Article

The Complete Technical SEO Checklist

Technical SEO makes sure search engines can crawl, render, index and trust your site. Without it, even great content struggles to rank. Work through this checklist — it’s the foundation everything else builds on.

Key takeaways

  • If search engines can’t crawl and index you, nothing else matters.
  • Speed and mobile-friendliness are ranking factors.
  • Structured data earns rich results and helps AI understand your pages.
  • Clean structure and internal links direct ranking power to key pages.

Crawling & indexing

  • XML sitemap submitted to Google and Bing
  • robots.txt correct — nothing important blocked
  • Canonical tags on every page
  • No accidental noindex on key pages
  • Fix crawl errors in Search Console

Speed & rendering

  • Pass Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS)
  • Server-rendered, fast HTML
  • Optimised images and caching
  • No render-blocking scripts

Structure & data

  • Logical URL structure and internal links
  • Structured data (schema) for rich results
  • One clear H1 and proper heading hierarchy per page
  • Breadcrumbs with schema

Mobile & security

  • Mobile-first, responsive design
  • HTTPS everywhere and security headers
  • No intrusive interstitials on mobile

Frequently asked questions

What is the most important technical SEO factor?
Making sure your important pages can be crawled and indexed, and that the site is fast on mobile.
Can you do technical SEO for me?
Yes — it’s part of our SEO services and website audit.

Related reading & services

Want this handled for you?

We deliver all of this remotely — get a quote or start with a free audit.

Get a Quote Free Audit

← All articles