Ensure Your Website is Crawlable
Why It Matters: If search engines can’t crawl your site, they can’t index it, and your pages won’t appear in search results.
- Check Robots.txt
- What to Do: Open your website’s robots.txt file by going to yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Verify that critical pages (e.g., your homepage, blog pages, etc.) aren’t disallowed. Ensure only non-essential pages (admin pages, login pages) are blocked.
- How to Check: Use Google Search Console under “Coverage” to see if important pages are being blocked.
- Metric: No critical pages blocked.
- Tool: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog.
- Submit XML Sitemap
- What to Do: Go to Google Search Console → Sitemaps. Submit or verify that your sitemap is listed and that it covers all important pages on your site.
- How to Check: After submitting, check the “Sitemaps” section in Google Search Console for errors or warnings.
- Metric: Sitemap should cover 100% of your indexable pages.
- Tool: Google Search Console.
- Fix Crawl Errors
- What to Do: Open Google Search Console → Coverage. Check for crawl errors like 404 or server errors.
- How to Check: Fix the errors and resubmit those URLs for crawling in Search Console. Screaming Frog can also crawl your site to identify errors.
- Metric: Zero critical crawl errors (404, 500).
- Tool: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog.
Optimize Page Speed for SEO and User Experience
Why It Matters: Page speed is critical for user retention and is a direct ranking factor. Slow load times lead to higher bounce rates.
- Compress Images
- What to Do: Use image compression tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to compress all images on your site.
- How to Check: Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix. Check the “Opportunities” section for suggestions to reduce image sizes.
- Metric: Image file size should be below 100KB where possible.
- Tool: TinyPNG, ImageOptim, Google PageSpeed Insights.
- Minify CSS and JavaScript
- What to Do: Use tools like Minify Code or Autoptimize (for WordPress) to reduce the size of your CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files.
- How to Check: Run Google PageSpeed Insights and check for recommendations to minify resources.
- Metric: Total size of CSS and JS files should be reduced by at least 20%.
- Tool: Google PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, Minify Code.
- Enable Browser Caching
- What to Do: Ensure that your server is set to cache static resources. For WordPress users, use plugins like W3 Total Cache.
- How to Check: Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix. In the diagnostics section, check for “Leverage browser caching” recommendations.
- Metric: Cache expiration set to at least one week for static resources.
- Tool: GTMetrix, Lighthouse.
- Check Core Web Vitals
- What to Do: Run your website through Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to analyze Core Web Vitals.
- How to Check: Look at the “Core Web Vitals” section to monitor your LCP, FID, and CLS scores. Make adjustments based on the tool’s recommendations.
- Metrics:
- LCP: Should be less than 2.5 seconds.
- FID: Should be less than 100 milliseconds.
- CLS: Should be less than 0.1.
- Tool: Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse.
Implement Mobile Optimization
Why It Matters: Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing, so ensuring a mobile-friendly experience is essential for rankings.
- Ensure Responsive Design
- What to Do: Ensure your website uses responsive design that adapts to all screen sizes.
- How to Check: Run Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your pages pass mobile-friendliness standards.
- Metric: Site should pass Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
- Tool: Google Mobile-Friendly Test, BrowserStack.
- Optimize for Mobile Page Speed
- What to Do: Compress images, use lazy loading, and reduce the size of mobile resources.
- How to Check: Use Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile mode. Pay special attention to the mobile performance score.
- Metric: Mobile LCP should be less than 2.5 seconds.
- Tool: Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse.
- Check Tap Targets and Font Sizes
- What to Do: Ensure all clickable elements are easy to tap and font sizes are readable without zooming.
- How to Check: Use Google Search Console → Mobile Usability to identify any issues with small touch targets or unreadable fonts.
- Metric: Tap targets at least 48x48px, font size no smaller than 16px.
- Tool: Google Search Console’s Mobile Usability Report.
Secure Your Website with HTTPS
Why It Matters: HTTPS is a direct ranking factor and critical for user trust. Sites without HTTPS may face penalties and reduced rankings.
- Check SSL Certificate
- What to Do: Visit your website and check for the lock icon in the browser’s address bar.
- How to Check: Use SSL Labs’ SSL Test to ensure your SSL certificate is correctly configured and valid.
- Metric: Browser shows lock icon with no security warnings.
- Tool: SSL Labs SSL Test.
- Fix Mixed Content Issues
- What to Do: Ensure all resources (images, scripts, stylesheets) are served via HTTPS.
- How to Check: Run WhyNoPadlock or check for mixed content warnings in your browser’s developer console.
- Metric: Zero mixed content warnings.
- Tool: WhyNoPadlock, Google Chrome Developer Tools.
Use Structured Data to Enhance Search Visibility
Why It Matters: Structured data helps search engines understand your content better and display rich results (such as product reviews, FAQs) in search results, increasing your click-through rates (CTR).
- Implement Schema Markup
- What to Do: Add structured data (schema markup) for relevant content types like products, articles, reviews, and FAQs.
- How to Check: Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to verify that your structured data is correctly implemented and free of errors.
- Metric: Zero errors in schema markup.
- Tool: Google Structured Data Testing Tool, Schema Markup Validator.
- Monitor Rich Snippets
- What to Do: Check Google search results for your pages to see if rich snippets (such as star ratings, FAQs, or product prices) are appearing.
- How to Check: Regularly monitor Google Search Console‘s Rich Results Report to check if your structured data is generating rich snippets.
- Metric: Percentage of indexed pages showing rich snippets.
- Tool: Google Search Console, manual review of SERPs.
Fix and Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
Why It Matters: Duplicate content confuses search engines and dilutes your rankings. Proper canonicalization helps direct search engines to the preferred version of a page, avoiding issues with duplicate content.
- Use Canonical Tags
- What to Do: Add canonical tags to pages with duplicate or similar content to point search engines to the original version.
- How to Check: Use Google Search Console and Screaming Frog to verify that canonical tags are implemented correctly on duplicate pages.
- Metric: Zero duplicate content issues or missing canonical tags.
- Tool: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog.
- Check for Duplicate Content
- What to Do: Perform regular content audits to find duplicate pages.
- How to Check: Use tools like Siteliner or Copyscape to identify and fix duplicate content across your website.
- Metric: Zero flagged duplicate content issues.
- Tool: Siteliner, Copyscape.
Create SEO-Friendly URL Structures
Why It Matters: Simple, keyword-rich URLs help search engines understand your content better and make it easier for users to remember and share.
- Use Short, Descriptive URLs
- What to Do: Keep your URLs concise, descriptive, and free of unnecessary parameters.
- How to Check: Review all URLs to ensure they are short, readable, and relevant to the content.
- Metric: URL length should be less than 75 characters.
- Tool: Screaming Frog, manual review.
- Avoid Dynamic Parameters
- What to Do: Remove unnecessary dynamic parameters (e.g., session IDs, timestamps) from URLs.
- How to Check: Crawl your site with Screaming Frog to identify URLs with dynamic parameters.
- Metric: Zero URLs with unnecessary dynamic parameters.
- Tool: Screaming Frog.
Fix Broken Links
Why It Matters: Broken links hurt user experience, waste search engine crawl budget, and send negative signals to search engines about site quality.
- Identify and Fix Broken Links
- What to Do: Regularly audit your website for broken internal and external links and fix or remove them.
- How to Check: Use Google Search Console to find crawl errors or run a full site audit with Screaming Frog to locate broken links (404 errors).
- Metric: Zero broken links on your website.
- Tool: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog.
- Implement 301 Redirects for Removed Pages
- What to Do: Set up 301 redirects for any removed or outdated pages to direct users and search engines to relevant, live pages.
- How to Check: Use Screaming Frog to verify that all 301 redirects are working properly.
- Metric: All removed pages have correct 301 redirects.
- Tool: Screaming Frog, Google Search Console.
By following this Technical SEO Checklist, you ensure that your website is optimized for search engine crawlers and users alike. From crawlability to page speed, mobile optimization, security, and structured data, addressing these technical SEO elements will significantly improve your website’s visibility, rankings, and user experience.
Regular audits using tools like Google Search Console and Screaming Frog will help you maintain a technically sound website that meets Google’s evolving standards and provides a better user experience.