The technical SEO checklist is the first and most essential step in building a solid SEO strategy. No matter what industry your company or brand operates in, focusing on your website’s technical foundation is now more critical than ever. A technically optimized website doesn’t just rank better in search results; it also attracts more organic traffic, boosts keyword visibility, and drives meaningful conversions.

Below is a detailed technical SEO checklist designed to help you confidently enhance your website’s performance and ensure it’s fully ready for search engines and users alike.

1. Improve Core Web Vitals: technical seo checklist

The first step in any effective technical SEO checklist is optimizing your Core Web Vitals the key metrics Google uses to evaluate user experience and directly influence your rankings. These three elements are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how long it takes for the largest element on the page (such as a hero image) to fully load. It should happen within 2.5 seconds or less for a positive user experience.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Replaced FID in March 2024 and measures how quickly a page responds to user interactions. Aim for 200 milliseconds or less.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Evaluates how stable page elements are during loading. A CLS score below 0.1 prevents unexpected shifts that frustrate users.

You can track these metrics in Google Search Console to identify pages that need improvement.

Practical tips:

• Use PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest to analyze speed issues.
• Enable lazy loading for non-essential images.
• Optimize image formats for faster rendering.
• Minimize JavaScript execution time.
  

2. Optimize for AI-Powered Search

A modern technical SEO checklist must adapt to the rise of AI-driven search engines. With Google and others shifting toward generative AI, websites need to embrace Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — a new stage of crawling that focuses on natural language understanding.

To prepare, create content that thoroughly addresses user intent, anticipates follow-up questions, and is structured for voice search and complex conversations. Your site’s technical foundation should support dynamic personalization, Schema markup, and long-tail keyword targeting without compromising essential SEO elements.

3. Replace Intrusive Pop-Ups with Smart Banners

Intrusive pop-ups can harm user experience and damage your credibility, ultimately hurting rankings. A smart technical SEO checklist recommends replacing them with subtle banners that don’t block content.

Avoid overwhelming users with ads that reduce content quality and weaken E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) signals.

4. Elevate User Experience

Improving UX goes beyond removing pop-ups. In 2025, a competitive technical SEO checklist includes using contextual banners that adapt to user behavior and dynamic content that matches user interests.

Follow WCAG accessibility guidelines to ensure inclusivity, and consider adopting Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for a smooth mobile experience with features like offline browsing and push notifications that increase engagement.

5. Perfect Mobile Display

Google now prioritizes mobile-first indexing, making mobile speed and usability key ranking factors. Review image sizes and quality, improve menus and navigation links, and optimize call-to-action buttons for a seamless mobile journey.

As voice search continues to grow, make sure your site is easy to navigate via voice commands to provide an intuitive user experience.

6. Secure Your Site with HTTPS

Since 2014, Google has treated HTTPS as a ranking factor, making security an essential part of any technical SEO checklist. If your site still runs on HTTP, it’s time to upgrade with an SSL or TLS certificate.

HTTPS protects user data, blocks hacking attempts, and enables advanced features like autofill for payments, geolocation services, and web push notifications. Use Google Safe Browsing to check your site’s security status and ensure all pages are encrypted.

7. Speed Up with Signed Exchanges (SXG)

Signed Exchanges (SXG) are an advanced technology that allows Google to prefetch your website content without compromising user privacy. This significantly improves page load times by fetching HTML, JavaScript, and images before users even click the result.

Before implementing SXG, analyze your traffic to identify slow pages and improve them through caching, HTTP/3, and QUIC protocols. These techniques not only enhance user experience but also help optimize crawl budget an important part of technical SEO checklists for larger sites.

Advanced Technical SEO Checklist Steps

Once the basics are covered, the next phase involves deeper optimizations to strengthen site visibility and indexing. These advanced steps are crucial for improving user experience, streamlining website crawling, and maximizing crawl budget efficiency.

Fix Crawl Errors

Crawl errors occur when search engines fail to access specific pages, preventing proper indexing and harming rankings. Use tools like Screaming Frog and Google Search Console to detect crawl errors and analyze your site structure.

Focus on:

• Resolving 401, 404, and 500 errors.
• Ensuring proper use of 301 redirects for broken pages.
• Fixing redirect chains and loops that slow down crawlers.

Repair Broken Links

Nothing frustrates users more than clicking a dead link. Broken links hurt both user experience and internal/external SEO. A thorough technical SEO checklist includes regular broken link audits.

Check for:

• Links leading to error pages (401, 403, 404).
• Links that redirect through multiple hops (301 or 302).
• Orphan pages without internal links.
• Deep internal links that require 3–4+ clicks to reach.

Update broken links to correct URLs or use 301 redirects to relevant alternative pages if the original no longer exists.

Conclusion

A well-executed technical SEO checklist lays the groundwork for strong search visibility, better crawling, and efficient use of your site’s crawl budget. By improving Core Web Vitals, optimizing for AI search, securing your website, and fixing crawl and link issues, you give search engines every reason to rank your site higher while providing users with a fast, secure, and enjoyable experience.

How Boost and Rank Helps You Execute the Perfect New Website SEO Checklist

Launching a site without a professional SEO checklist puts you at a disadvantage from the start. Boost and Rank specializes in delivering tailored new website SEO strategies that ensure your site is fully optimized from day one. Our services include:

• Comprehensive site and audience analysis.
• Customized keyword research and mapping.
• Technical SEO setup and improved user experience.
• High-quality, SEO-friendly content creation.
• Ongoing performance tracking and detailed monthly reporting.

With Boost and Rank, you get a dedicated team of SEO specialists who follow a proven SEO checklist to position your site at the top of search engine results, driving sustainable organic traffic and long-term growth for your business.