Technical SEO Checklist for Modern Websites

Technical SEO forms the foundation of search visibility. Use this checklist to ensure your website is optimized for search engines.

Crawlability & Indexing

Robots.txt

• [ ] robots.txt exists at root
• [ ] Critical pages are not blocked
• [ ] Sitemap is referenced
• [ ] Development/staging pages blocked

XML Sitemap

• [ ] Sitemap includes all important pages
• [ ] No 404s or redirects in sitemap
• [ ] Sitemap is under 50MB / 50,000 URLs
• [ ] Submitted to Search Console

Meta Robots

• [ ] Important pages are indexable
• [ ] Duplicate content has canonical tags
• [ ] Pagination uses rel="prev/next" or canonical

On-Page SEO

Title Tags

• [ ] Unique title for each page
• [ ] Under 60 characters
• [ ] Primary keyword included
• [ ] Brand name at end

Meta Descriptions

• [ ] Unique description per page
• [ ] 150-160 characters
• [ ] Includes call to action
• [ ] Primary keyword included

Headings

• [ ] One H1 per page
• [ ] Logical heading hierarchy
• [ ] Keywords in headings (naturally)

Structured Data

Implement JSON-LD for relevant content types:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Cloud Crafters",
  "url": "https://cloudcrafters.dev",
  "logo": "https://cloudcrafters.dev/logo.png"
}

Types to consider: - Organization - LocalBusiness - Article / BlogPosting - Product - FAQ - BreadcrumbList

Performance

Core Web Vitals

• [ ] LCP under 2.5s
• [ ] INP under 200ms
• [ ] CLS under 0.1

Technical Performance

• [ ] Images are optimized and lazy loaded
• [ ] CSS and JS are minified
• [ ] Proper caching headers
• [ ] CDN implemented

Mobile Optimization

• [ ] Mobile-responsive design
• [ ] Touch targets at least 48x48px
• [ ] No horizontal scrolling
• [ ] Fonts are readable (16px minimum)

Security

• [ ] HTTPS enabled
• [ ] HSTS header set
• [ ] No mixed content
• [ ] Security headers implemented

International SEO (if applicable)

• [ ] hreflang tags implemented
• [ ] Language-specific URLs
• [ ] Content properly localized

Monitoring

Set up ongoing monitoring:

1. Google Search Console
2. Bing Webmaster Tools
3. Core Web Vitals monitoring
4. Crawl error alerts

Conclusion

Technical SEO is not a one-time task. Review this checklist quarterly to maintain your search visibility and catch issues early.