix above comes in under estimate |
Outside dev time, can start now: content updates the 2 blog links and adds links to the mug care guide; content writes collection meta descriptions if the field exists.
Open questions
- Is red mug discontinued or temporarily unavailable, and if redirected, to which page?
- Is green mug a separate product?
- How many sort or filter parameter URLs exist under /collections/? A full crawl would size the canonical issue.
- Does the collection template have a meta description field, or does dev need to add one?
- Can you send the Search Console Pages report, plus H1 and robots columns, so I can check what this export can't?
Needs your decision
- Red mug (priority section): confirm restore, or approve a 301 and name the target. No redirect is recommended until you confirm.
- Green mug (priority section): confirm separate product or duplicate before any canonical change.
- Approve the sprint plan. I have not written to any sheet or ticket system; if you want rows added, I'll show them first.