Technical SEO Checklist for 2026 (Plain-English)

Great content can’t rank if Google can’t crawl, render or understand your site. This is the technical SEO checklist we work through — in plain English.

1. Core Web Vitals

Google uses page experience as a ranking signal, with Core Web Vitals as its measurable core. Check and fix:

• LCP (largest contentful paint) — how fast your main content loads. Aim under 2.5s.
• INP (interaction to next paint) — how responsive the page feels. Keep it low.
• CLS (cumulative layout shift) — things jumping around as the page loads. Aim near zero (set width/height on images).

If these numbers are bad because of the platform itself — a page-builder theme, render-blocking scripts you can’t remove, content that only loads client-side — that’s not a checklist item, it’s a rebuild question. We’ll tell you honestly which one you’re looking at before you spend on either.

2. Crawlability

Make sure Google can reach your important pages and isn’t wasting crawl budget on junk:

• A clean robots.txt that doesn’t block what matters
• An up-to-date XML sitemap submitted in Search Console
• No accidental noindex on pages you want ranked

3. Indexing

Check Search Console’s “Pages” report. Are your key pages actually indexed? Fix “discovered – not indexed” and “crawled – not indexed” issues, usually caused by thin content, duplicates or crawl-budget waste.

4. Site architecture & internal links

A flat, logical structure with strong internal linking helps Google (and users) find your most important pages — and passes authority to them. Important pages should be few clicks from the homepage.

5. Schema / structured data

Add accurate structured data — Organization, Article, FAQ, Product, Breadcrumb — that matches your visible content (marking up content that isn’t on the page breaches Google’s guidelines). Schema also helps AI engines understand and cite you.

6. Mobile-first

Google indexes the mobile version of your site. Make sure it’s fully responsive, fast, and has the same content as desktop.

7. Health & hygiene

The unglamorous stuff that quietly hurts rankings:

• HTTPS everywhere
• Fix broken links and 404s
• Correct redirects (avoid chains)
• Canonical tags to handle duplicates
• No duplicate title tags or meta descriptions

8. Don’t forget speed at the source

The fastest sites are built fast — static where possible, minimal heavy JavaScript, optimised images (AVIF/WebP with set dimensions). Bolting performance on later is harder than building it in.

Common questions

What are good Core Web Vitals scores in 2026? Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1, measured on real users at the 75th percentile. Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report shows whether your pages meet them.

Why are my pages “Discovered – currently not indexed” in Search Console? Google knows the URL exists but has not crawled it yet, usually because it is spending crawl budget elsewhere — on duplicates, redirects or dead URLs — or because it does not consider the page important enough. Cleaning up junk URLs, strengthening internal links to the page and requesting indexing all help.

How often should I run a technical SEO audit? A full audit once or twice a year for a stable site, plus a check after every redesign, platform migration or large content change. Search Console’s Pages and Core Web Vitals reports are worth a quick look every month.

Does structured data help with AI search? It helps engines understand what a page is about and who is behind it, which makes the content easier to extract and attribute. It only works when the markup matches what is visible on the page; marking up content that is not there breaches Google’s guidelines.

Want a prioritised technical audit done for you? See our technical SEO service, or run a free instant on-page check to see where you stand right now.