Technical SEO Audit Checklist
A technical SEO audit ensures your site is accessible, crawlable, and indexable by search engines. Below is a structured checklist, organized by key focus areas. Use it to identify and resolve technical issues affecting organic visibility.
| SEO Area | Checklist Item |
|---|---|
| Crawlability | Confirm 200 OK status for all indexable pages |
| Check robots.txt for unintentional disallow rules | |
| Submit and validate XML sitemap in Google Search Console | |
| Fix orphan pages (ensure everything important is linked internally) | |
| Make sure JavaScript doesn’t block key content or links | |
| Fix broken internal links and crawl errors | |
| Indexability | Ensure important pages are not blocked (robots.txt, noindex, etc.) |
| Use canonical tags correctly and consistently | |
| Remove or redirect duplicate or low-value pages | |
| Compare indexed URLs with intended ones in Search Console | |
| Use the URL Inspection Tool to test specific pages | |
| HTTPS & Security | Enforce HTTPS across the site |
| Redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS using 301 | |
| Fix mixed content warnings | |
| Ensure SSL certificate is valid and not expired | |
| URL Structure & Architecture | Use short, readable, keyword-friendly URLs |
| Avoid dynamic parameters and maintain clean formats | |
| Ensure URLs reflect content hierarchy | |
| Use breadcrumbs to support navigation and indexing | |
| Ensure all key pages are reachable in 3–4 clicks | |
| Page Speed & Core Web Vitals | Keep LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS below 0.1 |
| Compress images and use modern formats (WebP, AVIF) | |
| Defer or remove render-blocking resources | |
| Use browser caching | |
| Serve assets via CDN | |
| Monitor performance in Core Web Vitals & PageSpeed Insights | |
| Mobile Usability | Use responsive design (no separate m. sites) |
| Ensure mobile and desktop content are equivalent | |
| Fix Mobile Usability errors in Search Console | |
| Test using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test | |
| Structured Data | Use JSON-LD markup for appropriate content types |
| Validate schema with Rich Results Test | |
| Monitor Enhancements report in Search Console | |
| Ensure structured data matches visible content | |
| Status Codes & Redirects | Ensure all indexable URLs return 200 OK |
| Fix all 404 and 5xx errors | |
| Use 301 redirects for permanent changes | |
| Avoid redirect chains and loops | |
| Update internal links to point to final URLs | |
| Canonicalization | Use self-referencing canonical tags on indexable pages |
| Ensure canonical tags match sitemap and internal links | |
| Avoid canonicals that block paginated/filter content unintentionally | |
| JavaScript SEO | Test how Google renders key pages using URL Inspection Tool |
| Use server-side or dynamic rendering when needed | |
| Don’t use JS to inject critical metadata or navigation | |
| Crawl Budget | Analyze server logs to monitor crawl frequency |
| Prioritize important content with internal links | |
| Block faceted/low-value pages via robots.txt or parameter rules | |
| Sitemaps & Robots.txt | Submit accurate XML sitemaps to Google Search Console |
| Include only canonical, indexable pages in sitemaps | |
| Ensure robots.txt is accessible and does not block key resources |