Technical SEO Checklist 2026: Fix the Foundation First

Search engines must be able to access your important pages. Check that robots.txt is not accidentally blocking key pages or directories. Test it at yourdomain.com/robots.txt and validate in Google Search Console.

Your sitemap tells search engines which pages exist and when they were last updated. It must include all indexable pages, exclude noindex pages, and be resubmitted whenever significant pages are added or updated.

Check Coverage report in Google Search Console. Investigate and resolve any pages showing as Excluded, Crawled but not indexed, or Discovered but not indexed.

Every page on your site should be reachable via at least one internal link. Pages with no internal links receive little crawl attention and rarely rank.

Every page should either be self-canonical (pointing to itself) or point to the preferred version. Incorrect canonicals cause ranking dilution across multiple pages competing for the same queries.

Removing pages without redirecting them destroys the link equity those pages had accumulated. Every deleted page should redirect to the most relevant alternative.

LCP measures how quickly the main content of a page loads. The most common causes of slow LCP are unoptimised images, slow server response times, and render-blocking resources. Test at PageSpeed Insights.

INP replaced FID as a Core Web Vital in 2024 and measures how quickly your page responds to user interactions. Heavy JavaScript is the most common cause of poor INP scores.

CLS measures visual stability - whether page elements shift unexpectedly as the page loads. Images without defined dimensions, late-loading ads, and web font loading without fallbacks are common causes.

WebP images are typically 25-35% smaller than JPEG equivalents with no visible quality difference. Converting all images to WebP is often the single highest-impact page speed improvement available.

Caching instructs browsers to store static assets locally so returning visitors load pages significantly faster. Configure cache headers for CSS, JS, and image files.

Compression reduces the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files transferred between your server and the user's browser. Most modern servers support this with a simple configuration change.

Title tags are the most important on-page SEO element. Every page needs a unique, keyword-informed title under 60 characters. Duplicate or missing titles waste significant ranking potential.

While meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, they influence click-through rate from search results. Every page needs a compelling, unique description with a clear benefit or call to action.

Every page should have exactly one H1 tag containing the primary keyword. Multiple H1s or missing H1s confuse both search engines and users about the primary topic of a page.

High-authority pages should link to related pages you want to rank. Use descriptive anchor text. Avoid generic anchors like "click here" which carry no topical signal.

Alt text describes images to search engines and screen readers. Every image should have concise, descriptive alt text that includes relevant keywords naturally.

HTTPS is a confirmed ranking signal and a trust requirement. Ensure all resources (images, scripts, fonts) load over HTTPS to avoid mixed content warnings.

Organisation schema tells Google your business name, URL, logo, contact information, and social profiles. It is fundamental to entity recognition and local SEO.

Breadcrumb schema enables breadcrumb display in search results, which increases click-through rates and helps Google understand your site structure.

FAQ schema can produce expanded search results showing your questions and answers directly in the SERP, dramatically increasing click-through rate for those queries.

Article schema marks up publication date, author, and publisher information - important for news-style content and for establishing E-E-A-T signals.

For local businesses, LocalBusiness schema with address, phone, opening hours, and geo-coordinates reinforces local relevance signals.

Validate all schema implementations at search.google.com/test/rich-results. Schema with errors provides no benefit and can actually confuse Google's understanding of your content.

Google uses mobile-first indexing - your mobile site is what Google primarily crawls and uses for ranking decisions. Every page must be fully functional on mobile devices.

Buttons and links must be large enough to tap accurately on a touchscreen. Google's recommendation is a minimum of 48x48 pixels. Small touch targets hurt both usability and Core Web Vitals.

Font size should be at least 16px on mobile. Text that requires pinch-to-zoom is a poor user experience and signals to Google that mobile usability is poor.

All content should fit within the mobile viewport without horizontal scrolling. Horizontal scroll is a common issue with fixed-width elements and images that are not responsive.