A technical SEO checklist for a small business website
A plain-English checklist of the technical basics search engines need from your website, from indexing rules to speed and structured data.
Published · Updated
Put this into practice
Can search engines find and index your pages?
- Your pages do not carry a noindex rule by mistake. This is common after a site launch.
- robots.txt does not block pages you want found
- You have an XML sitemap and it is listed in robots.txt
- Important pages return a normal status, not errors or long redirect chains
Are your on-page basics right?
- Every page has a unique title and meta description
- Each page has one clear H1 and logical sub-headings
- Images have descriptive alt text
- A canonical tag points to the preferred version of each page
Is your site fast on mobile?
Pages that load slowly or shift around while loading frustrate visitors. Check Core Web Vitals (loading, responsiveness and visual stability) and fix the biggest items first, which are usually oversized images and heavy scripts.
Can machines understand your content?
Add structured data (schema markup) for your business, articles and FAQs, and make sure your site is readable to AI assistants as well as search engines.
How often should you re-check?
Technical issues come back when sites change. Re-run the checks after every redesign, migration or big plugin update.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I run a technical SEO check?
After any major site change, and at least every few months for a site that is updated regularly.
Is technical SEO enough to rank?
No. It removes obstacles. Ranking also depends on content quality, search intent and how other sites refer to you.