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Technical SEO Checklist for Small Business Sites: 30 Checks

A 30-point technical SEO checklist for small business websites: crawling, indexing, speed, mobile, structured data and AI crawlers, and how to check each.

By freeseobot Editorial · Published · 7 min read

Technical SEO is making sure search engines and AI tools can reach, read and correctly understand your website. For a small business site, it comes down to 30 checks in six groups: access, indexing, page basics, speed, mobile and security, and structured data and AI. Most take minutes to check, and the first ten matter most because a failure there can hide your whole site.

Work through the list in order. Each check says what "pass" looks like and where to look.

What tools do you need?

All free:

  • Google Search Console for indexing, performance and Core Web Vitals data from Google itself
  • PageSpeed Insights for real-user speed data
  • Google's Rich Results Test for structured data
  • A browser, ideally on your phone as well as a computer
  • Our SEO checker, which covers many of the on-page checks below in a single scan

Group 1: Can search engines reach your site? (checks 1 to 6)

# Check Pass looks like Where to check
1 robots.txt exists and does not block the site No Disallow: / for * or Googlebot yourdomain.com/robots.txt
2 One canonical domain http, https, www and non-www all redirect to one version Type each variant into a browser
3 Redirects take one hop Old URLs go straight to the final page URL Inspection, or a redirect checker
4 No server errors No 5xx errors in crawl stats Search Console > Settings > Crawl stats
5 Firewall and CDN let Googlebot in No 403 errors for Googlebot Page indexing report, "Blocked due to access forbidden (403)"
6 Important content is not behind a login Public pages load without signing in Private browser window

Check 5 catches more sites than you would expect. Bot protection on some hosts and CDNs can block crawlers silently. Google's AI features guidance specifically asks you to make sure crawling is allowed "by any CDN or hosting infrastructure".

Group 2: Is Google indexing the right pages? (checks 7 to 12)

# Check Pass looks like Where to check
7 Home page is indexed "URL is on Google" URL Inspection
8 Key service and product pages are indexed Each one "on Google" URL Inspection
9 No accidental noindex No noindex on pages you want found Page source, Page indexing report
10 XML sitemap submitted and clean Only canonical, indexable 200-status URLs Search Console > Indexing > Sitemaps
11 Canonical tags are correct Each page points to itself or its preferred duplicate Page source, URL Inspection
12 No large duplicate URL sets Filters and tracking parameters do not create indexable copies Page indexing report, "Duplicate" reasons

Google says a sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed, and ignores <priority> and <changefreq>. If you need one, our sitemap generator creates a valid file. For every indexing status and its fix, see why isn't my page indexed?

Group 3: Page basics (checks 13 to 18)

# Check Pass looks like Where to check
13 Every page has a unique title tag No blanks, no duplicates, main topic first SEO checker, Search Console
14 Every important page has a meta description Unique, accurate summary SEO checker
15 One clear H1 per page Matches the page's purpose and title Page source
16 Descriptive URLs Readable words, such as /boiler-servicing Browser address bar
17 Images have alt text where they carry meaning Short, accurate descriptions SEO checker
18 No broken internal links Internal links return 200, not 404 Crawler or SEO checker

Google uses your title element for most title links but rewrites titles that are empty, boilerplate or inaccurate. Our guide to title tags and meta descriptions shows how to write ones that are kept and clicked.

Group 4: Speed and Core Web Vitals (checks 19 to 23)

# Check Pass looks like Where to check
19 LCP (main content load) 2.5 seconds or less PageSpeed Insights, Search Console
20 INP (response to taps and clicks) 200 milliseconds or less PageSpeed Insights real-user data
21 CLS (layout stability) 0.1 or less PageSpeed Insights, Search Console
22 Images sized and compressed Modern formats, displayed size, width and height set PageSpeed Insights diagnostics
23 No unused heavy scripts Old trackers and widgets removed Your tag manager and plugin list

A page passes Core Web Vitals when 75% of real visits are "good" on all three metrics. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024. Our Core Web Vitals guide explains each fix in plain English.

Group 5: Mobile and security (checks 24 to 27)

# Check Pass looks like Where to check
24 Mobile version has the same content Nothing important hidden or removed on phones Your phone, URL Inspection screenshot
25 Text and buttons usable on mobile Readable without zooming, easy to tap Your phone
26 HTTPS everywhere Padlock on every page, no mixed-content warnings Browser
27 No intrusive pop-ups blocking content on arrival Visitors can read the page straight away Your phone

Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing, so content missing on mobile is effectively missing.

Group 6: Structured data and AI search (checks 28 to 30)

# Check Pass looks like Where to check
28 Organization or LocalBusiness structured data Valid, matches visible details and your Business Profile Rich Results Test
29 AI search crawlers allowed OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot not blocked unless you chose to robots.txt file
30 Included in Google's generative AI features "Include" selected, unless you deliberately opted out Search Console > Settings > Search generative AI

Check 30 is new: Google rolled out the Search generative AI control to all sites on 31 August 2026. Including your site is the default.

How to prioritise what you find

Severity Examples Fix within
Critical Site-wide noindex, Disallow: /, 5xx errors, home page not indexed Today
High Key pages not indexed, wrong canonicals, broken redirects, firewall blocking Googlebot This week
Medium Duplicate titles, poor Core Web Vitals, missing structured data This month
Low Missing alt text on decorative images, long URLs When convenient

Repeat the checklist every quarter, and always after a redesign, platform change or domain move. For a guided walk-through of the most important checks, follow our free SEO audit, step by step.

FAQ

What is the difference between technical SEO and on-page SEO?

Technical SEO is about access and infrastructure: crawling, indexing, speed, mobile and security. On-page SEO is about the content of each page: titles, headings, copy and images. This checklist includes the basic on-page checks because they are easy to test at the same time.

How often should a small business run a technical SEO check?

Quarterly is enough for most sites that do not change much. Check immediately after any redesign, CMS migration, hosting move or domain change, since those are when sites most often get accidentally blocked or lose redirects.

Do I need a developer to fix these issues?

Not for most of them. Titles, descriptions, alt text, sitemaps and many robots.txt or noindex settings can be changed from a typical CMS dashboard or SEO plugin. Server errors, redirect chains, firewall rules and heavy JavaScript usually need your developer or host.

Is this checklist enough to rank on Google?

No checklist guarantees rankings. These checks remove the technical reasons you might be invisible. Ranking also depends on how useful and original your content is compared with other pages answering the same search.

Sources

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