Introduction
Manual SEO audits are time-consuming and error-prone. What if you could catch technical SEO issues before they go live? What if your crawler ran automatically on every deployment?
By integrating SEO crawlers into your CI/CD pipeline, you can automate technical audits, catch issues early, and maintain SEO quality at scale. This guide shows you how.
Why Automate SEO Audits?
Automated SEO audits offer several advantages:
- Catch issues early: Find problems before they reach production
- Consistent quality: Every deployment gets audited automatically
- Save time: No manual audits needed
- Scale efficiently: Audit multiple sites or environments easily
- Historical tracking: Compare audits over time
CI/CD Integration Options
There are several ways to integrate SEO audits into your CI/CD pipeline:
Option 1: Pre-Deployment Audits
Run crawls on staging environments before deploying to production. Catch issues before they go live.
Option 2: Post-Deployment Audits
Run crawls after successful deployments to verify production health. Monitor for regressions.
Option 3: Scheduled Audits
Run regular crawls (daily, weekly) to monitor site health over time. Track trends and catch gradual issues.
Setting Up Automated SEO Audits
Step 1: Choose Your Crawler
For CI/CD integration, you need a crawler with:
- CLI or API access
- Exit codes for pass/fail
- Configurable thresholds
- Export capabilities
Barracuda SEO's CLI (coming soon) is perfect for this, offering:
- Command-line interface
- JSON/CSV exports
- Configurable issue thresholds
- Cloud upload option
Step 2: Define Your Rules
Decide what constitutes a "failed" audit:
- Maximum number of broken links
- Maximum number of duplicate titles
- Minimum page speed score
- Maximum redirect chains
- Required structured data
Set thresholds based on your site's size and requirements.
Step 3: Create Your CI/CD Script
Here's an example GitHub Actions workflow:
name: SEO Audit
on:
push:
branches: [ main ]
pull_request:
branches: [ main ]
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 * * 0' # Weekly
jobs:
seo-audit:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Run SEO Crawl
run: |
barracuda crawl https://staging.example.com --max-pages 1000 --export json --output audit-results.json
- name: Check for Critical Issues
run: |
python check-audit.py audit-results.json
- name: Upload Results
if: always()
run: |
barracuda upload audit-results.json --project staging-auditStep 4: Set Up Alerts
Configure notifications for failed audits:
- Slack notifications
- Email alerts
- GitHub status checks
- PagerDuty for critical issues
Example: GitHub Actions Workflow
Here's a complete example for a Next.js site:
name: SEO Audit
on:
deployment_status:
schedule:
- cron: '0 2 * * *' # Daily at 2 AM
jobs:
audit:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Setup Go
uses: actions/setup-go@v4
with:
go-version: '1.21'
- name: Install Barracuda CLI
run: |
go install github.com/dillonlara115/barracuda/cmd/barracuda@latest
- name: Run Crawl
env:
BARracuda_API_KEY: ${ secrets.BARRACUDA_API_KEY }
run: |
barracuda crawl ${ secrets.STAGING_URL } --max-pages 5000 --export json --threshold-errors 10 --threshold-warnings 50
- name: Upload to Cloud
if: success()
run: |
barracuda upload crawl-results.json --project production-auditExample: GitLab CI Pipeline
seo-audit:
stage: test
image: golang:1.21
script:
- go install github.com/dillonlara115/barracuda/cmd/barracuda@latest
- barracuda crawl $STAGING_URL --export json
- python scripts/validate-seo.py crawl-results.json
only:
- main
- merge_requests
artifacts:
paths:
- crawl-results.json
expire_in: 1 weekValidating Audit Results
Create a validation script to check audit results against your thresholds:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import json
import sys
with open('audit-results.json') as f:
data = json.load(f)
errors = 0
warnings = 0
# Check for broken links
broken_links = [p for p in data['pages'] if p['status_code'] == 404]
if len(broken_links) > 10:
print(f"ERROR: {len(broken_links)} broken links found")
errors += len(broken_links)
# Check for duplicate titles
titles = [p['title'] for p in data['pages'] if p.get('title')]
duplicates = len(titles) - len(set(titles))
if duplicates > 5:
print(f"WARNING: {duplicates} duplicate titles found")
warnings += duplicates
# Exit with error code if thresholds exceeded
if errors > 10 or warnings > 50:
sys.exit(1)
print("SEO audit passed!")
sys.exit(0)Best Practices
- Start small: Begin with critical issues only
- Set realistic thresholds: Don't fail builds for minor issues
- Monitor trends: Track issue counts over time
- Document rules: Keep thresholds documented and reviewed
- Review regularly: Adjust thresholds as your site evolves
Common Issues to Monitor
- Broken links: 404 errors
- Duplicate content: Duplicate titles and meta descriptions
- Redirect chains: Multiple redirects in sequence
- Missing meta tags: Pages without titles or descriptions
- Slow pages: Pages exceeding load time thresholds
- Missing structured data: Key pages without schema markup
Advanced: Custom Validation Rules
Create custom validation for your specific needs:
- E-commerce: Ensure product pages have required schema
- Blog: Verify all posts have meta descriptions
- Multi-language: Check hreflang implementation
- Accessibility: Validate alt text on images
Conclusion
Automating SEO audits in CI/CD pipelines ensures consistent quality and catches issues early. By integrating crawlers like Barracuda SEO into your deployment process, you maintain SEO health at scale.
Start with basic checks and gradually add more sophisticated validation as your needs grow.
Get Started with Automated SEO Audits
Ready to automate your SEO audits? Try Barracuda SEO and explore the CLI for CI/CD integration. Start with manual crawls, then automate as you scale.