Technical SEO Checklist
Technical SEO is all about making sure your website is easy for Google to crawl, index, and understand. Think of it like building a strong foundation for a house. If the base is weak, nothing built on top will work properly—same with SEO. Here is a simple checklist to help anyone learn Technical SEO step by step.
1. Google Search Console Setup
Google Search Console helps you track how your website appears on Google and alerts you to indexing issues. It’s your main tool to monitor search performance and fix technical SEO problems.
2. Google Analytics Setup
Google Analytics shows how visitors use your website—what they click, how long they stay, and where they come from. It helps you understand user behaviour and improve conversions.
3. Bing Webmaster Tools Setup
Bing Webmaster Tools works like Google Search Console but for Bing search. It helps you submit sitemaps, track keywords, and fix site issues.
4. What is .htaccess File
The .htaccess file controls important website functions like redirects, caching, and security rules. Small changes in this file can improve SEO and site performance.
5. Secure Website Using SSL
SSL encrypts your website and changes URLs from “http” to “https.” Google prefers secure sites, and SSL boosts trust and rankings.
6. Permanent Redirects (301)
A 301 redirect tells Google a page has permanently moved to a new URL. It passes most SEO value to the new page and prevents ranking loss.
7. Temporary Redirects (302)
A 301 redirect tells Google a page has permanently moved to a new URL. It passes most SEO value to the new page and prevents ranking loss.
8. Robots.txt File Setup
The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages to crawl and which to avoid. It prevents bots from wasting time on unnecessary or private pages.
9. Custom 404 Redirections
A custom 404 page guides users when a page is missing. Adding redirects or helpful links reduces bounce rates and improves user experience.
10. XML Sitemap Submission
An XML sitemap helps search engines find and index your website’s important pages. Submitting it to Google and Bing ensures faster, cleaner crawling.
11. Remove Outdated Content in SERP
Removing outdated content prevents Google from showing old or wrong information. You can request updates or removals directly through Search Console.
12. Request New Page for Index
When you publish new content, you can request indexing to make Google find it faster. This speeds up ranking and visibility.
13. Find and Fix Broken Links
Broken links harm user experience and SEO. Fix them using 301 redirects or updating the correct URLs.
14. Find and Fix Duplicate Content
Duplicate pages confuse search engines and weaken ranking signals. Use canonical tags or merge content to solve duplication.
15. Minify Techniques
Minifying reduces the size of CSS, JS, and HTML files by removing unnecessary characters. This boosts website speed and improves Core Web Vitals.
16. Disavow Backlinks
Disavowing tells Google to ignore harmful or spammy links pointing to your site. It protects your website from penalties and ranking drops.
17. Page Speed Test
Testing page speed helps you identify issues slowing down your site. Faster pages lead to better SEO, lower bounce rates, and stronger user experience.
18. Mobile-Friendly Test
A mobile-friendly site works smoothly on phones and tablets. Since Google uses mobile-first indexing, mobile optimization directly improves rankings.