Great content can't rank if search engines can't crawl it, render it, index it and understand it. That's what technical SEO is about. This advanced technical SEO checklist walks through every check in the order we run it on real audits, from the basics that block indexing to the finer points that separate page one from page two.
Work through it top to bottom. Earlier sections fix problems that make later ones irrelevant: there's no point tuning schema on a page Google can't index.
1. Crawlability
Can search engine bots reach every page that matters, and are they kept away from pages that don't?
- robots.txt: open
yourdomain.com/robots.txtand confirm you're not blocking important folders, CSS or JavaScript. Test specific URLs with the robots.txt report in Google Search Console. - Crawl the site: run Screaming Frog, Sitebulb or a similar crawler from the homepage. Note 4xx errors, 5xx errors, redirect chains and pages that take many clicks to reach.
- Click depth: important pages should be reachable within three clicks of the homepage.
- Orphan pages: find pages with no internal links (see how to find and fix orphan pages).
- Crawl budget: on large sites, check Search Console's Crawl stats. If Googlebot spends most of its time on parameters, filters or duplicates, fix that first (see crawl budget optimization and faceted navigation SEO).
- Server logs: for sites with more than a few thousand URLs, log files show exactly what Googlebot crawls and how often (see our log file analysis guide).
2. Indexability
Of the pages Google can crawl, are the right ones being indexed?
- Pages report in Search Console: review every reason under “Why pages aren't indexed”. Pay special attention to “Crawled – currently not indexed”, “Discovered – currently not indexed” and “Duplicate without user-selected canonical”.
- Stray noindex tags: make sure no important page carries
noindexin a meta robots tag or anX-Robots-TagHTTP header. This often happens when a staging setting is pushed live. - Canonical tags: every indexable page should have a self-referencing canonical, and duplicates should point to the preferred version. Check that canonicals aren't pointing to redirected, noindexed or 404 URLs (see canonical tags explained).
- XML sitemap: it should contain only 200-status, indexable, canonical URLs, be submitted in Search Console and update automatically when content is published (see our XML sitemaps guide).
- URL Inspection: spot-check your top templates (home, category, product or service, blog post) with the URL Inspection tool and compare the Google-selected canonical with yours.
If important pages aren't indexed at all, start with why your site isn't being indexed.
3. Site Architecture and Internal Linking
- Use a logical hierarchy: homepage → categories or hubs → sub-categories → individual pages.
- Keep URLs short, lowercase, hyphen-separated and descriptive.
- Link related content with descriptive anchor text, not “click here”.
- Add breadcrumbs and mark them up with BreadcrumbList schema.
- Fix broken internal links and update links that point to redirected URLs.
- Group content into topic clusters so each hub page links to every supporting article and back.
4. Redirects and Status Codes
- Use 301 for permanent moves and 302 only for genuinely temporary ones (see 301 vs 302 redirects).
- Remove redirect chains: every redirect should go directly to its final destination in one hop.
- Fix redirect loops immediately.
- Make sure deleted pages return 404 or 410, not a 200 “page not found” (a soft 404).
- Force a single version of the site: HTTPS, and either www or non-www, with the other versions 301-redirecting.
5. Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Google's Core Web Vitals measure real-user experience. Check them in Search Console's Core Web Vitals report and PageSpeed Insights, focusing on field data (real users) rather than lab scores. The current thresholds for a “good” experience are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.5 seconds or less.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): 200 milliseconds or less. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.1 or less.
Common fixes: compress and resize images and serve them as WebP or AVIF, lazy-load below-the-fold images (but never the LCP image), preload the main hero image and fonts, reduce unused JavaScript, defer third-party scripts, use a CDN and set explicit width and height on images and embeds. More detail in Core Web Vitals explained.
6. Mobile-First Readiness
Google indexes the mobile version of your site, so the mobile page is the page that ranks.
- Check that mobile pages contain the same main content, headings, internal links, structured data and meta tags as desktop.
- Make sure text is readable without zooming and tap targets aren't crowded.
- Don't hide important content behind interactions that require a click to load.
- Avoid intrusive pop-ups that cover content on arrival.
See mobile-first indexing explained.
7. JavaScript Rendering
- Use URL Inspection → “View crawled page” to compare Google's rendered HTML with what users see.
- Make sure key content and links are present in the rendered HTML, and ideally in the initial HTML via server-side rendering or static generation.
- Use real
<a href>links for navigation, not click handlers on buttons or divs. - Don't block JavaScript or CSS files that are needed to render the page.
8. Structured Data
- Add schema that matches your content: Organization, WebSite, BreadcrumbList, Article or BlogPosting, Product, LocalBusiness, FAQPage where relevant.
- Validate with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator.
- Check the Enhancements section of Search Console for errors and warnings.
- Only mark up content that is actually visible on the page.
Structured data also helps AI search systems understand entities on your site. See structured data and schema markup.
9. On-Page Technical Elements
- Every indexable page has a unique title tag (roughly 50–60 characters) and a unique meta description (roughly 150–160 characters).
- One clear H1 per page, followed by a logical H2/H3 structure.
- Descriptive alt text on meaningful images.
- No duplicate or near-duplicate pages competing for the same query.
- Open Graph tags with a page-specific image, plus
max-image-preview:largein the robots meta tag if you want large images in Google Discover.
10. International and Multi-Language Setup (If Relevant)
- Use hreflang tags for each language or regional version, with return links on every version.
- Include an x-default for your fallback page.
- Don't automatically redirect users by IP in a way that stops Googlebot from seeing every version.
11. Security and Site Health
- HTTPS everywhere, with a valid certificate and no mixed-content warnings.
- Check Search Console's Security Issues and Manual Actions reports.
- Monitor uptime. Frequent 5xx errors slow down crawling.
12. Monitoring After the Audit
A technical audit is a snapshot. Keep the site healthy by:
- Reviewing the Search Console Pages, Crawl stats and Core Web Vitals reports monthly.
- Running a full crawl every quarter and after every release, redesign or migration.
- Tracking indexed-page counts and organic impressions per template, so problems show up early.
Tools for Running This Checklist
- Free: Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, Rich Results Test, Schema Markup Validator, Screaming Frog (up to 500 URLs).
- Paid: Screaming Frog licence, Sitebulb, Ahrefs Site Audit, Semrush Site Audit.
For more options, see our roundups of free SEO audit tools and AI technical SEO audit tools. If you'd rather have the audit done for you, our walkthrough on how to do a technical SEO audit explains what a professional audit should include.
