Understanding the power of technical SEO and how it can significantly enhance your website’s visibility online is not just crucial; it’s empowering. Technical SEO, a vital branch of SEO, optimizes your website’s infrastructure.

Unlike off-page SEO and on-page SEO, technical SEO analysis is not focused on the website’s content but on the technical requirements that facilitate crawling and indexing as well as user experience.

For businesses with a physical presence, implementing local technical SEO ensures your website is optimized for local search results, further enhancing your online visibility. Let’s look at the technical SEO checklists and what you need to keep in mind to optimize the technical aspects of your website!

What Is Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process that optimizes a website’s technical features to increase its ranking on search engines. 

This includes enhancing website speed, mobile-friendliness, creating a secure (HTTPS) connection, and making the site easier for search engines to crawl and index. 

Proper technical SEO helps ensure that a website meets the technical requirements of modern search engines, which is crucial for improving organic traffic.

Technical SEO Checklists

Read on to find out what the technical SEO checklists are and how they can help you optimize your website.

1. Website Crawling and Indexing

Make sure that search engines can crawl your website before looking at any other technical SEO optimization strategies. Here are the aspects to consider:

Crawling

  • Check the txt file. You want to ensure that all the robots.txt files on your websites allow search engines to crawl the platform. A robots.txt file can block search engines from accessing directories or pages. This can be beneficial if it is for privacy reasons or prevents the search engine from crawling redundant content.
  • Don’t just sit back and hope that a search engine will crawl your pages unbothered; take control of the crawling process. Using Google Search Console, you can proactively monitor the crawl status and identify pages that are not being crawled and the reason for them. This proactive approach allows you to address these issues as soon as possible and increase your website’s technical SEO.
  • Don’t let broken links slow down your website’s performance. Use a technical SEO audit tool to identify and fix these issues. Implementing 301 redirects can also ensure a seamless user experience and maintain link equity.

Indexing

Indexing is another essential part of technical SEO, as it ensures the appearance of your pages in search engine results.

  • Submit a sitemap. You must create a sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console. Search engines will adopt your sitemap and index all the necessary pages.
  • Check index status. Don’t just trust the fact that Google indexed your site. Check which pages are indexed by using “site:yourdomain.com” in Google search or check individual URLs from your platform in Google Search Console. Address any “no-index” tag pages and fix them.

2. Website Speed and Performance

Your website needs good speed and performance to offer a great user experience.

  • Analyze page speed. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to ensure your pages load fast. As soon as you find a problem reducing your website’s speed, look for a proper solution to fix it.
  • Optimize your website’s images. If you use and should use images or other media files on your website, ensure they have the proper format. Compress them and improve their loading speed.
  • Check if your browser caching is enabled. Use headers that leverage browser caching. This will increase your website speed effortlessly.
  • Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. By reducing the load time of these files, you increase the speed of your website. You can do that through tools like CSSNano or UglifyJS.
  • Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN will increase the speed of your website for a worldwide audience.

3. Mobile Optimization

Mobile traffic is not just popular; it’s dominant. As of 2024, mobile devices account for 60.67% of website traffic, and this trend is ascending. So, your website’s mobile friendliness is not just important; it’s crucial for your technical SEO optimization. It’s a key factor in enhancing user experience and improving search engine rankings.

  • Responsive design. Use a responsive design that has all the mobile-friendly features you need. In the context of e-commerce, a responsive design can significantly boost conversion rates by providing a seamless shopping experience across all devices. Technical SEO for e-commerce ensures that your website is optimized for various screen sizes. This improves user experience and enhances search engine rankings.
  • Mobile usability. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to find any issues with your website’s mobile optimization and address them.
  • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). Implement and optimize AMP pages to increase the speed of your website.

4. Website Structure

  • URL structure. Your URL should be simple, clear, and representative of your website. Use descriptive keywords in your URL and avoid session IDs or unnecessary parameters.
  • Breadcrumb navigation. Using breadcrumb navigation can improve users’ navigation of your website and reduce bounce rate. As a result, your platform will benefit from more engagement and improved indexing.
  • Internal linking. Make sure you link to internal articles that help search engines and users understand your website better. This will increase navigation speed and user experience.
  • Canonical tags. Canonical tags play a central role in preventing duplicate content on your website.
  • Optimize titles and meta tags. Title tags and meta description optimization are among the best practices for on-page technical SEO. You want to use title tags that are less than 60 characters. Also, a well-written meta description can increase click rates. Make sure to use H1, H2, H3, and so on correctly for headings and subheadings of your content.

5. HTTPS and Security

Your technical SEO analysis should also include security, as it is an important ranking factor.

  • Install an SSL certificate. Use an SSL certificate and HTTPS to keep the data on your website safe.
  • Update your CMS, plugins, and themes regularly. Constantly updating these aspects increases the security of your platform and reduces the risk of fraud.
  • Implement security headers. Use Content Security Policy (CSP) and other security headers to protect your site from cyber attacks that could also affect your users.​

6. Structured Data and Schema Markup

Structured data helps search engines understand your content better.

  • Implement Schema markup. Use structured data to enhance your content’s visibility in search results, potentially leading to rich snippets.
  • Optimize for rich snippets. Structured data can help your content appear in rich snippets, improving your click-through rates.​

7. Technical Audits and Monitoring

Use a technical SEO audit tool or the services of technical SEO companies to ensure that your website is constantly optimized.

  • Regular technical SEO audits are not just good practice; they are your security blanket in the ever-evolving digital landscape. Use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to conduct comprehensive audits of your site. This way, you can stay on top of any potential issues and ensure that your website is always optimized.
  • Monitor critical alerts. Set up alerts in Google Search Console for issues like crawl errors and security problems. Use analytics tools to track performance and identify any technical issues that may arise.

Wrap-up

Do regular technical SEO audits and follow technical SEO best practices to address any issues you find along the way. Use these technical SEO checklists to make sure your website is optimized correctly. Also, using free SEO tools such as Google Search Console can help you significantly in the technical SEO optimization process.