Technical SEO Checklist

Twenty checks you can run with free tools, in the order that stops you fixing a symptom before its cause.

Updated 1 November 20265 min read

Short answer

Work through technical SEO in five stages and 20 checks, in order: can Google reach your pages, can it index them, does it pick the right version, do they load well on a phone, and is everything measured. Start with a site: search and Search Console's URL Inspection tool, both free.

Start with a fifteen-minute triage

Before the full list, do four things. They catch most serious problems.

Search Google for site:yourdomain.com. Your main pages should appear.
In Search Console, paste your home page and your most important service page into the URL Inspection tool. Both should be indexable.
Open both pages on a real phone. Check they load, read well and show the same content as on a computer.
Check Search Console's manual actions report for any message from Google.

If step 1 or 2 fails, jump straight to stage 2 below. Nothing in stages 3 to 5 matters until it is fixed.

Why the order matters

Each stage depends on the one before. A page that Google cannot reach cannot be indexed. A page that is not indexed cannot be chosen. A page that is chosen but slow loses visitors. Fix problems in that order, and re-test after each change.

Stage 1: can Google reach your pages?

#	Check	How to test	A pass looks like
1	robots.txt does not block pages you want found	Open `yourdomain.com/robots.txt` and read it	No rule blocks your service pages, and no blanket block remains from a test site
2	Scripts and styles that the page needs are not blocked	URL Inspection, then view the rendered page	The rendered page looks like the real one
3	Navigation uses real links	View the page without scripts, or inspect the menu	Menu items are `<a>` elements with an `href`, which Google says it needs to discover links
4	No important page is an orphan	Pick five key pages and find the link to each from the home page	Each is reachable by following ordinary links

Stage 2: can Google index them?

#	Check	How to test	A pass looks like
5	Main pages appear in a `site:` search	Search Google for `site:yourdomain.com` and a service name	Your service pages appear
6	URL Inspection reports the page as indexable	Test the live URL	"Page can be indexed" or similar wording
7	No stray noindex tag	Check page source and response headers	No `noindex` on pages you want in search, especially none left over from the test site
8	Status codes are honest	Click an old URL and a made-up URL	Live pages return 200, missing pages show a proper 404 or 410, and no empty page pretends to be fine
9	Indexing reasons are understood	Read Search Console's page indexing report	Excluded pages are excluded on purpose

Do not use robots.txt to hide pages. Google says a blocked URL can still appear in results if other sites link to it, and that noindex or a password is the right tool.

Stage 3: does Google choose the right version?

#	Check	How to test	A pass looks like
10	Only one version of the site is live	Visit the http, https, www and non-www versions	Every variant redirects permanently to one
11	Canonical tags are correct	View source for `rel="canonical"`	Each page points to itself with an absolute URL, unless it is a deliberate duplicate
12	Redirects are permanent and short	Follow an old URL	A 301 or 308 sends it to the right page in one step, with no chains or loops
13	Titles and descriptions are unique	Check the title of each key page	No two key pages share a title
14	Mobile matches desktop	Compare page content and metadata on both	Same main content, titles and structured data, because Google indexes the mobile version
15	Language versions are linked	For multilingual sites, inspect hreflang	Each version lists itself and the others, and each points back; see the hreflang guide

Stage 4: do pages load well on a phone?

#	Check	How to test	A pass looks like
16	Core Web Vitals pass in real-user data	Search Console report, PageSpeed Insights field data	Largest paint at 2.5 seconds or less, interaction delay at 200 milliseconds or less, layout shift at 0.1 or less
17	Images and layout are controlled	Load a page on a slow connection	Image dimensions are set, the top image is not lazy-loaded and nothing jumps
18	HTTPS everywhere, no intrusive pop-ups	Look for padlock warnings and covering overlays	Secure on every page, with nothing blocking content

Our guide to Core Web Vitals explains how to read those numbers and what to fix first.

Stage 5: is it measured?

#	Check	How to test	A pass looks like
19	Structured data is valid and matches the page	Run the Rich Results Test on a key page	No critical errors, and the data describes only what visitors can see; see schema markup
20	Search Console and analytics track what matters	Check both are verified, and that calls and forms are recorded as events	You can tell which visits produced an enquiry

What you can skip

These tasks are popular but rarely worth your time on a small site.

A keywords meta tag. Google does not use it.
A perfect heading order. Google's Starter Guide says heading order does not matter to Google Search.
A sitemap, if the site is small. Google says sites of about 500 pages or fewer with good internal links may not need one, although a new site with few links may benefit.
A 100 score in every speed tool. Google says good Core Web Vitals do not guarantee top rankings, and that chasing perfect scores for SEO alone may not be worthwhile.

After the checklist

Record what failed, who fixes it and the date you will re-check. If the list turns up something you cannot explain, a professional audit is a sensible next step. A first look at the whole site, not just the technical side, is in our website audit checklist, and our SEO service covers what we do when a site needs more than a checklist.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What is included in a technical SEO checklist?

Checks on crawl access, indexing, status codes and redirects, canonical tags, mobile parity, page speed, HTTPS, structured data and tracking. Multilingual sites add hreflang. The order matters, because speed work is wasted on pages Google cannot index.

How often should I run a technical SEO check?

Do the fifteen-minute triage monthly and the full list every quarter. Run it again before and after any redesign, move or platform change, since those are when technical faults are most likely to appear.

Do I need a sitemap?

Google says sites of about 500 pages or fewer with good internal linking may not need one. A sitemap helps more on new sites with few external links, large sites, and sites with lots of images or video.

Does robots.txt keep a page out of Google?

No. Google says robots.txt manages crawling and is not a way to hide pages, because a blocked URL can still appear in results if other sites link to it. Use a noindex directive or password protection instead.

How do I conduct a technical SEO audit?

Follow the five stages in order, record the URL, evidence and fix for each failure, and rank the fixes by how many important pages they affect. Re-test one sample page after each change.

Keep reading

What Is Technical SEO?

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Core Web Vitals Explained

What the three Core Web Vitals measure, the pass marks, how to read your report, which problems to fix first and how much speed really affects rankings.

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