Technical SEO Checklist — 40 Items With How to Test Each
A technical SEO checklist with 40 items and testing methods. Speed, mobile, security, indexation and structured data for Bahrain websites.
Technical SEO ensures search engines can crawl, index, and understand your site. This 40-item checklist covers speed, mobile, security, structured data, and indexation — with tools to test each.
Site speed and performance
| # | Item | How to test | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds | Google PageSpeed Insights, CrUX report | High |
| 2 | First Input Delay under 100ms | PageSpeed Insights, web-vitals library | High |
| 3 | Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1 | PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse | High |
| 4 | Enable compression (Brotli or Gzip) | Check HTTP response headers via DevTools | High |
| 5 | Leverage browser caching for static assets | Lighthouse, cache-control header check | Medium |
| 6 | Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML | PageSpeed Insights, built-in build tools | Medium |
| 7 | Serve images in next-gen formats (WebP, AVIF) | Lighthouse | Medium |
| 8 | Use a CDN for global delivery | Check response headers for CDN origin | Medium |
| 9 | Eliminate render-blocking resources | Lighthouse coverage report | Medium |
| 10 | Use HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 protocol | DevTools network panel | Low |
Mobile optimisation
| # | Item | How to test | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Mobile-friendly test passes | Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool | High |
| 12 | Viewport meta tag configured correctly | View source for <meta name="viewport"> | High |
| 13 | Touch targets are adequately sized (48px minimum) | Lighthouse mobile audit | Medium |
| 14 | Font sizes legible without zooming | Manual check on mobile device | Medium |
| 15 | No horizontal scrolling on mobile | Manual check, DevTools responsive mode | High |
| 16 | Content width matches device width | Manual check across devices | Medium |
Crawling and indexation
| # | Item | How to test | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console | Search Console Sitemaps report | High |
| 18 | Sitemap includes only canonical, indexable pages | Manual review of sitemap XML | Medium |
| 19 | robots.txt is accessible and correct | Visit /robots.txt in browser | High |
| 20 | No important pages blocked by robots.txt | Search Console Index coverage report | High |
| 21 | Canonical tags set on all pages | View source or use URL inspection tool | High |
| 22 | No duplicate meta title or descriptions | Screaming Frog or Sitebulb crawl | High |
| 23 | 404 pages return proper 404 status code | Check via browser DevTools or HTTP header tool | High |
| 24 | 301 redirects used for moved pages (not 302) | Redirect checker tools | High |
| 25 | No broken internal links | Screaming Frog or Sitebulb crawl | High |
| 26 | Pagination uses rel="next" and rel="prev" or equivalent | View source on paginated series | Medium |
| 27 | JavaScript rendered content is accessible to search engines | Google URL Inspection tool (View Crawled Page) | Medium |
| 28 | Core pages indexed in Google (check via site: query) | site:domain.com search, Search Console | High |
Security and HTTPS
| # | Item | How to test | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | SSL certificate valid and not expired | Check padlock in browser, SSL checker tools | High |
| 30 | All pages serve over HTTPS (no mixed content) | Lighthouse, browser console warnings | High |
| 31 | HTTP redirects to HTTPS | Visit http:// and check redirect | High |
| 32 | No insecure form actions | Check form action URLs use HTTPS | High |
| 33 | HSTS header configured | Security headers checker tools | Low |
Structured data
| # | Item | How to test | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | Schema markup present on relevant pages | Google Rich Results Test, Schema.org validator | Medium |
| 35 | JSON-LD format used (preferred over microdata) | View source, inspect script tags | Medium |
| 36 | Schema matches content on the page (no misleading data) | Manual review | High |
| 37 | Rich results are eligible and appearing in Search Console | Search Console Enhancements reports | Medium |
For full schema implementation guidance, see our schema markup guide.
International and multi-language
| # | Item | How to test | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | hreflang tags correctly implemented for multi-language sites | Hreflang tag checker tools | Medium |
| 39 | Language is declared in HTML lang attribute | View page source | Medium |
| 40 | No country-specific pages competing for same keywords | Search Console performance report | Low |
Working through this checklist systematically ensures search engines can access, interpret and rank your site effectively. For a broader look at on-page factors, refer to our on-page SEO checklist. For more on the metrics driving speed optimisation, see our Core Web Vitals explainer.
Frequently asked questions
Technical SEO is the practice of optimising your website's infrastructure so search engines can crawl, index and render your pages effectively. It covers speed, mobile usability, security, structured data and site architecture.
Google Search Console is the best free tool. Check the Index and Experience reports for crawl errors, mobile usability problems and Core Web Vitals scores. Site audit tools like Screaming Frog provide deeper analysis.
Yes. Page speed is a confirmed ranking factor for both mobile and desktop. Google's Core Web Vitals — particularly Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds — are direct ranking signals.
Noindex tells search engines not to include the page in their index. Nofollow tells them not to follow links on the page. Noindex affects visibility; nofollow affects link equity. They serve different purposes and can be used separately or together.
Every website benefits from an XML sitemap. It helps search engines discover all your important pages, especially newer content that may not have many internal links yet.