The Ultimate Technical SEO Checklist for Your Website

Specky Geek

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Technical SEO is the foundation of your website’s search engine visibility. It’s not enough to have great content. You need to make it discoverable.

Disclosure:We receive compensation from companies whose products and services we feature. All links, coupons & recommendations on this website should be treated as paid advertisements.

Technical SEO is an area of search engine optimization (SEO). It involves the process of optimizing a website’s infrastructure (web hosting, code, etc.) to help search engines (such as Google & Bing) crawl, index, and rank it properly. Technical SEO focuses on improving website accessibility and performance, including website loading speed, mobile-friendliness, security, and website architecture to improve user experience and visibility on search engines.

While on-page SEO deals with content and off-page SEO takes care of backlinks, technical SEO ensures that a website meets the technical requirements of modern search engines.

Here’s the ultimate checklist for technical SEO of your website or blog. This checklist will help ensure your site is optimized for search engines and provides the best user experience.

Website Crawling & Indexing

1) Check and Optimize Robots.txt

Ensure that all pages that you want people to find in search are crawlable and the rest (eg: admin panels) are blocked.

  • Add a robots.txt file with appropriate instructions for search engines. (This file is added to the main / root location of your website.)
  • Use tools like Google Search Console and Screaming Frog to check if search engines can easily crawl your website.

Here’s a sample robots.txt file content.

#Instructions for Googlebot
#Do not crawl or index the URLs under /private/
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /not-for-googlebot/

#Instructions for all bots
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

2) Create and Submit XML Sitemap

Make sure that your website has a sitemap, preferably in the XML format. Ensure your XML sitemap includes all important pages and is updated regularly.

Submit your XML sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help search engines discover your content efficiently.

3) Check for Orphan Pages

A web page that cannot be discovered by browsing the website is called an orphan page. It is not reachable from the website homepage, either directly or through sub pages. Ensure all important pages are internally linked to be discoverable by search engines.

4) Use Proper Canonical Tags

Search engines do not want duplicate content on a website. If you have same or similar content accessible on various URLs/pages, you should define the preferred page by adding a canonical meta tag to the duplicate page. Avoid duplicate content issues by using canonical tags to specify the preferred version of a page.

  • Use Canonical Tags: Prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the preferred version of a page.
  • Implement Proper Pagination: Use rel=next/prev tags where applicable.

Website Performance

5) Improve Page Speed

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to analyze the website’s speed and performance.

Some of the ways to improve page speed are:

  • Minimize HTTP requests by restricting the number of CSS, JS and media files
  • Enable website caching and implement browser caching
  • Use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve files from a location closer to the website visitor.

6) Optimize Images

When the Internet was still young, websites focused on keeping image sizes low. It is still important to reduce image sizes for fast loading.

  • Compress images using online image editors or your favourite editing application.
  • Use next-gen image formats such as WebP for faster loading.

7) Minify CSS, JavaScript & HTML

In addition to images, your website performance also depends on the other files loaded to render your website.

  • Keep your HTML, CSS & JavaScript / JS files small by removing unnecessary codes and compressing the files using CSS and JavaScript minification.
  • Remove unnecessary code, whitespace, and comments to improve loading speed.

8) Enable Website Compression

Websites can serve compressed files to reduce the amount of data transferred between the server and the visitor’s web browser, if it supports compression.

To compress your website files to reduce loading time, you can use either of these two popular compression methods.

  • GZIP compression is the most popular method used to reduce file sizes for websites. Most quality hosting services support GZIP compression for websites.
  • Brotoli is another popular compression method. If you use the popular Cloudflare CDN service, you can easily enable Brotoli compression for your websites.

You can enable GZIP compression using appropriate plugins for your content management syste or by adding necessary directives to .htaccess file on Apache web hosting servers.

Simply add the following code to your .htaccess file in the main/root folder on your website server, then save the file:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
         AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
          AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
</IfModule>

Mobile Optimization

9) Ensure Mobile-Friendly Design

  • Responsive Web Design: Ensure your website adapts to all screen sizes. It’s important that your website remain functional on various devices such as smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.
  • Optimize for Mobile Speed: Mobile users have relatively slower Internet speeds while they still expect fast-loading pages. Compress images and use lazy loading to reduce page loading speed on smartphones.
  • Check Mobile Usability Issues: Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Mobile-Friendly Test to identify any problems.
  • Ensure Touch-Friendly Elements: Buttons, links, and menus should be easily clickable on mobile devices.

Website Security

10) Use HTTPS (SSL Certificate) for Safety

Secure your site with an SSL certificate to enhance trust and rankings. You cannot risk safety of your website user’s data. It’s also an important factor in SEO rankings.

  • Enable HTTPS: Secure your website with an SSL certificate to improve trust and rankings.
  • Fix Mixed Content Issues: Ensure all site elements (images, scripts, and styles) load over HTTPS.

11) Safety Against Spam & Malware

Regularly scan your site to detect any unusual files or folders. Keep track of emails being sent by your website. You should keep auditing your website for vulnerabilities. If you are using WordPress as your website platform, you can use security plugins like Wordfence to keep your website safer.

  • Monitor Security Vulnerabilities: Use tools like Sucuri or Wordfence to scan for malware and security threats.
  • Implement HTTP Security Headers: Use security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options for added protection.

Structured Data & Schema Markup

12) Implement Schema Markup

Structured data (in formats such as JSON-LD) and Schema markup help provide additional information to search engines which can then be used to better present your website in search results. You can use Schema markup and structured data for content such as local business information, frequently asked questions, reviews and ratings, recipes, products, book information, and much more.

  • Use structured data (JSON-LD) and Schema markups (RDFa, Microdata and JSON-LD) to help search engines understand your content better.
  • Test using Google’s Rich Results Test tool.

An example Schema markup in the Microdata format added within the page content. 

<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Restaurant">
  <span itemprop="name">The India Palace</span>

  <div itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/AggregateRating">
    <span itemprop="ratingValue">4</span> stars -
    based on <span itemprop="reviewCount">250</span> reviews
  </div>

  <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/PostalAddress">
    <span itemprop="streetAddress">101 Zoo Ave</span>
    <span itemprop="addressLocality">San Diego</span>,
    <span itemprop="addressRegion">CA</span> <span itemprop="postalCode">92101</span>
  </div>
  <span itemprop="telephone">(619) 000-0000</span>
  <a itemprop="url" href="https://www.example.com">www.example.com</a>

  Hours:
  <meta itemprop="openingHours" content="Mo-Sa 11:00-14:30">Mon-Sat 11am - 2:30pm
  <meta itemprop="openingHours" content="Mo-Th 17:00-21:30">Mon-Thu 5pm - 9:30pm
  <meta itemprop="openingHours" content="Fr-Sa 17:00-22:00">Fri-Sat 5pm - 10:00pm

  Categories:
  <span itemprop="servesCuisine">
    Indian
  </span>,
  <span itemprop="servesCuisine">
    Mexican
  </span>

  Price Range: <span itemprop="priceRange">$$</span>
  Takes Reservations: Yes
</div>

Here’s the same Schema information encoded in the JSON-LD format in a HTML script tag, separate from the page content.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Restaurant",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "San Diego",
    "addressRegion": "CA",
    "postalCode": "92101",
    "streetAddress": "101 Zoo Ave"
  },
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4",
    "reviewCount": "250"
  },
  "name": "The India Palace",
  "openingHours": [
    "Mo-Sa 11:00-14:30",
    "Mo-Th 17:00-21:30",
    "Fr-Sa 17:00-22:00"
  ],
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "servesCuisine": [
    "Indian",
    "Mexican"
  ],
  "telephone": "(619) 000-0000",
  "url": "https://www.example.com"
}
</script>

Website Structure & Internal Linking

13) Proper Website Structure

A well-structured website improves user navigation and SEO. Organize your website in easy-to-understand sections for intuitive content discovery and then organize further within the sections.

14) Use SEO-Friendly URLs

  • Use SEO-Friendly URLs: Keep URLs short, descriptive, and keyword-rich.
  • Avoid Dynamic URL Parameters: Static, readable URLs are preferred by search engines.
  • Fix Broken Links (404 Errors): Use tools like Ahrefs or Screaming Frog to find and fix broken links.

15) Optimize Internal Linking & Navigation

  • Optimize Internal Linking: Ensure important pages receive internal links. All important pages should be linked from the homepage.
  • Use Descriptive Anchor Texts: Avoid generic text like “click here” for the links on your website.
  • Fix Redirect Chains: Avoid unnecessary redirects that slow down your site.
  • Implement Breadcrumb Navigation: Helps users and search engines understand site structure.

Fix Technical Errors

16) Broken Links

Don’t let your website have broken links to non-existent webpages, both on your own website and on the Internet. Websites that are linked to from your own website can cease to exist or have their pages deleted. Regularly audit and fix 404 errors using tools like Screaming Frog.

17) Redirect Old URLs

When you delete webpages / URLs on your website, add proper redirections in your web server. Implement 301 redirects for outdated or permanently deleted pages. When a page is deleted or moved temporarily, you should add 302 redirection.

Optimize the Website

18) Core Web Vitals Optimization

  • Improve Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Optimize your website’s loading time for the largest element.
  • Enhance First Input Delay (FID): Minimize JavaScript execution to improve interactivity.
  • Optimize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Ensure elements don’t shift unexpectedly during page load.

19) Optimize JavaScript for SEO

  • Ensure that JavaScript content is crawlable and doesn’t block important elements.
  • Use server-side rendering (SSR) or dynamic rendering where needed.

Monitor & Maintain SEO Health

20) Track SEO Performance

  • Regularly check Google Search Console for indexing issues and crawl errors.
  • Track your site’s SEO performance using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz.

21) Log File Analysis

  • Check URLs With Traffic: Your web server logs will help you discover webpages with traffic. It can help you understand what content is working. When you find unfamiliar URLs or URLs with unknown parameters, you must check for any malicious code activity on your website.
  • Track 404 Error Logs: Error logs can help you identify any possible bad links and security attacks.
  • Detect Errors and Redirect Loops: Log file analysis helps spot technical SEO issues early.
  • Analyze Server Logs: Understand how search engines crawl your site.

Conclusion

Follow this technical SEO checklist to optimize your website SEO and improve user experience. Keep reviewing your site to detect errors and fix them early. Stay updated with the latest developments in the SEO space. With great content and exceptional website performance, you will surely find your website search rankings and traffic growing.

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