The Technical SEO Checklist Every New Website Should Ship With
A practical technical SEO checklist for new websites: rendering, metadata, structured data, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals and more — the foundations that help you rank.
Great content won't rank if search engines can't crawl, understand and trust your site. Technical SEO is the foundation. Here's the checklist we apply to every website we build.
1. Server-rendered, crawlable HTML
Search engines should receive complete HTML, not a blank page that fills in with JavaScript. Server-side rendering or static generation makes your content reliably crawlable and fast.
2. Clean, descriptive URLs
Use readable slugs (/services/ai-agents, not /p?id=42). Keep one canonical URL per page and avoid duplicates.
3. Title tags and meta descriptions
Every page needs a unique, descriptive <title> and meta description that reflect its content and target keywords — without stuffing.
4. A single, logical heading structure
One <h1> per page, followed by a sensible <h2>/<h3> hierarchy. This helps both users and search engines understand your content.
5. Structured data (JSON-LD)
Add schema.org markup — Organization, WebSite, Service, BreadcrumbList, BlogPosting — so search engines can build rich results and understand entities on your site.
6. XML sitemap and robots.txt
Generate an up-to-date sitemap.xml and a robots.txt that points to it. This helps search engines discover every important page.
7. Core Web Vitals
Fast, stable pages rank better and convert better. Optimise Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift — through image optimisation, font loading and minimal JavaScript.
8. Mobile-first and accessible
Most traffic is mobile. A responsive, accessible site (good contrast, semantic HTML, alt text) is both an SEO and a usability win.
9. Open Graph and Twitter cards
Social preview metadata won't directly rank you, but it improves click-through when your links are shared.
10. Internal linking
Link related pages together with descriptive anchor text. This spreads authority and helps users (and crawlers) navigate.
The payoff
Get the technical foundation right and every piece of content you publish afterwards has a better chance to rank. We build these in from day one — see how we approach software and SEO.