Diagnose whether search systems can access, render, index, understand, and efficiently revisit important pages. Work through the four lessons, apply each exercise to a real, approved, personal, or sandbox site, and retain the result in your continuing portfolio.
Recommended prerequisite: access to a real, client-approved, personal, or sandbox website. Units 1–3 require no prior SEO experience.
Progress is self-reported. Mark a lesson complete only when you are satisfied with the applied work—not because you reached the bottom of the page.
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Lesson 6.1Not started
Technical Audits and Root Causes
Crawl scope, status codes, redirects, canonicals, duplicates, depth, and template grouping.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Crawl scope, status codes, redirects, canonicals, duplicates, depth, and template grouping.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Crawl a permitted site or fixture and manually verify five representative URLs.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Why group findings by template?
Compare with guidance
One root-cause fix may resolve many symptoms and reveal ownership.
2. Why manually verify crawler output?
Compare with guidance
Tools can misclassify context, rendering, or intent.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 6.2Not started
JavaScript Rendering
Raw HTML, rendered DOM, crawlable links, API dependencies, and failure modes.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Raw HTML, rendered DOM, crawlable links, API dependencies, and failure modes.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Compare source, rendered DOM, and mobile display for three templates.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Is JavaScript itself an SEO problem?
Compare with guidance
No; unreliable implementation, access, and performance are concerns.
2. What happens if primary content depends on a failed client request?
Compare with guidance
Content may not be rendered, understood, or indexed reliably.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 6.3Not started
Structured Data and Entity Accuracy
Schema vocabulary, visible-content consistency, validation, eligibility, and no display guarantee.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
Schema vocabulary, visible-content consistency, validation, eligibility, and no display guarantee.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Draft or review JSON-LD for one eligible page and compare each property with visible content.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Does valid markup guarantee a rich result?
Compare with guidance
No.
2. Can syntactically valid markup still be misleading?
Compare with guidance
Yes, if it misrepresents content or entities.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Lesson 6.4Not started
Core Web Vitals and Audit Synthesis
LCP, CLS, INP, field versus lab, template scope, severity, and verification.
Assignment note: Deciphering INP and Core Web Vitals and selected chapters from Technical SEO course with Aleyda Solis.
Open on YouTube. Interfaces, platform policies, and product details may have changed; learn the durable principle rather than memorizing buttons.
Learn
The working idea
LCP, CLS, INP, field versus lab, template scope, severity, and verification.
Translate this principle into an observable decision: identify the audience task, the evidence available, the business consequence, and the verification method. Keep facts, assumptions, and recommendations separate.
Do the work
Exercise
Diagnose one template and create a five-item roadmap with impact, confidence, effort, owner, and regression test.
Acceptance check: your output should name its source evidence, assumptions, intended user or business outcome, and how the conclusion could be verified.
Quick check
Compare your reasoning
1. Match CLS to its user-experience concern.
Compare with guidance
Visual stability.
2. Why can lab and field data disagree?
Compare with guidance
Field data reflects varied real devices, networks, interactions, and populations; lab conditions are controlled.
Portfolio handoff
File the evidence
Save the exercise output in your own course workbook or project folder. This site does not upload or retain your work.
Unit 6 exam
Apply it without pretending the browser is your professor.
Status: Not attempted
Knowledge prompts
Distinguish crawl, render, and index; explain canonical signals; define structured-data eligibility; match all three Core Web Vitals.
Practical assignment
Analyze a 15-URL technical evidence packet and submit root causes, affected scope, fixes, owners, and tests.