Technical SEO Checklist for Non-Developers

You can write the best page in your industry and still get zero search traffic if Google can’t reach it, can’t index it or decides another URL is the “real” version. That’s the job of technical SEO: making sure nothing on the back end gets in the way.

The word “technical” scares many owners off. But most of these checks don’t require code. Website builders such as Shopify, Squarespace, Wix and WordPress handle much of the plumbing. You mainly need to know what to look for and which free tool shows it.

This checklist covers the essentials in the order problems usually appear: crawling, indexing, site structure, speed and mobile. Each item tells you how to check it yourself.

Before you start: set up your free tools

You need 3 free tools for almost every check below.

Tool	What it does	How to get it
Google Search Console	Shows indexing status, search performance, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals and errors for your site	Add and verify your site at search.google.com/search-console
PageSpeed Insights	Tests a single page’s speed and Core Web Vitals on mobile and desktop	Visit pagespeed.web.dev and enter a URL
Bing Webmaster Tools	Similar data for Bing, plus support for IndexNow	Sign up with a Microsoft, Google or Facebook account

Verify Search Console using the method your website builder recommends. Most offer a 1-click connection or a DNS record.

The technical SEO checklist at a glance

Area	Check	Tool to use	Fix owner
Crawling	Robots.txt isn’t blocking important pages	Search Console, yoursite.com/robots.txt	You or developer
Crawling	Important pages are linked from other pages	Your navigation and site menu	You
Indexing	Key pages show as indexed	URL Inspection, Page indexing report	You
Indexing	No accidental noindex tags	URL Inspection	You or developer
Indexing	XML sitemap submitted and error-free	Sitemaps report	You
Duplicates	Canonical URLs set; old URLs redirect	URL Inspection	You or developer
Errors	No broken pages or soft 404s on key URLs	Page indexing report	You
Security	Site loads on HTTPS everywhere	Browser, Search Console	Host or builder
Mobile	Pages work and match desktop content on phones	Your phone, URL Inspection	You or developer
Speed	Core Web Vitals in the “good” range	PageSpeed Insights, Core Web Vitals report	You or developer
Structured data	Markup is valid	Rich Results Test	You or developer

Crawling checks: can Google reach your pages?

Google’s crawler, Googlebot, discovers pages mainly by following links and reading sitemaps. If it can’t reach a page, nothing else matters.

1. Check your robots.txt file

Type yoursite.com/robots.txt into your browser. This file tells crawlers which URLs they can access. Look for lines like Disallow: /, which blocks your whole site. That’s a common leftover from a site that was built in “hidden” or staging mode.

Important: robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. Google says it isn’t a way to keep a page out of Google. A blocked URL can still appear in results if other sites link to it. To keep a page out of search, use a noindex tag or password protection instead.

2. Make sure important pages are linked

Every page you want found should be linked from at least 1 other page on your site, ideally through your menu or a relevant page. Google crawls standard HTML links (<a href>) reliably. Links that only work through JavaScript click handlers may be missed. “Orphan” pages with no internal links are hard for Google to find.

Indexing checks: is Google storing your pages?

3. Inspect your key pages

In Search Console, paste your homepage URL into the URL Inspection bar at the top. It tells you whether the page is indexed, which canonical URL Google chose, whether it’s mobile-friendly and when it was last crawled. Repeat for your 5 to 10 most important pages.

If a page isn’t indexed and you’ve fixed any problem, click “Request indexing.”

4. Review the Page indexing report

The Page indexing report lists every URL Google knows about and why some aren’t indexed. Google says it’s normal for some pages not to be indexed; what matters is that your important ones are. Common reasons and what to do:

Status	What it means	What to do
URL marked “noindex”	The page tells Google not to index it	Remove the tag if the page should appear
URL blocked by robots.txt	Robots.txt stops crawling	Edit robots.txt if the page should be crawled
Soft 404	Page looks empty or “not found” but returns a normal status	Add real content or return a proper 404
Not found (404)	Page doesn’t exist	Fine if removed on purpose; redirect if it moved
Crawled, currently not indexed	Google saw it but chose not to index it yet	Improve uniqueness and usefulness; add internal links
Discovered, currently not indexed	Google knows it exists but hasn’t crawled it	Add internal links; check site speed and server health
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user	Google picked a different main version than you did	Make the canonical, links and sitemap consistent
Server error (5xx)	Your server failed when Google visited	Contact your host

5. Look for accidental noindex tags

Many platforms have a “hide from search engines” or “discourage search engines” setting, often switched on during development. Check your site settings and SEO plugin settings. URL Inspection and the Page indexing report will flag the page as marked “noindex” if this is the problem.

6. Submit an XML sitemap

A sitemap lists the URLs you want Google to know about. Most website builders and SEO plugins create one automatically, often at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Submit it in Search Console’s Sitemaps report and check it reads without errors.

A few facts from Google’s documentation:

• A single sitemap can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed. Larger sites use multiple sitemaps with an index file.
• Submitting a sitemap is a hint, not a guarantee of crawling or indexing.
• Google ignores the priority and changefreq values and uses lastmod only when it’s consistently accurate.

You can also list your sitemap in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line, which helps other search engines find it.

Key takeaway: Most technical SEO problems on small business sites come down to 3 things: a robots.txt block, a forgotten noindex setting, or pages no one links to. Check those first; they take 15 minutes and fix the worst problems.

Site structure and duplicate content

7. Pick 1 version of every URL

Your site might be reachable at http://, https://, with www and without. Each version should redirect to 1 preferred version. Type each variation into your browser and confirm they all land on the same address.

8. Use canonicals and redirects for duplicates

Duplicate pages are common: product pages reachable from several categories, tracking parameters, printer-friendly versions. Google groups duplicates and picks 1 canonical URL. You can guide it with:

• Redirects, which Google treats as a strong signal
• A rel="canonical" tag, also a strong signal
• Sitemap inclusion, a weak signal

Use them consistently. If your canonical tag points to 1 URL but your sitemap and internal links point to another, Google may choose differently.

9. Redirect moved pages properly

When you change a page’s URL or remove a page that has a replacement, use a permanent redirect (301 or 308). Google recommends keeping redirects for as long as possible, generally at least a year, and pointing old URLs directly to the final destination rather than through chains. Google says permanent redirects don’t cause a loss in PageRank.

10. Use clean, readable URLs

Google recommends readable words over long ID numbers, and hyphens instead of underscores. This matters most when you’re setting up a new site; don’t rename working URLs without a reason.

Security, mobile and speed

11. Serve the whole site over HTTPS

Your site should load with a padlock in the browser on every page. Most hosts and builders include free SSL certificates. Google lists secure serving as part of page experience. Check for “mixed content,” where an HTTPS page loads images or scripts over HTTP.

12. Make sure mobile pages match desktop

Google uses the mobile version of a site’s content for indexing and ranking. If your mobile layout hides text, images or structured data that appear on desktop, Google may not see them. Responsive designs, which most modern themes use, handle this automatically.

13. Check Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure real-user experience. Google’s “good” targets:

Metric	Measures	Good target
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)	Loading speed of the main content	Within 2.5 seconds
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)	Responsiveness to taps and clicks	Under 200 milliseconds
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)	Visual stability while loading	Under 0.1

Check the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console for site-wide trends and PageSpeed Insights for individual pages. Common fixes that don’t require code: compress and resize images, remove unused apps or plugins, limit auto-playing video and pop-ups, and use a content delivery network if your host offers one.

14. Validate structured data

If your site uses structured data for products, events or business details, run key pages through Google’s Rich Results Test. Fix errors on required properties. Many store platforms add Product markup automatically; see our guide to SEO for product and category pages for ecommerce specifics.

Where to start: a 1-hour technical SEO check

1. Minutes 0 to 10: Set up or open Google Search Console. Submit your sitemap.
2. Minutes 10 to 20: Open robots.txt and check for blocks. Check your platform’s “hide from search engines” setting.
3. Minutes 20 to 35: Inspect your homepage and 5 key pages with URL Inspection. Request indexing where needed.
4. Minutes 35 to 45: Review the Page indexing report for statuses affecting important URLs.
5. Minutes 45 to 55: Test your homepage and 1 key page in PageSpeed Insights on mobile.
6. Minutes 55 to 60: Confirm all URL variations redirect to 1 HTTPS version.

Then set a monthly reminder to check Search Console for new issues. Google also emails verified owners about significant problems.

Once Google can crawl and index your pages, the next step is making each page the best answer. Use our on-page SEO checklist for that, and our what is SEO guide for the big picture. Local businesses should pair this with our guide to near me searches. Terms you don’t recognize are in our glossary.

Conclusion

Technical SEO isn’t about chasing perfect scores. It’s about removing barriers: make sure Google can crawl your pages, index the right versions, read them on mobile and load them quickly. For most small business sites, 1 focused hour in Search Console fixes the biggest issues. Check monthly, fix what matters for your important pages and leave the rest.

Sources

• Google Search Central: Introduction to robots.txt — what robots.txt does and doesn’t do
• Google Search Central: Build and submit a sitemap — size limits and how Google uses sitemap fields
• Search Console Help: Page indexing report — indexing statuses and what they mean
• Google Search Central: How to specify a canonical URL — redirects, rel=canonical and sitemaps as signals
• Google Search Central: Site moves with URL changes — 301 and 308 redirects and keeping them at least a year
• Google Search Central: Understanding Core Web Vitals — LCP, INP and CLS thresholds