Technical SEO Checklist for Non-Developers

Why Technical SEO Matters (Even If You're Not Technical)

Technical SEO is the foundation everything else sits on. You can have the best content in the world, but if Google can't crawl, index, or render your pages properly, nobody will ever see it.

The good news: you don't need to fix these things yourself. You just need to know what to check and how to brief your developer or agency.

The Checklist

1. Is Your Site Indexable?

Check: Go to Google and search site:yourdomain.com. This shows every page Google has indexed.

Red flags:

• Far fewer pages than you'd expect (pages are missing from the index)
• Pages showing up that shouldn't be (old URLs, staging sites, duplicate pages)
• Zero results (your site isn't indexed at all)

Fix brief: "Check robots.txt for blocking directives. Review noindex tags. Submit sitemap to Search Console."

2. Is Your Site Fast?

Check: Run your homepage through Google PageSpeed Insights.

Target scores:

• Mobile: 85+
• Desktop: 90+

Common speed killers:

• Uncompressed images (use WebP format, compress to under 200KB)
• Too many third-party scripts (chat widgets, analytics, social embeds)
• No caching headers
• Slow server response time (TTFB over 600ms)

Fix brief: "Compress all images to WebP. Lazy-load images below the fold. Audit third-party scripts and remove non-essential ones. Enable browser caching."

3. Is Your Site Mobile-Friendly?

Check: Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test or just load your site on your phone.

Red flags:

• Text too small to read without zooming
• Buttons too close together to tap
• Horizontal scrolling required
• Content wider than the viewport

Fix brief: "Ensure responsive design at all breakpoints. Minimum 16px body text. Minimum 48px tap targets. Test on iPhone SE (smallest common screen)."

4. Do You Have an XML Sitemap?

Check: Visit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. It should exist and list your key pages.

Red flags:

• 404 error (no sitemap exists)
• Sitemap includes pages you don't want indexed
• Sitemap hasn't been updated in months

Fix brief: "Generate an XML sitemap including all published pages. Exclude admin pages, tags, and archives. Submit to Google Search Console."

5. Is Your Site Secure (HTTPS)?

Check: Look at your browser's address bar. There should be a padlock icon and the URL should start with https://.

Red flags:

• "Not Secure" warning in the browser
• Mixed content (some resources loading over HTTP)
• SSL certificate expired

Fix brief: "Install SSL certificate. Redirect all HTTP URLs to HTTPS. Fix mixed content warnings."

6. Do You Have Proper URL Structure?

Check: Look at your URLs. They should be clean, readable, and descriptive.

Good: /services/seo-audit Bad: /page?id=47&cat=3

Red flags:

• Dynamic parameters in URLs
• Uppercase letters or special characters
• Excessively long URLs
• Multiple URLs for the same content (duplicates)

Fix brief: "Implement clean URL slugs. Redirect old URLs to new ones with 301 redirects. Set canonical tags on all pages."

7. Do You Have Schema Markup?

Check: Use Google's Rich Results Test and paste your homepage URL.

Recommended schema types for service businesses:

• LocalBusiness (with address, phone, hours)
• Service (for each service page)
• FAQPage (for FAQ sections)
• BreadcrumbList (for navigation)
• Review/AggregateRating (for testimonials)

Fix brief: "Add JSON-LD structured data to homepage (LocalBusiness), service pages (Service), and FAQ sections (FAQPage)."

8. Do You Have Proper Heading Structure?

Check: Use a browser extension like "HeadingsMap" to see your page's heading hierarchy.

Rules:

• One H1 per page (the main title)
• H2s for major sections
• H3s for subsections
• Never skip levels (H1 — H3 without H2)

Fix brief: "Audit all pages for heading hierarchy. Ensure single H1 per page. Restructure headings to follow logical H1 — H2 — H3 order."

9. Are Your Images Optimised?

Check: Open DevTools (F12) — Network — Images. Look at file sizes.

Targets:

• Hero images: under 200KB
• Thumbnails: under 50KB
• All images: WebP format with descriptive alt text

Fix brief: "Convert all images to WebP. Add descriptive alt text to every image. Implement lazy loading for below-fold images."

10. Internal Linking

Check: Navigate your site. Can you reach every important page within 3 clicks from the homepage?

Red flags:

• Orphan pages (pages with no links pointing to them)
• Shallow linking (only linking from navigation)
• No contextual links within content

Fix brief: "Audit internal links using Screaming Frog. Add contextual links from blog posts to service pages. Ensure all key pages are reachable within 3 clicks."

How to Use This Checklist

1. Run through each check yourself (takes about 30 minutes)
2. Note which items fail
3. Send the "Fix brief" for each failing item to your developer or agency
4. Re-check in 2 weeks after fixes are implemented

If more than 3 items are failing, consider a full technical SEO audit. The fixes compound—sorting out speed AND indexing AND structure together has a bigger impact than fixing them one at a time.

Request a Technical SEO Audit