Updated February 2026 · 8 min read
Technical SEO Checklist for 2026
TL;DR
Technical SEO ensures search engines can crawl, index, and render your site correctly. The 5 pillars: crawlability (robots.txt, sitemaps), indexation (canonicals, noindex), Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), schema markup (Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb), and security/mobile (HTTPS, responsive design).
Crawlability
- □robots.txt allows key pages and AI bots
- □XML sitemap submitted to Search Console
- □No orphan pages (every page has ≥1 internal link)
- □Redirect chains under 3 hops
- □No soft 404s — real 404 pages return 404 status
Indexation
- □Canonical tags on every page
- □No accidental noindex on content pages
- □Hreflang tags for multilingual sites
- □Pagination uses rel=next/prev or load-more
- □Google Search Console shows no coverage errors
Core Web Vitals
- □LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) < 2.5s
- □FID / INP (Interaction to Next Paint) < 200ms
- □CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) < 0.1
- □Images in WebP/AVIF with explicit width/height
- □Font display: swap to prevent FOIT
Schema Markup
- □WebSite schema on homepage
- □Article schema on blog/content pages
- □BreadcrumbList on all non-home pages
- □FAQPage on pages with FAQ sections
- □Speakable schema for AEO-targeted content
Security & Mobile
- □HTTPS everywhere (no mixed content)
- □Mobile-responsive design (viewport meta tag)
- □No intrusive interstitials on mobile
- □Tap targets ≥ 48px spacing
- □Content not blocked behind JavaScript for bots
Free Tools to Check Your Technical SEO
- Meta Tag Analyzer — check meta tags, schema, heading structure for any URL
- Readability Scorer — analyze content readability and keyword density
- Google Search Console — crawl errors, Core Web Vitals, coverage issues
- PageSpeed Insights — Core Web Vitals analysis with actionable fixes
- Rich Results Test — validate JSON-LD schema markup
Continue Learning
Frequently Asked Questions
Technical SEO covers all non-content optimizations that help search engines crawl, index, and render your site. It includes site speed, mobile-friendliness, crawlability, security, and structured data.
Run a comprehensive technical SEO audit quarterly. Monitor Core Web Vitals and crawl errors weekly using Google Search Console.
Yes. Core Web Vitals are a confirmed ranking factor. Crawlability issues can prevent pages from being indexed entirely. Schema markup enables rich results that increase CTR.
Blocking important pages via robots.txt or noindex tags, followed by slow page speed and missing or incorrect canonical tags causing duplicate content issues.
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