Technical SEO Checklist 2026: 47 Checks to Audit Your Site

Technical SEO doesn't rank you. It gives you permission to rank. If Google can't reach the page, how good the copy is doesn't matter.

The order below is the order worth checking in: each broken step above makes the one below it pointless.

1. Can Google get in?

robots.txt — check you're not accidentally blocking something important. The most common catastrophe is a Disallow: / left over from staging.

Sitemap — it exists, it's submitted in Search Console, and it contains only canonical, indexable URLs. A sitemap full of redirects and 404s burns crawl budget.

2. Is the right thing indexed?

A canonical on every page, self-referencing where the content is unique. The most frequent problems: a canonical pointing at the homepage across the whole site, or pages 2, 3, 4 of a listing canonicalising to page 1.

No accidental noindex on important pages. It happens at launch and goes unnoticed for months.

www or non-www, trailing slash or not — pick one, 301 the rest.

3. Does it load fast enough?

Core Web Vitals, the thresholds that matter:

• LCP under 2.5s — usually a large unoptimised hero image
• INP under 200ms — usually JavaScript blocking the main thread
• CLS under 0.1 — images without dimensions and fonts that shift layout

4. Does it work on a phone?

Google indexes the mobile version. If mobile hides content that exists on desktop, that content doesn't exist as far as Google is concerned. Check for horizontal scrolling too — it's a sign something overflows.

5. Is it secure?

HTTPS everywhere, no mixed content, HTTP redirected.

What to check monthly, in this order

Not all of it. Three things: the Search Console coverage report (any new errors?), Core Web Vitals (did the last release break something?), and indexed pages versus expected pages.

The rest gets checked at migrations, redesigns and platform changes — which is exactly when it breaks.