The Technical SEO Checklist I Run Before Any Campaign
Technical SEO is the set of site-health fixes — crawlability, speed, structured data, and indexing — that let search engines find, render, and trust a page before content or links can help it rank. I run the same checklist before starting any SEO engagement, in this order, because fixing content on a site Google can't crawl properly is wasted effort.
1. Crawlability and indexing first
Before touching content, I confirm Google can actually reach the pages that matter. That means checking robots.txt for accidental disallows, reviewing the XML sitemap for stale or missing URLs, and scanning Google Search Console's Page Indexing report for pages marked "Crawled – currently not indexed" or "Discovered – currently not indexed."
A site with hundreds of thin, near-duplicate, or orphaned pages burns crawl budget on pages that will never rank, which slows discovery of the pages that should.
2. Core Web Vitals
I pull real-user data from the Chrome UX Report (via Search Console or PageSpeed Insights) rather than relying only on lab scores, since field data reflects what actual visitors experience.
The three metrics I prioritise, in order of typical impact: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — usually fixed by optimising the hero image or font-loading strategy; Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — usually a JavaScript-execution problem; and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — almost always fixed by reserving space for images, ads, and embeds before they load.
3. Structured data
Schema.org markup doesn't directly boost rankings, but it's how you make a page's facts machine-readable — for rich results in classic search, and increasingly for citation by AI answer engines (see my note on GEO below).
For most sites I implement Organization/Person schema sitewide, then layer in page-specific types: Article for blog posts, Product for e-commerce, LocalBusiness for location pages, and FAQPage for any page with a genuine Q&A section.
- Validate every schema block with Google's Rich Results Test before shipping
- Keep schema in sync with visible page content — mismatched schema can trigger manual actions
- Don't mark up content that isn't visible to users
4. Internal linking and site architecture
Once crawling, speed, and markup are sound, I map the internal link graph. Pages that are one or two clicks from the homepage tend to get crawled and refreshed more often than pages buried six levels deep.
For content sites, this usually means building topic hub pages that link out to supporting articles, and making sure every new post links back to at least one relevant hub — closing the loop rather than leaving pages orphaned.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should a technical SEO audit be repeated?
Quarterly for an active site, or immediately after a platform migration, redesign, or major content push — those are the events most likely to introduce crawl or indexing regressions.
Does technical SEO matter if the content is already strong?
Yes — strong content on a page Google can't crawl, render, or trust simply won't rank. Technical SEO is the foundation content strategy sits on top of, not a separate track.
What's the single highest-impact technical fix for most sites?
Fixing pages stuck in "Discovered – currently not indexed" almost always has the fastest, most measurable impact, since it means Google knows the page exists but hasn't allocated crawl budget to render it.
Key Takeaways
- Fix crawlability and indexing before optimising content — Google has to find a page before it can rank it.
- Use field data (CrUX) for Core Web Vitals, not just lab scores.
- Validate every schema block and keep it in sync with visible content.
- Internal links closer to the homepage get crawled and refreshed more often.
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