What does a technical SEO checklist cover?

Technical SEO is the part of search work that makes sure a search engine can find your pages, read them and understand which ones to show. It does not replace good content, and good content does not work if the site blocks the crawler. This checklist covers the basics a business website needs, in the order we check them. It is a starting point for a conversation with whoever runs your site, not a full audit.

1. Can search engines reach the pages?

• robots.txt does not block what you want found. A single wrong line can hide a whole section. Google explains the file in its introduction to robots.txt.
• No leftover "noindex". A page marked noindex stays out of the results. This mark is often set on a test copy and forgotten at launch. See Google's guide to blocking indexing.
• Pages return the right status. A live page answers 200. A moved page redirects with a permanent redirect. A page that is gone answers 404 or 410. A live page that answers an error, or a missing page that answers 200, confuses crawlers.
• Important pages are linked from other pages. A page that no link leads to is hard to find. Link from the menu, the footer or related pages, using words that describe the target.

2. Does the site tell search engines what exists?

• An XML sitemap lists the pages you want indexed, and only those. Remove redirected, blocked and duplicate addresses. See sitemaps.
• The sitemap is submitted in Google Search Console, so you can see which addresses were read and which have problems.
• One address per page. The same content under several addresses (with and without www, with a tracking parameter, with a trailing slash) splits the signals. Pick one, redirect the others to it and mark it with a canonical tag. See consolidating duplicate URLs.

3. Is each page understandable?

• A unique title for each page, written for the page. Google may rewrite it, and a clear title gives it little reason to. See title links.
• A description that tells a searcher what they will find. It does not set the ranking, and it often becomes the text under the title. See snippets.
• One main heading and headings in order. The structure tells people and software what the page is about.
• Descriptive link text and image text. "Read our guide to website hosting" tells more than "click here".
• Structured data where it fits. Markup in the JSON-LD format can describe your organisation, articles, products or events. Mark up only what is visible on the page. See structured data. Structured data can make a page eligible for some rich results. It does not guarantee them.

4. Does the site work for visitors?

• HTTPS on every page, with the non-secure address redirecting to the secure one. See website security basics.
• A page that works on a phone. Google indexes the mobile version of a page first, so content that exists only on the desktop version can be missed. See mobile-first indexing.
• A page that loads fast and does not jump. See our guide to website speed.
• Content that is in the HTML or renders reliably. If the main text appears only after scripts run, check that the search engine sees it. Search Console's URL inspection shows what Google saw.

5. Does it work in two languages?

On a site for several markets, each language needs its own address, a page title in its own language and language alternates (hreflang) that point each page to its translation. Our guide to multilingual websites goes through it. Google's page on localized versions is the source.

6. Does anyone watch it after launch?

• Search Console is set up for the whole domain, and the right people have access.
• Someone reads the reports: pages not indexed, errors, performance and security notices.
• Changes are checked. A new plugin, a template change or a redesign can break any item above. See our guide to redesigning without losing search traffic.

To see whether these fixes help, read our guide to measuring SEO results.

Questions to ask whoever manages your site

• Which of these items have you checked on my site, and how?
• Can you show me the Search Console report for the whole site?
• Who is told when a page starts returning errors?
• What happens to this list when we add pages or change the template?

Sources and further reading

• Google Search Central: SEO starter guide
• Google Search Central: robots.txt introduction
• Google Search Central: sitemaps overview
• Google Search Central: consolidate duplicate URLs
• Google Search Central: introduction to structured data
• Google Search Central: mobile-first indexing

How DMC Kreatif handles it

The sites we build have a unique title and description on every page, one canonical address, a sitemap, a robots file, structured data that matches the visible text and language alternates on bilingual sites. We check these on the live site after launch. We do not promise rankings or traffic: a search engine decides those.

If you want search work run as a managed service, read about our SEO and Google Ads service. To start, tell us what the site does and what already exists, then ask for a quote. Within 48 h you get a concrete approach, a realistic timeline and a clear quote.