Technical SEO Checklist 2026: 30-Point Website Audit

Technical SEO is the foundation. All the content and backlinks in the world will not help if Google cannot crawl and index your site properly.

**Direct Answer: Use this 30-point technical SEO checklist to audit crawlability, indexing, performance, mobile optimization, security, and structured data. Prioritize by impact: crawlability, then indexing, then Core Web Vitals, then mobile, then security, then structured data.**

Section 1: Crawlability and Indexing

1. Robots.txt is properly configured and not blocking important pages. 2. XML Sitemap exists and is submitted to Google Search Console. 3. No critical pages are no-indexed — check the Coverage report. 4. Internal linking structure is logical with every page reachable within 3 clicks. 5. No orphan pages exist. 6. URL structure is clean and descriptive. 7. Canonical tags are correctly implemented. 8. Redirect chains are eliminated.

Section 2: Site Speed and Core Web Vitals

9. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds. 10. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200ms. 11. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1. 12. Images optimized with WebP/AVIF, proper dimensions, and lazy loading. 13. CSS and JavaScript minified. 14. Browser caching configured. 15. CDN serving static assets.

Section 3: Mobile Optimization

16. Site passes Google Mobile-Friendly Test. 17. Viewport meta tag correctly set. 18. Touch targets at least 48x48 pixels. 19. Font sizes readable without zooming (minimum 16px body). 20. No horizontal scrolling.

Section 4: Security

21. SSL certificate installed, all pages on HTTPS. 22. HTTP to HTTPS redirects in place. 23. Security headers configured. 24. No malware warnings in Search Console.

Section 5: Structured Data

25. Organization schema on homepage. 26. LocalBusiness schema if serving specific area. 27. Breadcrumb schema on all navigable pages. 28. Article schema on blog posts. 29. FAQ schema on FAQ pages. 30. Product or Service schema with pricing.

How to Prioritize

Start with crawlability and indexing. Then fix Core Web Vitals. Mobile issues come next. Security and structured data are important but less urgent. Run this audit quarterly — technical SEO is not a one-time task.