Technical SEO Checklist (Plain English): Speed, Indexing & Site Health

Technical SEO is the stuff that decides whether your site can load fast, get crawled, and actually show up in search—before your content and backlinks even get a fair shot.

The good news: you don’t need to be a developer to manage it. You just need a simple checklist, a few tools, and the confidence to spot the “this is blocking growth” problems quickly.

This guide gives you a practical technical SEO checklist focused on three things that move the needle in 2026:

1. Speed (Core Web Vitals)
   
2. Indexing (crawl + index control)
   
3. Site health (errors, duplication, hygiene)
   

The 10-minute triage: what to check first

If you’re time-poor, do these in order:

1. Can Google access your site and key pages? (robots/noindex)
   
2. Are your important pages indexed? (Search Console)
   
3. Are your pages slow or unstable? (Core Web Vitals)
   
4. Any major site errors? (404s, redirects, canonicals, HTTPS)
   

Most “SEO isn’t working” situations are one of those.

Part 1 — Speed checklist (what Google actually wants in 2026)

Google’s Core Web Vitals targets are still the clearest performance benchmarks:

• LCP (load): aim for ≤ 2.5s
  
• INP (interactivity): aim for < 200ms
  
• CLS (visual stability): aim for < 0.1
  

INP replaced FID as the responsiveness metric (so if you’re still thinking “FID”, update your mental model).

✅ Speed checklist (non-technical-friendly)

1) Check Core Web Vitals in Search Console (real user data)
This tells you if your site is actually fast for real visitors (not just a lab test).

2) Run PageSpeed Insights on your top 5 money pages
Look for: LCP element (often hero image), render-blocking scripts, heavy fonts.

3) Fix the “big 3” that cause most slow sites

• Oversized images (especially hero banners)
  
• Too many tracking scripts / tag bloat
  
• Cheap hosting or overloaded server
  

4) Kill layout shift (CLS)

• Set image/video dimensions
  
• Avoid injecting banners above content
  
• Load fonts properly (or use system fonts)
  

5) Don’t “optimize” blindly
If your homepage is fast but your pricing page is slow… your SEO will still feel broken. Speed is page-by-page.

Part 2 — Indexing checklist (the reason pages don’t show up)

Indexing problems are usually self-inflicted:

• robots.txt blocking important areas
  
• accidental noindex
  
• missing/weak internal links
  
• messy canonical tags
  
• broken redirects
  

✅ Indexing checklist

6) Confirm you’re not blocking Googlebot by mistake (robots.txt)
robots.txt controls what crawlers can access. It’s not a secure way to hide pages.

7) Use noindex the right way (when you need pages NOT in Google)
If you want a page kept out of search results, use noindex (meta tag or HTTP header). Google explicitly notes that robots.txt isn’t the mechanism for preventing indexing.

8) Submit a sitemap (and keep it accessible)
A sitemap helps discovery, but it’s only a hint—not a guarantee. Still worth doing, especially on newer sites.

9) Use URL Inspection to debug specific pages
If a page isn’t ranking, stop guessing. The URL Inspection tool shows what Google sees and whether the URL is indexable.

10) Make sure your important pages are internally linked
If you publish a page and it has no internal links pointing to it, it’s basically a floating island.

11) Watch duplicate/near-duplicate pages
Common culprits:

• / and /index
  
• http vs https
  
• www vs non-www
  
• UTM parameter versions
  
• category/tag archives that mirror each other
  

(If Google can’t tell which version is “the one,” you dilute signals.)

12) If you move URLs, redirect properly (301)
For URL changes or migrations, Google recommends server-side permanent redirects (301) based on a URL mapping.

Part 3 — Site health checklist (the stuff that quietly kills performance)

This is less glamorous, but it’s where a lot of “why are we stuck?” issues live.

✅ Site health checklist

13) Fix 404s that get traffic or links
Not every 404 matters, but any 404 with backlinks or real traffic is leaking value.

14) Clean up redirect chains
Old URL → redirect → redirect → final page = slower load + weaker signals.

15) Make sure your site is HTTPS and consistent
Mixed versions (http/https) cause duplication and trust issues.

16) Mobile usability isn’t optional
If the site is annoying on mobile (tiny text, shifting buttons, slow load), your conversions and rankings both suffer.

17) Don’t accidentally index thin/utility pages
Examples:

• internal search results pages
  
• staging/dev environments
  
• filter combinations that create thousands of URLs
  Use noindex strategically where appropriate.
  

18) Structured data: only where it genuinely applies
You don’t need “more schema.” You need correct schema on the pages where it helps (articles, FAQs, products, etc.).

I can run this for you

If you’d rather not touch any of this (fair), I can run this technical SEO checklist for you—find the blockers, prioritise fixes, and give you a clean action plan (or handle the fixes with your dev).

Contact me

with your site URL and tell me what matters most right now: more leads, more demos, or more organic traffic.

The “founder version” of a technical SEO audit (30 minutes)

Open Google Search Console once a month and do this:

1. Page indexing report: any spikes in “Not indexed”?
   
2. Core Web Vitals report: any templates/pages marked Poor?
   
3. Sitemaps: submitted + processed?
   
4. URL Inspection on one key page that should rank but isn’t.
   

If something looks off, you’ve just saved yourself months of “maybe we need more blogs.”

FAQ: Technical SEO checklist

What is a technical SEO checklist?

A technical SEO checklist is a set of checks that ensure your site can be crawled, indexed, and served fast—covering things like performance, robots/noindex, sitemaps, redirects, and error cleanup.

What are the Core Web Vitals benchmarks I should aim for?

Aim for LCP ≤ 2.5s, INP < 200ms, and CLS < 0.1.

Why are my pages not indexing even though they’re live?

Most common reasons: robots.txt blocking, accidental noindex, weak internal linking, or Google hasn’t discovered the URL yet (sitemap + links help). robots.txt isn’t the right tool to prevent indexing—use noindex for that.

Should I submit my sitemap to Google?

Yes—submitting a sitemap can help discovery, and Search Console will show processing issues. Just remember it’s a hint, not a guarantee.

What should I do if I changed URLs?

Plan a redirect mapping and use server-side permanent redirects (301) from old URLs to new ones.

I can run this for you

If you’d rather not touch any of this (fair), I can run this technical SEO checklist for you—find the blockers, prioritise fixes, and give you a clean action plan (or handle the fixes with your dev).

Contact me

with your site URL and tell me what matters most right now: more leads, more demos, or more organic traffic.