Technical SEO checklist: a practical audit for small sites

Technical SEO sounds intimidating, but for a small site it comes down to a short list: can search engines crawl your pages, can they index them, and do the pages send clear signals about what they contain? This checklist walks through each area in the order that matters, with the free tool to use at every step. If you want the fast version first, run your URL through the SEO Audit tool — it checks most of this list automatically and scores the result.

1. Confirm search engines can crawl you

Nothing else matters if crawlers are blocked. Check your robots.txt for accidental sitewide rules like Disallow: /, and make sure it references your sitemap.

• Test your robots.txt with the Robots.txt Tester — verify your key pages are allowed for Googlebot.
• If you don't have a robots.txt yet, create one with the Robots.txt Generator.
• Serve everything over HTTPS — a plain-HTTP version of the site splits your signals.

2. Make indexing easy

A clean XML sitemap tells search engines exactly which pages exist and which ones matter. Only include canonical, indexable URLs — no redirects, no error pages, no duplicates.

• Build the file with the XML Sitemap Generator, upload it to your site root, and reference it in robots.txt.
• Submit the sitemap URL in Google Search Console and watch the coverage report.
• Every page should have a self-referencing canonical link — the SEO Audit flags missing ones.

3. Fix the on-page fundamentals

Each indexable page needs a unique title, a compelling meta description, and exactly one H1 that states the topic. These are the highest-leverage tags on the page.

• Write titles and descriptions with the Meta Tag Generator — aim for 50–60 character titles and 150–160 character descriptions.
• Preview how the result will look in search with the SERP Preview before publishing.
• Add alt text to every meaningful image; it helps accessibility and image search.

4. Add structured data where it fits

Schema markup won't fix bad content, but it makes good pages eligible for rich results — FAQ dropdowns, breadcrumbs, product details. Add the types that genuinely match your content.

• Generate valid JSON-LD with the Schema Markup Generator — Article, FAQ, Product, LocalBusiness, or Breadcrumb.
• Going international? Generate hreflang tags with the Hreflang Generator so each language version reaches the right audience.

5. Check performance and mobile

Slow pages lose visitors before content even has a chance. Keep your HTML lean, compress images, and make sure layouts work on small screens — Google indexes the mobile version of your site first.

• The audit report flags heavy pages and missing viewport tags.
• Test at least one page per template, not just the homepage.

6. Repeat quarterly

Technical SEO is not one-and-done. Pages get added, templates change, and plugins break tags silently. Re-run the SEO Audit every few months, and after any redesign. Pair it with our interactive SEO checklist to track progress across the on-page and content work that sits on top of this foundation.