The Technical SEO Checklist (2026)

1. Crawlability

Can search engines and AI crawlers reach your pages?

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  robots.txt doesn't block important pages

  Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. A stray "Disallow: /" blocks the whole site. Block only private areas like checkout, account and API paths.

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  An XML sitemap exists and is submitted

  List every page you want indexed at /sitemap.xml, reference it in robots.txt and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

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  Pages return the right status codes

  Live pages return 200, removed pages 404 or 410, moved pages a single 301. Fix redirect chains and loops.

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  No orphan pages

  Every page you want ranked should be linked from at least one other crawlable page, not only from the sitemap.

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  AI crawlers are allowed (if you want AI visibility)

  Check robots.txt rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended match your policy on AI answers.

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  Crawl errors are monitored

  Review the Pages and Crawl stats reports in Search Console monthly for spikes in 404s, 5xx errors or blocked pages.

2. Indexation

Of the pages that can be crawled, are the right ones being indexed?

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  Every indexable page has a self-referencing canonical

  Each page's canonical tag should point to its own preferred URL. Canonicals pointing at the homepage are a common, silent killer.

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  No accidental noindex tags

  Search your templates for noindex. Staging settings often leak into production.

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  One version of the site

  http, https, www and non-www should all resolve to one version through a single 301.

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  Duplicate and thin pages are handled

  Filter, sort and tag pages that add no unique value should be canonicalised, noindexed or consolidated.

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  Indexed page count matches reality

  Compare pages in your sitemap to indexed pages in Search Console. Big gaps point to quality or crawl problems.

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  Unique title and meta description on every page

  Keep titles around 50–60 characters with the main topic first; write descriptions that earn the click.

3. Site architecture and internal linking

Structure tells search engines which pages matter most.

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  Important pages are three clicks or fewer from the homepage

  Flat architecture spreads authority and gets pages crawled more often.

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  Clean, descriptive URLs

  Use short, lowercase, hyphenated URLs that describe the page. Avoid parameters for indexable content.

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  Descriptive internal anchor text

  Link with words that describe the target page, not "click here".

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  Topic clusters link together

  Related articles should link to each other and to one main page for the topic.

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  Breadcrumbs on deep pages

  Breadcrumbs help users and give search engines a clear hierarchy; mark them up with BreadcrumbList schema.

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  No broken internal links

  Crawl the site with a tool like Screaming Frog and fix every internal 404.

4. Core Web Vitals and speed

Google's page experience signals, measured on real users.

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  LCP under 2.5 seconds

  Largest Contentful Paint: compress and correctly size the hero image, preload it, and cut render-blocking CSS and JS.

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  INP under 200 milliseconds

  Interaction to Next Paint replaced FID in 2024. Break up long JavaScript tasks and cut heavy third-party scripts.

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  CLS under 0.1

  Cumulative Layout Shift: set width and height on images and embeds, and reserve space for banners and ads.

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  Judge on field data, not lab scores

  Use the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and CrUX data. A Lighthouse score is a lab estimate, not what users experience.

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  Modern image formats

  Serve WebP or AVIF with responsive sizes and lazy-load images below the fold.

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  Fast server response

  Aim for a Time to First Byte under about 800ms using caching and a CDN.

5. JavaScript and rendering

If content only appears after JavaScript runs, some crawlers never see it.

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  Key content is in the initial HTML

  View the page source (not the inspector). Your headings, body copy and links should be there. Server-side rendering or static generation solves this.

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  Links are real <a href> links

  Crawlers follow href links, not click handlers on divs or buttons.

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  AI crawlers can read the page

  Most AI crawlers don't execute JavaScript. Client-only content is invisible to them.

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  Test with URL Inspection

  Use Search Console's URL Inspection to see the rendered HTML Google gets.

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  Metadata is rendered server-side

  Titles, canonicals and social tags injected late by JavaScript may be ignored.

6. Structured data

Machine-readable context for search engines and AI answers.

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  Organization or WebSite schema on the homepage

  Tell search engines who you are, with your logo and social profiles.

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  Page-type schema

  Article for posts, Product for products, BreadcrumbList for deep pages. Match the schema to what the page actually shows.

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  Schema matches visible content

  Don't mark up prices, reviews or FAQs that users can't see on the page.

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  Validate everything

  Run pages through Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator after every template change.

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  Semantic HTML

  One H1 per page, logical H2/H3 order, lists and tables where content is list- or table-shaped.

7. Measurement

Track outcomes, not audit scores.

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  Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are verified

  They're the only first-party sources for impressions, clicks, indexing and crawl data.

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  Track indexed pages, impressions and clicks per section

  Group pages by type so you can see which templates are gaining or losing.

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  Re-audit after every major release

  Most technical SEO damage ships with site updates. Crawl before and after.

Frequently asked questions