This is the exact checklist we run during every new client technical audit. It's been refined across 50+ website audits over three years. Every single item on this list has, at some point, been the root cause of a client's ranking problems.

We've grouped it into six categories. Work through them in order — the earlier categories tend to have higher impact and are often prerequisites for the later ones.

Category 1: Crawlability & Indexation (9 items)

  1. robots.txt is correctly configured — Not blocking CSS, JS, or important sections
  2. XML sitemap is present and submitted — Only includes indexable URLs, no 404s or redirects
  3. Canonical tags are implemented correctly — No self-referencing canonicals on non-canonical pages
  4. noindex tags are intentional — No important pages accidentally marked noindex
  5. Crawl depth is under 4 clicks from homepage — Important pages are accessible within 4 clicks
  6. No redirect chains longer than 2 hops — Every extra hop wastes crawl budget
  7. Pagination is handled correctly — rel="next/prev" or self-canonical, depending on strategy
  8. Faceted navigation is controlled — URL parameters not creating thousands of duplicate pages
  9. International markup is correct (if applicable) — hreflang implemented without errors

Category 2: Core Web Vitals & Performance (8 items)

  1. LCP under 2.5s on mobile — The single most impactful ranking factor in page experience
  2. INP (Interaction to Next Paint) under 200ms — Replaced FID as the interaction metric in 2024
  3. CLS under 0.1 — No layout shifts from images loading without dimensions
  4. TTFB under 800ms — Server response time matters more than most people realise
  5. Images are in WebP or AVIF format — Not PNG or uncompressed JPEG
  6. Images have explicit width and height attributes — Prevents CLS
  7. Critical CSS is inlined — Above-the-fold styles load without render-blocking
  8. Third-party scripts are loaded async or deferred — Analytics, chat widgets, A/B testing tools are common culprits

Core Web Vitals failures are silent ranking penalties. Most sites fail at least 2–3 of these checks without knowing it. Run your site through PageSpeed Insights and the CrUX report before anything else.

Category 3: On-Page & Content (8 items)

  1. Each page has a unique, descriptive title tag — Under 60 characters, primary keyword near the front
  2. Each page has a unique meta description — Under 155 characters, includes a call to action
  3. H1 is present and unique on every page — Only one H1 per page, no keyword stuffing
  4. Heading hierarchy is logical — H2s under H1, H3s under H2s — never skipping levels
  5. Thin content pages are consolidated or removed — Under 300 words with no backlinks is usually a liability
  6. Duplicate content is resolved — Either canonicalized, 301'd, or made unique
  7. Images have descriptive alt text — Not empty, not keyword-stuffed, actually descriptive
  8. Internal links use descriptive anchor text — Not "click here" or "read more"

Category 4: Technical Architecture (7 items)

  1. HTTPS is correctly implemented — No mixed content warnings, no HTTP pages that should be HTTPS
  2. www vs non-www is consistent — Redirect all variants to one canonical root
  3. URL structure is clean and logical — Lowercase, hyphens not underscores, no parameters where possible
  4. 404 pages return a 404 status code — Soft 404s (200 status on error pages) confuse crawlers
  5. Redirect map is maintained — Every deleted or moved URL has a documented 301 redirect
  6. Site architecture supports topical authority — Related content is clustered under logical URL hierarchies
  7. Mobile version is the same content as desktop — Google indexes mobile-first; any content difference is a problem

Category 5: Schema & Structured Data (6 items)

  1. Organization schema on homepage — Name, URL, logo, social profiles
  2. BreadcrumbList schema on inner pages — Helps Google understand site structure
  3. Product schema on product pages — Price, availability, reviews — all with valid markup
  4. Article schema on blog/news pages — Author, datePublished, dateModified
  5. FAQPage schema where applicable — High SERP real estate for informational queries
  6. No schema validation errors — Test in Google's Rich Results Test tool

Category 6: Backlinks & Authority (5 items)

  1. No toxic backlink profile — No link schemes, no PBNs, no mass directory submissions
  2. Internal PageRank flows to commercial pages — Pillar pages get the most internal links
  3. Domain Rating trend is stable or growing — Sudden drops can indicate a manual penalty or negative SEO
  4. Brand mentions without links are identified — These are link building opportunities
  5. Competitor backlink gaps are mapped — Which high-authority sites link to competitors but not to you?

How to Use This List

Don't audit all 43 items and produce a report that gets ignored. Prioritise by impact — Categories 1 and 2 almost always have the highest-impact fixes. Work through them in order, fix as you go, and track ranking movements weekly.

Most clients we audit have 8–12 critical issues from this list. Fixing them typically produces ranking improvements within 30–60 days — before any new content or links are added.