Technical SEO Checklist: Boost Your Site's Performance
Published on February 26, 2025
Technical SEO can seem difficult, especially if you're not experienced with coding. However, having a solid technical SEO checklist can significantly improve your site. This is important for both search engines and creating an amazing experience for your website users.
I've optimized websites for years. I can tell you that good technical SEO makes a difference. Let's go over the important items for a technical SEO checklist to improve your search engine rankings.
Table of Contents:
- 1. Optimize Your Site's Loading Speed
- 2. Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly
- 3. Implement a Secure Connection (HTTPS)
- 4. Optimize Your Site Structure
- 5. Create and Optimize Your XML Sitemap
- 6. Optimize Your Robots.txt File
- 7. Implement Schema Markup
- 8. Optimize for Core Web Vitals
- 9. Fix Broken Links and Redirect Errors
- 10. Optimize for International SEO (If Applicable)
- FAQs about technical seo checklist
- Conclusion
1. Optimize Your Site's Loading Speed
Speed is very important today. Website users expect websites to load fast, and search engines like Google reward fast websites. Page speed has been a mobile ranking factor since 2018 .
Here's how to improve your website's performance:
Compress and Optimize Images
Large images can slow down pages. Use tools like TinyPNG to make your images smaller without losing much quality. Your site load speed will improve because of it.
Minimize HTTP Requests
Each part of your page needs an HTTP request. More requests mean the page takes longer to load. Reduce requests by combining files and using CSS sprites.
Leverage Browser Caching
Set up browser caching to store data on visitors' devices. Returning visitors don't have to reload the entire page.
This gives returning visitors quicker access to your content.
2. Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly
With 58% of online traffic from mobile devices , your site must be mobile-friendly. Google started using mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in 2015 .
Use Responsive Design
A responsive design changes to fit any screen size. This works well for phones, tablets, and computers.
Test Your Mobile Usability
Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to see your site's mobile performance. You'll quickly see any problems.
3. Implement a Secure Connection (HTTPS)
Security is important for protection and ranking. Google made HTTPS a ranking signal in 2014 .
If your site uses HTTP, switch to HTTPS.
Install an SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate encrypts data between your site and visitors. This builds user trust. An SSL certificate keeps important information safe.
Update Internal Links
After you change to HTTPS, update your internal links. Make sure the links point to the HTTPS versions. Using old HTTP links creates problems.
4. Optimize Your Site Structure
A good site structure helps search engines and users. It is similar to creating a good map for your website. A clear site structure creates a better user experience.
Use a Logical URL Structure
Research shows shorter URLs often rank better . Keep your URLs simple and organized. For example: `www.yoursite.com/category/subcategory/page-name`
Implement Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs show the page's place in your site structure. This is beneficial for both users and search engines. Breadcrumbs also improve the look of your site in search results.
5. Create and Optimize Your XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap helps search engines understand your site. An XML Sitemap lists all of the pages of your website.
It helps them find and understand your pages.
Generate a Comprehensive Sitemap
Include important pages, but keep it under 50,000 URLs and 50MB. Tools such as XML-Sitemaps.com can help you.
Submit and Monitor Your Sitemap
Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console . Then, check for errors using the Index Coverage report .
6. Optimize Your Robots.txt File
Your robots.txt file tells search engines what to crawl and what to avoid. It helps you control how search engines access your site.
Create a Clear and Concise Robots.txt
Keep it simple, and block pages that don't need indexing. Block pages like admin areas.
User-agent: * Disallow: /admin/ Disallow: /private/ Sitemap: https://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xm
Test Your Robots.txt File
Use Google's robots.txt testing tool. Ensure important pages aren't accidentally blocked.
7. Implement Schema Markup
Schema markup, also known as structured data, helps search engines better understand your content. This can improve your appearance in search results with rich snippets.
Choose Relevant Schema Types
There are schemas for articles, products, events, and more. Use the schemas that match your content.
Test Your Structured Data
Check with Google's Rich Results Test to verify your schema markup .
8. Optimize for Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals measure how users experience your site. They became a ranking factor in 2021 and will increase in importance. Core Web Vitals have an impact on your SEO.
Focus on LCP, FID, and CLS
These are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Google says LCP should be under 2.5 seconds .
Monitor and Improve
Use PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console's Core Web Vitals report. Find where to make improvements.
9. Fix Broken Links and Redirect Errors
Broken links cause problems for users and search engines. Regular checking and fixing of broken links is a must. Fixing broken links leads to a better user experience.
Conduct Regular Link Audits
Use tools such as Semrush to find broken links. Fix or remove broken links. Then, you will also want to address and simplify redirect chains.
Implement Proper 301 Redirects
Use 301 redirects when moving pages. These redirects send users and search engines to new locations. Redirects also prevent 404 errors from occurring.
10. Optimize for International SEO (If Applicable)
International SEO is important if you target audiences in multiple countries. Using International SEO will allow you to target those regions correctly. This is vital for connecting with the correct audience.
Use Hreflang Tags
Hreflang tags tell search engines the page's language. This serves the right pages to users.
Consider a ccTLD or Subdirectories
Use country code top-level domains (ccTLD) like .uk, or use subdirectories (example.com/uk/). This helps target different countries. You can decide on the right setup that you need.
FAQs about technical seo checklist
What does technical SEO include?
Technical SEO is optimizing your website so search engines can find it easily. Technical SEO covers things such as site speed and structure. Making your site easy for search engines to understand is very important.
How to check technical SEO?
Check technical SEO with various tools. Google Search Console shows indexing and mobile usability data.
PageSpeed Insights checks your site's speed. Use tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs for a more in depth view.
How to do technical SEO step by step?
Here are the steps to do technical SEO:
- Perform a site audit.
- Improve site speed.
- Ensure the website works well on mobile.
- Set up HTTPS.
- Fix site structure.
- Create a sitemap and submit it.
- Use a robots.txt file.
- Add schema markup.
- Fix broken links and crawl errors.
- Improve Core Web Vitals.
These steps are crucial for improving your website.
What is the SEO checklist?
An SEO checklist has tasks to make your website better for search engines. This usually includes on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. The technical SEO part focuses on your site's backend parts that can affect search performance.
Conclusion
A full technical SEO checklist is very important for better search visibility and a good user experience. All the things on the checklist work together to impact your site's search performance. Site speed is just one factor of many, and needs to be optimized in correlation with the other factors.
Remember, technical SEO is not just a one time fix, and you must continually improve your website. Doing regular audits is essential. Follow this technical SEO checklist for long-term search engine success.
Technical SEO might seem hard, but take it step by step. Focus on small improvements. The work will result in better traffic and a much improved user experience for visitors.