TECHNICAL SEO AUDIT FINDING — DEMONSTRATION

Status: Fictional worked example
Business: Northstar Garden Supply
Client result: No. Northstar Garden Supply is not a real client.

FINDING ID
CRAWL-04

FINDING
Filtered category URLs are crawlable and internally linked.

FICTIONAL EVIDENCE
- 184 filtered category URLs were found during the example crawl.
- 62 of those URLs declared canonical targets that conflicted with their internal links.
- The main navigation linked to 7 approved category pages. Product filters generated links to the remaining combinations.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The fictional site sends mixed discovery and canonical signals. Search engines can spend time crawling filter combinations while the site points to different preferred URLs.

RECOMMENDED ACTION
1. Choose which filter combinations should be indexable landing pages.
2. Keep stable internal links to those approved URLs.
3. Prevent unapproved combinations from creating crawlable links.
4. Align canonical and indexation rules with the chosen URL set.
5. Preserve filter usability for visitors.

OWNER
Developer with SEO review.

PRIORITY
High in this fictional example because the pattern affects a large product directory.

ACCEPTANCE CHECK
- Re-crawl the affected directory.
- Confirm that approved category URLs remain linked and indexable.
- Confirm that unapproved filter combinations are no longer discovered through internal links in the scoped crawl.
- Inspect a sample of canonical tags and response codes.
- Check that visitors can still filter products.

LIMITS
This demonstration does not diagnose a real website. A real audit would use evidence from the agreed site and would account for its platform, templates and commercial goals.