The Technical audit checks your key pages to see how ready they are to be read, understood, and cited by AI models. You add the pages you care about, Gumshoe runs a set of structured checks against each one, and you get a score plus specific recommendations. Rerun the audit over time, and Gumshoe tracks the trend, so you can see whether the changes you made are moving the score in the right direction.
What does the Technical audit check?
The audit looks at pages through the lens of AI readiness, not classic SEO. Each page gets an overall AI Optimization Score (AIO) plus per-category scores in these areas:
- Structured Data Assessment: whether the page uses JSON-LD structured data and which schema types are in place.
- Page Layout Structure: heading hierarchy, semantic HTML, and how clearly the page is organized.
- Schema Markup: specific schema.org types (Organization, WebPage, Product, FAQ, Article) and how completely they're populated.
- Navigation: internal linking, URL structure, breadcrumbs, canonical tags, and hreflang.
- Content Balance: text-to-code ratio and how much meaningful content exists relative to markup.
- Metadata: title tags, meta descriptions, Open Graph, Twitter Card, and canonical URLs.
For every category, the audit surfaces Highlights (what's working) and Recommendations (what to fix).
How do I add pages to the audit?
- Open the Technical audit in the Act section of the sidebar.
- Click Add pages in the top right.
- Fill in any of the Key pages slots (Home page, About page, Blog/News page, FAQ/Resources page) and add additional URLs under General pages.
- Click Start page audits.
Leave any field blank if it doesn't apply. Each page runs through the audit, and once finished, it appears in the Active list with its score and last run date.
How do I read the score?
Scores run from 0 to 100 percent. Higher is better. Each score is paired with a rating: Poor, Fair, Good, or Very Good.
Treat scores as directional rather than precise. Some fluctuation between runs is normal, especially after smaller content changes. Focus on the trend over time and on the specific recommendations, rather than chasing a particular number.
What's on the Analysis overview page?
When you click any audited page from the Technical audit list, you land on the Analysis overview. It shows every run for that one page on a single screen.
- Audit score trend: a line chart of how the score has changed across all runs.
- Audit history: a table with the date, score, and status of each run, plus a View results link for that run.
- Reanalyze: triggers a new run from this page.
Use the trend chart to see whether the changes you made are moving the score in the right direction. Click into any individual run for the full details.
What's on the Analysis results page?
Clicking View results on any run opens the Analysis results page. This is the per-run detail view. It shows:
- The AI Optimization Score (AIO) for the page on that run, with a short summary explaining the score.
- Per-category scores with Highlights and Recommendations for each.
- The exact date of the scan and the source URL the audit pulled from.
You can switch between past runs using the Scanned dropdown at the top right of the page.
How do I rerun or archive a page?
To rerun an audit, click Reanalyze on the Analysis overview. You can also click the three-dot menu next to the URL on the Technical audit page and pick Reanalyze.
To archive a page, click the three-dot menu next to the URL on the Technical audit page and pick Archive. Archived pages move to the Archived tab and can be restored later.
For more detail on rerunning audits, see How do I refresh my Technical audit?
What does a Failed status mean?
A Failed status means Gumshoe couldn't access the page after multiple retries. Common reasons:
- The site's robots.txt blocks crawlers.
- The page requires login.
- A CDN or firewall (like Cloudflare's AI bot blocking) is rejecting the request.
- The URL is non-standard, like Google.com, which blocks crawlers by design.