By SitemapFixer Team
Updated October 2026

Technical SEO Checklist: 28 Checks With How to Test Each

Short answer: technical SEO makes sure Google can crawl, render and index the pages you care about. Start with Google’s three basic requirements: Googlebot isn’t blocked, the page returns HTTP 200, and it has indexable content. Then check redirects, canonicals, duplicate URL variants, your XML sitemap, JavaScript rendering, mobile parity, Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, structured data and, for international sites, hreflang. Each check below says how to test it.

Three tests that catch most problems

# 1. status, redirects and robots header for one URL
curl -sI https://example.com/page | grep -iE '^(HTTP|location|x-robots-tag)'

# 2. robots meta tag and canonical in the HTML
curl -s https://example.com/page | grep -ioE '<meta[^>]+robots[^>]+>|<link[^>]+canonical[^>]+>'

# 3. what robots.txt says
curl -s https://example.com/robots.txt

For the rendered view Google sees, use URL Inspection → Test live URL in Search Console.

Crawling

  1. robots.txt blocks only what it should
    Read /robots.txt; a stray "Disallow: /" left from staging blocks everything. Check Settings → robots.txt in Search Console. · Guide
  2. CSS, JavaScript and images that pages need are not blocked
    URL Inspection → Test live URL → View tested page → screenshot and page resources.
  3. Internal links are real <a href> links
    Google only discovers links that are <a> elements with an href. Disable JavaScript and click through menus, filters and pagination.
  4. No orphan pages
    Compare URLs in your sitemap with URLs a crawler reaches from the homepage. · Guide
  5. Important pages are a few clicks from the homepage
    Crawler click-depth report.
  6. Crawl budget (large sites only)
    Relevant mainly with ~1M+ pages, or 10,000+ pages changing daily. Watch Settings → Crawl stats and “Discovered - currently not indexed”. · Guide

Status codes and redirects

  1. Important pages return 200
    Crawl and filter for 3xx, 4xx and 5xx; recheck after deploys.
  2. Permanent moves use 301 or 308, in one hop
    No chains (A → B → C) and no loops. Internal links point to the final URL. · Guide
  3. Removed pages return a real 404 or 410
    Not a "not found" message with status 200 (a soft 404). · Guide
  4. One host and protocol
    http and the other www/non-www variant 301 to your main https host. · Guide
  5. No server errors under load
    Search Console → Pages → Server error (5xx); Crawl stats host status.

Indexing

  1. No accidental noindex
    Check both the robots meta tag and the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header on key templates. · Guide
  2. Each page has the right canonical
    Self-referencing, or pointing to the main version. URL Inspection shows the Google-selected canonical.
  3. Duplicate URL variants are controlled
    Parameters, trailing slashes, uppercase and print versions either redirect or canonicalize to one URL. · Guide
  4. Filter and sort URLs are kept out of the index
    noindex or robots.txt for filtered/sorted variants; pagination stays indexable. · Guide
  5. Paginated lists use unique URLs and self-canonicals
    Each page (?page=2) has its own URL and canonical, not one pointing to page 1; Google no longer uses rel=next/prev. · Guide
  6. Page indexing report is reviewed
    Search Console → Pages: read every “Why pages aren’t indexed” reason that affects pages you want indexed. · Guide

Sitemaps

  1. XML sitemap lists only live, indexable, canonical URLs
    No redirects, 404s, noindexed or non-canonical URLs. · Guide
  2. Sitemap is submitted and referenced in robots.txt
    Search Console → Sitemaps shows "Success"; robots.txt has a Sitemap: line.
  3. lastmod reflects real content changes
    Don’t set every URL to today’s date on each build. · Guide

Rendering and mobile

  1. Main content is in the rendered HTML
    URL Inspection → View crawled page → HTML. Google suggests server-side or pre-rendering is still a great idea. · Guide
  2. Client-side routes use the History API, not #fragments
    Each view needs its own URL.
  3. Mobile and desktop have the same content
    Google indexes the mobile version: same text, structured data and robots meta tags.
  4. Primary content isn’t lazy-loaded on interaction
    Content that appears only after a click or scroll may not be seen.

Speed, security and extras

  1. Core Web Vitals pass for most real visits
    LCP ≤ 2.5 s, INP ≤ 200 ms, CLS ≤ 0.1 at the 75th percentile. Search Console → Core Web Vitals. · Guide
  2. HTTPS everywhere, no mixed content
    Browser console warnings; crawl for http:// resources. · Guide
  3. Structured data is valid and matches the page
    Rich Results Test; Search Console Enhancements reports. · Guide
  4. hreflang is complete (international sites)
    Each version lists itself and every other version, with return links; add x-default; codes like en-GB (ISO 639-1 + ISO 3166-1).

What to fix first

  1. Anything that blocks or deindexes important pages: robots.txt blocks, noindex, 5xx errors, wrong canonicals.
  2. Template-level problems that affect many pages at once: JavaScript-only content or links, duplicate URL variants, filter pages in the index.
  3. Redirect chains, broken internal links and a sitemap full of non-indexable URLs.
  4. Speed, structured data and other improvements.

The free sitemap checker covers parts of checks 1, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 18 automatically on 30 URLs from your sitemap: robots.txt blocks, HTTP status, redirects, noindex (meta tag and X-Robots-Tag) and canonical mismatches. For the content side of an audit, see the SEO audit checklist.

Frequently asked questions

What is included in technical SEO?

Everything that lets search engines crawl, render and index your pages correctly: robots.txt, status codes, redirects, canonical tags, sitemaps, internal linking structure, JavaScript rendering, mobile parity, page speed, HTTPS, structured data and, for international sites, hreflang.

What is the most important technical SEO check?

Whether the pages you care about are indexed. Google lists three requirements: Googlebot isn’t blocked, the page returns HTTP 200, and it has indexable content. Search Console’s Page indexing report shows where that fails.

Do small sites need to worry about crawl budget?

Usually not. Google’s crawl budget guide is aimed at sites with about a million pages, or 10,000+ pages that change daily. For most sites, a current sitemap and a regular look at the Page indexing report is enough.

How often should I run a technical SEO check?

A full pass a few times a year, and a quick check after every redesign, migration, CMS update or change to robots.txt, redirects or templates.

Is technical SEO enough to rank?

No. It removes barriers, but rankings still depend on content that answers the search better than other pages, and on the site’s reputation.

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