Technical SEO Audit Checklist: What to Check on Your Website

Great content won’t rank if search engines struggle to crawl, understand or load your website. A technical SEO audit finds the hidden problems holding your site back. Use this checklist to review your own website — each item is something we check at the start of every SEO campaign.

Crawling and indexing

• Robots.txt exists and doesn’t accidentally block important pages or resources.
• XML sitemap is up to date, lists only real, indexable pages, and is submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Index coverage in Search Console shows no unexpected “excluded” or “not indexed” pages.
• No accidental noindex tags on pages you want to rank.
• Canonical tags point to the preferred version of each page, avoiding duplicate content.

Site structure and URLs

• URLs are short, readable and use words, not ID numbers.
• Every important page is reachable within three clicks from the home page.
• Internal links connect related pages with descriptive anchor text.
• No broken internal links or redirect chains.
• HTTP and www versions redirect to a single secure version of the site.

On-page essentials

• Each page has a unique, descriptive title tag and meta description.
• One clear H1 per page, with logical H2 and H3 headings.
• Images have descriptive alt text and sensible file names.
• Thin or duplicate pages are improved, merged or removed.

Speed and mobile experience

• Core Web Vitals pass on mobile — see our guide to Core Web Vitals explained.
• Images are compressed and served in modern formats such as WebP.
• The site is fully usable on small screens, with readable text and tappable buttons.
• Unused scripts, plugins and tracking codes are removed.

Security and trust

• The whole site runs on HTTPS with a valid certificate.
• Contact details, address and business information are easy to find and consistent everywhere.
• Privacy policy and terms pages are published and linked.

Structured data

• Organisation, breadcrumb and article structured data are added where relevant.
• Local businesses use LocalBusiness markup; online stores use Product markup.
• Structured data is tested and free of errors.

Analytics and tracking

• Google Analytics is installed once, on every page, with key conversions set up.
• Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are verified.
• Reports are reviewed monthly to spot drops in traffic or indexing early.

What to do with the results

Fix indexing issues first — nothing else matters if pages can’t be found. Then tackle speed and mobile issues, followed by on-page improvements and structured data. Once the technical foundation is solid, keyword research and content will deliver far better results.

Our SEO packages include this technical foundation along with keyword research and analytics setup. For local businesses, pair it with our local SEO guide.