In 2024, technical SEO remains a crucial element for website success, ensuring your site is both accessible to search engines and user-friendly. Whether you’re starting from scratch or improving an existing site, this seo checklist will guide you through the essential technical SEO tasks that are must-dos for staying competitive this year.
Table of Contents
Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly (Mobile-First Indexing)
With Google’s mobile-first indexing, ensuring your site is fully optimized for mobile is non-negotiable. Check your site’s responsiveness using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and ensure fast loading times, clear navigation, and a seamless user experience on smaller screens.
Optimize Your Page Speed
Page Speed Best Practices
| Action | How It Improves SEO |
|---|---|
| Image Compression | Reduces the size of images, allowing for faster load times. |
| Browser Caching | Stores static files so users don’t have to download them on repeat visits. |
| Minimizing CSS and JavaScript | Removes unnecessary code and speeds up page rendering. |
| Reducing Server Response Time | Ensures that your server responds to user requests as quickly as possible. |
Page speed is critical for both user experience and SEO checklist. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check and improve loading times. Some quick tips include:
- Compress images
- Enable browser caching
- Minimize CSS and JavaScript files
3. Implement HTTPS for Security
Search engines prioritize secure websites. If your site hasn’t switched to HTTPS, make it a priority. HTTPS ensures that your site is secure, boosting both user trust and SEO rankings.
Use a Clear URL Structure
Ensure your URLs are clean, descriptive, and keyword-rich. Avoid lengthy and complex URLs, as search engines prefer simple, easy-to-read structures.
Create and Submit a Sitemap
A sitemap helps search engines understand your site’s structure and find all important pages. Make sure you generate an updated XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for better indexing.
Optimize Your Robots.txt File
Your robots.txt file tells search engine bots which pages to crawl and which to ignore. Ensure that important pages are not being blocked from search engines. Double-check your file using Google’s Robots.txt Tester.
Implement Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Structured data enhances how search engines understand your content. Implement schema markup to improve the visibility of your pages in search engine results, enabling rich snippets such as star ratings, product details, or FAQs.
Fix Crawl Errors
Use Google Search Console to find and fix crawl errors. Whether it’s a broken link or a server error, resolving these issues ensures search engines can properly index your site.
Common Sitemap Errors and How to Fix Them
| Error | Solution |
|---|---|
| Missing Pages in the Sitemap | Ensure all important pages are included in your XML sitemap. |
| Outdated Sitemap | Update your sitemap regularly as you add or remove pages. |
| Too Many Redirects | Minimize redirects; update the sitemap to reflect direct links. |
| Broken Links in Sitemap | Regularly audit links and fix any broken URLs in the sitemap. |
Ensure Proper Canonicalization
Avoid duplicate content issues by using canonical tags. This helps Google understand which version of a page should be prioritized when similar or identical content exists on multiple URLs.
Set Up 301 Redirects for Broken Links
Broken links can damage your SEO. Set up 301 redirects for any pages that no longer exist or have moved, ensuring both users and search engines are directed to the correct destination.
Enable GZIP Compression
GZIP compression reduces the file size of your web pages and resources like CSS and JavaScript files. This improves load times and overall site performance, which can positively affect your SEO.
Implement Lazy Loading for Images
Lazy loading ensures that images load only when they come into the user’s view, improving page speed and reducing the initial loading time. This is especially useful for content-heavy pages with lots of images.
Ensure Your Site is Optimized for Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals focus on user experience by measuring load time, interactivity, and visual stability. Aim to score well on metrics like:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Speed of page load
- First Input Delay (FID) – Time before users can interact
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Visual stability of the page
Use Proper Heading Tags (H1, H2, etc.)
Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are essential for SEO and user experience. Make sure your pages use one H1 tag that accurately describes the content, and use H2 and H3 tags to structure the content logically.
Minimize JavaScript and CSS Blocking
Excessive JavaScript and CSS can block the rendering of your web pages. Defer non-critical JavaScript and minimize CSS files to improve the speed at which your pages load, especially on mobile devices.
Compress Images Without Losing Quality
Large images can significantly slow down your website. Use tools like TinyPNG or ShortPixel to compress images while maintaining quality, ensuring faster page load times.
Implement a Reliable Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN stores copies of your site on servers worldwide, reducing the distance data has to travel to reach users. This improves site speed and performance for visitors from different geographic locations.
Regularly Audit Your Internal Links
Internal linking helps search engines understand the structure of your site and distributes page authority. Regularly audit your internal links to ensure they are up to date and relevant, and add links to new content.
Monitor Your Site with Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an essential tool for monitoring your site’s health. Regularly check for crawl errors, index coverage, and any security issues that may affect your SEO.
Enable AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
AMP provides a stripped-down, faster version of your site for mobile users. It improves mobile page speed and can enhance your site’s visibility in mobile search results.
