Technical SEO Audit Checklist 2025 - 200+ Enterprise Verification Points

Technical SEO audits are the foundation of every successful strategy in 2025. Sites that fail Google's technical checks, no matter how strong the content is, simply will not perform. This checklist consolidates the 200+ parameters we verify in all CreativDigital enterprise audits, organized by severity and ranking impact.

Audit Methodology

We approach technical audits across 5 dimensions, each with dedicated tools and metrics:

1. Crawl & Indexability: how Googlebot sees your site
2. Performance & Core Web Vitals: speed and user experience
3. Content & Architecture: structure, internal linking, organization
4. Schema & Structured Data: markup for rich results
5. Security & Infrastructure: HTTPS, headers, server configuration

Tool Stack for a Complete Audit

1. CRAWL & INDEXABILITY (50 points)

1.1. Robots.txt & Crawl Directives

• ✅ robots.txt accessible at /robots.txt (status 200)
• ✅ Sitemap declared in robots.txt with full URL
• ✅ User-agent: Googlebot and Bingbot are not blocked
• ✅ Strategic disallow: exclude /admin, /cart, /search, URL parameters
• ✅ Allow override: if using broad disallow rules, allow critical folders
• ✅ No crawl-delay: do not throttle Googlebot (it does not honor crawl-delay)
• ⚠️ Test in GSC: validate key URLs with robots.txt Tester

1.2. XML Sitemaps

• ✅ Sitemap accessible at /sitemap.xml (status 200, Content-Type: application/xml)
• ✅ Indexed in GSC: all sitemaps are submitted
• ✅ Limits respected: max 50,000 URLs and 50MB per sitemap
• ✅ Sitemap index: for large websites, use a sitemap index
• ✅ Canonical URLs only: exclude duplicates, filtered pages, pagination artifacts
• ✅ Correct lastmod: real modification timestamp, not today's date
• ✅ priority & changefreq: optional, but if present must be logical
• ⚠️ Hreflang sitemap: for multi-language websites, include all variants

1.3. Meta Robots & X-Robots-Tag

• ✅ Important pages indexable: no unintended noindex in meta or X-Robots-Tag
• ✅ Duplicate pages noindexed: filtered, sorted, internal search result pages
• ✅ Follow vs nofollow: preserve link equity for important pages
• ✅ noarchive/noimageindex: only when justified (legal/privacy)
• ⚠️ robots.txt vs meta conflict: do not block in robots.txt pages you also noindex

1.4. Canonicalization

• ✅ Canonical tags present: on all indexable pages
• ✅ Self-referencing canonical: canonical page points to itself
• ✅ Consistency: canonical in HTML equals canonical in HTTP header (if used)
• ✅ Absolute URLs: not relative (example.com/page vs /page)
• ✅ HTTPS canonical: canonical should always be HTTPS
• ⚠️ Canonical chains: avoid A→B→C, use A→C directly
• ⚠️ Pagination canonicalization: do not canonicalize /page/2 to /page/1

1.5. Redirects & URL Structure

• ✅ 301 permanent redirects: for migrations, not 302
• ✅ Redirect chains removed: max 1 hop (A→B, not A→B→C)
• ✅ Redirect loops fixed: detect and resolve A→B→A
• ✅ HTTP→HTTPS redirect: all HTTP pages redirect to HTTPS
• ✅ WWW vs non-WWW consistency: choose one and redirect the other
• ✅ Trailing slash consistency: (/page vs /page/)
• ✅ Lowercase URLs: avoid /Page vs /page duplicates
• ⚠️ 404 monitoring: track 404s in GSC and logs, fix critical ones

1.6. Crawl Budget Optimization

• ✅ Faceted navigation controlled: filter parameters blocked or noindexed
• ✅ Infinite scroll handled: pagination or load-more with unique URLs
• ✅ Calendar pages limited: do not crawl years into the future
• ✅ Search results noindexed: /search?q= not indexed
• ⚠️ Log file analysis: identify where Googlebot spends crawl budget and optimize

2. PERFORMANCE & CORE WEB VITALS (40 points)

2.1. Core Web Vitals - Field Data

• ✅ LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) < 2.5s: for 75% of users
• ✅ INP (Interaction to Next Paint) < 200ms: for 75% of users
• ✅ CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) < 0.1: for 75% of users
• ⚠️ CrUX data in GSC: monitor monthly Experience report
• ⚠️ Mobile vs Desktop: both should pass, mobile first

2.2. LCP Optimization

• ✅ Hero image optimized: WebP/AVIF, compressed under 100KB
• ✅ Preload hero image: <link rel="preload" as="image">
• ✅ Server response < 600ms: optimized TTFB
• ✅ Remove render-blocking JS/CSS: defer non-critical resources
• ✅ CDN for assets: reduce latency

2.3. INP / FID Optimization

• ✅ Main thread availability: split long tasks (> 50ms)
• ✅ Reduce JavaScript: code splitting, tree shaking
• ✅ Debounce input handlers: avoid event flooding
• ✅ Third-party scripts: lazy load or async

2.4. CLS Optimization

• ✅ Reserve space: set width/height for images, video, ads
• ✅ Avoid layout jumps: do not inject content above existing content
• ✅ Font swap strategy: font-display: swap for web fonts
• ✅ Ad slot reservation: set minimum heights

2.5. General Performance

• ✅ Image optimization: next-gen formats (WebP, AVIF)
• ✅ Lazy loading: loading="lazy" for off-screen images
• ✅ Minify CSS/JS: production minification enabled
• ✅ Gzip/Brotli: server compression active
• ✅ Browser caching: optimized cache-control headers
• ✅ Reduce requests: combine CSS/JS where appropriate
• ⚠️ HTTP/2 or HTTP/3: use multiplexing for better performance

3. CONTENT & ARCHITECTURE (45 points)

3.1. Content Quality & Uniqueness

• ✅ Thin content review: pages with < 300 words analyzed and improved if needed
• ✅ Duplicate content handled: canonicalized or noindexed
• ✅ Boilerplate minimized: sidebar/footer should not dominate main content
• ✅ Unique value: each page contributes a distinct perspective
• ⚠️ Content freshness: regular updates for evergreen topics

3.2. Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

• ✅ Unique title: every page has a distinct title
• ✅ Optimal length: 50-60 characters (desktop), 40-50 (mobile)
• ✅ Keyword placement: primary keyword in first 5 words
• ✅ Branding consistency: | Brand Name at start or end
• ✅ Meta description 120-155 characters: compelling with CTA
• ⚠️ Dynamic titles: for e-commerce use structured templates

3.3. Heading Structure (H1-H6)

• ✅ Single H1: one per page, includes primary keyword
• ✅ Logical hierarchy: H1 → H2 → H3, no skips
• ✅ Descriptive headings: avoid generic labels like "Introduction"
• ✅ Keyword distribution: semantic variations in H2/H3

3.4. Internal Linking

• ✅ Orphan pages removed: every page has at least one internal link
• ✅ Descriptive anchors: avoid "click here" and similar generic anchors
• ✅ Deep linking: link to strategic pages, not only homepage
• ✅ Breadcrumbs: implemented and marked with schema
• ✅ Related content: contextual links inside content
• ⚠️ Link equity flow: prioritize pages with ranking potential
• ⚠️ Broken links: 0 internal 404 links

3.5. URL Structure

• ✅ Descriptive URLs: /seo-services instead of /page?id=123
• ✅ Short URLs: ideally under 60 characters
• ✅ Hyphens, not underscores: /seo-audit instead of /seo_audit
• ✅ Category structure: logical /category/subcategory/product
• ✅ No dynamic parameters: avoid ?sessionid= and tracking clutter

3.6. Pagination & Infinite Scroll

• ✅ Rel next/prev: deprecated but still useful for some engines (e.g. Bing)
• ✅ Self-referencing canonical: /page/2 canonical to itself, not /page/1
• ✅ View All page: optional, with correct canonical strategy
• ⚠️ Infinite scroll: must be SEO-friendly with crawlable URLs

4. SCHEMA MARKUP & STRUCTURED DATA (30 points)

4.1. Schema Implementation

• ✅ JSON-LD preferred: avoid Microdata or RDFa when possible
• ✅ Organization schema: homepage with logo and social profiles
• ✅ WebSite schema: include sitelinks searchbox when relevant
• ✅ Breadcrumb schema: on all eligible pages
• ✅ Article schema: blog posts with author, datePublished, dateModified
• ✅ Product schema: e-commerce with price, availability, reviews
• ✅ FAQ schema: for FAQ content
• ✅ HowTo schema: for tutorials and guides
• ✅ LocalBusiness schema: for businesses with physical location
• ✅ Review schema: aggregate rating where appropriate

4.2. Schema Validation

• ✅ Rich Results Test: validate each page template
• ✅ No GSC errors: keep Rich Results report clean
• ✅ Required fields present: complete all mandatory properties
• ✅ Consistency: schema must match visible content
• ⚠️ Nested entities: correct relationships between Author, Organization, Product

5. SECURITY & INFRASTRUCTURE (25 points)

5.1. HTTPS & SSL

• ✅ Valid SSL certificate: not expired, trusted CA
• ✅ All pages on HTTPS: no mixed content
• ✅ HTTP→HTTPS redirect: 301 permanent
• ✅ HSTS header: Strict-Transport-Security implemented
• ✅ TLS 1.2 minimum: TLS 1.0/1.1 deprecated

5.2. Security Headers

• ✅ Content-Security-Policy: protects against XSS attacks
• ✅ X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff: prevent MIME sniffing
• ✅ X-Frame-Options: DENY: prevent clickjacking
• ✅ Referrer-Policy: control referrer leakage
• ⚠️ Permissions-Policy: restrict browser feature access

5.3. Server & Hosting

• ✅ Server response time < 600ms: optimized TTFB
• ✅ Uptime > 99.9%: with monitoring and alerting
• ✅ Scalability: capable of handling traffic spikes
• ✅ Geolocation: server region near target audience
• ⚠️ CDN implementation: for static assets and global delivery

6. MOBILE & RESPONSIVE (20 points)

6.1. Mobile-First Indexing

• ✅ Responsive design: avoid separate mobile URLs (m.example.com)
• ✅ Content parity: same core content on mobile and desktop
• ✅ Structured data parity: identical schema where relevant
• ✅ Meta robots parity: no mobile noindex when desktop is indexable

6.2. Mobile UX

• ✅ Viewport meta tag: <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
• ✅ Touch targets: minimum 48x48px
• ✅ Readable font size: > 16px body text
• ✅ No intrusive interstitials: avoid full-screen popups
• ⚠️ Google mobile-friendly validation: all key pages pass

7. INTERNATIONAL & HREFLANG (15 points)

7.1. Hreflang Implementation (for multi-language sites)

• ✅ Hreflang tags: in <head> or XML sitemap
• ✅ Self-referencing hreflang: page references itself
• ✅ Bidirectional links: if A points to B, B points to A
• ✅ x-default: set a fallback language/market URL
• ✅ Correct ISO codes: en-US, ro-RO, etc.
• ⚠️ No GSC errors: keep International Targeting clean

Prioritization & Action Plan

Critical (Fix within 7 days)

1. Indexability blockers: robots.txt issues, incorrect noindex
2. Core Web Vitals failures: LCP, INP, CLS below threshold
3. Security issues: expired SSL, mixed content
4. Redirect chains and loops
5. Broken internal links (404)

High Priority (Fix within 30 days)

• Schema markup errors
• Duplicate content & canonicalization issues
• Title/meta optimization
• Mobile-first parity problems
• Orphan pages

Medium Priority (Fix within 90 days)

• Performance improvements (outside CWV)
• Internal linking improvements
• URL structure cleanup
• Thin content enhancement

Automation & Monitoring

Conclusion

This 200+ point checklist is the CreativDigital standard for enterprise technical audits. Every point is actionable, with clear priority and specific tools for validation and remediation.

Next steps:

1. Download the complete checklist (Google Sheet or PDF)
2. Run a full crawl with Screaming Frog
3. Export data from Google Search Console
4. Prioritize by severity (Critical → High → Medium)
5. Create tasks in your project management tool
6. Implement with technical support (Dev, DevOps, SEO)

Need a complete technical audit? CreativDigital provides enterprise audits with detailed reports, impact-based prioritization, and hands-on implementation support. Book a consultation to discuss your site.