A technical SEO checklist is a fixed list of checks that confirms search engines can crawl, render and index your site. This one has 40 checks in eight groups: access, crawling, indexing, directives, rendering, performance, structured data and AI crawlers. Each check has a pass condition and a priority, so you can copy it into a spreadsheet and work top to bottom.
tl;dr
- 1Work the groups in order. Indexing problems outrank everything else.
- 2Every check has a pass condition, so the result is yes or no, not a vague score.
- 3Copy the plain-text version at the bottom into Google Sheets or a doc to use as a downloadable technical SEO audit checklist.
- 4Record evidence for each failure: a URL list, a screenshot or an export.
The checklist is the working companion to our technical SEO audit guide, which explains why each check matters and how to judge the results.
How to use this technical SEO checklist
Use this technical SEO checklist by going group by group, marking each check pass or fail, and attaching evidence to every fail. Priorities run P0 (blocks indexing, fix now) to P3 (hygiene, backlog). You need Google Search Console, a crawler, PageSpeed Insights and access to robots.txt and the sitemap.
When you are done, move the failures into the SEO audit template so they become a report with owners and dates.
The 40 technical SEO checks
The checks are grouped in the order you should run them. Each group starts with what it confirms.
1. Access and baseline
These checks make sure you are measuring the right site before you change anything.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Search Console verified | Domain property verified, all users listed | P0 |
| 2 | Bing Webmaster Tools verified | Site verified, sitemap submitted | P2 |
| 3 | Baseline exported | 12 months of clicks and impressions by page saved | P1 |
| 4 | One preferred host | HTTP, HTTPS, www and non-www all 301 to one version | P0 |
| 5 | HTTPS | Valid certificate, no mixed-content warnings | P1 |
2. Crawling
Crawling checks confirm that bots can reach every page that matters.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | No internal links to 4xx | Zero internal links to broken URLs | P1 |
| 7 | No 5xx errors | Zero 5xx in crawl and in Search Console crawl stats | P0 |
| 8 | Redirect chains | Every redirect is a single hop | P2 |
| 9 | Internal links to redirects | Internal links point to final URLs | P3 |
| 10 | Orphan pages | Every indexable page has at least one internal link | P1 |
| 11 | Click depth | Key pages within three clicks of the homepage | P2 |
| 12 | Crawlable links | Navigation uses <a href> links, not script-only clicks |
P1 |
| 13 | Parameter URLs | Filter and sort parameters do not create crawlable duplicates | P2 |
Google's guide to crawlable links is the reference for check 12: Google can reliably follow only <a> elements with an href attribute.
3. Indexing
Indexing checks confirm that the right pages are in Google's index, and only those.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Page indexing report reviewed | Every "not indexed" reason explained | P0 |
| 15 | Sitemap vs index gap | Indexed count close to sitemap count, gap explained | P1 |
| 16 | Unwanted noindex | No noindex on pages meant to rank | P0 |
| 17 | Thin or duplicate pages | "Crawled, currently not indexed" pages reviewed | P2 |
| 18 | Soft 404s | Empty or error pages return a real 404 or 410 | P2 |
4. Directives: robots.txt, sitemaps, canonicals
Directive checks make sure your instructions to search engines are clear and agree with each other.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | robots.txt status | Returns 200 at /robots.txt | P0 |
| 20 | robots.txt rules | No accidental blocks; CSS and JS allowed | P0 |
| 21 | Sitemap listed | Sitemap URL in robots.txt and Search Console | P2 |
| 22 | Sitemap contents | Only canonical, indexable, 200 URLs | P1 |
| 23 | Sitemap size | Under 50,000 URLs and 50MB per file | P1 |
| 24 | Accurate lastmod | lastmod changes only when content changes | P3 |
| 25 | Self-referencing canonicals | Every indexable page canonicalizes to itself | P1 |
| 26 | Canonical targets | Canonicals point to 200 pages, not redirects or 404s | P1 |
| 27 | Google agrees | Google-selected canonical matches yours on sampled URLs | P1 |
| 28 | hreflang (if multilingual) | Return tags present, codes valid | P2 |
The sitemap limits in check 23 come from Google's sitemap documentation, which also confirms Google ignores priority and changefreq.
5. Rendering
Rendering checks confirm that the content exists in the HTML bots receive.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | Content in raw HTML | Main text visible in view-source | P1 |
| 30 | Meta tags in raw HTML | Title, canonical and robots tags in the server response | P0 |
| 31 | Rendered HTML matches | URL Inspection rendered HTML shows full content | P1 |
6. Performance and mobile
Performance checks use Google's "good" thresholds from its Core Web Vitals documentation, as of October 2026.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | LCP | 2.5 seconds or less in field data | P2 |
| 33 | INP | Under 200 milliseconds | P2 |
| 34 | CLS | Under 0.1 | P2 |
| 35 | Mobile parity | Same content, titles and schema on mobile as desktop | P1 |
7. Structured data
Structured data checks confirm that schema is valid and honest.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | Valid markup | No errors in the Rich Results Test on each template | P2 |
| 37 | Matches visible content | Every marked-up fact appears on the page | P1 |
| 38 | Right types | Organization, Article, Product and others on the right templates | P3 |
8. AI crawlers
AI crawler checks are the newest group on any technical SEO checklist. You can test them with our free AI crawler checker.
| # | Check | Pass condition | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | AI search bots allowed | OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and others not blocked in robots.txt | P1 |
| 40 | CDN and firewall | Bot protection does not block allowed AI crawlers | P1 |
The copyable technical SEO checklist
Copy this block into a doc or paste it into a spreadsheet column. Each line is one check.
TECHNICAL SEO CHECKLIST (P0 = fix now, P3 = backlog)
ACCESS
[ ] 1 P0 Search Console domain property verified
[ ] 2 P2 Bing Webmaster Tools verified, sitemap submitted
[ ] 3 P1 12-month baseline exported
[ ] 4 P0 All host variants 301 to one version
[ ] 5 P1 HTTPS valid, no mixed content
CRAWLING
[ ] 6 P1 No internal links to 4xx pages
[ ] 7 P0 No 5xx errors
[ ] 8 P2 Redirects are single hop
[ ] 9 P3 Internal links point to final URLs
[ ] 10 P1 No orphan pages
[ ] 11 P2 Key pages within 3 clicks
[ ] 12 P1 Navigation uses <a href> links
[ ] 13 P2 Parameter URLs controlled
INDEXING
[ ] 14 P0 Every "not indexed" reason explained
[ ] 15 P1 Sitemap vs index gap explained
[ ] 16 P0 No noindex on ranking pages
[ ] 17 P2 "Crawled, not indexed" pages reviewed
[ ] 18 P2 Soft 404s return 404 or 410
DIRECTIVES
[ ] 19 P0 robots.txt returns 200
[ ] 20 P0 robots.txt has no accidental blocks
[ ] 21 P2 Sitemap listed in robots.txt
[ ] 22 P1 Sitemap has only canonical 200 URLs
[ ] 23 P1 Sitemap under 50,000 URLs / 50MB
[ ] 24 P3 lastmod accurate
[ ] 25 P1 Self-referencing canonicals
[ ] 26 P1 Canonicals point to 200 pages
[ ] 27 P1 Google-selected canonical matches
[ ] 28 P2 hreflang valid (if used)
RENDERING
[ ] 29 P1 Main content in raw HTML
[ ] 30 P0 Meta tags in raw HTML
[ ] 31 P1 Rendered HTML complete
PERFORMANCE
[ ] 32 P2 LCP <= 2.5s
[ ] 33 P2 INP < 200ms
[ ] 34 P2 CLS < 0.1
[ ] 35 P1 Mobile parity
STRUCTURED DATA
[ ] 36 P2 No Rich Results Test errors
[ ] 37 P1 Schema matches visible content
[ ] 38 P3 Right types on right templates
AI CRAWLERS
[ ] 39 P1 AI search bots allowed in robots.txt
[ ] 40 P1 CDN/firewall not blocking AI bots
Frequently asked questions
What should a technical SEO checklist include?
A technical SEO checklist should include checks for site access, crawling, indexing, robots.txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, JavaScript rendering, Core Web Vitals, mobile parity, structured data and AI crawler access. Each check needs a clear pass condition and a priority. A checklist without priorities produces a long list of equal-looking issues and no plan for what to fix first.
Is there a downloadable technical SEO audit checklist?
Yes. The plain-text block at the end of this page is the downloadable version: copy it into Google Docs, Notion or a spreadsheet and you have all 40 checks with priorities. If you paste it into a sheet, split each line into columns for number, priority and check, then add columns for status, evidence and owner.
How often should I run through a technical SEO checklist?
Run the full technical SEO checklist at least once a year and after any migration, redesign or CMS change. Checks 7, 14, 16 and 19 to 20 are worth running monthly, because a server error, a stray noindex tag or a robots.txt change can remove pages from Google within days. Large sites should automate those checks with scheduled crawls.
Which technical SEO checks matter most?
The checks marked P0 matter most: robots.txt returning 200 without accidental blocks, no noindex on ranking pages, no 5xx errors, one preferred host, and meta tags present in raw HTML. Each of these can remove pages from search results entirely. Speed and schema checks matter, but they rarely cause the sudden losses that indexing and directive errors do.
Does a technical SEO checklist cover AI search?
This one does, through the AI crawler group. As of October 2026, ChatGPT search, Perplexity and other answer engines use their own crawlers, and blocking them in robots.txt or at the CDN can keep your pages out of their answers. Content that only appears after JavaScript runs is another risk, because many AI crawlers read raw HTML only.
If you would rather hand this checklist to someone else, AEO GEO Labs runs technical audits with the AI search layer included for B2B and SaaS teams. See our services.