Technical SEO Checklist for 2026: The Audit I Actually Run

I built Raptor, an open source SEO audit CLI in Rust with 114 plus analyzers, because the existing tools were either too slow, too expensive, or missed things I cared about. The checks below are the ones I have prioritized over years of auditing Hampton Roads business sites with both Raptor and Screaming Frog.

This is not a generic "10 tips for technical SEO" post. This is the actual checklist I run, in order, with what each check catches and how to fix it.

Want a free technical SEO audit of your site? Run Raptor against your site or see our SEO services.

The Order Matters#

Technical SEO is sequential. Fixing schema before fixing indexability is wasted effort because Google cannot read the schema on pages it cannot crawl. The order I run audits in:

Crawlability and indexability
Site structure and architecture
Core Web Vitals and performance
On page technical elements
Schema markup
Mobile and accessibility
Security

Phase 1: Crawlability And Indexability#

Without this, nothing else matters.

Check 1: robots.txt audit. Are you accidentally blocking important content? I have seen Hampton Roads sites that disallowed their entire blog or their service pages because of a mistake six months ago that nobody noticed. Use Search Console's robots.txt tester.

Check 2: XML sitemap. Does it exist? Is it submitted to Search Console? Does it include all indexable pages? Does it exclude noindex pages, redirected pages, and pages with errors? Sitemap size limits are 50,000 URLs and 50MB. Most Hampton Roads small business sites are well under both.

Check 3: Search Console coverage report. Look for crawl errors, indexing issues, and pages excluded from indexing. Common excluded reasons that hurt: "Page with redirect," "Soft 404," "Crawled - currently not indexed," "Discovered - currently not indexed."

Check 4: noindex meta tags and X-Robots-Tag headers. Are any important pages accidentally set to noindex? I have seen sites where a developer left noindex on a staging server and then deployed it to production.

Check 5: Canonical tags. Every page should have a canonical, even if it points to itself. Watch for canonical chains (page A canonicals to B which canonicals to C) and self conflicting canonicals (page canonicals to itself but has a noindex).

Check 6: Internal linking depth. Important pages should be reachable within 3 clicks from the homepage. Orphan pages (no internal links pointing to them) are unlikely to be discovered or ranked.

Check 7: Hreflang for multi region sites. Most Hampton Roads businesses do not need this. Skip unless you serve multiple countries.

Phase 2: Site Structure And Architecture#

Check 8: URL structure. Clean, descriptive, hierarchical. /service-areas/norfolk/web-development beats /page?id=243. Avoid URL parameters where possible.

Check 9: Redirect chains. Every redirect should be a single hop. Multi step redirect chains (301 to 301 to 302) waste crawl budget and slow page load. Common cause: HTTP to HTTPS plus www to non-www handled in separate redirects.

Check 10: Broken internal links. 404 errors on your own site. Easy to miss but easy to fix. Run a crawler and surface them.

Check 11: Pagination. rel="next" and rel="prev" are deprecated but pagination should still be crawlable. For blog archives and product listings, ensure crawler can reach all paginated pages.

Check 12: Faceted navigation handling. For e commerce, decide which facets are indexable and which are not. Indexing every color and size combination creates duplicate content problems.

Phase 3: Core Web Vitals And Performance#

Detail in Core Web Vitals for Hampton Roads Businesses. Summary:

Check 13: LCP under 2.5 seconds on mobile. Single biggest performance win for most sites.

Check 14: INP under 200 ms. Often a WordPress plugin bloat issue.

Check 15: CLS under 0.1. Usually fixed by setting image dimensions and font display strategies.

Check 16: Mobile load time under 3 seconds. Tested on real device over real LTE, not just desktop emulation.

Phase 4: On Page Technical Elements#

Check 17: Title tags. Unique per page, under 60 characters, match search intent. Front load the most important keyword. Include brand at the end ideally.

Check 18: Meta descriptions. Unique per page, 150 to 160 characters, written for click through rate. Include a soft call to action.

Check 19: H1 per page. Exactly one H1, matches the page topic. Multiple H1s on a page are technically allowed but rarely good practice.

Check 20: Heading hierarchy. H1 to H2 to H3 in order. Skipping levels (H1 to H3) hurts both SEO and accessibility.

Check 21: Alt text on images. Descriptive, not stuffed. Decorative images can have empty alt. Use alt to describe what the image actually shows.

Check 22: Image file names. norfolk-web-development.jpg beats IMG_4521.jpg. Minor but cumulative.

Check 23: Internal anchor text. Descriptive. "Norfolk web development services" beats "click here." Avoid over optimization (do not use the exact target keyword for every internal link).

Phase 5: Schema Markup#

This is where most Hampton Roads sites lose. Almost universally undersupplied.

Check 24: Organization schema. On the homepage. Name, URL, logo, contactPoint, sameAs (links to social profiles).

Check 25: LocalBusiness schema. For local businesses. Includes addressLocality, geo coordinates, opening hours, telephone, areaServed. Use the most specific type (Restaurant, Plumber, Attorney, etc.) rather than generic LocalBusiness when possible.

Check 26: Service schema. One per service page. Connects to the LocalBusiness.

Check 27: FAQPage schema. On pages with FAQ content. Critical for AI Overview citations.

Check 28: Article schema. On blog posts. Author, datePublished, dateModified, headline, image.

Check 29: Breadcrumb schema. On any page deeper than two levels.

Check 30: Review schema. On pages displaying reviews. Aggregate rating prominent.

Check 31: Product schema. On product pages. Include price, availability, brand, GTIN if applicable.

Check 32: Event schema. For event pages.

Check 33: HowTo schema. For instructional content (with caution; Google has reduced HowTo rich result eligibility).

Validate every schema implementation with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator at schema.org.

Phase 6: Mobile And Accessibility#

Check 34: Mobile responsive. No horizontal scroll, no tap targets below 48 pixels, no text under 16 pixels base size.

Check 35: Viewport meta tag. <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> present and correct.

Check 36: Mobile usability in Search Console. Check the Mobile Usability report for any issues.

Check 37: WCAG 2.1 AA basics. Sufficient color contrast, semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, focus states, ARIA where needed but not overused.

Check 38: Accessible images. Alt text serves both SEO and screen readers.

Phase 7: Security#

Check 39: HTTPS everywhere. Including all subdomains. Mixed content (HTTPS page loading HTTP resource) is a problem.

Check 40: SSL certificate validity. Expired SSL certs are a credibility and rank killer. Set up auto renewal.

Check 41: Security headers. HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy. Use securityheaders.com to test.

Check 42: No malware or hacked content. Check Search Console Security Issues report regularly. Hacked WordPress sites are common in Hampton Roads.

What Raptor Catches That Most Tools Miss#

The 114 plus analyzers in Raptor cover the above and a lot more. Some I have surfaced specifically because most tools miss them:

Schema markup that validates but uses deprecated properties
LocalBusiness schema with incorrect or missing geo coordinates
FAQPage schema with answers that are too short to be useful
Mobile LCP measured on real LTE, not just desktop simulation
Image dimensions and aspect ratio analysis for CLS prediction
Render blocking analysis of third party scripts
Cumulative size of CSS and JavaScript
Heading hierarchy issues that pass basic checks but hurt accessibility
Internal linking depth and orphan page detection
Canonical chain detection

Detail at Raptor and Ravana Solutions.

What I See On Hampton Roads Technical Audits#

The same five patterns show up on most sites I run through Raptor.

Schema markup essentially missing. LocalBusiness schema absent or incomplete. FAQPage schema rare. Service schema rare. Organization schema absent.
Mobile LCP above 4 seconds. Image optimization, render blocking scripts, slow hosting.
Title tags and meta descriptions not unique per page. Same title across multiple pages or templated titles with no real differentiation.
No canonical tags or self conflicting canonicals. Pages without canonical, or with canonical pointing to a different URL while also being indexable.
Internal linking too shallow. Important service or city pages buried 4+ clicks from the homepage.

Fixing the first three is usually a one to two week sprint that produces ranking and traffic improvements within 30 to 60 days.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How often should I run a technical SEO audit?

Full audit quarterly. Spot checks monthly (Core Web Vitals, Search Console errors, indexing changes). Immediate audit after any major site change (redesign, platform migration, content restructure).

Do I need a separate tool or is Search Console enough?

Search Console catches indexing, mobile usability, and Core Web Vitals issues that Google sees. It does not catch most on page issues, schema problems, internal linking depth, or pre-publish quality checks. You need both Search Console (for what Google actually sees) and a crawler (Raptor, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb) for proactive auditing.

What is the single highest leverage technical SEO fix?

For most Hampton Roads sites: adding LocalBusiness schema and FAQPage schema where they are missing. Free, easy, and almost universally undersupplied.

Will technical SEO alone make my site rank?

No. Technical SEO is the foundation. Without it, content and authority cannot do their work. With only technical SEO and no content authority or backlinks, you still will not rank for competitive queries. All three layers matter.

Can I do technical SEO myself?

The basic checks yes. The advanced ones (schema validation, render blocking analysis, internal linking optimization, mobile performance tuning) usually require some technical depth. DIY for the basics, hire help for the rest is the common pattern.

Does schema markup actually affect rankings?

Indirectly yes. Schema does not directly boost rank. It enables rich results, helps AI Overviews cite your content, and helps Google understand your content. Sites with proper schema typically rank slightly better than equivalent sites without, but the effect is amplified by AI Overview eligibility.

What is the difference between technical SEO and on page SEO?

Technical SEO concerns crawlability, indexability, site speed, schema, mobile, security. On page SEO concerns content quality, keyword targeting, internal linking, search intent matching. They overlap but are distinct disciplines.

Ready to run a real technical SEO audit on your Hampton Roads business site? Run Raptor for free and get a complete report in under sixty seconds, or see our SEO services.

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