A Technical SEO Checklist for Business Websites
Ten checks that remove the most common technical barriers to ranking, from indexation to page speed.
Before investing in content or links, make sure search engines can reach, understand and trust your site. Use this checklist as a starting point for your own audit.
1. Confirm your pages are indexable
Check Google Search Console’s page indexing report. Pages you want ranking should be indexed, and pages that should not appear (internal search, thank-you pages) should carry a noindex tag.
2. Check robots.txt and your XML sitemap
Your robots.txt should not block important sections, and your sitemap should list only canonical, indexable URLs that return a 200 status.
3. Use one clear URL per page
Set canonical tags, choose one version of your domain (with or without www, HTTPS only) and redirect the others with a 301.
4. Fix broken links and redirect chains
Crawl your site and remove links that return 404 errors. Replace chains of redirects with a single redirect to the final URL.
5. Improve page speed
Compress images, serve modern formats such as WebP, remove unused scripts and test Core Web Vitals on mobile.
6. Make the site mobile-friendly
Text should be readable without zooming, buttons easy to tap and content identical to the desktop version.
7. Structure headings logically
Each page needs one H1 describing the topic, with H2 and H3 headings that outline the content.
8. Add structured data where it applies
Organization, Article, Service and FAQ markup help search engines understand your content. Only mark up what is visible on the page.
9. Strengthen internal linking
Link from high-traffic pages to the pages you want to rank, using descriptive anchor text.
10. Monitor regularly
Technical SEO is not a one-time task. Review Search Console errors and crawl your site every month.
Part of the SmacPage team, writing about websites, SEO and digital marketing.
