Checklist
Technical SEO checklist
Technical SEO is the foundation everything else sits on. If pages are hard to crawl, slow to render, or ambiguous to parse, even excellent content underperforms. Work through this list top to bottom when auditing any site.
01Crawlability & indexing
- Every important page is reachable through internal links, not just sitemaps.
- robots.txt doesn't accidentally block CSS/JS or key directories.
- No unintended noindex tags on indexable pages.
- One version of each page is canonical; www/apex, trailing slash and HTTP→HTTPS variants redirect consistently.
- XML sitemap exists, is valid, lists only canonical 200-OK URLs, and is referenced in robots.txt.
02Site architecture
- URL structure is readable, stable and describes the page content.
- Navigation depth stays shallow — important pages within a few clicks of the homepage.
- Broken internal links and redirect chains are fixed.
- Pagination and filtered views don't create infinite URL combinations.
03Performance & mobile
- Core Web Vitals pass on real devices, especially on mobile.
- Images are compressed, sized correctly and lazy-loaded below the fold.
- Render-blocking scripts are minimized; fonts load without layout shift.
- The layout has no horizontal overflow at small viewport widths.
04Server & security
- HTTPS is enforced site-wide with a valid certificate.
- Custom 404 page helps users recover.
- HSTS and sane cache headers are configured.