As an SEO professional, having a solid technical SEO checklist is incredibly important. It helps you stay on top of everything that needs to be done to improve your site’s performance and rankings.
But the problem is that a lot of people don’t really know how to build one properly. With all the technical details involved in SEO, it can feel like a lengthy and complicated process.
But don’t worry, as we have made it easier for you.
We have put together a complete guide that walks you through everything step by step. In it, we’ll cover key things that will help you strengthen your technical SEO. Let’s get started!
Core Technical SEO Elements to Audit
Before diving into fixes or optimizations, the first step is knowing what to audit. Technical SEO can cover a wide range of areas, but there are some core elements that every SEO professional should pay attention to. These are:
Crawlability and Indexability
Before your website can rank on Google, two things must happen:
- Google should be able to find your pages (crawling)
- Google should be able to save your pages in its databases (this is called indexing)
If either of these is not happening, your site will not appear in the search results.
Check if Your Website is Indexed.
So, our checklist starts with checking whether your site is being indexed or not. Here is how you can do it:
- Open Google Search Console (GSC), a free tool from Google.
- Go to the “Pages” report and check which pages are indexed and which are not.
If your pages are not indexed, the following might be the reasons:
- Google has crawled your page but has not indexed it yet. This happens when Google looks at your page but decides not to include it in its database, considering it too thin or similar to already existing pages.
- You might have blocked your page by robots.txt, due to which Google might not be able to access it.
- You have put a noindex tag on your page, signalling Google not to index the page.
You can click “Validate Fix” in GSC and ask Google to check your page.
Make Sure You Don’t Have Duplicate Versions of your Site.
In technical SEO, even small oversights can lead to significant issues. For example, many people overlook the importance of proper domain handling and unknowingly allow both the HTTP and HTTPS versions of their site to be accessible. The problem here is that Google may treat these as two separate websites, even though the content is the same. This can lead to a split in your SEO value (link equity), ultimately harming your search rankings over time.
Many people realize too late that if their website is accessible at multiple URLs, it can be a problem because Google may treat each one as a different website.
- http://yourdomain.com
- https://yourdomain.com
- http://www.yourdomain.com
- https://www.yourdomain.com
So, make sure when you are choosing a domain for your website, you just pick the one version and stick with it. Then, set up 301 redirects so that all other versions of your domain automatically point to the one you have chosen.
Check Your Robot.txt File
You give search engine instructions about your website, which pages to crawl and which ones to avoid, with the help of the robots.txt file. But sometimes, while setting this thing up, you might accidentally block important parts of your site, like when you disallow access to your blog by adding this to your robots.txt file. So, in this case, Google might take up the message that it should not look at anything under the /blog/, which could mean your entire blog is not being indexed.
So, you should always take a moment to check your robots.txt file from time to time to make sure you are not blocking anything that you actually want search engines to see.
Clean Up Redirect Chains and Loops
Redirects come in handy when you change URLs. But they are also prone to mistakes. When they are not set up properly, they can slow down your site and waste crawl budget. So during your technical inspection, you need to clean your redirect chains and loops.
Here are two issues that can occur due to the redirection:
- A redirect chain forms when one page redirects to another, and then that one redirects again.
- A redirect loop occurs when a page repeatedly redirects back and forth, preventing it from loading.
Both of these cases can impact your SEO negatively. So, you should regularly keep a check on such issues using tools like Semrush’s site audit to find and fix them.
It is always highly recommended to redirect directly to the final page, as it helps avoid the formation of loops entirely.
Fix Broken Links
Broken links, also known as dead links, are links that go to pages that no longer exist. When someone clicks on them, they land on a 404 error page. They can be both external and internal. Now the fix depends on your situation. If you think the page is still valuable, you can try restoring it. If not, redirect the link to a related page.
Regularly checking your site for broken link issues, especially when your site is bigger, can save you from a lot of frustration and SEO problems. Broken links not only affect technical SEO but also your on-page SEO optimization. Learn how to strengthen that side in our Ultimate Guide to On-Page SEO Optimization.
Fix Server Errors
Sometimes, the problem is not the content or links but the server itself. Server errors prevent your site from loading properly. This means search engines can’t crawl your pages, and users get error messages.
Common server errors include:
- 500 Internal Server Error: A general issue with the server
- 502 Bad Gateway: The server got a bad response from another server
- 503 Service Unavailable: The server is overloaded or down for maintenance
- 504 Gateway Timeout: The server took too long to respond
If your site is throwing these errors often, it’s time to talk to your developer or hosting provider. Tools like GSC or Semrush can help you identify which pages are affected.
Site Speed & Core Web Vitals
Speed is the most important SEO factor. Search engines like Google prioritize fast-loading websites, especially because they want to provide the best user experience in their search results. Speed plays a huge role in rankings and user satisfaction.
So, during a technical SEO audit, Core Web Vitals are your go-to indicators for checking if your site speed is optimal.
Core Web Vitals are a set of specific metrics used by Google to measure the loading performance and user experience of your pages. They directly affect your SEO ranking and user satisfaction. There are three main Core Web Vitals to focus on:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): This tells you how fast the main content of your page loads. You want it to load in under 2.5 seconds.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): This measures how quickly your page reacts when someone clicks or interacts. Ideally, it should be under 200 milliseconds.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): This checks how stable your page is as it loads. You want this score to be under 0.1 to avoid content shifting around.
If your site doesn’t perform well in these Core Web Vitals, it could negatively impact your rankings. You can easily check your Core Web Vitals performance using tools like Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. These tools will help you identify which pages need improvement and give you specific recommendations to optimize them.
Mobile-First Indexing
Search engines primarily look at the mobile version of your site when it comes to ranking and indexing. So, you should always make sure it functions properly on both website displays and smartphones. You can check your site’s mobile friendliness on the Website Grader tool. The tool can provide insights into your mobile experience, highlighting areas where it’s performing well and where it’s falling short.
While working along with the developer to implement the fixes suggested, you should also look at your interstitials once because they play a key role in deciding your UX, especially on mobile devices, where space is limited.
Here are the key things you have to look at:
- They should not be intrusive. For example, some interstitials are pop-ups or large overlays that cover a significant portion of the content. It can make it very difficult for users to access the information on the website.
- You shouldn’t have stand stand-alone interstitial that a user will most likely dismiss before accessing your content.
- Avoid layouts where your main content is hidden by the ad. This usually occurs when you place an ad in the above-the-fold area.
What can be considered as non-problematic interstitials?
By intrusive interstitials, we only mean the ones that can disrupt the user experience. It does not mean you should not employ them at all. Here are the cases where their use does not raise any concern:
- Cookie notices
- Verification dialogs
- Login dialogs
- Small banners
- Exit-intent-pop-ups
- Small pop-ups that appear after a user has been on the page for a certain duration.
Website Structure & Navigation
When it comes to your website’s structure and navigation, the main thing to focus on is making it easy for visitors to use while also helping search engines understand your content.
Website Structure
In this part, you need to check whether your site has an ideal structure that makes your whole website easily accessible by both search engines and users. Now, in an ideal structure, your homepage is at the top. It is then followed by the category pages, then subcategories, and lastly the individual pages. Every page should be accessible within three or four clicks from your homepage. This is how an ideal website structure is supposed to be, as it creates clear paths for both users and search engines to follow.
Interlink Your Pages
When you interlink your pages, it creates paths between the different pages on your site that allow search engines to discover your content and help users find related information easily.
Here is how you need to perform this step:
1. Move past generic linking practices. Look for chances to add contextual links within your content, as they provide users with a pre-context and inform them about where they will go when clicking on the link.
2. Provide links to your most important pages right from the navigation menu.
3. You can also consider creating hub pages, as they are helpful in bringing together all related pages in one place.
4. You can also consider building a “related posts” section.
While interlinking, make sure not to go overboard, as too many links on a page can make it appear spammy.
Use Breadcrumbing
Breadcrumbing also plays a crucial role in helping users and search engines understand your site’s structure in a better way. Breadcrumbs show up at the top of the page. They serve as a secondary navigation system as they show a user’s location within the site’s hierarchy. This allows them to quickly backtrack to higher-level pages. You can use breadcrumbing when your site is large, like in an e-commerce site. You don’t necessarily need this feature.
Fix Orphan Pages
The next step is to find the orphan pages. Since they have no incoming internal links, it’s really hard for search engines and users to discover them. These pages can build up on large sites very easily. You can check if your site has orphan issues. You can check it using a site audit tool and fix it by adding relevant links to them.
Other Technical Requirements
There are other technical practices as well that Google wants you to follow, such as:
Use HTTPS
HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP because it encrypts user communications. This prevents third parties from intercepting or tampering with the data. Overall, HTTPS helps secure your website and offers better privacy to users. That’s why it is considered a positive ranking signal in Google search results. Also, modern browsers have started marketing non-HTTPS sites as “non-secure,” which can dilute users’ trust in your site and can elevate your bounce rate.
So, make sure to implement HTTPS on your site by getting an SSL certificate.
Schema Markup
Though schema markup is not a direct ranking factor, using it is a highly recommended practice because it helps search engines better understand your content. It can lead to richer search results and increased visibility, which can ultimately contribute to better rankings. So, the moral of the story is that while schema markup does not guarantee higher rankings, you should employ it as a smart SEO strategy.
You can use tools like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper or SEO plugins to add relevant schema to important pages such as articles, products, events, and FAQs.
Tools to Use for Technical SEO Audits
Here are the tools that you are going to need for your technical SEO audit:
1. Crawbility & Indexability
Google Search Console: It’s free and offers direct insights from Google, like which pages are indexed and which are excluded.
Screaming Frog: It’s the most used desktop crawler. It shows crawl status, indexability, meta tags, noindex, robots.txt blocks, etc.
2. Canonical URLs & Redirects
Screaming Frog: It can help you detect redirect chains/loops, canonical tag issues, and duplicate URLs.
Ahrefs Site Audit (or) Semrush Site Audit: Both are considered great for larger sites.
3. Robots.txt & Noindex Tags
Google Search Console: It can help you verify if any URLs are accidentally blocked.
Screaming Frog: It flags blocked pages and noindex tags during crawl.
4. Broken Links
Ahrefs Broken Link Checker: It can help you find broken inbound/outbound links.
Semrush Site Audit: It can report all the internal and external broken links.
5. Fix Server Errors
Google Search Console: It flags the server errors like 500/503.
Screaming Frog: It can detect the response codes during crawl.
6. Site Speed & Core Web Vitals
PageSpeed Insights (Google): It is the most reliable tool to check the Core Web Vitals and speed fixes.
Lighthouse (Chrome DevTools): You will need this one for an in-depth performance audit.
GTMetrix: You will need it to check the waterfall breakdown of speed, caching, and requests.
WebPageTest: Used for advanced load testing from multiple regions.
7. Mobile-First Indexing & UX
Google Mobile-Friendly Test: It helps you check if your site is ready for mobile users.
HubSpot’s Website Grader: It can help you spot mobile UX issues that hurt performance.
BrowserStack: You will need this if you want to test how your site looks on real devices and browsers.
8. Website Structure & Navigation
Screaming Frog: It helps you visualize your site’s structure and crawl depth.
Ahrefs/Semrush Site Audit: Both of these are popular for detecting pages buried too deep in your site.
9. Interlinking & Orphan Pages
Internal Link Juicer: It helps you automate internal linking across content.
Ahrefs Internal Link Report: It can help you find pages that need stronger linking.
10. Breadcrumbing
Yoast SEO: It helps you add breadcrumbs easily in WordPress.
RankMath: This one is popular for schema-ready breadcrumb setup.
Screaming Frog: It can help you check breadcrumb consistency across pages.
11. HTTPS
SSL Labs: It helps you test your SSL setup and strength.
Jitbit SSL Checker: You will need this for scanning your whole site for SSL issues.
12. Schema Markup
Google’s Rich Results Test: It helps you validate schema and preview how it might appear in search.
Schema.org Markup Validator: It can help you confirm your structured data is compliant.
Merkle Schema Generator: This one is popular for building schema quickly.
Ready To Implement
That’s the full technical SEO checklist. Now that everything is outlined, it’s time to apply each step and start optimizing your site. If you are uncertain about where to start or unsure about how to find your site issues, our free site audit can get you started! Take advantage of this opportunity to pinpoint exactly what’s holding your site back and prioritize fixes that will have the biggest impact! Call us now!
FAQs
Q1. How often should I perform a technical SEO audit?
A website needs a quarterly technical SEO audit to perform optimally. However, if your website is large with more pages, then it is more prone to technical issues, so you will need more frequent checks, like monthly or bi-monthly.
Q2. Does technical SEO matter if I already have strong backlinks?
Technical audits are essential, even when you have strong backlinks, because they serve as the foundational structure of your site.
Q3. What’s the difference between crawl errors and indexation errors?
Crawl errors prevent Googlebot from discovering and accessing your site’s pages; on the other hand, indexation errors occur when a page is crawled but Google decides not to index it.
Q4. How can I check if my site has duplicate content issues?
There are many ways to find out whether your site has duplicate content issues. Our recent blog post on Canonical Issues in SEO explains it in detail. Take a look
Q5. Can Core Web Vitals really impact rankings in 2025?
Yes, Core Web Vitals measure how good a website feels to visitors. They tell how fast your pages load, how quickly you can click buttons and whether pages shift around while loading. So, if your site scores well on Core Web Vitals, it means visitors have a better experience, and Google is more likely to rank your site higher in search results.
