What technical SEO covers
- Crawling and indexing
- Site speed and Core Web Vitals
- Mobile usability
- Site structure and internal linking
- HTTPS and security
- Duplicate content and canonical tags
- Structured data
Crawling and indexing
Google can only rank pages it has indexed. Common blockers:
- A
noindextag left on from development - A
robots.txtfile that blocks important folders - Pages with no internal links pointing to them
- Missing or outdated XML sitemap
Check the Pages report in Google Search Console. It lists every page Google has excluded and why. More in why isn't my website on Google .
Speed and Core Web Vitals
Google measures real user experience with three metrics:
| Metric | Measures | Good |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | How fast the main content appears | 2.5 seconds or less |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | How quickly the page responds to a tap | 200 ms or less |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | How much the layout jumps | 0.1 or less |
The usual fixes: compress images, remove unused plugins and scripts, use caching and a content delivery network, and choose decent hosting. Test any page with the SEO checker .
Mobile first
Google indexes the mobile version of your site. If content is hidden or broken on a phone, that is what Google sees. Text must be readable without zooming, buttons easy to tap and nothing wider than the screen.
Structure and duplicates
- Keep important pages within three clicks of the homepage
- Use one URL per page; redirect the others with a 301
- Add a canonical tag where similar pages must exist, such as filtered product lists
- Fix broken links and redirect chains
HTTPS and structured data
Every page should load over HTTPS. Structured data, written in schema.org format, labels your content for machines: business details, products, reviews, FAQs and articles. It helps with rich results and makes pages easier for AI tools to interpret.
A technical check in 15 minutes
- Search
site:yourdomain.comand confirm your key pages appear. - Open Search Console and read the Pages report.
- Run the homepage and one inner page through the SEO checker.
- Open the site on your phone on mobile data.
- Check that
yourdomain.com/robots.txtis not blocking the site.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a developer for technical SEO?
For some fixes, yes. A good SEO team either makes the changes or writes exact tickets for your developer.
How often should a technical audit be done?
A full audit once or twice a year, with monitoring every month, because sites break as they change.
Is technical SEO a one-off job?
The first clean-up is the biggest. After that it is upkeep, which is part of our complete SEO service .
Related guides
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