A technical SEO checklist is the short list of fixes that let Google crawl, index and read your business website. Below are 15 fixes in the order Google meets your site, each with the free Google report that shows it. You check each one in Search Console, and a developer makes the fix.
What is a technical SEO checklist?
It is the work that happens before content can rank. Titles, headings and alt text come after, in the on-page checks near the end of this page. Here, Google has to crawl a page, render it and index it. Google's JavaScript SEO basics describe those three phases, and a page can fail at any one.
One small business owner quoted in a beambox.com guide put it like this. "I searched my business on Google, and nothing showed up."
Why the crawl and index order of the fixes matters
A page Google cannot crawl cannot be indexed, and a page that is not indexed cannot show up in search. So fix crawl access first, then indexing, then which URL counts, then loading, then structured data.
The order also spares you from staring at 40 flagged items at once. A reviewer of an SEO agency on Trustpilot wrote what most owners want. "I was looking for some basic SEO help to make a new website show up in Google searches."
Crawl fixes that let Google reach your pages
1. Check robots.txt
Robots.txt manages crawler traffic and is not a way to hide a page. Check: Page indexing report for "blocked by robots.txt". Who: developer.
2. Submit an XML sitemap
A sitemap lists the URLs you want crawled. Google ignores priority and changefreq values. Check: Sitemaps report. Who: owner or plugin.
3. Fix server errors
5xx errors make Google slow its crawling, and persistent ones drop URLs. Check: Page indexing report, "Server error (5xx)". Who: hosting company.
4. Link orphan pages
An orphan page has no internal link pointing to it, so Googlebot has no path to follow. Check: Page indexing report, "Discovered - currently not indexed". Who: owner.
Check each technical SEO fix in Search Console instead of a score
A tool's score is an opinion about your site. Search Console shows what Google did:
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The Page indexing report shows which pages Google can find and index, and why others are left out.
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The URL Inspection tool shows the indexed version and the canonical Google picked.
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The Core Web Vitals report shows how real visitors experience your pages.
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A reviewer of a marketing company on Trustpilot wrote this. "While their Hibu dashboard told me my info was nearly 100% accurate, this was in fact NOT the case."
Index fixes that keep the right pages in Google
5. Remove stray noindex tags
Noindex drops a page from results. A forgotten tag after a redesign hides pages. Check: URL Inspection. Who: developer.
6. Read the Page indexing reasons
Not every URL gets indexed, and that is normal. Look at "Crawled - currently not indexed" for pages that matter to your business. Check: Page indexing report. Who: owner.
7. Fix soft 404s and 404s
A page that says "not found" but returns a 200 code is a soft 404. Real 404s are fine for deleted pages. Check: Page indexing report. Who: developer.
Canonical and redirect fixes for one URL per page
8. Pick one site version
Choose http or https, www or not, and a trailing slash style, then redirect the rest. Check: URL Inspection on each version. Who: developer.
9. Set canonical tags
Redirects and rel="canonical" are strong signals of the preferred URL. They are signals, not commands. Check: URL Inspection, Google-selected canonical. Who: developer.
10. Clean up redirects
Permanent redirects such as 301 and 308 signal the new URL. Googlebot follows up to 10 redirect hops, so remove chains. Who: developer.
11. Repair broken internal links
Links to deleted pages send visitors and Googlebot to dead ends. Point each one at a live page or a redirect. Check: a site crawler. Who: owner or developer.
Core Web Vitals thresholds that count as good
Web.dev defines good scores at the 75th percentile of page loads, across mobile and desktop:
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.5 seconds or less.
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Interaction to Next Paint (INP): 200 milliseconds or less.
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Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.1 or less.
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Google says its ranking systems use Core Web Vitals, but good scores are no promise of top rankings.
Rendering and Core Web Vitals fixes that help pages load
12. Check JavaScript rendering
Pages can wait in a render queue, and server-side rendering is still a great idea. Check: URL Inspection live test. Who: developer.
13. Measure with field data
The Core Web Vitals report uses real visitor data, and URLs without enough data are left out. A lab score from PageSpeed Insights is only a test. Who: owner reads, developer fixes.
14. Match mobile and desktop
Google indexes the mobile version, so keep the same content and structured data on both. Check: URL Inspection. Who: developer.
15. Validate structured data
Valid JSON-LD can make a page eligible for rich results. It must match what the page shows. Check: Rich Results Test. Who: developer.
Proof of each technical SEO fix to ask a developer for
You do not need to code. You need proof that each crawl, index and redirect fix happened:
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Your Page indexing report, before and after the work.
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A URL Inspection result for your homepage showing the Google-selected canonical.
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The redirect map after any redesign, old URL to new URL.
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A Core Web Vitals report from field data, not a score from a tool.
Run your technical SEO checklist after a redesign and each quarter
Run it after any redesign, platform move or hosting change, because those are when redirects break and noindex tags slip live. Otherwise, a quarterly look at the Page indexing report is enough for most business websites.
Crawl budget rarely applies. Google's guide is for large sites, and ignores smaller ones whose pages get crawled the day they publish. A site rebuild is where I would start; Spearleaf's web design work builds the redirects in.
On-page SEO checks that follow the technical fixes
Once Google can crawl and index a page, these on-page checks help it understand what the page is about:
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Title tags: one unique title per page, with the service and city near the front. Google's title link guidance explains how it builds titles from your page.
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Headings: one H1 that names the page topic, then H2s and H3s in order, without skipped levels.
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Search intent: read the current results for your target term, and match the page type Google already ranks.
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Internal links: link related pages with descriptive anchor text, and keep key pages a few clicks from the homepage.
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Images: plain alt text that describes the image, compressed files, and set width and height.
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Calls to action: one main action per page, with a tappable phone number on mobile.
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Helpful content: lead with the answer and write for people first, per Google's helpful content guidance.
Get your technical SEO checklist done by the founder
Spearleaf runs SEO for business websites, and I deliver the work myself. If you want these 15 fixes checked and handled, start with the page below.
- Next step: the local SEO checklist.
- Start here: why is no one visiting my website.
- How to read it: schema markup for AI search.