Technical SEO checklist: 139 checks for 2026
A technical SEO checklist is the full list of checks covering whether search engines can crawl, index, render and trust a site. This one holds 139 checks across 17 categories, each with the tool to use and why it matters, in the order we work through them on client sites.
- 139 checks
- 17 categories
- No email required
Khairuzzaman ShariaFounder, Evariko · Last reviewed
The full technical SEO checklist
All 139 checks are below, grouped into 17 categories across five layers. Work through the layers in order, because speed means nothing on a page that is not indexed.
- 39Crawl and indexRobots, indexing, canonicals, sitemaps
- 16StructureArchitecture, URLs, redirects
- 31Speed and safetyCore Web Vitals, mobile, HTTPS
- 36Markup and renderingOn-page, schema, JS, hreflang, local
- 17Measure and trustAnalytics, trust signals, AI search
- Critical
Blocks indexing or ranking across the site. 20 checks. Fix before anything else.
- High
Holds back rankings on important pages. 50 checks. Fix in the first month.
- Medium
Limits performance. 49 checks. Fix once critical and high are cleared.
- Low
Housekeeping. 20 checks. Fix when convenient.
1
39 checks
Can search engines reach and keep your pages?
Nothing else on this list matters until this part is right. A page that is blocked, duplicated or missing from the index cannot rank however good it is.
Crawlability
12
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CR-01 | robots.txt exists at root and returns 200 | Google Search Console, browser | The first file crawlers read. It tells bots which paths they may crawl. A missing or broken file can confuse crawlers; a 5xx error can stop Google crawling the site. | Critical |
| CR-02 | robots.txt does not block important pages, CSS or JS | GSC robots.txt report, Screaming Frog | Blocking CSS or JS stops Google from rendering pages properly, which can hurt rankings and mobile evaluation. | Critical |
| CR-03 | XML sitemap location declared in robots.txt | Browser | Helps every search engine (not just Google) find your sitemap without manual submission. | Medium |
| CR-04 | AI crawler rules set in robots.txt (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) | Browser, server logs | Decides whether AI search tools can read and cite your content. Blocking them can remove you from AI answers. | High |
| CR-05 | Crawl budget not wasted on faceted, filter or parameter URLs | Screaming Frog, log files | Large sites can burn crawl budget on near-infinite URL combinations, so important pages get crawled less often. | High |
| CR-06 | Server log file analysis done (Googlebot hits, status codes) | Screaming Frog Log Analyser, server logs | Shows what Googlebot actually crawls, how often, and where it hits errors. The only true picture of crawl behaviour. | Medium |
| CR-07 | GSC Crawl Stats report reviewed (response time, host status) | Google Search Console | Shows crawl requests, average response time and host problems. Slow responses lower how much Google is willing to crawl. | High |
| CR-08 | No orphan pages (every page has an internal link) | Screaming Frog plus GSC or GA4 crawl | Pages with no internal links are hard for crawlers to find and get little link equity. | High |
| CR-09 | Important pages within 3 clicks of homepage | Screaming Frog (crawl depth) | Shallow click depth helps crawling and signals importance. Deep pages get crawled and ranked less. | High |
| CR-10 | Internal links use crawlable anchor tags, not JS onclick | Screaming Frog, Inspect element | Google follows links found in href attributes. Links built only with JavaScript events may never be discovered. | High |
| CR-11 | No crawl traps (infinite calendars, session IDs in URLs) | Screaming Frog | Crawl traps create endless URLs, wasting crawl budget and creating duplicates. | Medium |
| CR-12 | llms.txt file considered for AI crawlers | Browser | An emerging, unofficial standard that gives AI tools a clean map of your key content. Low cost, possible upside. | Low |
Indexability
11
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IX-01 | Key pages are indexed (GSC Page Indexing report) | Google Search Console | If a page is not indexed it cannot rank. This report lists every reason pages are excluded. | Critical |
| IX-02 | No accidental noindex on important pages | Screaming Frog, URL Inspection | A stray noindex tag, common after staging launches, removes pages from search completely. | Critical |
| IX-03 | X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers checked | Screaming Frog, curl -I | Noindex can also be sent in HTTP headers, often for PDFs. Easy to miss because it is not in the HTML. | High |
| IX-04 | Low-value pages set to noindex (tags, internal search, thin archives) | Screaming Frog, CMS | Keeps the index focused on quality pages and reduces thin content signals. | Medium |
| IX-05 | Crawled, currently not indexed URLs reviewed | Google Search Console | Usually a quality or duplication signal. Improve, merge or remove these pages. | High |
| IX-06 | Discovered, currently not indexed URLs reviewed | Google Search Console | Often means crawl budget or server capacity limits, or weak internal linking. | High |
| IX-07 | Staging and dev sites blocked from indexing | site: search, browser | Indexed staging sites create duplicate content and can leak unfinished work. | Critical |
| IX-08 | No soft 404s (empty pages returning 200) | Google Search Console | Pages that look empty but return 200 waste crawl budget and confuse Google. | Medium |
| IX-09 | URL Inspection test passed for key templates | GSC URL Inspection | Shows exactly how Google sees a page: indexing status, canonical chosen, rendered HTML. | High |
| IX-10 | Bing Webmaster Tools verified and indexing checked | Bing Webmaster Tools | Bing powers ChatGPT search and Copilot results, so Bing indexing matters for AI visibility too. | Medium |
| IX-11 | IndexNow set up for fast URL submission | IndexNow plugin or API | Instantly notifies Bing, Yandex and others when content changes. Google does not use it yet. | Low |
Canonicalisation and duplicates
9
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN-01 | Self-referencing canonical tag on every indexable page | Screaming Frog | Tells search engines the preferred URL and protects against parameter or tracking duplicates. | High |
| CN-02 | Canonicals point to 200, indexable URLs | Screaming Frog | Canonicals pointing to redirects, 404s or noindexed pages send mixed signals and are often ignored. | High |
| CN-03 | Only one canonical tag per page | Screaming Frog | Multiple canonical tags make Google ignore all of them. | Medium |
| CN-04 | Google-selected canonical matches your declared canonical | GSC URL Inspection | If they differ, Google disagrees with your setup, often due to duplicate content or conflicting signals. | High |
| CN-05 | HTTP and HTTPS, www and non-www resolve to one version | Browser, httpstatus.io | Multiple live versions of the site split authority and create full-site duplication. | Critical |
| CN-06 | Trailing slash consistency | Screaming Frog | /page and /page/ are different URLs. Pick one and redirect the other. | Medium |
| CN-07 | URL parameters handled by canonical, noindex or blocking | Screaming Frog | Sorting, filter and UTM parameters can create thousands of duplicate URLs. | Medium |
| CN-08 | No duplicate or near-duplicate content across pages | Siteliner, Screaming Frog | Duplicate pages compete with each other and dilute ranking signals. | High |
| CN-09 | Pagination handled with crawlable links and self-canonicals | Screaming Frog | Google no longer uses rel=next and rel=prev. Each paginated page should be crawlable and canonical to itself. | Medium |
XML sitemaps
7
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SM-01 | XML sitemap exists and is submitted to GSC and Bing | GSC, Bing Webmaster Tools | Sitemaps help search engines discover and prioritise your URLs. | Critical |
| SM-02 | Sitemap contains only 200, indexable, canonical URLs | Screaming Frog | Redirects, 404s or noindexed URLs in the sitemap reduce Google's trust in it. | High |
| SM-03 | Sitemap under 50,000 URLs and 50MB, or uses a sitemap index | Screaming Frog | These are protocol limits. Larger sites need a sitemap index file. | Medium |
| SM-04 | Accurate lastmod dates | Browser | Google uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate to decide what to recrawl. | Medium |
| SM-05 | Sitemap updates automatically when content changes | CMS or plugin | Keeps new pages discoverable without manual work. | Medium |
| SM-06 | Image and video sitemaps where media matters | Plugin, manual | Helps media get found and shown in image and video search. | Low |
| SM-07 | News sitemap for news publishers | Plugin | Required for fast discovery in Google News. | Low |
2
16 checks
Is the site built so crawlers and users can move through it?
Architecture tells search engines which pages you think matter. Broken links and redirect chains waste the crawl budget you have.
Site architecture and URLs
8
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AR-01 | Logical, shallow site hierarchy with topic clusters | Screaming Frog visualisation | Clear structure helps crawlers understand topical relationships and builds topical authority. | High |
| AR-02 | URLs are short, readable, lowercase and use hyphens | Screaming Frog | Clean URLs are easier for users and bots, and earn higher click-through. | Medium |
| AR-03 | No uppercase or special characters in URLs | Screaming Frog | Mixed case can create duplicate URLs on case-sensitive servers. | Low |
| AR-04 | Breadcrumb navigation present | Browser, Rich Results Test | Breadcrumbs improve navigation, internal linking and can show in search results. | Medium |
| AR-05 | Main navigation is crawlable HTML | View source, Screaming Frog | Navigation hidden behind JavaScript or images may not pass link equity. | High |
| AR-06 | Internal links use descriptive anchor text | Screaming Frog | Anchor text tells Google what the target page is about. | Medium |
| AR-07 | Pillar pages receive the most internal links | Screaming Frog (inlinks) | Internal link count signals page importance. Your money pages should be the most linked. | High |
| AR-08 | Custom 404 page with helpful navigation | Browser | Keeps users on the site when they hit a dead end. | Low |
Status codes and redirects
8
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RD-01 | No internal links to 4xx pages | Screaming Frog, Ahrefs | Broken links waste crawl budget, lose link equity and frustrate users. | High |
| RD-02 | No 5xx server errors | GSC, Screaming Frog, uptime monitor | Server errors stop crawling and, if they last, cause pages to drop from the index. | Critical |
| RD-03 | 301 used for permanent moves, not 302 | Screaming Frog | 301s clearly signal a permanent move. Wrong redirect types can delay signal transfer. | High |
| RD-04 | No redirect chains, maximum one hop | Screaming Frog | Each extra hop slows users and crawlers, and Google stops following after about ten hops. | High |
| RD-05 | No redirect loops | Screaming Frog | Loops make the page completely unreachable. | Critical |
| RD-06 | Internal links updated to final destination URLs | Screaming Frog | Linking straight to the final URL removes unnecessary redirects. | Medium |
| RD-07 | Removed pages with backlinks redirected to relevant pages | Ahrefs, Semrush | Reclaims link equity that would otherwise be lost on 404s. | High |
| RD-08 | Intentionally removed content returns 410 or 404 | Server config | Tells Google the page is gone so it stops recrawling it. | Low |
3
31 checks
Is the page fast, usable and safe on a real phone?
Google measures these from real Chrome users rather than a testing tool, and mobile is the version that gets ranked.
Page speed and Core Web Vitals
17
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CWV-01 | Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds | PageSpeed Insights, CrUX | Measures loading speed of the main content. A confirmed Google ranking signal. | Critical |
| CWV-02 | Interaction to Next Paint under 200ms | PageSpeed Insights, CrUX | Replaced FID in March 2024. Measures how fast the page responds to clicks and taps. | Critical |
| CWV-03 | Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1 | PageSpeed Insights | Measures visual stability. Elements jumping around frustrates users and hurts the score. | Critical |
| CWV-04 | GSC Core Web Vitals report shows Good URLs | Google Search Console | Field data from real Chrome users, grouped by page template. This is what Google actually uses. | High |
| CWV-05 | Time to First Byte under 800ms | PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest | Slow server response delays everything else on the page and hurts crawl rate. | High |
| CWV-06 | Images compressed and served in WebP or AVIF | PageSpeed Insights | Images are usually the heaviest assets. Modern formats cut file size by 25 to 50 per cent. | High |
| CWV-07 | Lazy loading for below-the-fold images only | Inspect element | Saves bandwidth. Never lazy load the hero image, it slows LCP. | Medium |
| CWV-08 | LCP image preloaded or set to fetchpriority high | Inspect element | Tells the browser to load the hero image first, directly improving LCP. | Medium |
| CWV-09 | Width and height set on images and embeds | Inspect element | Reserves space before loading, which prevents layout shift. | Medium |
| CWV-10 | CSS and JS minified, unused code removed | PageSpeed Insights, Coverage tab | Less code means faster download, parsing and interaction. | Medium |
| CWV-11 | Render-blocking resources deferred or async | PageSpeed Insights | Blocking scripts delay first paint and LCP. | High |
| CWV-12 | Browser caching and server caching enabled | GTmetrix, response headers | Repeat visits load faster and the server handles more load. | High |
| CWV-13 | CDN in use | Response headers, cdnplanet | Serves files from servers near the user, lowering latency worldwide. | Medium |
| CWV-14 | Gzip or Brotli compression enabled | giftofspeed.com, headers | Shrinks text files by up to 70 to 80 per cent. | Medium |
| CWV-15 | HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 enabled | http2.pro, headers | Lets the browser load many files at once over a single connection. | Low |
| CWV-16 | Third-party scripts audited (chat, tracking, ads) | PageSpeed Insights | Third-party tags are a top cause of poor INP and slow loading. | Medium |
| CWV-17 | Fonts optimised with font-display swap, preload and subsetting | PageSpeed Insights | Stops invisible text and font-related layout shifts. | Low |
Mobile
7
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MB-01 | Fully responsive design on all templates | Chrome DevTools, real devices | Google uses mobile-first indexing for all sites. The mobile version is what gets ranked. | Critical |
| MB-02 | Content parity between mobile and desktop | Screaming Frog, mobile against desktop crawl | Content, links, schema or meta tags missing on mobile are invisible to Google. | Critical |
| MB-03 | Viewport meta tag set correctly | View source | Without it, pages render at desktop width on phones. | High |
| MB-04 | Tap targets sized and spaced, minimum 48px | Lighthouse | Small or crowded buttons cause mis-taps and a poor experience. | Medium |
| MB-05 | Readable font size without zooming, 16px base | Lighthouse | Small text forces zooming and raises bounce. | Medium |
| MB-06 | No intrusive interstitials or pop-ups on mobile | Real devices | Google can demote pages with intrusive pop-ups that block content. | High |
| MB-07 | No horizontal scrolling | Chrome DevTools | Content wider than the screen signals a broken mobile layout. | Low |
Security and HTTPS
7
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SC-01 | Whole site on HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate | Browser, SSL Labs | HTTPS is a ranking signal, and browsers warn users on non-secure pages. | Critical |
| SC-02 | HTTP redirects to HTTPS with a 301 | httpstatus.io | Ensures all traffic and link equity goes to the secure version. | Critical |
| SC-03 | No mixed content on HTTPS pages | Browser console, Why No Padlock | Mixed content breaks the padlock and some assets get blocked. | High |
| SC-04 | HSTS header enabled | securityheaders.com | Forces browsers to always use HTTPS, which removes a redirect hop. | Low |
| SC-05 | SSL certificate auto-renewal set | Hosting, SSL Labs | An expired certificate shows a full-page warning and kills traffic overnight. | High |
| SC-06 | No security issues or manual actions in GSC | Google Search Console | Hacked content or penalties can remove the site from results. | Critical |
| SC-07 | Security headers set, including CSP and X-Frame-Options | securityheaders.com | Protects against hacks and injection that can lead to spam and penalties. | Low |
4
36 checks
Does the page describe itself correctly to a machine?
Titles, headings, schema and rendering decide whether a crawler understands what the page is and what it is eligible to appear as.
On-page technical
10
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OP-01 | Unique title tag on every page, around 50 to 60 characters | Screaming Frog | Titles are a strong relevance signal and the main clickable line in results. | High |
| OP-02 | Unique meta description on every page, around 150 to 160 characters | Screaming Frog | Not a ranking factor, but drives click-through when Google uses it. | Medium |
| OP-03 | One H1 per page that matches page intent | Screaming Frog | The H1 confirms the main topic for users and search engines. | Medium |
| OP-04 | Logical heading hierarchy | Screaming Frog, HeadingsMap | Clear structure helps passage ranking and AI extraction of answers. | Medium |
| OP-05 | No thin pages with very low word count and no value | Screaming Frog | Thin pages can drag down how Google judges overall site quality. | Medium |
| OP-06 | Images have descriptive alt text | Screaming Frog | Alt text helps accessibility and image search, and gives context to AI. | Medium |
| OP-07 | Descriptive image file names | Screaming Frog | Small relevance signal for image search. | Low |
| OP-08 | Outbound links valid, with nofollow, sponsored or ugc used properly | Screaming Frog | Paid or user links must be qualified to avoid link-scheme penalties. | Medium |
| OP-09 | Open Graph and Twitter Card tags set | Facebook Debugger, opengraph.xyz | Controls how pages look when shared on social, which affects clicks. | Low |
| OP-10 | Favicon present and shown in results | Browser, Google results | Brand recognition in mobile results and browser tabs. | Low |
Structured data and schema
10
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SD-01 | Organization schema on the homepage with logo and sameAs links | Rich Results Test, Schema Validator | Builds entity understanding and helps knowledge panels and AI recognise your brand. | High |
| SD-02 | Article or BlogPosting schema with author and dates | Rich Results Test | Supports experience and expertise signals and freshness understanding. | High |
| SD-03 | BreadcrumbList schema | Rich Results Test | Can replace the URL in results with a clean breadcrumb trail. | Medium |
| SD-04 | Product schema with price, availability and reviews for ecommerce | Rich Results Test, GSC | Unlocks rich results with price and stars, which lifts click-through. | High |
| SD-05 | LocalBusiness schema with name, address, hours and geo if local | Rich Results Test | Reinforces local relevance and Google Business Profile consistency. | High |
| SD-06 | Person schema for authors, with sameAs | Schema Validator | Connects content to real experts, helping trust signals and AI confidence. | Medium |
| SD-07 | Schema validates with no errors | Rich Results Test, GSC Enhancements | Errors make pages ineligible for rich results. | High |
| SD-08 | Schema matches visible page content | Manual review | Marking up content users cannot see breaks Google guidelines and can trigger a manual action. | High |
| SD-09 | JSON-LD format used | View source | Google's recommended format. Easiest to maintain. | Low |
| SD-10 | FAQ and HowTo schema expectations set correctly | Rich Results Test | Since 2023 FAQ rich results only show for government and health sites, and HowTo was removed. Still useful for AI understanding. | Low |
JavaScript and rendering
6
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JS-01 | Critical content present in raw HTML or server-rendered | View source against rendered DOM | Content only loaded by JS may be delayed or missed, and most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript at all. | Critical |
| JS-02 | Rendered HTML checked in URL Inspection | GSC URL Inspection | Confirms Google sees the same content users see. | High |
| JS-03 | Server rendering, static generation or pre-rendering used for JS frameworks | Framework config | Server rendering makes content instantly available to all crawlers. | High |
| JS-04 | No content hidden behind clicks that need JS to load | Manual review | Content that only loads after a click may never be indexed. | Medium |
| JS-05 | Meta tags and canonicals not changed by JavaScript | Screaming Frog with JS rendering | JS rewriting canonicals or robots tags sends conflicting signals. | Medium |
| JS-06 | Proper status codes on JS sites, no soft 404s in single-page apps | Screaming Frog | Single-page apps often return 200 for missing pages. | Medium |
International SEO
6
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN-01 | hreflang tags implemented correctly | Screaming Frog, Ahrefs | Shows each user the right language or region version and avoids duplicate issues. | High |
| IN-02 | hreflang return links present on both sides | Screaming Frog | hreflang is ignored unless both pages reference each other. | High |
| IN-03 | x-default hreflang set | Screaming Frog | Defines the fallback page for users who match no listed language. | Medium |
| IN-04 | Correct ISO language and region codes | hreflang checker | Wrong codes, such as en-UK instead of en-GB, make the tags invalid. | High |
| IN-05 | No automatic IP-based redirects | Manual test, VPN | Googlebot crawls mostly from the US, so forced redirects can hide other versions. | Medium |
| IN-06 | html lang attribute set | View source | Helps browsers, screen readers and search engines identify the language. | Low |
Local SEO technical
4
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LO-01 | Google Business Profile verified and complete | Google Business Profile | The core of local pack visibility. | High |
| LO-02 | Name, address and phone consistent on site and citations | BrightLocal, Whitespark | Mismatched details weaken local trust signals. | High |
| LO-03 | Location pages with unique content | Manual review | Thin, copy-paste location pages rarely rank. | Medium |
| LO-04 | Embedded map and contact details on site | Browser | Reinforces location signals for users and search engines. | Low |
5
17 checks
Can you see what is happening, and can AI systems trust you?
Measurement turns the rest into something you can act on. The trust and AI checks decide whether you are named when an assistant answers.
Analytics and monitoring
7
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AN-01 | Google Search Console verified as a domain property | Google Search Console | Your main source of truth for indexing, performance and errors. | Critical |
| AN-02 | GA4 installed and recording correctly | GA4 DebugView, Tag Assistant | Measures traffic and conversions so you can prove SEO impact. | Critical |
| AN-03 | Key conversions and events tracked in GA4 | GA4 | Connects rankings and traffic to leads and revenue. | High |
| AN-04 | AI referral traffic tracked from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini | GA4 custom channel group | Shows how much traffic comes from AI answers. | Medium |
| AN-05 | Uptime monitoring and alerts set | UptimeRobot, Better Stack | Catches downtime before Google and users do. | Medium |
| AN-06 | Scheduled site crawls set weekly or monthly | Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs | Catches new technical issues before they hurt rankings. | Medium |
| AN-07 | Rank and visibility tracking set up | Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking | Monitors the effect of fixes and algorithm updates. | Medium |
Trust signals
5
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR-01 | About, Contact and Privacy Policy pages present | Manual review | Basic trust pages that quality raters and users expect. | High |
| TR-02 | Author bios with credentials, and author pages | Manual review | Shows real experience and expertise behind the content. | High |
| TR-03 | Cookie consent banner compliant with GDPR and CCPA | Manual review | A legal requirement in many markets. Badly built banners can also hurt layout shift. | Medium |
| TR-04 | Accessibility basics met, including contrast, labels and keyboard use | WAVE, Lighthouse | Better experience for all users and overlaps heavily with SEO best practice. | Medium |
| TR-05 | Content dates shown and kept current | Manual review | Freshness matters for time-sensitive queries and AI citation choices. | Medium |
AI search readiness
5
| ID | Check | Tool | Why it matters | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI-01 | Key answers in clear, extractable blocks such as lists, tables and short paragraphs | Manual review | AI engines pull concise passages. Well-structured answers get quoted more. | High |
| AI-02 | Content accessible without JavaScript for AI bots | curl, text-only browser | Most AI crawlers read raw HTML only. | High |
| AI-03 | Brand entity consistent across the web, including sameAs, Wikidata and profiles | Manual review | Clear entity signals help AI models recognise and recommend your brand. | Medium |
| AI-04 | Brand visibility in AI answers monitored | Manual prompts, AI visibility tools | Tracks whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews mention you. | Medium |
| AI-05 | Pages appearing in Google AI Overviews checked | GSC, Semrush or Ahrefs AI filter | Shows which queries trigger AI Overviews and whether you are cited. | Low |
How to use the technical checklist
The spreadsheet tracks progress as you work and separates the problems that block everything else from the ones that can wait. Use one copy per site.
Work through the layers in order
Start with crawling and indexing. A fast page that is not indexed earns nothing, so the layers are sequenced by what depends on what.
Set a status on each check
Mark each item Done, In Progress, Issue Found or N/A, and add the owner, date and a comment. The dashboard updates itself as you go.
Clear the critical items first
The dashboard shows open critical items by category in red. That list is the plan; everything else is the backlog.
What a checklist cannot do for you
The checklist finds problems. Three things decide whether finding them changes anything, and none of them fit in a spreadsheet.
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Deciding what to fix first
A technical audit that returns forty problems is a list nobody acts on until someone decides which three matter most. Priority gives you a starting order; your own context decides the rest.
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Access to tools and data
Search Console covers much of the crawl and index work. A crawler covers structure. Log file analysis and field speed data need more. Each check names the tool it needs, and many are free.
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Making the changes
Finding a redirect chain is quick. Fixing it across a template, without breaking anything, is developer work. Our technical SEO service covers both.
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Time to run it properly
139 checks is several days for someone who has done this before, and longer the first time. Skimming it produces a list of symptoms rather than a diagnosis.