Technical SEO Checklist: Crawlability, Indexing & Schema Fundamentals
Even well-written website copy cannot rank if search engine crawlers face indexing blocks, broken canonicals, or slow rendering. Use this technical SEO checklist to audit your foundation.
- Every public page must return HTTP 200, declare a unique self-referencing canonical URL, and appear in `/sitemap.xml`.
- Private admin routes should be excluded from indexing via `noindex` directives and `robots.txt` rules.
- Valid JSON-LD structured data helps search engines classify your organisation, services, and breadcrumb hierarchy.
1. Crawlability and Indexability Checks
Search engines allocate a finite crawl budget to every domain. Ensuring clean navigation paths and accurate directives prevents wasted crawls:
- Robots.txt Configuration: Allow search crawlers access to all public pages and static assets while disallowing private `/admin` routes.
- XML Sitemap Hygiene: Include only canonical, indexable URLs returning 200 status codes.
- Self-Referencing Canonical Tags: Never canonicalise internal service pages back to the homepage—each page must declare its own canonical URL.
2. Semantic HTML & Structured Data
Clean code architecture helps search engines parse the hierarchy of your content:
- Single Primary H1: Every page must have one clear `<h1>` describing its main topic, supported by logical `<h2>` and `<h3>` sections.
- Schema.org JSON-LD: Implement accurate `Organization`, `Service`, `BreadcrumbList`, and `Article` schemas without fabricated ratings or fake addresses.
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