What Is Technical SEO? A Plain-English Checklist

Technical SEO is the work that makes sure search engines can find, crawl, render and index your website, and that it loads quickly and securely for visitors. It covers robots.txt, XML sitemaps, status codes, redirects, canonical tags, page speed, mobile usability, HTTPS and structured data. Content and links matter little if Google cannot access the pages.

This guide explains each area in plain English, with a checklist you can work through and the tools to check it.

How is technical SEO different from on-page and off-page SEO?

Think of technical SEO as the foundations. Great content on a site Google cannot crawl is like a well-stocked shop with the shutters down.

What does Google need before it can index a page?

Google lists three technical requirements for a page to be eligible for indexing:

1. "Googlebot isn't blocked."
2. "The page works, meaning that Google receives an HTTP 200 (success) status code."
3. "The page has indexable content."

Meeting these does not guarantee indexing, but failing any of them guarantees the page will not be indexed. Most of the checklist below exists to protect those three things and then make the site faster and clearer.

The technical SEO checklist

1. Crawling: can Google reach your pages?

• robots.txt sits at /robots.txt and tells crawlers which paths not to fetch. Make sure it does not block important pages or the CSS and JavaScript needed to render them. Remember that it controls crawling, not indexing. Our robots.txt guide has examples.
• Internal links use normal <a href="..."> elements. Google says it "primarily finds pages through links," and it cannot reliably follow links that only exist as JavaScript click handlers.
• No orphan pages: every important page should be linked from at least one other page.

2. Indexing: are the right pages in, and the wrong ones out?

• noindex keeps a page out of Google. Use it on thank-you pages, internal search results and staging copies, and make sure it is not on pages you want to rank.
• XML sitemap lists the canonical URLs you want indexed and is submitted in Search Console.
• Page indexing report in Search Console shows which URLs are indexed and why others are not.

3. Status codes and redirects

• Live pages return 200. Removed pages return 404 or 410, not a "soft 404" that shows an error message with a 200 code.
• Moved pages use a 301 (permanent) redirect to the closest equivalent. Google recommends 301s for permanent moves and 302s for temporary ones.
• Avoid redirect chains (A to B to C) and redirect loops. Update internal links to point straight at the final URL. More in broken links and redirect chains.

# .htaccess: permanent redirect for one moved page
Redirect 301 /old-services.html https://www.example.com/services/

4. One version of every page

• Pick one hostname (with or without www) and one protocol (HTTPS) and redirect the others to it.
• Use rel="canonical" to tell Google which URL is preferred when several show the same content, such as tracking parameters or product variants. Our canonical tags guide explains when to use it.
• Keep URLs consistent in case and trailing slashes, because Google treats /Services and /services as different URLs.

5. Mobile-friendliness

Google uses a mobile crawler by default, so the mobile version of your site is the one it judges. Make sure the mobile view contains the same content, structured data and links as desktop, uses a responsive viewport and has tap targets that are easy to use.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

6. Page speed and Core Web Vitals

Google's Core Web Vitals measure real-user experience. The "good" thresholds are:

Google says good Core Web Vitals align "with what our core ranking systems seek to reward," though relevance and content quality still come first.

7. HTTPS and security

Serve every page over HTTPS with a valid certificate, redirect HTTP to HTTPS, and avoid mixed content (HTTP images or scripts on HTTPS pages). A hacked site with spam pages or malware warnings can lose traffic fast, so keep your CMS and plugins updated.

8. Rendering and JavaScript

If key text, links or product information only appear after JavaScript runs, Google has to render the page to see them, which can delay or prevent indexing. Use URL Inspection's View crawled page to see what Google actually rendered, and prefer server-side rendering or static HTML for important content. The AI search readiness check in MakeItFlow also reports whether your main text is present in the server-rendered HTML, which matters for AI crawlers that do not run JavaScript.

9. Structured data

Schema.org markup in JSON-LD helps Google understand your organisation, products, articles, events or local business, and can make pages eligible for rich results. Validate it with Google's Rich Results Test.

10. Site architecture and URLs

Keep important pages within a few clicks of the homepage, group related content logically, and use short, readable URLs with hyphens between words.

How do I check my technical SEO?

1. Google Search Console (free): Page indexing, Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, Crawl stats and Manual Actions reports, plus URL Inspection for individual pages.
2. PageSpeed Insights (free): lab and real-user speed data for any URL.
3. An audit tool that checks many factors at once.

MakeItFlow covers a large part of this checklist in one scan: when you run a free website audit it checks performance and Core Web Vitals, titles and meta descriptions, headings, canonical tags, noindex, robots.txt, sitemap, structured data, image alt text and a sample of broken links, as well as the TLS certificate, HTTPS redirect, security headers and mixed content. Paid plans add a whole-site crawl to find issues on every page rather than just the ones you test, and scheduled re-scans so regressions are caught after updates.

How often should I do a technical SEO audit?

At minimum, after every redesign, migration, CMS change or major plugin update, because that is when technical problems are introduced. For an active site, a quick monthly check of Search Console and a fuller quarterly audit is a sensible rhythm.

What to do next

Start with Search Console: fix anything in the Page indexing report affecting pages you care about, then check Core Web Vitals and HTTPS. Work through the checklist above one section at a time, prioritising crawling and indexing issues before speed tweaks, because a fast page that Google cannot index earns nothing.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a developer for technical SEO?

Not for everything. Site owners can manage sitemaps, Search Console, redirects via a plugin, titles and image sizes. Server configuration, JavaScript rendering problems and complex migrations usually need a developer.

Does WordPress handle technical SEO automatically?

Partly. WordPress and popular SEO plugins generate sitemaps, canonical tags and robots meta tags. They do not fix slow hosting, heavy themes, redirect chains or plugin conflicts, so you still need to check.

Is technical SEO a one-off job?

The initial clean-up can be a project, but sites change constantly. New content, plugins and design changes introduce new issues, so treat it as ongoing maintenance.

What is crawl budget and should I worry about it?

Crawl budget is how many URLs Google is willing and able to crawl on your site in a given period. Google says it mainly matters for very large or rapidly changing sites; most small business sites do not need to worry about it beyond avoiding endless parameter URLs.

Does technical SEO affect AI search results?

Yes, indirectly. AI features and assistants rely on being able to crawl and read your pages, so blocked crawlers, JavaScript-only content and missing structured data all reduce your chances of being cited.

Sources

• Google Search Central: Google Search technical requirements
• Google Search Central: SEO Starter Guide
• Google Search Central: Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results
• Google Search Central: URL structure best practices
• Google Search Central: Get started with Search (developer's guide)