Technical SEO Checklist: The Complete Guide

Technical SEO is the foundation of your online visibility. Without a solid technical base, content and link building efforts are largely wasted. This checklist helps you verify all technical aspects.

Crawling and Indexing

Robots.txt

The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages they can crawl.

Location: https://yoursite.com/robots.txt

Basic example:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

Checklist:

• [ ] Robots.txt exists and is accessible
• [ ] Important pages are not blocked
• [ ] Sitemap URL is included
• [ ] Admin/API routes are blocked

XML Sitemap

The sitemap helps search engines find all your pages.

Requirements:

• All important pages included
• No blocked URLs
• Correct lastmod dates
• Maximum 50,000 URLs per sitemap

Example structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-15</lastmod>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/services</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-10</lastmod>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Checklist:

• [ ] Sitemap is submitted to Search Console
• [ ] All important pages are included
• [ ] No 404 or redirect URLs
• [ ] Automatically updated when changes occur

Indexability

Check whether pages can be indexed:

Meta robots tag:

<!-- Allow (default) -->
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

<!-- Block -->
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

X-Robots-Tag header:

X-Robots-Tag: noindex

Checklist:

• [ ] Important pages do not have noindex
• [ ] Duplicate content has canonical or noindex
• [ ] Pagination is correctly configured
• [ ] Filter parameters are handled

Site Architecture

URL Structure

Good URLs:

• Readable for humans
• Descriptive of content
• Consistent in structure
• Lowercase with hyphens

Examples:

✓ /services/webdesign
✓ /blog/seo-tips-for-beginners
✗ /page.php?id=123
✗ /Services/WebDesign

Checklist:

• [ ] URLs are descriptive
• [ ] Consistent structure
• [ ] No uppercase letters
• [ ] No special characters
• [ ] No unnecessary parameters

Site Hierarchy

Ideal depth: Maximum 3 clicks from homepage

Homepage
├── Services (level 1)
│   ├── Web Design (level 2)
│   └── Development (level 2)
├── About Us (level 1)
└── Blog (level 1)
    └── Article (level 2)

Checklist:

• [ ] Logical category structure
• [ ] Maximum 3 levels deep
• [ ] Breadcrumbs implemented
• [ ] Internal links between related content

Internal Linking

Best practices:

• Link from content to related pages
• Use descriptive anchor text
• Ensure important pages receive many internal links
• Avoid orphan pages (pages without internal links)

Checklist:

• [ ] All pages have at least one internal link
• [ ] Anchor text is descriptive
• [ ] Important pages are well linked
• [ ] No broken internal links

Technical Foundation

HTTPS

HTTPS is mandatory for modern websites.

Checklist:

• [ ] SSL certificate installed
• [ ] HTTP redirects to HTTPS
• [ ] No mixed content warnings
• [ ] HSTS header configured

Mobile-Friendliness

Google uses mobile-first indexing.

Checklist:

• [ ] Responsive design
• [ ] Viewport meta tag present
• [ ] Touch targets large enough (48x48px)
• [ ] No horizontal scrolling
• [ ] Text readable without zooming

Viewport tag:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

Page Speed

Speed is a ranking factor.

Targets:

• LCP: < 2.5 seconds
• INP: < 200 milliseconds
• CLS: < 0.1

Checklist:

• [ ] Images optimized
• [ ] CSS and JS minified
• [ ] Caching configured
• [ ] CDN in use
• [ ] Server response time < 200ms

Structured Data

What is Structured Data?

Structured data (Schema.org) helps search engines understand your content.

Benefits:

• Rich snippets in search results
• Better CTR
• Voice search optimization

Important Schema Types

Organization:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Robuust Marketing",
  "url": "https://robuustmarketing.nl",
  "logo": "https://robuustmarketing.nl/logo.png",
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "telephone": "+31-XX-XXXXXXX",
    "contactType": "customer service"
  }
}

LocalBusiness:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Robuust Marketing",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "Street Name 123",
    "addressLocality": "City",
    "postalCode": "1234 AB",
    "addressCountry": "NL"
  }
}

BreadcrumbList:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 1,
      "name": "Home",
      "item": "https://robuustmarketing.nl"
    },
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 2,
      "name": "Services",
      "item": "https://robuustmarketing.nl/services"
    }
  ]
}

Checklist:

• [ ] Organization/LocalBusiness schema
• [ ] Breadcrumb schema
• [ ] Article schema for blog posts
• [ ] FAQ schema where relevant
• [ ] Validate with Google's Rich Results Test

Meta Tags

Title Tag

Best practices:

• 50-60 characters
• Most important keyword at the beginning
• Unique per page
• Brand name at the end

Example:

<title>Web Design The Hague | Professional Websites | Robuust Marketing</title>

Meta Description

Best practices:

• 150-160 characters
• Include call-to-action
• Unique per page
• Include keyword (appears bold)

Example:

<meta name="description" content="Professional web design in The Hague. We build fast, SEO-optimized websites. Request a free quote!">

Canonical Tag

Prevent duplicate content issues:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://yoursite.com/page">

When to use:

• Pages with URL parameters
• Print versions of pages
• Mobile versions (m. subdomain)
• Content syndication

Open Graph Tags

For social media sharing:

<meta property="og:title" content="Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="Description">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/page">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">

Checklist:

• [ ] Unique title per page
• [ ] Unique meta description per page
• [ ] Canonical tags correct
• [ ] Open Graph tags present
• [ ] Twitter Card tags present

International SEO

Hreflang Tags

For multilingual or multi-regional sites:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="nl" href="https://yoursite.nl/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://yoursite.nl/en/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://yoursite.nl/">

Checklist:

• [ ] Hreflang for each language/region
• [ ] X-default for fallback
• [ ] Return links present
• [ ] Consistent implementation

Error Handling

404 Page

Best practices:

• Clear message
• Navigation to important pages
• Search functionality
• Report 404s in Search Console

Redirects

301 Redirect: Permanent move 302 Redirect: Temporary move

Checklist:

• [ ] Old URLs redirect to new ones
• [ ] No redirect chains
• [ ] No redirect loops
• [ ] Monitor and fix 404s

Monitoring and Tools

Google Search Console

Essential reports:

• Performance (impressions, clicks, CTR)
• Coverage (indexing status)
• Core Web Vitals
• Mobile Usability

Technical SEO Tools

Free:

• Google Search Console
• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Screaming Frog (500 URLs free)
• Lighthouse

Paid:

• Ahrefs
• SEMrush
• Sitebulb
• DeepCrawl

Complete Checklist

Crawling & Indexing

• [ ] Robots.txt correctly configured
• [ ] XML Sitemap present and submitted
• [ ] No unintended noindex tags
• [ ] Canonicals correctly set

Site Structure

• [ ] Logical URL structure
• [ ] Maximum 3 click depth
• [ ] Breadcrumbs implemented
• [ ] Good internal linking

Technical Foundation

• [ ] HTTPS active
• [ ] Mobile-friendly
• [ ] Core Web Vitals green
• [ ] Fast server response

Meta Tags & Structured Data

• [ ] Unique titles and descriptions
• [ ] Structured data implemented
• [ ] Open Graph tags present
• [ ] Hreflang (if multilingual)

Monitoring

• [ ] Search Console connected
• [ ] 404s being monitored
• [ ] Core Web Vitals tracking
• [ ] Regular technical audits

Conclusion

Technical SEO is the foundation for all other SEO efforts. Use this checklist to audit your website and resolve issues.

Want a professional technical SEO audit? Contact us.

Related Articles

• Core Web Vitals Explained - Performance metrics in detail
• Website Performance Optimization - Improving speed
• Getting Started with SEO - SEO basics explained