Technical SEO is whether search engines can reach, read and store your pages. On a SaaS site it tends to go wrong in predictable places: a marketing site built in JavaScript, an app that leaks login pages into the index, or a migration that left old URLs pointing nowhere.
You do not need to fix everything a crawler flags. You need to fix what stops important pages being found or understood.
Short on time? Comppound does this work for SaaS companies. AI-native, and a person reviews every page.
Have us do itCan search engines reach your pages?
Start with robots.txt and the XML sitemap. Robots.txt should block only what you truly want hidden, such as the app and internal search. The sitemap should list every page you want indexed and nothing else, and be referenced from robots.txt and submitted in Search Console.
Are they indexed?
In Search Console, the Pages report shows which URLs are indexed and why others are not. Use URL inspection on your five most important pages. A page marked “Crawled, currently not indexed” usually needs more substance or more internal links rather than a technical fix.
Comppound can do this for you
Want your SEO foundations handled?
Comppound finds the searches your buyers make, fixes what stops Google reading your site and builds the pages that win them. Our system is AI-native, and a person reviews every page before it ships.
- Buyer search map from your sales calls
- Technical fixes on the pages that matter
- Pages published to your CMS
Do they say which version is the real one?
Every page should carry a canonical tag pointing to its preferred URL. SaaS sites often create duplicates through tracking parameters, trailing slashes or the same page served on both www and the bare domain. Canonicals and consistent redirects settle which one counts.
Can they read the content without running your app?
If your marketing pages are rendered only in the browser by JavaScript, crawlers may see an empty shell, and many AI crawlers do not run JavaScript at all. Server-side rendering or static generation for marketing pages avoids the problem. Check by viewing the page source: the main text should be there.
Is the site fast and stable enough?
Core Web Vitals measure loading, responsiveness and visual stability for real users. They are one signal among many. Fix them when they are poor, especially on mobile, but do not expect speed alone to lift rankings.
Worked example · an illustration, not a client result
What Tallyroom's check found
The check took an hour and found three issues worth fixing and several that were not.
| Finding | Why it matters | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| App login pages indexed | Thin pages compete with the marketing site | Noindex the app and block it in robots.txt |
| Comparison pages missing from sitemap | Slower discovery of key pages | Generate the sitemap from the route list |
| Pricing rendered only in the browser | Crawlers and AI bots see no prices | Render the pricing page on the server |
Do it yourself
Run the one-hour check
- 1Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and confirm nothing important is blocked.
- 2Open the sitemap and confirm your key commercial pages are in it.
- 3Inspect your five most important URLs in Search Console.
- 4View the source of your pricing and one comparison page and confirm the text is there.
- 5Write down only the problems that affect important pages, and fix those first.
Free tool for this: AI crawler access checker
Common mistakes
Chasing every audit warning
Crawlers flag hundreds of minor issues. Most do not affect ranking. Fix what blocks important pages first.
Blocking with robots.txt to remove pages
A page blocked in robots.txt can stay in the index. Use noindex to remove it, and let it be crawled so the tag is seen.
Forgetting redirects after a redesign
Changing URLs without redirects throws away whatever the old pages had earned.
Rather not do it yourself?
Want your SEO foundations handled?
Comppound finds the searches your buyers make, fixes what stops Google reading your site and builds the pages that win them. Our system is AI-native, and a person reviews every page before it ships.
- Buyer search map from your sales calls
- Technical fixes on the pages that matter
- Pages published to your CMS
Questions
A subfolder is simpler to manage and keeps everything under one site. Either can work if it is well linked.
Only if they are poor. Content and internal links usually matter more for a SaaS site starting out.
Key terms
- robots.txtrobots.txt is a plain-text file at a site's root that tells crawlers which paths they may or may not request.
- XML SitemapAn XML sitemap is a file listing the URLs you want search engines to discover and crawl, optionally with each page's last-modified date.
- IndexingIndexing is when a search engine processes a crawled page and stores it in its index so it can appear in search results.
- Canonical URLA canonical URL is the version of a page search engines treat as the main one when several URLs show the same or very similar content.
- Server-Side RenderingServer-side rendering builds a page's HTML on the server for each request, so browsers and crawlers receive complete content without running JavaScript.
- JavaScript SEOJavaScript SEO is the practice of making sure pages built with JavaScript can be crawled, rendered and indexed by search engines and AI crawlers.
- Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's three user-experience metrics: loading (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and visual stability (CLS).
- NoindexNoindex is a directive, set in a meta tag or HTTP header, that tells search engines not to include a page in their results.
- URL Inspection toolThe URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console shows how Google sees one URL: index status, chosen canonical, rendered HTML and crawl details.
