Technical SEO checklist: make your site easy to crawl, index, and trust

How do you check crawling and indexing?

• Search Console Page indexing report shows indexed pages and the reasons others are not
• Important pages return 200; removed pages return 404 or 410; moved pages 301
• robots.txt allows the pages and resources needed to render them
• No accidental noindex tags on live pages, especially after a launch from staging
• An XML sitemap lists only canonical, indexable URLs and is submitted in Search Console
• Every important page is linked from at least one other page, so there are no orphans
• Crawl the site with a crawler to find broken links and redirect chains

How should URLs, canonicals, and redirects be set up?

• One preferred version of the site: HTTPS and either www or non-www, with the other redirecting
• A self-referencing canonical tag on each indexable page
• Duplicate or filtered pages point their canonical to the main version
• Permanent moves use 301 redirects straight to the final URL, without chains
• Short, readable URLs with words, not IDs, and a consistent trailing slash rule

How do speed and mobile affect technical SEO?

• Pass Core Web Vitals in the field: LCP, INP, and CLS. See Core Web Vitals
• Compress and size images correctly and use modern formats
• Load only the JavaScript and CSS each page needs
• Use a CDN and caching for static files
• Responsive layout with readable text and tap targets on mobile

Can search engines read JavaScript websites?

Google can render JavaScript, but rendering can be delayed and errors can hide content. Many AI crawlers do not run JavaScript at all. The safest approach is server-side rendering or static prerendering, so the main content, links, titles, and structured data are in the HTML response. Test pages with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.

Which structured data should a site use?

• Organization and WebSite on the home page
• BreadcrumbList on inner pages
• Article for guides and blog posts
• Product, LocalBusiness, Service, or Event where they fit
• FAQPage only for questions visibly answered on the page

Structured data must match what users can see. Validate it with the Rich Results Test.

What about multilingual and multi-region sites?

• hreflang annotations link each language or region version to the others, including itself
• Each language version is a separate URL, not a script that swaps text
• Arabic and other right-to-left pages set the correct lang and dir attributes
• An x-default for the fallback page

Which security and hygiene checks matter for SEO?

• HTTPS everywhere with a valid certificate and no mixed content
• No hacked or spam pages; check Search Console security issues
• Admin, staging, and private areas blocked from indexing
• Custom 404 page that helps users find their way

Technical SEO audits by Hudace

A Hudace SEO audit crawls every URL, checks indexing, speed, structured data, and redirects, and gives a prioritised fix list. Our developers can make the fixes, or your team can. See also technical SEO services and our free website grader.