The ONLY Technical SEO Checklist You Need In 2025

As a content marketing professional for 7 years, I am a big fan of optimization. While your on-page and off-page SEO strategies boost your website’s visibility on search engines, your SEO strategy stays incomplete without an accurate technical SEO checklist. 

Meet technical SEO – the behind-the-scenes fundamentals that boost your organic growth:

• Page speed,
• Site architecture, 
• Mobile optimization, etc. 

I never paid much attention to technical SEO. I was young (and dumb) – and naturally was obsessed with content, on-page SEO, and even off-page SEO to an extent – but never technical SEO. 

However, after the 2024 Google March Update, a detailed website audit was due – and that was the first time I sat down with technical SEO for real! 

Technical SEO is perhaps the most underrated aspect of search engine optimization – it should be used as a preventive measure. I understood the same too late – and my website bore the cost (trust me on that one). 

So, take this as a precautionary tale! Technical SEO is relevant – and it can make or break your website. In this blog, my sole agenda is to introduce my secret technical SEO checklist. Yes, I’m aware of all the comprehensive checklists available all over the internet by marketing celebrities like Neil Patel and Brian Dean.

But then again – do you have the time, money, and most importantly resources to implement the same? I don’t think so! Welcome to my blog – the young content marketing professional who is trying to make SEO simple. 

While on-page and off-page SEO are much easier to explain and implement, technical SEO appears to be a little more complicated – but it doesn’t have to be so. It’s pretty simple – or at least once you go through my checklist, it will be.

Scroll now – what are you waiting for?

Technical SEO Audit Fundamentals:

Welcome to my Technical SEO checklist. 

It is a beast – a beast that can be broken into multiple digestible pieces. I like tackling big things by breaking them down into chunks – and with the help of checklists.

So, in the technical SEO hierarchy, there are 5 categories, best illustrated by detailed graphic imagery, nostalgic of Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs – only I’ve remixed the same from an optimization viewpoint.

Before you can start your technical SEO audit, here are some fundamentals you need to remember:

1. Audit Your Preferred URL/Domain: 

Which one should you select? www.yourwebsite.com or yourwebsite.come? If you don’t make a choice then search engines will treat the 2 URLs as 2 different websites. 

2. Implement SSL (Secure Sockets Layers):

SSL protects confidential information that any user shares with your website. It acts as protection between a browser and the web server, thereby making your website secure.

3. Optimize Page Loading Speed:

Do you know how long people typically wait for your website to load? 6 seconds! And your bounce rate can increase by a solid 90% with an increase in your loading speed from 1 to 5 seconds. Moreover, loading speed not only improves user experience and increases conversions – but it is also a ranking factor. 

The Role Played By Website Speed And Performance In Technical SEO:

Website speed plays a critical role in creating a positive user experience. When a site loads quickly, visitors are likely to stay and engage with your content. Conversely, a slow-loading website tends to see higher bounce rates, lower engagement, and a negative impact on SEO rankings. One of the key ways to improve your site’s speed is by optimizing images, employing compression methods, reducing server response time, and leveraging browser caching.

Additionally, investing in a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can significantly enhance website performance. CDNs distribute your site’s content to servers worldwide to ensure quick load times for users, despite location.

Furthermore, adopting Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can streamline mobile browsing, as this technology minimizes both page size and load time for mobile users.

Lastly, regular site maintenance and performance monitoring can identify potential roadblocks before they impact user experience. Using website performance measuring tools like Google Lighthouse and Pingdom can help identify areas that require optimization.

Technical SEO Checklist FOR CRAWLABILITY:

Crawlability is your foundation when it comes to creating an efficient technical SEO checklist. So, search bots crawl your web pages and gather data about your website. If these search bots are not able to crawl your web pages then they will not be able to rank or index those pages. 

The first step of any technical SEO checklist starts with crawling – are all your web pages accessible and navigational? 

Here are the elements you need on your checklist to ensure that all your web pages are ready for crawling.

1. You have to create an XML sitemap for your website. Once you are done creating the sitemap, submit it to Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console. Remember, you will have to keep the sitemap updated when you add or remove web pages. 

2. Make the most of your crawl budget. Since this is not an infinite budget, you have to prioritize the most important pages for crawling. So, you can canonicalize or remove duplicate pages. Then you can consider redirecting or fixing broken links. 

3. Optimize your website architecture. Since your website has multiple pages, you have to organize these pages so that search engines can easily find and crawl them.

4. Set an efficient URL structure so that you can structure your URLs in a way your site architecture will be able to determine the same.

5. Check the SEO log files of your website with the help of your developer or use a log file analyzer such as Screaming Frog. 

6. Use pagination to determine which content pages are related to one another – pagination tells a search engine which URLs are related.

Technical SEO Checklist FOR RANKABILITY:

Now let’s talk about how to boost ranking with your technical SEO checklist.

While ranking mostly depends on both off-page and on-page elements, technical SEO also plays a vital role. Remember that 

Now we move to the more topical elements that you’re probably already aware of — how to improve ranking from a technical SEO standpoint. Getting your pages to rank involves some of the on-page and off-page elements that we mentioned before but from a technical lens.

Remember that all elements collaborate to create a website that is SEO-friendly. 

Here are all the elements that you need to add to your technical SEO checklist for rankability:

1. External and internal linking.
2. Quality of backlinks.
3. Content clusters that are authentic and relevant. 

The Role Played By On-Page SEO In Technical SEO:

On-Page SEO optimization enhances individual web pages for higher search engine rankings and improved user experience. It includes optimizing page titles, meta descriptions, URL structures, and heading tags (H1, H2, etc.), which are all fundamental elements of technical SEO.

A well-crafted page title is crucial not only for SEO purposes but also for encouraging people to click and visit your website. That’s where technical SEO solutions come into play. With technical SEO solutions, you can ensure that your page titles are optimized for both relevancy to the content and keywords, ultimately making your website more visible and attracting more users.

Effectively using keywords within your content and HTML tags can enhance search engine visibility. Perform keyword research to identify relevant target phrases, strike a balance between search volume and competition, and naturally incorporate these terms into your site’s content and HTML tags for optimal SEO. While keyword usage is essential, avoid stuffing or overusing them, as this can harm your search engine rankings.

Additionally, internal linking can boost SEO and provide users with an easy navigation experience. By linking relevant and related content, you enable search engine crawlers to index your site more efficiently and uncover deeper pages, improving the overall site ranking.

The Role Played By Mobile-Friendly Design And Responsiveness In Technical SEO:

With the rapid growth of mobile browsing and Google’s mobile-first indexing approach, a mobile-friendly website became indispensable for online success. Implementing responsive design ensures your site seamlessly adapts to various screen sizes, allowing for effortless navigation and interaction for all device users.

A site that does not cater to mobile users risks losing valuable traffic and rankings. To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, which provides recommendations for improving your site’s mobile functionality. Additionally, avoid using Flash and pop-ups, optimize tap targets, and prioritize readability with appropriate font sizes and simplified menus.

The Role Played By A Secure HTTPS Protocol In Technical SEO:

Website security is paramount, and search engines value secured sites over non-secured ones. By adopting HTTPS, you ensure encrypted communication and secure data transmission, instilling confidence in visitors and search engines alike.

HTTPS is an essential ranking signal for Google, and secure sites perform better in search results than unsecured HTTP sites. Additionally, browsers often display a warning notification to users when they visit non-secure sites, which can deter potential visitors and negatively impact your website’s credibility.

Mastering the ins and outs of technical SEO plays an integral role in enhancing your website’s search engine visibility, user experience, and overall success. By focusing on website speed, on-page optimization, mobile-friendliness, and site security, you lay a solid foundation for a high-performing, well-optimized site that attracts and retains users.