Technical SEO is the foundation that lets search engines crawl, render and index your website. Get it right and every other SEO effort works harder. Here is a practical checklist you can work through.
Crawlability and indexing
1. Check your robots.txt
Make sure you are not blocking important pages or resources that search engines need to render your site.
2. Fix broken links and redirect chains
Broken links waste crawl budget and hurt user experience. Replace or redirect them to the right destination.
3. Submit a clean XML sitemap
List only your indexable, canonical pages and submit the sitemap in Google Search Console.
4. Set canonical tags correctly
Canonicals tell search engines which version of a page to index and prevent duplicate content issues.
Site speed and Core Web Vitals
5. Optimize and lazy load images
Compress images, serve modern formats and lazy load anything below the fold.
6. Reduce render blocking code
Minify and defer non critical CSS and JavaScript so pages paint faster.
7. Enable caching and a CDN
Caching and a content delivery network cut load times for repeat and distant visitors.
8. Improve Core Web Vitals
Track Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift, then fix the biggest offenders.
Mobile and structure
9. Confirm mobile friendliness
With mobile first indexing, your mobile version is what Google evaluates. Make sure it is fully responsive.
10. Use a logical site architecture
A clear hierarchy and SEO friendly URLs spread authority to your most important pages.
11. Add structured data
Schema markup can earn rich results and helps AI answer engines understand your content.
12. Fix duplicate and thin content
Consolidate or improve pages that add little value so your best content stands out.
Key takeaway
Work through this checklist regularly. A fast, crawlable, well structured website gives your content the best possible chance to rank.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
A full audit every quarter works for most sites, with quick checks after any major change to the website.
Do Core Web Vitals really affect rankings?
Yes. They are part of Google page experience signals and, just as importantly, they affect conversions.