Technical SEO Checklist: 20 Things to Check
Technical SEO is the foundation that makes all other SEO efforts possible. If search engines cannot crawl, render, and index your pages properly, no amount of content quality or link building will help. Use this checklist to audit your site's technical health.
Crawling and Indexing
- robots.txt is configured correctly — Ensure you are not accidentally blocking important pages. Generate a clean robots.txt with the Robots.txt Generator.
- XML sitemap exists and is submitted — Your sitemap should list all indexable pages and be submitted in Google Search Console. Create one with the XML Sitemap Generator.
- No orphan pages — Every important page should be reachable through internal links
- Crawl budget is not wasted — Block faceted navigation, session IDs, and internal search results from crawling
- Canonical tags are set — Every page should declare its canonical URL to prevent duplicate content issues
Site Architecture
- Flat URL structure — Important pages should be within 3 clicks of the homepage
- Logical heading hierarchy — Each page needs one H1, followed by H2s and H3s in order. Validate this with the Heading Structure Checker.
- Breadcrumb navigation — Helps users and search engines understand site hierarchy
- Internal linking strategy — Link related pages to distribute authority and establish topic clusters
- 404 page exists — A custom 404 page that guides users back to useful content
Redirects and URLs
- No redirect chains — A redirects to B redirects to C wastes crawl budget. Each redirect should point directly to the final destination.
- 301 redirects for moved pages — Generate proper redirect rules with the Redirect Code Generator.
- No mixed content — All resources (images, scripts, stylesheets) must load over HTTPS
- Trailing slash consistency — Pick either /page/ or /page and enforce it site-wide
International and Multi-Language
- Hreflang tags for multi-language sites — Prevent duplicate content across language versions. Build correct hreflang annotations with the Hreflang Tag Generator.
- Language declared in HTML — Set the
langattribute on your<html>element
Performance and Accessibility
- Page load time under 3 seconds — Compress images, minify code, and leverage browser caching
- Mobile-friendly design — Google uses mobile-first indexing; your mobile experience is your ranking experience
- All images have alt text — Screen readers and search engines both depend on descriptive alt attributes. Audit your images with the Alt Text Checker.
- Core Web Vitals passing — LCP under 2.5s, FID under 100ms, CLS under 0.1
Tip: Run this checklist quarterly. Technical issues creep in with every site update, plugin installation, and content migration. Catching them early prevents traffic loss.
Technical SEO is not glamorous, but it is non-negotiable. A technically sound site gives your content and links the best possible chance of producing rankings. Work through this list methodically, fix issues in priority order, and re-audit regularly.