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A technical SEO checklist: what to check first
Before you write more content or buy links, make sure the site itself is not holding you back. These are the checks we run first.
- Indexing: search your site in Google Search Console's Pages report. Are your important pages indexed, and if not, why?
- Stray noindex tags: a single leftover tag in a template can hide whole sections of a site.
- robots.txt: confirm it does not block pages, scripts or styles that you want crawled.
- XML sitemap: it should list your real, indexable pages and be submitted in Search Console.
- Canonical tags: each page should point to the version you want shown, without conflicts.
- Redirects: avoid chains and loops, and use permanent redirects when pages move.
- Mobile speed: check Core Web Vitals on real phones, not only on a fast desktop connection.
- Structured data: add schema that matches what is on the page, and validate it.
- Internal links: important pages should be reachable within a few clicks and linked with clear text.
- Tracking: confirm GA4 and conversion events record correctly before trusting any report.
How to use this list
Work through it in order. Problems near the top, such as pages that cannot be indexed, matter far more than small speed gains lower down. Record where you start, change one thing at a time, and note the date so you can see what each change did.
If you would rather have it done for you, our technical audit covers these checks and more, with every finding ranked by impact.
Free tools: AI crawler checker · llms.txt generator · robots.txt AI rules generator