Technical SEO issues silently suppress rankings for millions of websites. The sites ranking above you almost certainly have cleaner technical foundations. Here’s the checklist we use in our audits — 20 issues that, when fixed, consistently improve organic performance.
Crawlability and Indexation (Issues 1-5)
1) Check your robots.txt isn’t accidentally blocking important pages. 2) Verify that your most important pages are indexed (use site:yourdomain.com in Google). 3) Find and fix crawl errors in Google Search Console. 4) Ensure your XML sitemap is submitted, current, and free of errors. 5) Identify and consolidate duplicate content (www vs. non-www, HTTP vs. HTTPS, trailing slashes). These are foundational — without getting these right, nothing else matters.
Core Web Vitals and Performance (Issues 6-10)
6) Measure your LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — should be under 2.5 seconds. 7) Check FID/INP (interaction responsiveness) — should be under 200ms. 8) Verify CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — should be under 0.1. 9) Optimize images — convert to WebP format, add width/height attributes to prevent layout shift, use lazy loading. 10) Implement proper browser caching and CDN to improve load times globally. Our technical SEO service fixes all of these.
On-Page and Structure (Issues 11-15)
11) Ensure every page has a unique, keyword-rich title tag. 12) Write compelling meta descriptions for your most important pages (they don’t affect rankings but impact CTR). 13) Check your H1 structure — one H1 per page, containing the primary keyword. 14) Audit internal links — are your most important pages receiving adequate internal link equity? 15) Implement breadcrumbs to improve site navigation and generate breadcrumb rich results in search.
Schema, Security, and Mobile (Issues 16-20)
16) Add Organization schema to your homepage with your name, logo, contact info, and social profiles. 17) Add LocalBusiness schema if you serve a geographic area. 18) Implement Article or BlogPosting schema on all blog posts. 19) Verify your site is fully HTTPS — no mixed content warnings. 20) Test your mobile usability in Google Search Console and fix any flagged issues. These final items are increasingly important as Google’s mobile-first indexing makes mobile experience a core ranking factor.
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Frequently asked questions
What’s the recommended Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) target?
Under 2.5 seconds. LCP is one of Google’s Core Web Vitals, alongside FID/INP (interaction responsiveness, under 200ms) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift, under 0.1).
What crawlability issues should be checked first in a technical SEO audit?
Whether robots.txt is accidentally blocking important pages, whether key pages are indexed, crawl errors in Search Console, XML sitemap accuracy, and duplicate content from www/non-www or HTTP/HTTPS variants — these foundational issues need fixing before anything else matters.
What schema types does the checklist recommend adding?
Organization schema on the homepage (name, logo, contact, social profiles), LocalBusiness schema for geographically-served businesses, and Article or BlogPosting schema on all blog posts.
Technical SEO Checklist: 20 Things to Fix Right Now. DigiJaws, 2026. https://digijaws.com/reviews/technical-seo-checklist/