Technical SEO Audit Checklist
Technical SEO forms the foundation of your website's search visibility. Without proper technical optimization, even the best content won't rank. This checklist covers every technical factor you need to audit.
Why Technical SEO Matters
Technical SEO ensures search engines can:
- Crawl your pages (access your content)
- Index your pages (store in their database)
- Render your pages (understand JavaScript content)
- Rank your pages (evaluate quality)
Issues in any of these areas can prevent your pages from ranking, regardless of content quality.
Crawlability Checklist
Robots.txt
- File exists at /robots.txt
- Important pages not blocked
- Sitemap location specified
- No conflicting directives
- Test with Google's robots.txt tester
Example robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /api/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
XML Sitemap
- Sitemap exists and is accessible
- Submitted to Google Search Console
- Contains only canonical URLs
- No 404 or redirect URLs included
- Updated when content changes
- Under 50MB / 50,000 URLs per file
- Uses sitemap index if needed
Crawl Budget (for large sites)
- No infinite crawl traps
- Parameter handling configured
- Faceted navigation controlled
- Duplicate pages consolidated
- Low-value pages blocked
Indexation Checklist
Index Status
- Key pages appear in Google (site:domain.com)
- No unexpected pages indexed
- Index count reasonable vs. actual pages
- Coverage report shows valid pages
Meta Robots Tags
- Important pages are indexable
- Noindex on pages that shouldn't rank
- No conflicting directives
- X-Robots-Tag headers correct
Canonical Tags
- All pages have canonical tags
- Canonicals point to correct URLs
- Self-referencing canonicals on unique pages
- No canonical chains
- HTTPS versions canonicalized
Duplicate Content
- No significant duplicate pages
- Print/mobile versions handled
- Pagination properly implemented
- Parameter URLs not creating duplicates
Site Architecture Checklist
URL Structure
- URLs are clean and readable
- Consistent URL format
- Lowercase only
- Hyphens instead of underscores
- No unnecessary parameters
- Logical hierarchy
Internal Linking
- All pages accessible within 3 clicks
- Logical navigation structure
- Important pages have more internal links
- No orphan pages
- Breadcrumbs implemented
Redirects
- No redirect chains (A→B→C)
- No redirect loops
- 301 redirects for permanent moves
- 302 redirects only for temporary
- Redirect file not too large
Broken Links
- No internal 404s
- No broken external links
- Soft 404s identified and fixed
- Error pages return proper status codes
Page Speed Checklist
Core Web Vitals
- LCP < 2.5 seconds
- INP < 200ms
- CLS < 0.1
- Passing on both mobile and desktop
Loading Performance
- TTFB < 200ms
- First Contentful Paint < 1.8s
- Total page size reasonable
- Minimal render-blocking resources
Optimization
- Images compressed and sized
- CSS/JS minified
- Compression enabled (Gzip/Brotli)
- Browser caching configured
- CDN in use
Mobile Checklist
Mobile-Friendliness
- Responsive design implemented
- Viewport meta tag present
- Touch targets properly sized (48px+)
- No horizontal scrolling
- Readable text without zooming
Mobile Parity
- Same content on mobile and desktop
- Same structured data
- Same meta tags
- Images accessible on mobile
Security Checklist
HTTPS
- Entire site on HTTPS
- Valid SSL certificate
- Certificate not expiring soon
- HTTP redirects to HTTPS
- HSTS header implemented
Mixed Content
- No HTTP resources on HTTPS pages
- All images served via HTTPS
- All scripts served via HTTPS
Security Headers
- Content-Security-Policy
- X-Content-Type-Options
- X-Frame-Options
- Referrer-Policy
Structured Data Checklist
Implementation
- Appropriate schema types used
- JSON-LD format (preferred)
- Valid syntax (test with validator)
- No errors in Search Console
Common Types
- Organization schema on homepage
- Article schema on blog posts
- FAQ schema where relevant
- Breadcrumb schema
- Product schema (e-commerce)
International SEO Checklist
Hreflang (if applicable)
- Hreflang tags on all language versions
- Return links implemented
- x-default specified
- No hreflang errors in Search Console
Geo-Targeting
- Country targeting set in Search Console
- ccTLD or subdirectory/subdomain structure
- Content localized (not just translated)
Audit Tools
Free Tools
- Auditora: Comprehensive technical audit
- Google Search Console: Official Google data
- Screaming Frog (free for <500 URLs)
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Speed testing
Paid Tools
- Screaming Frog (unlimited)
- Sitebulb
- DeepCrawl
- Ahrefs Site Audit
Audit Process
Step 1: Crawl Your Site
Run a full crawl to identify:
- Broken links
- Redirect issues
- Duplicate content
- Missing meta data
Step 2: Check Search Console
Review:
- Coverage report
- Core Web Vitals
- Mobile usability
- Indexation issues
Step 3: Test Key Pages
Manually check:
- Homepage
- Category/landing pages
- High-traffic pages
- Recent content
Step 4: Prioritize Issues
Rank by impact:
- Critical: Blocking indexation
- High: Significantly hurting rankings
- Medium: Moderate impact
- Low: Minor optimizations
Step 5: Create Action Plan
Document:
- Issue description
- Affected pages
- Fix required
- Priority level
- Owner
Conclusion
Technical SEO is the foundation that supports all your other SEO efforts. Use this checklist to audit your site regularly and catch issues before they impact your rankings.
Schedule quarterly comprehensive audits, with monthly checks on critical factors like indexation and Core Web Vitals.