Technical SEO checklist: the checks that matter most

A technical SEO checklist helps you find the issues that stop search engines from crawling, indexing and ranking your pages. Work through these checks in order, because each section builds on the one before it. If pages can’t be crawled, speed doesn’t matter, and if they can’t be indexed, on-page work won’t show.

Technical SEO checklist: crawling

Search engines discover pages by following links and reading your sitemap. Make that easy.

• robots.txt doesn’t block pages you want to rank, or the CSS and JavaScript needed to render them.
• Your XML sitemap lists only indexable, canonical URLs that return a 200 status.
• The sitemap is submitted in Google Search Console and referenced in robots.txt.
• Internal links are standard HTML links that crawlers can follow.
• Large sites don’t waste crawl budget on endless filter, sort or session URLs.

Indexing

Being crawled doesn’t guarantee being indexed. Check what Google actually keeps.

• No important page carries a noindex tag or an X-Robots-Tag header by mistake.
• The Pages report in Search Console shows no unexpected exclusions.
• Each page has a self-referencing canonical tag, and duplicate versions point to the original.
• HTTP redirects to HTTPS, and one version of the domain redirects to the other in a single hop.
• Thin pages, such as empty tag archives and internal search results, are kept out of the index.

Site structure and internal links

• Every key page is reachable within three clicks of the homepage.
• No page is orphaned: each one is linked from at least one other page.
• Internal links use descriptive anchor text, never “click here”.
• Breadcrumbs show the page’s place in the site and add internal links.
• URLs are short, lowercase and readable, with hyphens between words and no dates.

Page speed and Core Web Vitals

Speed affects rankings at the margin and conversions directly.

• Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds on mobile.
• Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1, with width and height set on every image.
• Images are compressed in modern formats such as WebP, and lazy-loaded below the fold.
• Non-critical JavaScript is deferred, and unused plugins and scripts are removed.
• Fonts are self-hosted where possible, and the main font file is preloaded.
• Pages are cached and served through a CDN.

Rendering and JavaScript

• Important content and links are present in the HTML, or reliably rendered by Google.
• The URL Inspection tool in Search Console shows the rendered page with its content intact.
• Content doesn’t depend on user actions, such as clicks or scrolling, to load.

On-page technical signals

• One H1 per page and a logical H2 and H3 structure.
• Unique title tags and meta descriptions on every page.
• Open Graph and Twitter card tags, so pages look right when shared.
• Valid structured data for your organization, articles, services and FAQs.
• Images have descriptive file names and alt text.

HTTPS, mobile and security

Every URL should load over HTTPS, without mixed-content warnings. Every template should work on a 375-pixel-wide phone screen, with readable text and tap targets at least 24 pixels in size. Keep WordPress, plugins and server software up to date, because a hacked site can lose its rankings overnight.

How to use this checklist

Run through it once to find issues, then fix them in order of impact: indexing problems on important pages first, then speed and structure, then the finer on-page details. Re-check in Search Console after each change.

If you’d rather have experts handle all of this, see our technical SEO services. For a broader review that also covers content and links, our SEO audit checklist is the next step.

Technical SEO checklist for site migrations

Migrations, redesigns and platform changes are where technical SEO mistakes cost the most. Add these checks whenever URLs, templates or hosting change.

• Crawl the old site and export every URL, with its traffic and backlinks, before anything changes.
• Map every old URL to its new equivalent, and redirect with a single 301 to the closest match.
• Keep titles, headings and main content on important pages as close as possible to the originals at launch.
• Test on a staging site that is blocked from search engines, then remove the block at launch.
• Update internal links, canonical tags and the XML sitemap to point to the new URLs.
• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console and, for a domain change, use the Change of Address tool.

After launch, monitor indexing, rankings and 404 errors closely for the first few weeks, and fix missing redirects quickly. A short dip is normal; a lasting drop usually points to a missed redirect, a blocked section or lost content.

Tools for working through the checklist

You don’t need an expensive stack to run these checks. Google Search Console shows indexing, Core Web Vitals and crawl stats from Google’s own perspective. PageSpeed Insights tests speed with real-world and lab data. A crawler such as Screaming Frog finds broken links, redirect chains, duplicate titles and orphan pages, and Chrome’s developer tools help you inspect rendering and network requests. Together they cover nearly everything on this list, and the free versions are enough for most small sites.

FAQs

How often should I run a technical SEO check?

Monitor Search Console weekly for new errors, and run a full technical check at least twice a year, plus before and after any redesign or migration.

Which technical SEO issue should I fix first?

Anything that stops important pages from being crawled or indexed. Those issues block every other improvement from having an effect.

Do I need a developer for technical SEO?

Not for everything. Many fixes can be made in your CMS or an SEO plugin. Template changes, JavaScript rendering and server configuration usually need a developer.