Most websites are losing organic traffic to technical problems they don’t even know exist. Crawl errors, broken internal links, slow page speed, missing schema, duplicate content — each one chips away at your rankings silently. This checklist covers all 47 technical SEO points that Google cares about in 2026, organised by category so you can audit any website systematically and prioritise fixes by impact.
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Crawlability & Indexation (Points 1–10)
Google can only rank pages it can find and index. These 10 checks confirm your site is fully crawlable:
- robots.txt is correctly configured — no critical pages accidentally blocked
- XML sitemap exists and is submitted to Google Search Console
- Sitemap contains only indexable, canonical URLs — no redirects, noindex, or 4xx URLs
- No important pages are blocked by meta noindex
- Canonical tags are self-referencing on all key pages
- No crawl depth exceeds 3 clicks from homepage
- Crawl budget is not being wasted on faceted navigation or session IDs
- Google Search Console shows 0 coverage errors on critical pages
- All pages return correct HTTP status codes — no 4xx or 5xx on important URLs
- Internal search result pages are noindexed
Site Architecture & URL Structure (Points 11–18)
A logical site architecture helps both Google and users navigate your content efficiently.
- URL structure is clean — lowercase, hyphens, no parameters on key pages
- Site hierarchy is flat and logical — categories → subcategories → posts/pages
- All redirects are 301 (permanent) — no chains longer than 2 hops
- No redirect loops exist
- HTTPS is implemented sitewide — HTTP URLs all redirect to HTTPS
- www and non-www resolve to a single canonical version
- Trailing slash is consistent across all URLs
- Old URLs from site migrations have permanent redirects
Page Speed & Core Web Vitals (Points 19–27)
Core Web Vitals are a confirmed Google ranking factor. All three metrics must pass threshold:
| Metric | Good | Needs Work | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | < 2.5s | 2.5–4s | > 4s |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | < 200ms | 200–500ms | > 500ms |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | < 0.1 | 0.1–0.25 | > 0.25 |
- LCP passes Good threshold (<2.5s) on mobile and desktop
- INP passes Good threshold (<200ms)
- CLS passes Good threshold (<0.1)
- Images are served in WebP or AVIF format
- Images have width and height attributes to prevent layout shifts
- Render-blocking CSS/JS is eliminated or deferred
- Server response time (TTFB) is under 600ms
- A CDN is in place for static assets
- Hosting plan is appropriate for traffic volume
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On-Page Technical Elements (Points 28–36)
- Every page has a unique title tag under 60 characters
- Every page has a unique meta description under 155 characters
- There is exactly one H1 per page
- H2–H6 hierarchy is logical — no skipped heading levels
- All images have descriptive alt text
- No duplicate content issues — unique content on every indexable page
- Thin content pages are either improved, consolidated, or noindexed
- No keyword cannibalization — no two pages competing for the same primary keyword
- All outbound links open correctly — no broken external links
Schema Markup & Structured Data (Points 37–42)
- Organisation or LocalBusiness schema is on the homepage
- BreadcrumbList schema is on all inner pages
- Article or BlogPosting schema is on all blog posts
- FAQPage schema is on pages with FAQ sections
- Product schema is on all eCommerce product pages
- All schema is tested in Google’s Rich Results Test with zero errors
Mobile & Internationalisation (Points 43–47)
- Site is mobile-responsive and passes Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
- Viewport meta tag is correctly set
- Font sizes are readable on mobile — no content smaller than 16px body text
- Hreflang tags are correctly implemented for any multilingual or multi-region pages
- No mixed content warnings — all resources load over HTTPS
Run this full checklist using a combination of Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, PageSpeed Insights, and Ahrefs Site Audit for the most complete picture of your technical health.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
Run a full technical SEO audit at least once per quarter, and after any major site changes — migrations, redesigns, CMS upgrades, or new plugin installations. Use Google Search Console’s Coverage report to monitor crawl issues continuously between audits.
What tools do I need for a technical SEO audit?
The essential toolkit includes: Google Search Console (free), Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free up to 500 URLs), Google PageSpeed Insights (free), and either Ahrefs or SEMrush for backlink and keyword data. For enterprise sites, also consider Botify or DeepCrawl.
What is the most important technical SEO factor?
Crawlability and indexation come first — Google can’t rank a page it can’t find. After that, Core Web Vitals (especially LCP and CLS) have direct ranking impact. For most sites, fixing crawl issues and improving page speed will deliver the biggest ranking gains.
How do I fix Core Web Vitals?
LCP is usually fixed by optimising the hero image (compress, preload, serve in WebP). CLS is fixed by adding explicit width/height to images and avoiding dynamic content injection above the fold. INP is improved by deferring JavaScript and reducing main-thread blocking. Use PageSpeed Insights for specific recommendations per page.
What is keyword cannibalization in technical SEO?
Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your site target the same primary keyword, causing Google to split its ranking signals between them. The fix is to identify cannibalizing URLs using Google Search Console, then either consolidate the content, use canonical tags, or differentiate the pages to target distinct keyword variations.
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